Database Develop

Friend purchasing nook for me. Should I get anything else?

I have a friend who is visting the US (I'm from Canada) and I asked him to pick me up a nook. Not finding clear info in some of the reviews, mainly concerned about charging.
This charges over usb when hooked up to your computer right? Just want to make sure it doesn't use a proprietary cable for charging. I read on the ipad side, that older computers don't give out enough power to charge over usb, is that an issue with the nook?
What adapters/cables does it come with exactly? And is it just a standard mini-sub for the charging?
Also, this has a headset jack correct? I've read no bluetooth, I guess there's no way to get a mic working on this then.

Micro USB, will charge VERY slowly using a computer. Includes a 2amp wall socket and special cable to quick charge (still micro usb, just more pins). Has a headset port but does not come with a headset.

I've only had a few mobile devices. I read the ipad can charge over usb if the mobo supports giving out that extra juice. Some mobo's have a new firmware update to enable this.
The connector is micro-usb but just more pins. Hmm. so if the cable breaks or I misplace it no other micro-usb will charge it?
edit: i read a little more and found that it's 30 pin proprietary cable to speed up charging. I also read the galaxy tab does something similar.
Does anyone know if they use the same pin configuration? probably not, but I can get tab usb cables here.

I know you didn't ask for it but I'll tell you anyway
In case you are worrying about registering your device (mandatory at initial setup).
I'm NOT in the US and it worked fine.

Good to know. Thanks.
But I'm more concerned about charging it and relying solely on their cables.
I read the ipad can trickle charge on newer computers but some wouldn't provide enough power. Asus et al have released utilities to increase the power to the usb ports.
I can't post the links but endgadget has an article about it providing links to those utilites. They just talk of apple devices but does this work with the nook?

It comes with a charger for US-type sockets and only if you charge your nook with this (and yes, it is proprietary ) it'll charge quickly. It does seem to charge when you connect it to a standard PC USB port but at an extremely low rate.
On the device Micro-USB (not Mini) is used.

You say it does seem to, do you mean from personal experience? How slow? It sounds like that if you do own one it was so slow you didn't let it finish.
Like if it's 8hrs overnight, I can live with that, but I want to confirm that there is a plan b and not solely rely on their cables.
And as I mentioned asus and others released utils to give more power output to the usb (although these seem like their were only created for ipads). Wondering if those utils speed things up.
for ex, google asus ai charger to see what I mean.

I received my nook Color a mere few hours ago so I can't tell you a lot about its charging behavior It "seems" to load slower via standard USB... if you want to know about the details check one of the large threads on the NOOK and its rooting. I remember reading some information about the USB connector and its peculiarities there.

Ah you just got it. I see.
I found this on the root thread:
'
"There are 12 pins coming off the connector. It looks like there are no pins for the standard micro USB portion, only the extended 12 pins. 2 pins are used to bring in +5V, 2 pins are for signal ground providing a hefty circuit for the 2A charging. USB takes up two pins, and as far as I can tell 2 more are for each LED via current limiting resistors. Two more pins go to discretes that I haven't identified, and two more pins are unconnected. I'll take my scope to them when I have some time."
Not sure what he means when he says no pins for the standard micro portion...

Maybe the plug doesn't have standard USB pins, but the NOOK itself does have standard USB pins as well as the proprietary ones. Because I have trouble inserting the original B&N plug, I went out earlier today and bought a standard Micro USB cable...
I connected it to the nook and it said "not charging", so I went out to do some shopping (10-20 minutes max) and left it at 89%... when I came back it was at 93 %.
So it DOES in fact seem to charge albeit slowly.

Thanks. It's weird, lots of comments of its own cable not fitting properly.
As long as it charges with a normal cable I'm good.

I guess it is charging... however there is a slight chance, that it's NOT charging and the battery charge display is lying (de-calibrated). I don't think so, but I'll only know for sure after a few more days of using only the standard USB charger cable.

[Q] Faster USB Charging?

Just reading up on USB chargers, and I found somewhere in a thread here about phones defaulting to smaller ma when charging via USB if the connector didn't have the data pins shorted or something.
So, I was wondering a couple of things:
1) If the default charger supplies 700ma, do you think that is the most the Nexus S can draw? Does anyone have one of these shorted USB chargers? Does it charge the NS faster?
2) If it does charge faster, how hard would it be to do something similar to shorting the data connections? I have a generic AC-USB cable which I currently use for my iPod touch.
3) Is there a way to check if it is already shorted out? The USB charging port looks similar to ones on my computer, but I'm not sure what to look for.
Thanks for any help! Maybe if we can sort out this stuff, we can provide a solution for those looking for faster charging!

it does work safely, i'm using a 1000 mAh charger at home, and a 2000 mAh charger in the car both are from aftermarket eBay/DealExtreme charges.
no overheating
and charges faster than stock

AllGamer said:
it does work safely, i'm using a 1000 mAh charger at home, and a 2000 mAh charger in the car both are from aftermarket eBay/DealExtreme charges.
no overheating
and charges faster than stock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thankyou for that AllGamer, I'll think of possible ways I could mod the charger now

The only reason it is slow is because of the USB charging brick instead of just a charger.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I know it's a wrong thread, but anyone has any pointers as to how to short a regular USB cable to make the phone think it's a power adapter cable?

XBOHDPuKC said:
I know it's a wrong thread, but anyone has any pointers as to how to short a regular USB cable to make the phone think it's a power adapter cable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah it's not the wrong thread that was one of my questions! I'm not sure exactly where you would do it, but maybe if you skinned the wire, then cut the data lines it would work?
Not sure which end you would do it on however, but that may not matter. Any other ideas?

The two center pins in the USB carry the data. If you pull them out, the cable won't be able to connect to the computer.
Sent from my Nexus S

Wow - you don't need to do this and you wouldn't want to in a computer anyway.
The USB specification says that 500ma (@ 5v) of current should be available from a computer's USB port. Of course, the actual wires can carry much more than this, so manufacturers can tell their phones to takes as much current as is offered.
Almost all computers limit their USB power output accordingly - this is why some opld usb-powered external hard drives needed 2 USB plugs to get enough power. The only computers that I am SURE emit significantly more than 500ma on their USB ports are first and second generation MacBook Airs.
Some phones, the N1 and every other HTC specifically, look for a specially shorted cable to "know if they are plugged into the wall adaptor" as opposed to a computer USB port. In reality, this is just a way to make you specifically buy HTC chargers as opposed to third-party off-brands, because plugging one of these phones into an off brand charger will limit the current draw to about 450ma.
If you want to know if your Android phone thinks that it is in "USB" mode or in "AC" mode, just plug the phone in, open the dialer, enter *#*#4636#*#* and then select battery info. If your phone is one that cares (not all do), it will say USB if it thinks it should be in USB charging mode, or AC if it thinks it should be in AC charging mode.
I would not try shorting out the middle pins in a cable and then plugging it into the computer. First, most will probably just disable the USB port completely, shutting off even power you could draw. Second, if it doesn't shut down, you run the risk that a badly-built USB port might not properly limit the current to 500ma - and since they are not designed to furnish more current than that, you might melt something expensive or start a fire. third, if you make a mistake, you risk shorting out either your phone or your computer, which might ruin your day, week or month, depending on your financial means to replace the system that cooks itself.
I would just run out to your local store, pay 15 bucks for a 2A third-party usb charger brick, and go to town. That will work perfectly - this is what I use, and it probably cuts the charge time by 30-40%. Obviously, this indicates that the NS is not capable of drawing a full 2A - I have not put a meter on it, but I would bet that it limits itself to somewhere just under an amp in.

I have recently bought both a 2A wall charger and car charger and my phone does not recognise either of these as anything more than a 500mA source.
Is it really just a case of opening the car charger up and shorting out pins 2 & 3? they are currently not connected to anything in the charger.

If it's indeed a matter of shorting the data lines, then I think you can skin the wire as suggested by others, but then cut the data lines, short the end that leads to the phone, leave the end to the computer open. I think it's the phone that tries to determine whether the data lines are shorted.
Edit: Can someone measure the continuity between the data pins with the stock charger? I wonder if they are shorted. I'm still waiting for my Nexus S to arrive, so can't test it.

Yup, the data lines in the stock Nexus S charger ARE shorted.
I just modified a cheap 1A car charger by popping it open, soldering the 2 data lines together and putting it back.
The report on the Nexus S before I did this (*#*#4636#*#*) said "USB", and afterwards it now says "AC".
I will report back after I make a road trip if this improves the GPS + Pandora + Screen in car situation. I suspect it will.
----------------
Yup, the car charger seemed to actually maintain and increase the battery this time. Seems good.

The NS supports chargers output to a max of 1000mA, as it says on the back of it, where the battery resides.

NookColor USB cable disected

Today I managed to get my NookColor cable caught in my car door while I was getting in my car to head to work. This mangled the cable up pretty good. After much swearing and a trip to Barnes and Nobles I purchased a replacement cable. With the new cable in hand I figured I might as well take the end apart on the broken one to see how it was wired up. Using a pocket knife I forced the joint where the two pieced of plastic are joined together apart. The end result is rather interesting.
The first image is of the top side of the connector. This is where the little LED is located. The second image is of the bottom side of the connector. The third is of the bottom side of the connector with the shield removed.
The interesting thing is that the connector does not actually have the four standard pads for connecting to the normal USB pins in the NC's socket. It only connects to the twelve extra pins at the back of the NC's socket. Two of those extra pins must be for the standard USB communications. At least two more are used for the power connection to the NC. That leaves eight unknown pins. One or two of which probably controls the LED on the cable. As soon as I can find my multimeter, I plan on doing a continuity check between the USB cable wires and the pins in the connector. Any other suggestions of things I should be looking for?

I read in passing that the deeper socket on the nc, that makes regular microUSB cables not charge the nc, relates to the extra contacts needed to charge the bigger battery more quickly. Will try to find the reference-

Regular cables DO charge... At 500mha, the stock rom does not she charging but it does around 10%/hr if idle.

There are certainly several ground pins which should be ready to find. finding those will help narrow it down.
Sent from my NookColor using XDA App

Khaytsus: i stand corrected. Found the reference: barnes& noble 'book clubs' (ie forums) thread on "things that you should know about the NookCOLOR." A non nook color USB won't charge it when in a wall socket, but may keep the battery from at least going down.
Even a NC branded USB isn't officially expected to charge a NC, if plugged into a pc USB port. Neverrtheless, some say it trickle charges when left atrached to a computer all night (like 8hrs). In a wall socket it supposed to charge in 4 -5 hours.
Interestingly, NC won't charge at all if turned entirely off while plugged in.

The same thing happened with me too(my cable also broke, and i decided to experiment with it). Here's what i found out.
1. Three wires in the usb cables are solely meant for charging.
2. If only two (ground an one live) wires are connected, the stock cable charges nook like a ordinary usb cable(very slow).
3. The nooks usb cable tip had 3-4 more outputs which were not connected to any wires in the usb cable(they could be anything from mic input to video output).
I was trying to get more info on these extra outputs by soldering some wires to them but it needs very fine soldering, i couldn't achieve that and i broke mine entirely.
That reminds me can anyone send me a extra cable as am not in U.S(so B&N won't send me one) and am sick of waiting for 10 hours before i can play with my nook again.

mjf0000000 said:
Interestingly, NC won't charge at all if turned entirely off while plugged in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uummm... Don't think this is true as I charged my Nook just last night with it turned off.

I'm sure you have this, but for anyone else who would like to look at the standard USB pinouts.
While I'm on the topic, did the Nova disection help in determining the Nook end of the connections?

the last time i looked, Nova hadn't really looked that close at the USB...they were focusing on the wifi/BT chip.
very nice was planning on doing this myself one day soon...any chance you can go in a bit closer and get clearer pics of the traces on the pcb? Would really help to decipher it.

Interested to see a breakdown of a standard micro usb vs nooks for comparisons sake

A couple of things:
-The NC connector has a row of 12 pins, but does not have any pins that match with the "legacy" microusb pins. At least 4 of the signals on that connector duplicate the microusb pins (gnd, d+, d-, +5). IIRC there are two +5 pins on that row and three grounded pins.
-Hooking only +5 and gnd to the USB end of the stock cable causes the NC to charge at max current draw. I made a short USB interposer that does this. I suppose you could put some carefully applied tape over the middle pins if you wanted to try. Here are some measurements I did of various ways of powering the NC a while back:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9410625&postcount=243

mjf0000000 said:
Khaytsus: i stand corrected. Found the reference: barnes& noble 'book clubs' (ie forums) thread on "things that you should know about the NookCOLOR." A non nook color USB won't charge it when in a wall socket, but may keep the battery from at least going down.
Even a NC branded USB isn't officially expected to charge a NC, if plugged into a pc USB port. Neverrtheless, some say it trickle charges when left atrached to a computer all night (like 8hrs). In a wall socket it supposed to charge in 4 -5 hours.
Interestingly, NC won't charge at all if turned entirely off while plugged in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have one interesting finding to note. Most USB wall adapters are 500mA. I happened to have a USB wall adapter that is 1A. With my 1A, I was able not only able to keep the battery from draining, but I was able to replenish it (although it was very slow) As a comparison, the USB adapter from B&N is capable of 2A.

I will try and get closer pics of the PCB when I get home from work. I just need to get better lighting than my dark home office.

[Review] Meenova Ultimus Wireless Charging dock and USB 2.0 Hub

Disclaimer: I was given these items at a large discount for my honest and unbiased feedback/review.
Meenova
Ultimus Qi Wireless Charging Dock
The Ultimus dock looks like it is made out of brushed aluminum; however, it is actually made entirely out of plastic. I was a little disappointed to see this when I first took it out of the box since I expected a much better feeling item from Meenova. The dock honestly feels cheap no matter how you decide to look at it. It does feature and adjustable plastic base that makes it more versatile so your phone should be able to line up. I did find a small issue with this set up; since the base (shelf the phone sits on) can move it tends to creek & flex when you place your phone down on it. I had to use the lowest setting on it for the S7 Edge which might not bode well if you have a phone like the Note 5 or Nexus 6. If the phones coil were lower and it had to be raised upwards, I don’t think the charger would be stable since it rocks a little bit right now. The bottom of the charger does have a ‘tacky’ piece of material on the bottom to keep it from sliding around your desk like other chargers I have seen. It works well enough to not have the charger fall over when I place my S7 Edge down on it and Meenova includes 2 spare ones in the box just in case the original one wears out over time. Despite the charger being made of out plastic, and feeling a little rickety the brushed metal finish does have a nice texture to it.
What’s in the box:
-Ultimus Qi Wireless Charging Dock
-Micro-USB cable
-2x spare ‘tacky’ bottom pads
-Documentation
On the backside you will find a micro-USB input port that you can use to plug in the included micro-USB cable. Since the charger operates at the standard qi speed of 5V/1A, it doesn’t require a higher output wall adapter like some of the newer 10W+ wireless chargers do. When charging your phone, the viewing angle it gives you is nice and isn’t as steep as TYLT’s 45 degree one. The charger will take your S7 Edge about 3.5-4.5 hours to fully charge depending on how low your phones battery is.
Input rating, and base height settings
Micro-USB input
'Tacky bottom' with the plastic still on it
Side View
Front View
Base view with the plastic still on it
Charging
Overall:
I’m not a fan of the cheap feeling build this charger has compared to all of Meevoa’s other excellent products that I have. I’m going to keep it on my desk, and update this review if anything changes, breaks etc. over time.
Meenova
USB 2.0 Hub with Micro-USB charging
This little hub is unique in the sense that it offers both micro-USB ports alongside conventional USB ports that can be used for data transfer. The little hub isn’t designed to charge your phone, or anything that requires a huge power draw due to its limited 5V/2A input. Each port is limited to a 5V/0.5A output on the hub which makes sense given its 5V/2A input rating.
The hub does support data transfer, so you can charge a pair of Bluetooth headphones while plugging in a mouse or other peripheral for example. I don’t have too many devices that I could use the micro-USB ports to charge other than some headphones. I have a Surface Pro 4 which is what I tested the hub on. My SP4 is docked with Microsoft’s Surface dock which gives it addition ports/power to tap in to. I believe these ports are limited to 5V/1A or somewhere in that range. If I try to pull too much power from the port via this hub, or any other device it will deactivate my port until I reboot my Surface. For this reason, I only recommend using the data transfer USB ports for flash drives, or related devices, and the micro-USB ports for low power charging such as Bluetooth headphones. I didn’t have any issues using it to charge the mentioned headphones (Bose QC 20 2015 model, and my Samsung Level U Pro BT headphones). The Samsung Level U Pro headphones will not fit with the way the micro-USB port is oriented, but I can still use the regular USB port to charge it via a micro-USB cable.
What’s in the box:
-USB 2.0 Hub
-Micro-USB Cable
-Documentation
On the underside of the hub there is the same ‘tacky’ type base that will prevent the hub from sliding around your desk. I haven’t found any issues with it moving around so far, but I’ve only used it for a day or so now. As with the Ultimus Qi Dock, the hub is made out of plastic, but it feels significantly more sturdy in comparison.
Top
Front
Back
Bottom
Charging my Bose QC 20's
Overall:
I think this is a good little charging station for small devices like headphones if you are looking for a compact solution that doubles as an additional USB port for your computer. I use it to charge my Samsung Level U Pro BT headphones (not via the micro-USB port) and my Bose QC 20 noise canceling ones while I’m at my desk. I don’t use the USB 2.0 ports for data transfer since I normally just plug my USB 3.0 devices into my Surface dock for the faster transfer speeds. If you don’t need the speed (when plugging in BT mouse, or the S7 Edge for example), then the USB 2.0 ports will function just fine.

Galaxy Tab Active2 pogo pinout

Does anybody know what is the pinout of pogo pin connector of Tab Active2? Samsung itself does not provide much accesories so I'm quite conviced that it should be somewhere revealed.

A few months on - have you made any progress? I'm looking for the same.
The most I've discovered so far is that the power comes in through two of the three centre pins.
There's a post with a photo on another online forum : https://advrider.com/f/threads/ultr...hones-my-guide.1206076/page-115#post-36686010

pinout
pin 1 idk
pin 2 idk
pin 3 ground
pin 4 v in (idk voltage)
pin 5 ground
pin 6 idk
pin 7 idk
i thought it might be normal usb 2.0 (something like +, -, ground, v, -, +) but idk only pins which aren't open lines with the usb port (only ones where the multimeter beeps in diode mode) is ground (pin 3 and 5) i know about the volt pin from a picture of a charging dock (edit: oh i forgot, that ^ picture)
i expect that pin 4 is just 5v in, but idk. if you find out more, please let me know

I got my hands on a Galaxy Tab Active 2/3-charging dock (made by Brodit) yesterday. It's only equipped with the center three-pin-connector, has a short tail of cable with a 6-pin-connector (looks a bit like the one for PCIe grapics cards but only three pins are used) and comes with a suitable car power adapter.
I first opened up the car adapter, since I've anyway planned to user an wall adapter.
It has a three pin output:
yellow (thin): marked as "FB" (Feedback?)
red: Vout
black GND
The rating on the car adapter said 5VDC 3A
I connected my scope to FB and checked if there happens some sort of feedback, but nothing between 1s/div and 1µs/div): FB was simply high/5V as soon as the adapter got powered and all cables were connected, wheter the tablet was in the dock or not. So, probably not pogo-pin-relevant, although i guessed for something like charge speed detection, powering off the charger if no tablet is connected or cycling the charger off and on according to the charge level. Nope.
Checking the wiring bewteen charger and dock-pins by multimeter in diode-mode releaved the magic:
pin 3 GND
pin 4 Vout(5VDC) +FB
pin 5 GND
Since it seems to be all about symmetrics, for those who are interested in establishing a data connection it would probably an idea to guess something like
Spoiler: this
1 d-
2 d+
3 gnd
4 5VDC
5 gnd
6 d+
7 d-
?
If anyone needs further investigation on the dock or original charger, please feel free to ask!

sebidoodle said:
I got my hands on a Galaxy Tab Active 2/3-charging dock (made by Brodit) yesterday. It's only equipped with the center three-pin-connector, has a short tail of cable with a 6-pin-connector (looks a bit like the one for PCIe grapics cards but only three pins are used) and comes with a suitable car power adapter.
I first opened up the car adapter, since I've anyway planned to user an wall adapter.
It has a three pin output:
yellow (thin): marked as "FB" (Feedback?)
red: Vout
black GND
The rating on the car adapter said 5VDC 3A
I connected my scope to FB and checked if there happens some sort of feedback, but nothing between 1s/div and 1µs/div): FB was simply high/5V as soon as the adapter got powered and all cables were connected, wheter the tablet was in the dock or not. So, probably not pogo-pin-relevant, although i guessed for something like charge speed detection, powering off the charger if no tablet is connected or cycling the charger off and on according to the charge level. Nope.
Checking the wiring bewteen charger and dock-pins by multimeter in diode-mode releaved the magic:
pin 3 GND
pin 4 Vout(5VDC) +FB
pin 5 GND
Since it seems to be all about symmetrics, for those who are interested in establishing a data connection it would probably an idea to guess something like
Spoiler: this
1 d-
2 d+
3 gnd
4 5VDC
5 gnd
6 d+
7 d-
?
If anyone needs further investigation on the dock or original charger, please feel free to ask!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is an old thread but did you ever create your own charger dock with this info?

katanabladesman said:
I know this is an old thread but did you ever create your own charger dock with this info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I use the Brodit 513697 dock. The pogo pin-out for GND and +5V is confirmed though, so if you're good at 3D modelling and printing and can fit small spring pins, you can certainly build your own charging dock.