Database Users

GPS Car Mount For Tilt

Hey guys,
I'm looking to purchase a GPS mount for my car so I can use Garmin Mobile XT easily while driving.
Does anyone know of any good GPS mounts that are available?
I appreciate the help.
Thanks.
Regards,
Samad

www.proclipusa.com (which sells Brodit mounts) - IMO, very well worth the money.
I use the swivel mount on an center vent mount - perfectly situated in my line of sight, within easy finger-reach and with a convienent line down to a power-outlet for the car charger. Since the back speaker is open and unobstructed, voice nav comes through load and clear.

I'd like to purchase that, but my car is a 2008 Altima, so I have rounded vents.
I really would like to have a vent mount, but here is what my interior looks like:
http://www.automedia.com/NewCarBuye...san/Altima/Sedan/2007_Nissan_Altima_int_6.jpg
Based off of that, do you guys have any suggestions?

I ordered one of these over the weekend:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BFLFHQ
It has 3 different mounting options so I figure I should be able to find out which on I like best. I'll let you know what it's like when it comes in.

samz465 said:
Hey guys,
I'm looking to purchase a GPS mount for my car so I can use Garmin Mobile XT easily while driving.
Does anyone know of any good GPS mounts that are available?
I appreciate the help.
Thanks.
Regards,
Samad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After looking at a whole bunch of options, I just ended up stopping by BB and getting this one....http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7695023&st=windshield+mount&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1138084373352
Since it's Universal, I won't have to replace it when I get me next device and because of it's design, it's easy to release my Tilt with one hand as opposed to the specially fitted mounts.
It's not as sexy as a fitted mount, but I think it works better.

jakirkla said:
After looking at a whole bunch of options, I just ended up stopping by BB and getting this one....http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7695023&st=windshield+mount&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1138084373352
Since it's Universal, I won't have to replace it when I get me next device and because of it's design, it's easy to release my Tilt with one hand as opposed to the specially fitted mounts.
It's not as sexy as a fitted mount, but I think it works better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm that's a nice one. I may pick that up.
However, does anyone know if they make the mounts for Rounded vents like my car has?

crl0901 said:
I ordered one of these over the weekend:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BFLFHQ
It has 3 different mounting options so I figure I should be able to find out which on I like best. I'll let you know what it's like when it comes in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I finally got this and I really like it. I'm using the suction cup attachment method and it works perfectly. Hasn't fallen off at all and the adjustment arm is very stiff, so my Tilt doesn't shake much. Placing it in the mount is easy too, easy enough to do with one hand, and releasing it from the mount is just as easy. Just push the button and the phone is released. Has padded clamps so nothing gets scratched. Best of all, it was very inexpensive.

Will magnets mess up the phone? Making car dock

I just ripped some magnets out of an old hard drive and want to use them to make a car dock from a DIY I saw (http://forum.androidcentral.com/evo...completely-invisible-phone-vehicle-mount.html)
I am worried about putting a magnet on phone as it always been common sense that magnets + electronics = broken ****. Though, isn't it magnets in the commercial car docks that trigger car mode to pop up on the phone?

small magnets will not hurt - many phones have magnets as sensors - the blackberry determines holstered or not via a magnet in the holster. Other Moto phones determined if they are docked or not via magnets in the dock.
But, any magnet strong enough to keep the phone from bouncing loose could cause interference issues. I don't think you can do any permanent damage, but if things start acting wonky, it may be the magnet.

ok I ran a magnet over, stuck on a few points but car mode never came up. Know the right location/method?

be very careful of the speakers. I have a friend who tried to do the same thing and his speaker sounded really bad after that

riotburn said:
ok I ran a magnet over, stuck on a few points but car mode never came up. Know the right location/method?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I've read, magnets trigger no dock on the Atrix.
It's thought to be resistances on the USB connectors that trigger different docks to come up.
Worst case scenario is that you create a shortcut on one of your homescreens that manually opens the car dock interface, which is extremely easy to do.

Speaker is ok. Plus I still have warranty and what not, thought id actually take some kind of risk considering all the hard work devs do.
So, FOR ME, rubbing the magnet over the back of the phone did not cause any noticeable harm yet. The magnet would center about an inch above the speakerphone speaker in the center.

SG Pillar said:
As far as I've read, magnets trigger no dock on the Atrix.
It's thought to be resistances on the USB connectors that trigger different docks to come up.
Worst case scenario is that you create a shortcut on one of your homescreens that manually opens the car dock interface, which is extremely easy to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmmm, saw that for the multimedia dock. I dont see where to find the car dock program. I looked in apps and dont see it. Is it accessed from somewhere else?

riotburn said:
Hmmmm, saw that for the multimedia dock. I dont see where to find the car dock program. I looked in apps and dont see it. Is it accessed from somewhere else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have my phone on me at the moment (managed to forget it along with some other stuff as I left my house for class this morning).
I think its something like (this is with Launcher Pro):
Long press home
Create custom shortcut
Activities
Select Car Dock -> Cardock.main.cardockmainactivity
Name shortcut
If that doesn't work, I'll try it when I get home tonight.

SG Pillar said:
I don't have my phone on me at the moment (managed to forget it along with some other stuff as I left my house for class this morning).
I think its something like (this is with Launcher Pro):
Long press home
Create custom shortcut
Activities
Select Car Dock -> Cardock.main.cardockmainactivity
Name shortcut
If that doesn't work, I'll try it when I get home tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it myself and it works great, thanks.

Yup that works great. Thanks! Now to figure out how it turns on when put in a dock.

Wait so for the mount to work, you would have to setup the charger? that blows, the magnet turning on the phone is better.

riotburn said:
Yup that works great. Thanks! Now to figure out how it turns on when put in a dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, you would press the shortcut

What's really weird to me is that the other day Cardock was showing up in my app list all the time, now it has disappeared and I have to add it the way you listed above. What caused it to disappear?

natious said:
well, you would press the shortcut
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant figure out how putting the phone in the car dock makes the phone turn on. I understood pushing the button would start dock mode

The old flip phones (StarTac) would typically use a magnet to sense if they were open/closed. AFAIK there's nothing in the new phones that understands magnetism at all, much less is harmed by it.
The microUSB standard provides for "sensing" by means of placing a fixed resistance across the new fifth wire. Devices see a set resistance, look it up internally, and determine what device has been attached. I suspect Moto is using this sensing to signal what dock a phone is plugged into--all part of a standard.
FWIW, cell phones going back at least to the original Palm Treos have done something similar, they look at the impedance of whatever is plugged into the ear/mic socket, and then configure themselves for earbuds, mono ear/mic, and other different devices all plugged into the same socket. This is mature and invisible technology by now.

FINALLLY!!! A fix for the Nexus S Navigation. Hardware mod required.

OK, after being so annoyed with the Navigation on this phone not working, I finally found a fix that is working for me and I am in shock that what I did produced a working GPS. First, anyone who doesn't know how to take apart the black cover (not the battery cover) do a search. Next, after removing the cover, the GPS Antenna without a doubt is one right next to the power button. I found this out by putting a piece of electrical tape over every gold connector that touches an antenna, then closing the black cover, turning on the phone, running gps test, and after trying different spring connectors, I noticed I had the correct one when the app GPS Test couldn't locate any satellites. Next, I also noticed that on the inside of the cover that I took off, the one that requires six screws, there is a silver looking strip that is supposed to make contact to the connector that has a full metal top part, so when the cover goes back on, the silver strip must make contact to this negative grounding harness top. I added a bead of solder to the silver strip on the inside of the black cover so that I knew it was making contact. I believe that this is a source of everyone's problems with navigation. That strip must be a shield and the design doesn't look like it makes good contact to the connector's ground metal plate. You'll see what I mean when you open the cover.
Next, while I had the cover off, I wrapped a 30 gauge wire around the gold spring pin that connects to the GPS antenna and ran that wire down the side of the phone right along the PC Board in hopes that it extends the antenna. I just ran it like 3 inches and remember, I ran it down, not up. The GPS antenna already goes up. I put a tiny bead of solder on the wire where it contact the gold spring contact that is attached to the PC Board so that it does not come off accidentally. And believe me, it is really simple. You cannot mess anything up. Just a dab of solder is all it takes.
I put the black cover back on, and then ran the GPS test app and at one point I had 12 satellites read and used with a 7 foot accuracy!!! Next I went to the Navigation app and started playing around with different addresses and my navigation WORKED!!! I am still in awe three days later. I drove from New Jersey to Rhode Island yesterday and had the Nav running for the entire trip. Only one time did I get a small circle about the size of a half inch which lasted for 4 seconds. At that point, I was driving though a forest type side road with limited sky view.
Please try this fix for anyone who has Navigation issues with their Nexus S and let me know if it fixes it.
Dan

Awesome. Samsung should have hired you before they released the Nexus S and 1st-gen SGS phones. My Captivate never had reliable GPS. I might as well have had Ray Charles giving me directions.

Funny thing is Google nexus phones are bugged...
Nexus one multi touch bug
Nexus s compass not working...
I think the issue here is with whoever was choosing and picking the hardware that would have powered a nexus...
HTC and Samsung do not surprise me... But Google not testing the compass on a flagship phone before releasing scares me :-\
Luckily my gps works fine (i9023 here) but the broken compass create a lot of troubles with gps navigation as very often the phone thinks to be driving in the reverse direction...

The nexus one digitizer wasn't a bug. Just a crappy digitizer. It worked as it meant to. It sucked but wasn't a bug.
The GPS and compass issues for the nexus s are different as well. Some devices have crappy ones and apparently don't work. My GPS and compass works perfect on the other hand. Always has

evcz said:
Funny thing is Google nexus phones are bugged...
Nexus one multi touch bug
Nexus s compass not working...
I think the issue here is with whoever was choosing and picking the hardware that would have powered a nexus...
HTC and Samsung do not surprise me... But Google not testing the compass on a flagship phone before releasing scares me :-\
Luckily my gps works fine (i9023 here) but the broken compass create a lot of troubles with gps navigation as very often the phone thinks to be driving in the reverse direction...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have problems with navigation, even tho i hardly ever use it. However, this compass thing; I downloaded an app called Smart Compass and it works really well... Where I know it's north, the compass points north and so on. but mind you, I got my phone after companies stopped selling it so I might've gotten the last of the good batch

Could you post a photo of the finished fix so I can check if I'm going to fry something ? Thanks !

@VOLTAGEROCK:
post some photos for better help if it's possible, before and after modifications please
thanks in advance

I will but gimme a day or two. All I know is I'm on day five and its still working!

wow
Sent from my
RESSURECTED Nexus S
CM10 NIGHTIES

DmA81 said:
Could you post a photo of the finished fix so I can check if I'm going to fry something ? Thanks !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have at the time of doing it, but I didn't know what i was doing was going to work!! Now I have to take the phone apart again, but you give me a reason to hook up my Touchstone from the Pre while the phone is open and accessible. I will do my best to put the pics up in a timely manner and in the meantime, if there's anyone out there, go to the iteardown fix it (i think that's what its called) and look at the video or pics of the Nexus being taken apart.
Again, I have no reason to believe that I didn't fix the problem as it's working everytime, when it wouldn't work at all before the mod. When you're looking at the phone from the back, the GPS antenna location has a letter G engraved into the black cover after the battery cover has been taken off. It's right below the electrical type tape that covers the antenna FYI.

*#*#gpsclrx#*#* always fixed my gps woes and i had a lot. no hardware mod required.

Sputnikk23 said:
*#*#gpsclrx#*#* always fixed my gps woes and i had a lot. no hardware mod required.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does that do by the way.? Because my mod works everytime and you never have to use the code you just put up. Even though I appreciate you putting that there. Also, what type of problems were you having with your navigation? Did it work periodically? Did it never work like mine? Just curious as to the problem you had with your navigation. Thanks
Dan

I can confirm this hardware mod fixed voltages gps. He's gone thru 2 nexus s phones and both GPS would constantly lose the position every few minutes then reacquire, and show a huge circle for his position. Somehow this hardware mod fixes some design issue with the nexus s where a shielding isn't properly grounded. And also he extended the GPS antenna with a wire for good measure.
By the way it was the sprint nexus s 4g he modified.

Please post pictures to go with your narrative. I would like to try this!

O
RogerPodacter said:
I can confirm this hardware mos fixed voltages gps. He's gone thru 2 nexus s phones and both GPS would constantly lose the position every few minutes then reacquire, and show a huge circle for his position. Somehow this hardware mod fixes some design issue with the nexus s where a shielding isn't properly grounded. And also he extended the GPS antenna with a wire for good measure.
By the way it was the sprint nexus s 4g he modified.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the clarification nation, Podact.

VOLTAGEROCK said:
What does that do by the way.? Because my mod works everytime and you never have to use the code you just put up. Even though I appreciate you putting that there. Also, what type of problems were you having with your navigation? Did it work periodically? Did it never work like mine? Just curious as to the problem you had with your navigation. Thanks
Dan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wipe gps data. not the same thing as the gps status wipe (which didn't work for me). try it, doesn't really hurt anything. seems a software code is worth a shot then opening up the phone you know?
Some ROMs it never worked. Other ROMs it was sporadic. When I would get it to work, it always eventually "lost" its ability to lock, etc.
But hey.. if you want to get all hyper-sensitive over your mod.. go for it. Was just throwing another method out there for the faint of heart.

Sputnikk23 said:
wipe gps data. not the same thing as the gps status wipe (which didn't work for me). try it, doesn't really hurt anything. seems a software code is worth a shot then opening up the phone you know?
Some ROMs it never worked. Other ROMs it was sporadic. When I would get it to work, it always eventually "lost" its ability to lock, etc.
But hey.. if you want to get all hyper-sensitive over your mod.. go for it. Was just throwing another method out there for the faint of heart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sensitive as I cried at your remark, and then I got really hyper and started running in circles with joy that my nav works. So I guess you're right, I am hypersensitive! Btw, I was being nothing but nice to your reply. Its OK. I forgive you.

Pics requested
Check out the pics. One of them shows some solder on the silver shielding so it makes better contact with the connector when they close back up. The other shows a 30 gauge red wire soldered to the gps pin and running down the phone. Hope this clears up what you guys need to do to get the gps to finally work on this dag gone phone.

.I've been using navigation and never had such a problems.my gps always locking under 10sec and doesn't loosing signal.
Btw i live in UK and using nav in big city.

Do a search for Nexus S 4g on sprint nav problems and you'll see a whole slew of people with problems.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda app-developers app

Iomount magnet putting phone into sleep mode

I have been searching but no one has asked this. I have the iomounts magnetic holder in one of my vehicles and every time I put the lg V20 verizon phone it shuts off the screen and I can't turn back on the main screen until I take it off the magnet. I can't find the setting to turn it off. Thanks for any help.

This oddly sounds like Quick Cover behavior to me.

CHH2 said:
This oddly sounds like Quick Cover behavior to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it is quick cover related you can actually turn that off in settings.
On my tmobile v20 it's close to the bottom of the settings page under the "System" heading. "Quick Cover Case" and there's a slider to turn the quick cover feature on or off.
I'll be interested to see if this works for you!

Do you realize the case you bought does say it's not for Verizon model

CHH2 said:
This oddly sounds like Quick Cover behavior to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I contacted proclips and they were able to fix the issue on the at&t version using the quick cover option under smart features under general options. Verizon has determined that we don't need those options as no one should use a magnet mount for phone. I haven't determined how to get that option available even in developer mode. Very frustration

crsmith15 said:
I contacted proclips and they were able to fix the issue on the at&t version using the quick cover option under smart features under general options. Verizon has determined that we don't need those options as no one should use a magnet mount for phone. I haven't determined how to get that option available even in developer mode. Very frustration
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's pretty messed up! So, essentially, Verizon or someone decided to have the default behavior to be on and then removed the option that controls whether that behavior is off or on?!? The carriers have been making some really baffling choices of this phone.

So weird that I'm just experiencing this for the first time today on my vz v20 after the Dec security update last night. Can't say for sure that it's related to update, but.... I literally used the magnet mount yesterday without the phone going to sleep. Now, every time. Btw my mount is not same brand as yours.
Update: After a stretch of troubleshooting, I found that my problem was the orientation of the metal plate that I placed inside case to connect to magnetic base. While situated in a horizontal position, the plate was carrying too much magnetism over to sensor. When I rotated the plate to vertical, it stopped putting the phone to sleep, because the magnetism couldn't reach the sensor via the plate.

RIP NFC.

Hey everyone,
I seem to have a problem with my NFC It's not working AT ALL. I tried it with multiple NFC products such as my speaker and using android pay methods. None of them worked at all. If my NFC is fried and needs replacing and would I have take the phone apart just to get to the NFC to replace it?

I really don't know what's wrong with it. The phone says its connected and ready to go but it STILL doesn't work? Anyone got any suggestions. Sorry to be a a pain.

I use the NFC on my N6P for golfing. I had trouble finding the "sweet spot" and the mfg of the tags I use referenced a Reddit discussion. Apparently, the sweet spot is up near the camera bulge because the NFC won't work through the metal back of the case. You might give that a try.