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[Solved] G Tablet will not charge

Hi all - I've had my G Tablet for 9 months or so; I quickly rooted it, applied VEGAn-TAB GingerEdition 7.1.0, and have been very pleased with the hardware in general.
Over time, I noticed the red, external indicator charge light began cutting in and out when I was charging and holding the G Tablet in bed. But I discovered that if I would lean the G Tablet against the wall, with the power socket pointing up, I could plug it in and the light was solid red and the unit would charge.
Well, NOW the unit is not charging at all although the external indicator light is red when I plug it in.
I'll leave it plugged in for days on end with the red light, but when I try to start the unit, it boots up to the unlock screen and then momentarily just shuts off. The battery indicator icon in the lower, right hand of the touch screen shows 0%. BUT the Charging indicator text on the lock screen shows "Charged".
I sprayed some contact cleaner on the connector; the red light indicator may be a LITTLE less flaky. I cleared the battery statistics in Clockwork Mod, I even opened up the unit, disconnected the battery for a bit, no change.
I am hoping for some external wisdom, put a fork in me, I'm done!
Thanks in advance for any input!

nitrams0 said:
Hi all - I've had my G Tablet for 9 months or so; I quickly rooted it, applied VEGAn-TAB GingerEdition 7.1.0, and have been very pleased with the hardware in general.
Over time, I noticed the red, external indicator charge light began cutting in and out when I was charging and holding the G Tablet in bed. But I discovered that if I would lean the G Tablet against the wall, with the power socket pointing up, I could plug it in and the light was solid red and the unit would charge.
Well, NOW the unit is not charging at all although the external indicator light is red when I plug it in.
I'll leave it plugged in for days on end with the red light, but when I try to start the unit, it boots up to the unlock screen and then momentarily just shuts off. The battery indicator icon in the lower, right hand of the touch screen shows 0%. BUT the Charging indicator text on the lock screen shows "Charged".
I sprayed some contact cleaner on the connector; the red light indicator may be a LITTLE less flaky. I cleared the battery statistics in Clockwork Mod, I even opened up the unit, disconnected the battery for a bit, no change.
I am hoping for some external wisdom, put a fork in me, I'm done!
Thanks in advance for any input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing happened to me. Lesson learned is to never handle the gtab while connected to the charger-the pin is too sensitive. If you want to keep running your gtab you'll have to buy a dock (like I did). Search for Malata/Gtab dock-should cost 40-50 bucks delivered

It should still be under warranty. You would want to NVFlash it back to stock, but they should be able to fix it if you send it in.

nitrams0 said:
Hi all - I've had my G Tablet for 9 months or so; I quickly rooted it, applied VEGAn-TAB GingerEdition 7.1.0, and have been very pleased with the hardware in general.
Over time, I noticed the red, external indicator charge light began cutting in and out when I was charging and holding the G Tablet in bed. But I discovered that if I would lean the G Tablet against the wall, with the power socket pointing up, I could plug it in and the light was solid red and the unit would charge.
Well, NOW the unit is not charging at all although the external indicator light is red when I plug it in.
I'll leave it plugged in for days on end with the red light, but when I try to start the unit, it boots up to the unlock screen and then momentarily just shuts off. The battery indicator icon in the lower, right hand of the touch screen shows 0%. BUT the Charging indicator text on the lock screen shows "Charged".
I sprayed some contact cleaner on the connector; the red light indicator may be a LITTLE less flaky. I cleared the battery statistics in Clockwork Mod, I even opened up the unit, disconnected the battery for a bit, no change.
I am hoping for some external wisdom, put a fork in me, I'm done!
Thanks in advance for any input!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good news everyone...fixed.
I bit the bullet, opened the device up, and resoldered the power connector to the board. The device is charging now!
A few points to remember:
When plugged in, the device looks like it is charging...red indicator light is illuminated. So apparently electricity is flowing.
The whole board appears to be under soldered. I think this was the core issue for this incident.
The charged indicator on the lock screen was a red Herring.
Hope this proves helpful!

nitrams0 said:
Good news everyone...fixed.
I bit the bullet, opened the device up, and resoldered the power connector to the board. The device is charging now!
A few points to remember:
When plugged in, the device looks like it is charging...red indicator light is illuminated. So apparently electricity is flowing.
The whole board appears to be under soldered. I think this was the core issue for this incident.
The charged indicator on the lock screen was a red Herring.
Hope this proves helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm experiencing the same thing. At first, I thought it was the power cord, so I bought a replacement, but that didn't fix it. So far, I've been able to get by through careful manipulation of the connector, but I know that sooner or later that won't work. I just bought a soldering kit so I could do this repair. Do you have any documentation you can share on what you did (other than how to open it, which I've got down)?

I tried soldering mine...no luck
I've experienced the same issues you described. I used to be able to charge my device when I maneuvered the power cord and tilted the tablet at the proper angle. However, 2 days ago I could not get any charge, no matter how much I moved things around. Today I decided to try and resolder the DC input jack back to the motherboard as others have described.
I opened up the unit and saw that the DC input was completely detached from the motherboard; it pretty much fell out when I opened the case. I wanted to resolder it back in place, however I could not get the motherboard out of the case. I unscrewed all of the six (or 8, I forget) mini screws, at which point I could lift the motherboard to about 30 degrees but I could not take it out. The various wire connections made me hesitant to remove it completely for fear of damaging things. The inability to completely remove the motherboard is problematic as the DC input (as well as everything else) is soldered to the other side of the board (facing down).
I tried to resolder anyway, but I ended up not having enough hands to hold the solder gun, solder, and the two parts to be soldered (motherboard and dc jack). I gave up and put the unit back together. I want/need to try this again, so does anybody have advice on how to do this? How do you completely remove the motherboard so you can have unrestricted access to the soldering side? I can't send the device to Viewsonic because it's been modded. Until I get this fixed, I can't charge.
As an alternative, should I buy a dock and forget about the DC input?
Thanks
nitrams0 said:
Good news everyone...fixed.
I bit the bullet, opened the device up, and resoldered the power connector to the board. The device is charging now!
A few points to remember:
When plugged in, the device looks like it is charging...red indicator light is illuminated. So apparently electricity is flowing.
The whole board appears to be under soldered. I think this was the core issue for this incident.
The charged indicator on the lock screen was a red Herring.
Hope this proves helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I too, was hesitant about disconnecting the wires but I finally did it. Had to have a clear shot at the soldering pads.
As far as disassembly instructions go, I just removed all screws and connecting cables.
Note the position of the two longer screws on either side of the tablet dock port, as they are each threaded differently.
And be gentle with the cable connections. Good luck!

I gave it another go, this time I carefully disconnected the necessary wires. I cleaned up the the connections with some solder braid wire, resoldered it the DC jack in place, then superglued it to make sure it doesn't break off again. After reassembly, I plugged the tablet back in and success! It works and nothing is damaged. The only thing that seems to be off is the battery meter is always at 100%. I can deal with that .

eagleshead said:
I gave it another go, this time I carefully disconnected the necessary wires. I cleaned up the the connections with some solder braid wire, resoldered it the DC jack in place, then superglued it to make sure it doesn't break off again. After reassembly, I plugged the tablet back in and success! It works and nothing is damaged. The only thing that seems to be off is the battery meter is always at 100%. I can deal with that .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is super glue flammable? Im not trying to be an a$$ but im just concerned that the heat of recharging it could put it back in a liquid state and possibly go up in flames or give off some harmful fumes.

Another success. And step by step procedure.
eagleshead said:
I gave it another go, this time I carefully disconnected the necessary wires. I cleaned up the the connections with some solder braid wire, resoldered it the DC jack in place, then superglued it to make sure it doesn't break off again. After reassembly, I plugged the tablet back in and success! It works and nothing is damaged. The only thing that seems to be off is the battery meter is always at 100%. I can deal with that .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info!
After reading about your issues, I decided to pop open the gTab and see what I could do. My gTab was able to charge but only when the cord was in a very particular position (cord wrapped around the outer edges of the device). Since it charges intermittently, I decided that it'd be good to pop open the case and see if I could fix the connection problems.
Disclaimer: If you're not comfortable with soldering, using a digital multimeter (DMM) or handling electrostatic discharge (ESD) sensitive components, I'd try to get someone who is. Please follow at your own risk. The instructions below will void your warranty. Good soldering skills are a must as you have to be careful not to leave cold solder joints, overheat nearby ICs, or leave gobs of solder. Be neat and clean!
Tools required:
Static free area to work with (conductive metal table tops are a no no!) If you have a grounding strap for your wrist even better!
Digital Multimeter (one with continuity and resistance testing)
Soldering Iron (hopefully one with high precision. I needed over 750 degrees F and a very fine tip to get the solder to adhere to the motherboard pad and DC input pin.
Solder (Good quality) I used the silver solder from Radio Shack.
Optional:
Helping Hands (to hold components together while you solder)
Hot Glue Gun (to hold components together while soldering if you don't have a pair of Helping Hands)
If you have a pin that's completely separated from the pad, or it's broken off, you might need bridge wire or some spare wire.
Solder sucker, or solder wick
LocTite
My steps:
Extracting the Motherboard
1. Remove the four corner screws underneath the rubber caps first!
2. Please watch the tear down video first before attempting as it has some good pointers regarding screws and cable (re)attachment. I found a good tear down video on YouTube (search for "gTab Tear Down") (I'm new to posting on here so I can't post links yet.) t3h_g3n3ra1 has a good post here too: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842354
3. Remove back cover as in the video. Don't pull too much as the tabs can break off. Work slowly!
4. Get rid of static now. Touch a grounded metal component. Use a static wrist strap if you can.
5. Remove the power cable first! (Don't throw away the blue tape as you'll be using it later to fasten it down when you reconnect the battery.
6. Remove all other the cables connecting the device to the motherboard (just the green section). You only need to remove the motherboard so you can easily get to the DC Input. You can leave all the other components connected to the chassis, battery and LCD in place. You shouldn't need to mess with these.
7. Unscrew the motherboard screws. Mind the screw placement because they're not all the same size. I used a piece of tape sticky side up and placed the screws in the relative position of their placement on the motherboard. You can also draw a rough diagram of the motherboard on the tape with a sharpie if you like. (You should be used to doing this if you've dealt with Apple products or if you mess with laptops regularly.)
8. Remove the motherboard and place it aside in a static free area (or static free bag).
9. Put the chassis and back cover aside.
Testing the solder joints on the motherboard.
If the DC Input just falls right out, I'll show you the pads that need to be resoldered. However in the my case where just the center pin was just not connected well, I'll give you the steps here.
1. First test the center pin. Hopefully I can post images and I can show you where to test. Using the DMM, test the center pin and the pad on the motherboard it should be connecting to. Out of the 5 pads that the DC input should be connected to, it's the only one off the center pin at the end. The other 4 connectors will be connecting to chassis ground. With your DMM probing the motherboard connection pad and the center pin in the housing, test for continuity and also test for resistance. On my model, continuity was intermittent showing that a connection was there, but not reliable. Testing for resistance, I was measuring a range from 0 to infinity, but it was mostly hanging above 400 ohms. For comparison, a good solder joint should show good continuity, with no breaking as well as < 10 ohms in resistance. With my measurements, I concluded that the center pin needed to be resoldered.
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2. Before jumping to the soldering gun, just for due diligence, you should test the 4 other ground connectors for connectivity and resistance. An easy way to do this is touch your first probe inside the DC input jack (by the center post, but do NOT touch the center post! It's like the game "Operation!" If you can't do this reliably, maybe you shouldn't try the soldering part.) The second probe should be touching one of the four pads on the motherboard where the 4 ground connections should connect. Test each individually. They should all show good connectivity (no breaks in sound, and little to no resistance. At this distance, your resistance really should be reading 0). If any of them shows a resistance > 10 ohms, you might want to think about resoldering.
3. If you can physically separate a joint, just leave it alone. Don't pick at it. It won't heal if you keep touching it! Wait until the soldering section!
Soldering
Note: This should be done for all the joints that you have identified as faulty in the previous section.
1. Use a fine or very fine tip on your soldering gun.
2. Heat your soldering gun to 750 or 800 degrees F. You could use less, but when I tested, I could stay on the pad or the part and the solder would NOT liquify. (Started at 600, then upped by 50 degrees until I got to 800).
3. Have the pad and the pin from the jack touching while you solder. Don't allow for gaps if you can. (optional) If you have a set of helping hands, use some plastic or rubber on the alligator clips so that they're non conductive. Have the clips hold the DC Input jack in place so you can solder the pads that have come loose. Sometimes you can use the hot glue gun to hold the jack in place while you solder. Sometimes easier than a set of helping hands. Just put a SMALL dab of hot glue on the opposite side of the jack from where you're soldering. Jut make sure it's out of the way. Note: if your jack has completely broken off, you may have to use a piece of bridge wire or spare wire to allow for a clean connection.
4. (Optional but usually good practice). Clean your connection. Remove old solder using a solder sucker or solder wick. If not cleaned you could be soldering on to a bad connection. There was so little solder on mine that I barely got any off with soldering wick.
5. Heat the parts your fusing. With the pin from the DC Input touching the pad on the motherboard, heat both together and then apply solder to insure a good connection. Failing to heat one part, could cause a cold solder joint. With the amount of force that your power cord puts on the connector, a bad mechanical connection will also cause the connection to become unreliable again.
6. Apply a small amount of solder to cover the pin from the DC Input to the motherboard pad. There should not be a giant bead of solder left over. Using too much solder you might accidentally fuse to some of the other connection pads that are very close to your joint.
Testing your soldering
As in the above testing section, retest all your connections, even ones you didn't solder! Often when working with surface mount components that are close together, people often create junctions that are not supposed to be fused.
1. Test the center pin for connectivity. Test continuity and resistance. Resistance should be < 10 ohms. The center pin should have excellent connectivity to the motherboard pad.
2. Test the center pin for non connection to grounding pads. With your probe on the center pin, test the 4 grounding pads for the DC Input. None of the grounding pads should show any connectivity to the center pin. If you used too much solder on the center pin, desolder it and resolder it again with just a connection to the motherboard pad.
3. Test the ground pin to the 4 ground pads. Put your probe in the DC Input sleeve (make sure to touch only the ground). Then put your other probe to the each of the 4 motherboard pads in succession. You should have good connectivity.
Reassembly
Note: Leave the power cord disconnected until everything else is attached and connected. If something explodes or smokes at this point don't say I didn't warn you.
1. Place the motherboard back in place.
2. Start placing the screws in the locations where they belong. Tighten each half-way only. When all screws are in, you can fully tighten them. If you want to use LocTite here, now's a good time. This is a mobile device after all.
3. Leaving the power cord until last, connect all the other cords and ribbon cables. Make sure they're connected.
4. Make sure the routing of the cables are in places that won't get bent beyond the bends they already have. Make sure nothing will stick out of the sides of the unit. The thin speaker cables are pretty bad and should be fastened down with a bit of tape.
5. Attach the power cable.
6. Double check all your cables and connections.
7. Keep the unit face down, otherwise the power and volume buttons could fall out. Turn the unit on. Should boot normally.
8. Using Spare parts battery information, Battery Spy, Battery Monitor or any other battery debugging app from the market monitor the battery.
9. Insert the DC Adapter. You should now show that the battery state is Charging (AC). If it's not then you may have another connection problem somewhere else. (beyond the scope of this article).
10. Replace the back cover.
Finish
In conclusion, the fix for my particular break was pretty easy and took about 40 minutes to actually perform (30 minutes testing, 10 minutes fixing). I know my method is quite conservative. I'm just trying to cover the largest audience with these instructions. I had shelved my gTab for a bit until I had time to do some research on how to fix the DC Input. My Xoom was fitting the bill for a while, but I felt the gTab needed some love. Now it's running solid, and with TeamDRH's beta of ICS, I just have some OS/Kernel tweaking ahead of me. I'm just excited that I can reliably power my gTab while testing ICS!
Hopefully you'll find this fix easy and helpful. Peer review or suggestions welcome. Thank you all for reading.
Image Attachments:

Re: Superglue
kieso said:
Is super glue flammable? Im not trying to be an a$$ but im just concerned that the heat of recharging it could put it back in a liquid state and possibly go up in flames or give off some harmful fumes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The superglue should be fine with the temperatures we're going to be encountering here. Now soldering the superglue directly, that'd be a bad thing. A dab of hot glue might work and would help cushion from shock a bit. I use it for our flight controller modules on remote control aircraft and the hot glue works just fine.

Same problems with my device. This thread is very helpful. I am going to attempt to tear down the device and solder the power connector pin today. I will update on any issues/problems i may have.
Update: With a $10 solder gun from radio shack and some persistence, my gtablet is back to life. After opening the device, it was evident that the power connector was the problem as if fell off the motherboard when I opened the case. I did not disconnect the wiring. I removed screws and was able to prop the mb at enough of an angle that I could maneuver the solder gun underneath and reattach the power connector. I was somewhat suprised/impressed when I put it all back together and it to powered up. Not that I doubted myself, but this was my first hardware repair on a tablet. My biggest challenge was after removing the screws, the clips were slightly challenging without the correct tool. I don't even know what the correct tool is for opening the 12 clips, but eventually I was able to get in.
This thread was a great help. Thank you.

I was also able to fix my gtab thanks to the walk through. Thank you.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

Wireless charging?

Any way to enable wireless charging? Possibly removing the back and with a touchstone similar to what's possible with the s3?
Swyped while swerving from my Samsung GS3

Similar to this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1962993
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Most places are declining to make this
We need moto to make these kinda features stock
The problem is the phone is not designed to be opened or the battery removed.. hence voiding warranty if u do so
That's why we prob won't see this for the RAZR HD and HD maxx
With the s3 u can just pop the back door off...this phone I have yet to see a breakdown... I really doubt the aftermarket companies that make those kinda product will want to invest in making a product that voids ur warranty just to install it
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app

This is xda surely warranties aren't a concern? If i saw a tear down it wouldn't be hard to set it up with a touch stone like the s3 i would think?
Swyped while swerving from my Samsung GS3

Thatoneguy. said:
This is xda surely warranties aren't a concern? If i saw a tear down it wouldn't be hard to set it up with a touch stone like the s3 i would think?
Swyped while swerving from my Samsung GS3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If their is room
I forgot where I read it
But the two screws on the bottom come out then the screen slides up..as far as I remember.. lol
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app

Not even worth trying, I attempted this mod on the Atrix HD which is done by connecting the positive terminal on the palm pixi to the +5v part on phone and it eventually worked but a usb had to be plugged into phone the usb wasnt plugged into anything but the phone wouldnt charge unless it actually detected a usb plugged in.

Unfortunately, I don't think it will happen. It is true that XDA doesn't care too much about warranties, but there is a big difference between hardware and software warranties. Accessory manufacturers aren't going to make something that you have to hack apart your phone for. What is worth more to you, a 30 dollar wireless charging accessory that you have to jimmy rig, or the warranty that protects your $650 investment? You can unroot easy enough to return to VZW but try explaning the wireless charging mod that's on there now.

I've been interested in getting a wireless charging solution for my phone, and while I have to look into it a bit more to figure out specifics for certain things, I think it may be possible to create a case that plugs into the USB port so we wouldn't void our warranties.
Designing the case wont bee too much hassle, a micrometer and some 3D modeling software. However we need to find a way to get a micro usb connector that has a 90 degree bend in it to go into the port without causing any sort of scraping. Possibly have the right hand side of the case hinged and secured by snaps on top and bottom? or have the connector itself removable.
So materials for a test setup would require:
Touchstone components
90 degree MicroUSB male connector
Soldering gun
Custom case
I don't have the setup to do this available to me right now, however I think the biggest problem would be getting a connector small enough to keep from adding a lot of bulk to the side of the phone. Heck, with it only supplying .42 A at about 4.8 volts, it may not be inconceivable to group 2 in a case for faster charging. I haven't worked with the touchstone charger myself before, so I don't know their size.
Anyways, food for thought, and a possible personal project once I get some more important things finished up.

Hi,
Signed up just to post my results so far.
Ive gotten razr HD maxx to charge through the USB port using a touchstone pixi back cover.
It works using the touchstone charging base but the usb wall wart that came with the razr hd. The amperage coming though was not enough using a motorola dedicated usb wall charger that came with my bluetooth headphones putting out 500mA. It charges a little slower using the induction charger. I need to figure out if this will work running off my cars electrical system as that is my main motivation for getting this to work.
To get the phone to go into charging mode you have to either short out the USB data wires or connect the D+ wire to a 2v contact on the touchstone pixi circuit. Connecting the usb D+ to the 2v contact hopefully will allow me to hardwire this setup directly to the phone and leave the usb port free if, assuming I can find enough room inside for everything.
The phone is charging right now on the touchstone base, estimate 2hr to full charge from 70%
Im going to try and shove it all inside the phone tomorrow.
DrunkenFerret said:
I've been interested in getting a wireless charging solution for my phone, and while I have to look into it a bit more to figure out specifics for certain things, I think it may be possible to create a case that plugs into the USB port so we wouldn't void our warranties.
Designing the case wont bee too much hassle, a micrometer and some 3D modeling software. However we need to find a way to get a micro usb connector that has a 90 degree bend in it to go into the port without causing any sort of scraping. Possibly have the right hand side of the case hinged and secured by snaps on top and bottom? or have the connector itself removable.
So materials for a test setup would require:
Touchstone components
90 degree MicroUSB male connector
Soldering gun
Custom case
I don't have the setup to do this available to me right now, however I think the biggest problem would be getting a connector small enough to keep from adding a lot of bulk to the side of the phone. Heck, with it only supplying .42 A at about 4.8 volts, it may not be inconceivable to group 2 in a case for faster charging. I haven't worked with the touchstone charger myself before, so I don't know their size.
Anyways, food for thought, and a possible personal project once I get some more important things finished up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I dont know if I can get this to work internally now due to soldeirng limitations.
There is just enough space to slightly force the phone back together (it does bulge) but the pins for the USB port are covered and recessed under the USB housing. There is not enough clearance for me to do a clean solder onto the contacts.
I can not find another trace for the 5v or D+ pin on the circuit board.
If i could remove the outer cover maybe but for now this is going to have to be a plug into the USB port/external mod until i either grow a bigger pair and try to remove the USB port or find alternate contacts to solder the leads onto.
EDIT: I actually just went for it and ground off the corner of the USB casing. And actually soldered the wires onto the pins. However the touchstone system will not allow this to work internally. The battey when laid on the coil will interfere with the EMF and cause an unstable voltage. It goes from a low of 4.8 to 5.5 v. Maybe someone thats an RF engineer can figure something out with the reflector.
Maybe if i get more motivation later ill check out a qi standard charging setup to see if its compatible. For now im going to find an outer case and just go with the usb plug use this externally.

Try picking up some foil tape and put it between the battery and coil. You should be able to pick some up at your local hardware or hobby shop. It may need to be touching the ground to be effective though. Depending on some things over the next month I might be able to start working on my own setup.

Tried that but no go.
With the foil covering the coil, the voltage fluctuates before the battery is even placed over it. I hope you can get it working internally, ive since used an otterbox commuter case to hold it all together.
DrunkenFerret said:
Try picking up some foil tape and put it between the battery and coil. You should be able to pick some up at your local hardware or hobby shop. It may need to be touching the ground to be effective though. Depending on some things over the next month I might be able to start working on my own setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

In what order are you putting the components? Phone, battery then coil. Or phone coil then battery? Basically is the coil between the hardware and battery, or is the coil between the back panel and battery.
I can see where the issues would arise if it is between the battery and hardware. Both would be giving off EM waves if the device is on. If it is between them, try moving the coil to between the back panel and the battery.
Right now I can't afford to try an internal mod where I could kill the phone if I screw up, so until a couple things settle down for me I will only be attempting an external mod that fits in a case. If I can get the design right I may be able to make it so there is still a USB port available.
*Edit*
I'm sourcing/pricing components right now and you've already given me the voltage output, but how about the current provided by the coil? What I'm planning involves building a small circuit that would short the D+ wire only when there is no USB cable connected.

Anyway we can get some pics of the project in progress?
Swyped while swerving from my Droid Razr Maxx HD

Thatoneguy. said:
Anyway we can get some pics of the project in progress?
Swyped while swerving from my Droid Razr Maxx HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I don't have the components at the moment to start my project physically, however as I said I am finding the parts I'll need. Apparently its a PITA to get male micro USB connectors without bulk orders, or importing from China. I'd prefer a SMT (surface mount for circuit boards) but those appear to be next to impossible. Anyways I've been able to find pretty much everything I need and just a matter of time till they get in.
My plan is to provide a clean circuit that would use the USB port on the phone to charge using the coil, while adding a new USB port into a phone case to still allow USB data and charging. However as the coil can create fluctuations in voltage and current, I want to have a setup that allows for it to be isolated while it is plugged in through USB.
Attached is just a quick circuit diagram I made using EveryCircuit, I need to refine it still, but just an example. Heck if you have the app rebuild it and you'll be able to see what it does. Left side is USB cable input, with a switch at top to simulate plugging in and unplugging, while the right is the phone side with the power source being the coil. The light/loads are to simulate the data lines and power lines and show whether the circuit works.
When I get the parts together I'll take pics and post a tutorial. I have some 3D modeling experience so I may even be able to design a custom case to put everything into.

DrunkenFerret said:
In what order are you putting the components? Phone, battery then coil. Or phone coil then battery? Basically is the coil between the hardware and battery, or is the coil between the back panel and battery.
I can see where the issues would arise if it is between the battery and hardware. Both would be giving off EM waves if the device is on. If it is between them, try moving the coil to between the back panel and the battery.
Right now I can't afford to try an internal mod where I could kill the phone if I screw up, so until a couple things settle down for me I will only be attempting an external mod that fits in a case. If I can get the design right I may be able to make it so there is still a USB port available.
*Edit*
I'm sourcing/pricing components right now and you've already given me the voltage output, but how about the current provided by the coil? What I'm planning involves building a small circuit that would short the D+ wire only when there is no USB cable connected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the coil was sandwiched between the back case of the phone and the battery. The metal in the battery is influencing the flux going through the charging coil. The base is not always on, it only turns on when the charging coil is present. If not present the base seems to send out a pulse every so often to detect the presence of the charging coil inside the phone.
The issues arise once the battery is laid across the coil, the base begins to oscillate and the voltage begins to alternate. Also the coils seem to only work within a specific frequency range, but i dont have a signal generator or oscope to confirm this.
According to the battery charging app the base is putting out ~6-700mA to the phone with an 1A charger plugged into the base.

Wireless charging stopped working

Does anyone else have this kind of trouble? Wireless charging just stopped working. I've tried with two chargers and no effect. Chargers can't be broken because they both charge my older Nexus 4 just fine. USB charging works just fine but I've kind of used to wireless and it drives me crazy since it doesn't work. I haven't dropped the phone or anything, I even replaced the back cover with new genuine OEM back cover since I thought that maybe the coils in back have been damaged or something.
Could it be software issue or what?

I had this same thing happen, although with mine, it was after a (about 2 foot) fall. It could be software, but doubtful, since you can verify that by simply turning your phone off (not in standby, but completely off), and seeing if the battery indicator comes up when you start charging. Regardless, Google will ask you to do a hard reset before they'll replace it to ensure that it's not software-related.
As I said, mine was replaced under warranty for this very issue, so Google does count this as a replaceable issue (provided you bought it from the Play Store). However, there is one thing to try first:
Draw an imaginary line across the bottom of the letters in "nexus" printed on the back cover, and follow that line until you're even with the flash. Right there, there's a clip that most people miss when replacing the cover. That clip MUST be securely fastened, or wireless charging won't work (the purpose of the clip is to keep the wireless charging pins engaged). Press down at that spot to make sure that the clip is engaged.
Barring that, I'd contact Google for replacement (or your carrier, if you bought it from there).

After several re-openings, it apparently finally worked. Those four little pins were somehow bit too low so that connection did last only few seconds. I pulled them up little bit with tweezers, push that copper thing on top of the battery all the way to bottom and firmly put the back cover on its place and now it's working again. I was so close sending this thing back to Google...
Somehow it still feels that it doesn't quite charge it with full power. It apparenly takes much more time than using AC charger. This wasn't the case when this problem didn't occure because it charged wirelessly very quickly.

Nexus 9 keyboard folio faulty

Hi I bought 2 keyboard folio from eBay brand new but it is like it haves a faulty battery. When I try to pair it with the tablet through NFC I press yes on the "do you want to pair the Nexus keyboard" but after some seconds it fails. But when I put the keyboard to charge it works. After I pair the devices and use the keyboard when I unplug it it stops working straight away. So I was wondering if this happened to anyone else and if it is any key combinations to hard reset the keyboard or something like that?
More people having the same issue!!!!!!!!
https://productforums.google.com/fo...ce=footer#!msg/nexus/miyKVULMUWo/7vH_5T0OGwAJ
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Has anyone found a way to replace the battery or fix the charging issue, battery not charging?

Has anyone tried using a portable external battery charger to power the keyboard, how long does it last?

Until you unplug the external battery.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

I opened the keyboard and the battery seems to be dead because I tried to charge it with another charger and nothing was happening. On the keyboard I put another battery 400mah but still wasn't charging so I thing the board is faulty too. I will take a picture of the battery and upload it because I tried to find one but I couldn't.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

vincenzo697 said:
I opened the keyboard and the battery seems to be dead because I tried to charge it with another charger and nothing was happening. On the keyboard I put another battery 400mah but still wasn't charging so I thing the board is faulty too. I will take a picture of the battery and upload it because I tried to find one but I couldn't.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please upload any pictures you can, would be really helpful.
I was considering buying a simple small portable battery charger 1500-2200-4000~ and using it, but it would discharge too quickly, attempting to charge the faulty one in the folio. Also considered taking the folio battery/charging component and splicing in portable battery charger..
Another option I thought of, is using a male to male micro usb cable from the Nexus 9 to the folio.

I am using a generic micro usb charger works fine. I also bought a male to male micro usb cable attached to the Nexus 9 and folio, also works great. The keyboard hardly registers drawing any power.

Sorry for the late reply. That's the original battery of the keyboard which i tried to find but couldn't. The hard part is that it needs to be 1.5mm to 2mm of thickness Max so the keyboard top part can close normally. The other pictures is the modification I made replacing the battery but with a thicker one. It wasn't charging so that's why I came to the conclusion that it must be the board too that it is faulty. I connect the - and + cables from the charger to the exposed cables to charge the battery and that's it.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

That's a lot of hardware. So the battery may be good and its the charger that's faulty. Thanks for the images!

clockcycle said:
That's a lot of hardware. So the battery may be good and its the charger that's faulty. Thanks for the images!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NO. The battery too is faulty. Because I connect it straight to the charger and it doesn't charge.

Maybe?
vincenzo697 said:
NO. The battery too is faulty. Because I connect it straight to the charger and it doesn't charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey... Just bought a brand new one with the same issue straight out of the box.
Have you tried measuring the original battery with a multimeter?
The battery protection circuits will sometimes protect the battery from undervoltage by not letting them charge any more as it potentially damages them...
One way to attempt to recover the batteries is to remove the protection PCB and charge them with a LiPo charger at super low amps till they get up to like 3.3v then letting the original charger and battery protection finish charging it... (Kinda dangerous if battery really is damaged)
These things sat on shelves for years.... I can't imagine the batteries didn't drain.
Edit: did you take the keyboard apart??? Lol... Is it glued together??
I took mine apart... This is not a reversible process lol... Checked battery voltage and sure enough... 0 volts.... There's no Li-Ion charger that will ever try to charge that battery as there is a risk of fire.
Looks like HTC cheaped out on the battery protection circuit and it didn't cut off the battery below 3.3v and let it get to 0v... Gonna have to try to recover the battery using my lab power supply to trickle charge it... My lipo charger complains and won't charge it at all.

I'm having the same problem. Just bought one of these on Amazon for $30 and was excited to use it. How did they charge $130 for this when it came out?? This is useless. I'm going to have to return this junk. Any solutions before I do?

The solution is easy.
I have effected this repair on multiples of the nexus 9 folio keyboard.
Someone said earlier that the charging circuit is bad in addition to the cell being at 0v. This is simply not true. For the charging circuit and the cell to both be bad you will have likely hit the lottery in a bad way, or shorted and caused damage yourself.
Truth is that as mentioned before their protection circuit on their $130 keyboard was not up to the task. I make the assumption also that they overpriced these so heavily they sat until their hardware choices became apparent by making them DOA after the cell's voltage fell too low.
Someone stated that opening the keyboard is irreversible, this is also untrue, it only requires a bit of skill and patience.
Take it for what it is, because I would never recommend someone to revive a cell that had been sitting below 3.2v, it's just unsafe, but this is what worked for me as I didn't feel like digging through china stock to find a matching cell.
The cell is at 0v, so the fix is simple, connect another similar chemistry (3.2v-4.2v) cell in parallel (between the protection circuit and the cell.) I just used and 18650 from a laptop battery. Let's call this a "jump start." Start the charging and disconnect the second cell. Red charge LED should remain solid and charge cell 1 to 4.2v and you are good to go.
As far as the details, we know that the cell is on the left side, so only heat and slice adhesive from just beyond the corner to the center, slide your tool under the cell to remove the adhesion from the main body and carefully slip the cell out far enough to get at the contacts in order to get between the protection circuit and the cell.
main points
1 DO NOT PUNCTURE THE CELL (ALUMINUM TEARS EASILY)
2 DO NOT DAMAGE THE RED AND BLACK LEADS FROM THE PROTECTION CIRCUIT TO THE MAIN BOARD
3 DO NOT PRY OPEN THE OUTSIDE CORNER NEXT TO THE CELL AS THIS CORNER IS MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO DEFORMATION THAN OTHER AREAS
Probably best left to a skilled tech, but it can certainly be done.
The adhesive htc uses is much like hot glue, so after scraping the old glue out reseal and press with a hot glue gun (precision tip recommended,) easy peasy.
On a final note, shame on you htc (and google.)

k2thec said:
The solution is easy.
I have effected this repair on multiples of the nexus 9 folio keyboard.
Someone said earlier that the charging circuit is bad in addition to the cell being at 0v. This is simply not true. For the charging circuit and the cell to both be bad you will have likely hit the lottery in a bad way, or shorted and caused damage yourself.
Truth is that as mentioned before their protection circuit on their $130 keyboard was not up to the task. I make the assumption also that they overpriced these so heavily they sat until their hardware choices became apparent by making them DOA after the cell's voltage fell too low.
Someone stated that opening the keyboard is irreversible, this is also untrue, it only requires a bit of skill and patience.
Take it for what it is, because I would never recommend someone to revive a cell that had been sitting below 3.2v, it's just unsafe, but this is what worked for me as I didn't feel like digging through china stock to find a matching cell.
The cell is at 0v, so the fix is simple, connect another similar chemistry (3.2v-4.2v) cell in parallel (between the protection circuit and the cell.) I just used and 18650 from a laptop battery. Let's call this a "jump start." Start the charging and disconnect the second cell. Red charge LED should remain solid and charge cell 1 to 4.2v and you are good to go.
As far as the details, we know that the cell is on the left side, so only heat and slice adhesive from just beyond the corner to the center, slide your tool under the cell to remove the adhesion from the main body and carefully slip the cell out far enough to get at the contacts in order to get between the protection circuit and the cell.
main points
1 DO NOT PUNCTURE THE CELL (ALUMINUM TEARS EASILY)
2 DO NOT DAMAGE THE RED AND BLACK LEADS FROM THE PROTECTION CIRCUIT TO THE MAIN BOARD
3 DO NOT PRY OPEN THE OUTSIDE CORNER NEXT TO THE CELL AS THIS CORNER IS MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO DEFORMATION THAN OTHER AREAS
Probably best left to a skilled tech, but it can certainly be done.
The adhesive htc uses is much like hot glue, so after scraping the old glue out reseal and press with a hot glue gun (precision tip recommended,) easy peasy.
On a final note, shame on you htc (and google.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want to try this repair on my keyboard. do you have pictures where to connect the wires.
I have a laptop battery
i have the case pulled apart
Just want to make sure that the wires are in the correct place.

The folio battery has a USB jack at one end and a switch (on/off perhaps) and a blue light at the other. What's happening when the blue light blinks?

Lindommer said:
The folio battery has a USB jack at one end and a switch (on/off perhaps) and a blue light at the other. What's happening when the blue light blinks?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i meant if i take the keyboard apart.
I ordered another on off ebay, but i used the suggestion i thiunk i saw on here. I have a microusb OTG plugged into the nexus 9 and running a usb to the keyboard. it is supplying enough power to run he keyboard. also it does not seem top drain much power at all.
I'm typing this message on the folio keyboard. if the other keyboard folio has the same issue then i can at lease use this solution to use the folio.
now i need to order a shorter usb to microusb cord so i dont have to rubber band the cord and look sloppy when carrying it around

Thanks for that. But what about the blinking blue light?

Lindommer said:
Thanks for that. But what about the blinking blue light?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is paring mode if in not mistaken.

Nah, it's definitely a charging light. Doesn't blink when pairing but does when a USB charging lead is plugged in. Goes off after a couple of minutes, which confirms what we all know: the keyboard doesn't/won't charge.

Picked up one of these new from Ebay. It doesn't seem to want to charge and will only work when plugged in with charger. Anyway to get it working? Guess it's a return

No juice?

I recently bought a cracked version of this phone off eBay, everything worked on it when I got it (with the exception of the cracked screen.) So I got the replacement screen and a new battery and now it doesn't charge up. I get a little flashing white LED at the top of the screen, any ideas what it could be?

Best guess is that something didn't get connected properly when the device was re-assembled (tiny ribon cables are difficult).
Moto, with all it's variants per model, is incredibly frustrating. It may also be that the replacement screen or battery is specific to a different variant of the same model.
In either case, I would try putting the old battery back (double checking those ribbon cables, looking for damage, etc) and then seeing if the device charges.
Good luck.

It's not the connectors, my guess is something went wrong with the screen, I don't have the original charger so maybe that might be the issue?

I don't have the original charger so maybe that might be the issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's unlikely, I charge off different cables, laptop, adapter blocks, and usb a wall plugs. This all works fine. I also think the screen is unlikely.
Can you access the device via usb (i.e. adb or read/write files)?
I know its a long shot, but I've found that pocket lint collects in the phone plug and given enough time make the cable connection difficult or imposible. I have to periodically clean it out (it's almost not visable at the very bottom of the plug housing) using a wooden tooth pick.
Oh, I commpletely neglected the obvious - maybe the replacement battery is bad.

I thought it might be the battery the first go around and had a replacement sent, still nothing.

Well... I'm out of ideas atm. You could try putting the old screen back on just to see if battery charges - but ug, that's a job with potentially a disappointing outcome. At least you would know and then could decide if your going to spend more effort on it.