[GUIDE] $7 cable that triggers Car Dock Mode (NO SOLDERING REQUIRED!) - G2 and Desire Z Accessories

WARNING! CONNECTING ANY CABLE TO YOUR PHONE THAT DID NOT COME WITH YOUR PHONE IN THE BOX COULD DAMAGE YOUR PHONE, YOUR COMPUTER, THE ELECTRICAL WIRING IN YOUR HOUSE, AND IT COULD KILL YOU!
you have been warned
Soooo I recently stumbled across this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=744636&page=3
that states that if you short pins 4 & 5 on a micro USB connector and plug it into an HTC Desire, the phone will automatically go into car dock mode. as luck would have it, I happen to know that this is the same method that is used to trigger USB OTG on devices that support it. The wheels in my brain began to turn... $7 and a few days later I came up with this:
MICRO USB HOST ADAPTER + A BIZARRE A TO A USB CABLE = A CHARGING/DATA CABLE THAT TRIGGERS CAR DOCK MODE!
I have tested this on my G2 using Virtuous G-Lite 2.0.1 and it works perfectly, but YMMV.
I got the USB host adapter here
http://www.amazon.com/Micro-B-Adapt...3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328093895&sr=1-3
and the A to A USB cable here
http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1328094123&sr=1-3
Just in case you haven't already figured it out you just connect the female end of the OTG adapter to either one of the male ends on the A to A cable, then use the cable as you would any other charging/data cable in your car. the only difference is that now your device will automatically switch into car dock mode when you plug it in! you could also connect this cable to a dock that has a female micro USB connector on the back (like the G2 OEM desktop dock here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1473718) and create your own car dock!
an extra word of warning, DO NOT USE THE A TO A CABLE ON ITS OWN FOR ANYTHING! this is a non-standard conforming cable that would damage any two USB devices that you attempted to connect with it. I have no idea what it's intended use is on it's own, but don't think that it is the same thing as a USB data transfer cable (transfer cables have a chip inside the cable that makes the two connected USB host devices see each other as USB slave devices. this A to A cable is just a copper wire)

Nice, I didn't know people wanted this. I got a premade cable. Off ebay that triggered car mode no mods needed and it was a buck. Lol
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

Any idea about standard dock mode? I know the official tmobile dock auto opens a desk clock.

scottcom said:
Nice, I didn't know people wanted this. I got a premade cable. Off ebay that triggered car mode no mods needed and it was a buck. Lol
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What cable was this?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

ad505 said:
What cable was this?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess would be that the cable was not intended to trigger car dock mode, it was just poorly made. a really bad soldering job on the pins would short pins 4 & 5 and do the same thing. Other people have reported this same behavior when they buy low end cables or get water in their micro usb ports.

I tried this and it seams to work but all it does its launch tunein radio, any idea how to change it to other apps such as torque? Thanks

The short thing does work. I my self stumbled on to it while repearing a aftermarked charger .. I opened up the mini usb side and it had a resistor on jumping pin 5( - ) to pin 4 . With the resistor on it charches with the resistor bypassed and just jumped to pin 4 it goes in to car dock mode. Also my friend got a samsung infuse and came with a hdmi dongle usb, so out of curiosity hooked it up to my g2 and it whent to car dock mode
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA

Related

[Q] micro usb cable help (pinout++)

I bought some really cheap retractable cables of ebay. When I got them they didn't work at all. I opened and rewired the micro-usb connector - the cables were connected all wrong, but after a little soldering I think they're correct.
Now the cables are working fine with my Nokia N82, but when I connect them to my Desire and Desire HD my computer won't recognize it as USB devices, only charging.
I've looked at the pinout here http://www.kineteka.com/microusb-b.aspx - should pin 4 be connected to GND to use it with HTC?
Any tips?
I was curious of the pinout, thanks for the link.
As far as wether the pin should be grounded, well... if it's not working ATM ground it and see if it works? Since you're successfully charging the phone you know you connected the +5 correctly, grounding any other pins won't cause damage...
Cheers
P.S. Also sometimes good to check the obvious, did you enable the Mass-Storage option in Android?
I've had similar issues with USB 1.1 ports.
Are you connecting it to a USB 2 port??

[Q] Micro usb + aux cable?

I've been looking for a cable to use in my car with my sII skyrocket for a week or so with no luck thus far. What I want is a single cable solution that plugs into the micro usb port on my phone and provides an aux out as well as usb out so I can charge and listen to my phone through my car. The usb would plug into a usb car charger and the aux out would obviously plug into the aux in on my stereo. I know it's possible to have one cable do this as I've seen docks that have this feature but I have yet to find a cable! I loved being able to easily charge and listen to my iphone with a single cable and hopefully someone knows where I can find one for my galaxy sII. Thank!
Does your car stereo have a regular 3.5 MM audio input? If so, just get a male to male audio cable and run that from your phone's headphone jack to the stereo.
I don't think there is such a cable because the Aux is an input that only take a signal from your device to the stereo, not the other way around. Usually those docks plug into the car lighter and connect to the radio using a specific radio station signal. Like burhanistan said, you should just buy a 3.5mm male to male cable like Retrak or Belkin and get a car lighter adapter for charging.
Yeah that's what I've been using but I would prefer to use a single cable to charge and play music. As you can see in these images the official samsung dock has a pass through auxiliary port with the only input being from the micro usb port so its definitely possible.
I might try and buy one of these and soldering in a micro usb cable to charge simultaneously but the skyrocket isnt listed under the compatible phones. Oh well my search continues...
Yea, sorry bud, the closest thing you're going to get is one of those Radio adapters that has a USB port on it, as well as the 3.5" male end.
I just checked on google for awhile and simply couldn't find anything. You can find these for the iPhone and I've used them, they rocked. Seems like the Skyrocket doesn't support audio out through the usb connector?
gadgt said:
Yeah that's what I've been using but I would prefer to use a single cable to charge and play music. As you can see in these images the official samsung dock has a pass through auxiliary port with the only input being from the micro usb port so its definitely possible.
I might try and buy one of these and soldering in a micro usb cable to charge simultaneously but the skyrocket isnt listed under the compatible phones. Oh well my search continues...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah would be nice..
Just bought one of these http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Headset-Adapter-to3-5mm-Female/dp/B003W057FS/ref=pd_cp_cps_1
If it works with the skyrocket I'm going to solder in a usb cable as well to charge it at the same time. I'll let you guys know if it works next week.
i too would love something like this. i used the IMP adapter before on my iPOD it was great could charge and listen to music at the same time with only one connector coming out. seemed more clean as far as cabling went.
Well the adapter I bought does not work with my skyrocket... Oh well I guess I'll have to deal with a mess of cables for now

[Q] USB host mode, specifically via Nebtop

So, I purchases a USB OTG cable in an attempt to try and expand the functionality of Webtop while using Nebtop. I've been unable to get any response from the phone when I plug in this cable. I've tried my wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard that worked off the bat with my TF101 using the Unifying remote they came with as well as an external TB drive.
Has anyone else had any experience with this? It seems logical that the phone supports host mode since the actual dock has 3 full sized USB ports.
All the information pertaining to this sort of thing I've come up with seems extremely phone specific but if there's a simple solution I'm missing thanks all the more.
ri4naire said:
So, I purchases a USB OTG cable in an attempt to try and expand the functionality of Webtop while using Nebtop. I've been unable to get any response from the phone when I plug in this cable. I've tried my wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard that worked off the bat with my TF101 using the Unifying remote they came with as well as an external TB drive.
Has anyone else had any experience with this? It seems logical that the phone supports host mode since the actual dock has 3 full sized USB ports.
All the information pertaining to this sort of thing I've come up with seems extremely phone specific but if there's a simple solution I'm missing thanks all the more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem actually lies in the usb port of the phone itself. The dock was designed for this purpose, and the dock app handles most that for you, the one thing that the dock is able to do that a straight USB cable can't do, is provide enough "bus" power to use a mouse or even a USB stick directly from the phone. If you want to use a Mouse you will need to get a dock. I got mine directly from wireless.att.com, and it was only $49.00 back in Nov. when I got it. It works VERY well with webtop.
P.S. Motorola is very famous for doing things like this to force you into a dock, or to lock out certain features that everyone really wants to use.
I made my own dock by using a powered usb hub I had sitting around (it was actually the one that came with Rock Band for my Xbox 360). I did have to modify it slightly so that the 1 pin was powered from the 5V (a simple shunt from the 5V inner pin of the power supply solder joint to the solder joint of the 1 pin worked fine--although it might be wise to insert an inline fuse since it also charges your phone while plugged in).
Otherwise, the only other thing needed is coming in the form of your otg adapter that should short the 5 pin (common) with your 4 pin (ID). I did this by cracking open an extra micro usb cable and soldering a wire between the two.
So, my setup was like this:
1. Modified usb cable to short the 4 & 5 pins to let the phone know to go into host
2. Use a female A-female A usb coupler to join the usb cable to the powered hub (I got mine here from Monoprice
3. Get 5V to the 1 pin in the usb hub to provide power to your phone and for whatever is plugged into the hub.
With this, I was easily able to run a usb mouse and a wireless keyboard that had a usb dongle. Paired with a micro hdmi cable to hdmi-dvi adapter, I am able to use my office monitor and the webtop linux. I honestly haven't really used it much yet (if I found it really useful, I probably would have just paid for the dock).
The obvious easy way is to just get the dock. However, I really like being able to do this on my own and since I had this stuff already laying around. Also, the cheap prices from monoprice (I actually made $4 off of the purchase from a PayPal bill-me-later promotion).
So, you should be able to get it to work if you get power to the bus on your usb (but again, it might be safe to pass an appropriate fast-acting fuse, ferrite core, or something to protect from surges). I haven't had issue yet, but I also don't use it often...yet .
It sounds like a bit of yes and a bit of no. The OTG cable I got is microUSB to female full USB, am I going to need to modify this cable as you've described by crossing the 4th and 5th pins?
I'm thinking about ordering this "7 Port USB Squid Hub" since it has the 5v power adapter, do you think it might work?
Just one more question and thanks for all the help but should I not see any response from the phone when I plug in the cable? I read through some of the reviews for cheap cables on Amazon and apparently sometimes they're just useless.
ri4naire said:
It sounds like a bit of yes and a bit of no. The OTG cable I got is microUSB to female full USB, am I going to need to modify this cable as you've described by crossing the 4th and 5th pins?
I'm thinking about ordering this "7 Port USB Squid Hub" since it has the 5v power adapter, do you think it might work?
Just one more question and thanks for all the help but should I not see any response from the phone when I plug in the cable? I read through some of the reviews for cheap cables on Amazon and apparently sometimes they're just useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OTG cable have should work. The OTG cable, to my knowledge, should already have pins 4 & 5 shorted together. I'm not completely certain, but if it's designed as an OTG, it would probably already have that done. If you have an ohmmeter/multimeter, you could try to check (it's hard to isolate the small pins, but you can try). If it's already going to the USB female (type A), you will then be able to directly attach your hub when you get it (without the need of the coupler I had to get).
When I used mine, there was no notification that said "Hey, I'm in USB Host Mode!". However, if you successfully have a mouse attached, you'll see a mouse cursor arrow on your screen.
Have fun with it and if you can't get it to work, let me know and I'll try to explain with even more detail (perhaps with some pretty pictures) of what I did. I more or less went off of what I could glean from reading what others did.
It works great! Also, it is weird to see the mouse on this little a screen, it seems oversized.
I just plugged everything in and it worked off the bat. I'm using just two items from Amazon I got for under 12 bucks (plus, of course, the keyboard and mouse I already had for my computer). I don' think I can post links to the forums yet but the ASINs for the items if people want to do this on the super cheap are as follows:
B0043TBCDS 7 Port USB Squid Hub, a whopping $5.19
B005N55WHI Micro-B USB OTG Cable... $5.99
I chose these because of their Prime eligibility and also for their form factor so as not to cover the HDMI port, I bet it's not impossible to get these even cheaper.
While this isn't technically a replacement for the dock since I had to root the device and I have to press "Load" in Nebtop if I want to go to Webtop I'm extremely pleased with the results.
I also love that all the soft keys are available. The ones I've discovered are that right button on the mouse as well as Esc are Back, the Home key is Home, clicking the wheel as well as Ctrl, Cmd, Alt and a whole slew of others bring up the Menu, but all I can find is F5 for Search.
On another note, while the phone does charge when hooked up, a practical boon, the screen still times out despite having the "Stay awake" feature checked. This is annonying when the phone is on it's side accross the room and I have to squint to see the cursor and swipe it unlocked sideways as well as click back into Mirror Display.

[Q] Philips AS111 force to charge

Hi all,
I have a Philips AS111 docking station/bluetooth speaker/charger. Worked perfectly for my SGS2, however, since I bought a new phone (Sony Xperia Z1 Compact) I'm experiencing some problems.
I bought an micro usb to magnetic connector adapter to be able to connect my phone to the dock without having to open the flaps all the time. I took it apart and it basicly splits the first and fifth pin of the micro USB connector to the pins in the magnetic connector. Unfortunately I may not link to external images...
Unfortunately, my phone does not charge when using the adapter in combination with the Philips dock. It does when using the original Sony USB charger and the adapter, so the adapter is fine.
I measured the voltage on the two pins, and it's 0V. I even tried to fool the dock by putting a 1.5kOhm resistor over several lines. Only when I put a 1.5kOhm resistor between 5V and the connector housing, the dock responded by turning on Bluetooth. Voltage went crazy, flipping between 0 and 3V, but phone still doesn't charge.
I think the sollution is to fool the dock by putting a certain resistor between certain lines or by shorting certain lines. Does anyone have a clue how to fool the dock to think there is a device connected, so it opens the +5V line?
Thank you very much!
Nobody into usb connection protocols? :crying:
Finally got it working. Eventually I needed to connect two wires together inside the device. One of them being 'CLAS1' and the other was Ground. Both could be found on the connector going to the micro usb plug of the device. Unfortunately I can not post a link to the photo I made of it.
mblox said:
Finally got it working. Eventually I needed to connect two wires together inside the device. One of them being 'CLAS1' and the other was Ground. Both could be found on the connector going to the micro usb plug of the device. Unfortunately I can not post a link to the photo I made of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello!
I've just bought an AS111. Charges perfectly my SGS4 but it doesn't do a thing when I try connecting my SGN3 (the one with the micro-usb 3 connector) to the Philips dock. I know that the micro-usb 3 is backwards compatible but I do believe that the AS111's dock outputs too little power - or something like that, I am no expert.
I was wondering that maybe your experience could be of help to me. What do you think? If so, could you please guide me through the stuff you did to the dock? Thank you!

Permanently bricked Nexus Player

Thought I would share my experience so no one else repeats this. I bought a micro usb ethernet device so I can hardwire my nexus player. Connected it to nexus player and it did not work. The ethernet device had an extra power cable for it. Thinking it may need more power, I foolishly connected power cable. Now nexus player doesn't even turn on (powerlight off). I'm afraid I may have shorted the motherboard. I was able to open up nexus player using guitar pick....but don't even know what to do. Spent alot of time tinkering with it too. So sad as I am now left with an oversized hockey puck Lesson learned.
Look for black marks or brown you can also take a multimeter and check components you would want to check any smd fuses first then trace back from the USB plug. I don't imagine that killing the whole thing. Does it respond at all?
mirrin said:
Look for black marks or brown you can also take a multimeter and check components you would want to check any smd fuses first then trace back from the USB plug. I don't imagine that killing the whole thing. Does it respond at all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did not see any black or brown marks. Unfortunately it does not turn on at all. I'm getting desperate and am thinking of buying a new 12v 1.5 amp adapter. Do you think that may work? Thanks for your input.
Sent from my SM-N920C using Tapatalk
I don't think so if hypothetically the Ethernet adaptor delivered voltage to the usb port on the nexus player and now with just hdmi and power plugged in it wont turn on i doubt a new ac adapter will fix anything.
You can check your current adaptor if it is broken by using a multi-meter to see if it is providing 12v.
Can you link the Ethernet adaptor you tried to use? And what ac adaptor you plugged into it.
I can think of a few things that are not what you think they are that have ac adapter sockets. But i cant think of a single Ethernet to usb adapter that takes 12v all the ones i know would be a 5v adapter at most with more running off usb power...
I would look for a replacement nexus player not just the ac adaptor... Check target or walmart first they dropped them down to 20-40 when they got discontinued i wish i had picked up a second one now... i got 2 of the game controllers one for 29 one for 10...
mirrin said:
I don't think so if hypothetically the Ethernet adaptor delivered voltage to the usb port on the nexus player and now with just hdmi and power plugged in it wont turn on i doubt a new ac adapter will fix anything.
You can check your current adaptor if it is broken by using a multi-meter to see if it is providing 12v.
Can you link the Ethernet adaptor you tried to use? And what ac adaptor you plugged into it.
I can think of a few things that are not what you think they are that have ac adapter sockets. But i cant think of a single Ethernet to usb adapter that takes 12v all the ones i know would be a 5v adapter at most with more running off usb power...
I would look for a replacement nexus player not just the ac adaptor... Check target or walmart first they dropped them down to 20-40 when they got discontinued i wish i had picked up a second one now... i got 2 of the game controllers one for 29 one for 10...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it is not the ac adapter. I tried an equivalent 12v 1.5amp and it still didn't turn on. When plugged in if I put my ear next to nexus player....I do hear a faint hissing sound, so there is some activity going on. I went out and bought a multi-meter and did what you suggested to check components tracing back to usb. This is all new stuff to me but I found that there was 0 reading on a tiny black rectangular module that has P15 on it. I'm assuming that is the smd fuse. Not even sure where to buy a replacement one. Tried to procure one from old computer board but was unsuccessful. Will search some more online on where to buy one and learn how to solder.
The ethernet I bought was http://www.ebay.com/itm/White-Micro...851881?hash=item567e4840e9:g:QEkAAOSwvt1WRYAO I wasn't thinking and plugged a 12v 1amp into it.
Only nexus player I see being sold is on ebay. I'm being persistent on reviving this one only because I spent alot of time on it already and am stubborn....lol But I will give up when I replace the P15 module and it still doesn't work. If nothing else at least I'm learning...so thank you.
Yes the little thing labled p15 is a fuse im about 80% i think p5 is also a fuse... you should get 0 resistance on them and they should be able to pass current switch the meter to Continuity mode and if the 2 probes are connected it should make a noise put them on either side of the fuses if they dont pass current they are likely blown as for replacements dangerous method would be to replace them with a wire otherwise they should be around .50 cents each from what i could find they are self resetting type so they should reset once any residual voltage is gone.
https://smile.amazon.com/uxcell-Fem...7_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=E59QBEYB3WTBT3ST0YJF

Categories

Resources