You've all seen the HTC EVO 4G wirelessly charging on a Palm Touchstone. Now see exactly how it was done so you can try it for yourself.
Disclaimer: Proceed at your own risk. YouTube member infinitemods, who wrote this tutorial, and G&E take no responsibility for any harm done to your HTC EVO or Palm Touchstone.
What You Need
- HTC EVO 4G
- Palm Touchstone Kit (or just the Touchstone
if you already have the Palm Pre back cover)
- Razor
- T5 Torx screwdriver
- iPod opening tool
- Two connection wires
- Soldering iron
What You Do
Step 1
Remove the induction coil from Pre battery cover. I used a razor to lift a peel everything off in one shot.
Step 2
Place the coil on the EVO's battery cover.
Once the coil is in place, put the battery cover aside for later.
Step 3
Remove the battery and microSD card from the EVO, then remove the 6 screws with a T5 Torx screwdriver. Use an iPod opening tool around the seam to open it. See iFixit's detailed EVO teardown if you need more help.
Step 4
Locate these points at the bottom near the HDMI & microUSB ports and solder one wire to each point.
I just used some random wires of unknown gauge I had laying around; if you use thinner wires the battery cover shouldn’t lift up as much as mine does.
Step 5
Run the wires through the casing.
Step 6
Replace the microSD and battery. It’s going to be tough to get the battery back in, but it will fit.
Step 7
Now grab the EVO's battery cover and solder the wires to the contacts on the induction coil.
Step 8
Close it up and you’re done.
You may have to open it back up and reposition the wiring so the battery cover stays as flat as possible when closed.
This is how much the battery cover is lifted up on my EVO because of the wires I used:
Congratulations! Your HTC EVO should now be able to charge wirelessly on the Palm Touchstone.
This mod should work on just about any mobile device that charges at 5 volts, but the gadget may not hold on to the Touchstone very well depending on its weight, thickness of the plastic, and whether or not the induction coil can fit inside it.
Huge thanks to Danny (aka infinitemods) for putting this tutorial together for G&E!
This is amazing i am so happy that we were able to get a tutorial thank you sooo much infinitemods i plan on trying this one day if i can get the supplies and the courage and thanks to good and evo for taking this mod i found on youtube and getting infinite mods to release a tutorial
One question though what gauge of wire would be suggested for this mod because honestly i would have no clue and i really want to do this right
Awesome!!! I don’t have a Pre lying around to use for part or I would be all over this!!!
Looks like a nice and easy mod!!!
Have fun Mod’ers
What is the overall thickness of the coil/magnet assembly? I own a US HD2, and am planning to try this…
If you’re going to do this mod, I’d highly recommend you bust out your multimeter and test how much current is coming from the touchstone while charging before you choose your wire gauge- using the size he did should be fine, but I’d want to see the numbers before I used something like wrapping wire (which would fit MUCH better).
That said, fantastic work!
OOoooOOOooOOOooo, this is so cool! I get my EVO today, I’ll wait a few weeks before trying this tho, just so I get some play-time out of it before i attempt surgery, lol.
Would using the parts from a Pixi take up less room? I want my Evo to bulge out as little as possible.
How well does it stay put on the touchstone? Will it fall off easily? I know the Pre stays better than the pixi but I think that’s because it has bigger magnets. Also, any mention of the compass not working?
To Clarify, the magnets that hold the phone onto the touchstone are in the touchstone, not the phone. The back cover of the phone has four small, round pieces of steel that the magnets are attracted too. So, your compass apps should work when the phone is OFF of the touchstone. Kiss your metal detecting abilities good bye though.\
JT
Anyone know where we could get an extra battery cover?
I’d like to try this on a separate cover.
And I believe the Touchstone provides 1 Amp of current at 5 VDC.
this doesn’t affect using the standard micro usb plug at all correct?
No. This mod does not affect the micro usb, but I wouldn’t plug in the usb cable while its on the touchstone because that cause the amperage to essentially double.
I am guessing that the steel could still have enough residual magnetism imparted to it from the base unit to interfere with the compass. Have you actually tested it after using the touchstone several times to confirm the compass still works?
Thanks so much for the kewl info, btw.
So what gauge of wire should I use for this mod?
If you read the Q&A with the modder, he says compass apps don’t work.
Congrats! Now to this to more phones & put it on your own site… there are more phones we would respect you to teach us.
I would just be happy with the wire gauge…..
Considering the gauge of the wires in the actual charger, you could use 24ga our smaller, I think ill try to do this using an old ethernet cables stripped wires
Thank you so much i may try this now!
I’ve been trying to do this for over a year now (well, not for the EVO) and I can tell you that unless something’s changed and/or the touchstone has been redesigned, the four “steel” plates around the coil ARE in fact magnets. In fact, they’re incredibly strong, especially when you look at how thin they are, most likely neodymium based.
This is so great, I can’t wait to get my incredible working with the touchstone. I have torn apart, fitted the coil and soldered the negative, but I am still trying to find the positive contact. Obviously it is a different spot on the incredible. The phone sits well on the stone and holds better than my pre did. Can anyone advise on the positive contacts? I haven’t built up enough balls to start testing contacts
28 is beefy enough. 26 is better and still very thin. just for comparison, even 30 would be barely ok. This is based on the currents, voltages, distance, and heat involved. (no higher than 6vdc, 1A, open air/chassis, under 1 foot runs.
I’m using 26awg enamel coated wrapping wire. It’s perfect, electrically, but mechanically I have to be careful. It’s solid wire, so it won’t flex very many times before it breaks, so I don’t go around removing the battery cover for no reason. (no swapping between spare batteries) The insulation will surely wear through and short out if I allow the wires to cross over each other, so I make sure they don’t. I have to carefully lay them out so they lay parallel / next to each other on the battery , si=o that any pressure on the battery cover can’t push one wire grinding onto another and eventually break through the enamel.
But the end result is the wires fit through between the case & battery with no strain or pinching and they do not bulge out the battery cover.
I believe tape (flat) wire would do the trick.
So does “compass app don’t work” mean google maps and sprint navigation won’t work at all? Or will they have some functionality but just not show north?
Anyone? ….Bueller? ….Bueller?
Hey Guys,
I just bought a Palm Pixi Touchstone back for $6 at radio shack and it fits.
If someone knows the wiring diagram for the Pixi two pins, it would be appreciated. If not I can test when the dock gets here and wire it accordingly. Also, I would say that 28awg wire should be fine. Most internal power connections are much smaller and with teflon coated, should be no issue at all.
Will post pics once DONE!
buy a multimeter.
Wondering if you’ve made any headway with the pixi back? I had an idea of taking a couple of wires, soldering directly to the evo battery, then running the wires to a set of contacts placed on the battery to where the induction coil would rest. Powermat will probably beat me to the punch.
Write your own tutorial :]
yeah i would really like to know too.
Does anyone know how to do it with the Pixi back?
I would have no problem shooting some pictures and showing some the differences (albeit just a wiring and placement). Still am just waiting for my two OEM Touchstones to come in at my new place (moving this weekend).
I will say that the Pixi circuitry must be smaller/thinner? There is no gap in my back cover and case go on just great.
I used Alpha 1000V teflon coated, 19 strand, silver coated, 28awg wire because that is the nicest thin wire I have on hand right now. Its tough as nails and very flexible/thin so its great stuff for this, military wire so I don’t know how easy this would be to get a hold of. Navships on Ebay sells very good quality thin wire at very reasonable costs that would be great for the odd job since you will have plenty left. Bit ‘o electrical tape to cover solder joints inside the phone for some strain relief.
In an interesting modification, I decided that I am using pressure connections on the inside of the cover (no soldering to the back of your phone cover) just because I know that I would instantly break that. Steal some solder pads off of something broken, solder your wires onto that. Place with some double stick tape and then firmly tape down to your battery. This basically makes it so you can take the back cover completely off.
Good luck!
One important thing to mention, I believe that the connection on the pixi back is different. The top is actually positive and bottom is actually negative. I was reading from slickdeals’s member Ricyteac.
“However, the Pixi guts have the contacts in a different place, so you’ll have to solder some bits of wire over to the place they need to be, and then make your own contacts as well while keeping the + and – poles separate (and also make sure they’re in the right place- the top and bottom contacts on the Pixi are backward than on the Pre for some reason).”
Yeah mine just arrived, i don’t know if it’s smaller than the pre’s back but it looks like it is.
On the circuit board, is the positive contact in the picture referring to the left side of the part with a “T” on it, or is it to the tiny contact above and to the left of it? (obscured by the wire in the picture)
ANYBODY KNOW?
Could you please post a clearer picture of the positive point to solder to? Is it the left mount of the resistor, or the gold plated circle above it?
Thanks,
Yuriy
And I forgot to mention that I’ll be using the Samsung Captivate as the template.
This flat wire tape would make this mod a lot smoother.
http://advancewiresolutions.com/applications/applications.htm
I’m also going to attempt to remove the magnets in the touchstone itself (if possible) to avoid compromising the EVO Compass function. I’m going to mount the touchstone behind a cheap plastic EVO cover so I can just drop the EVO into the case like a car mount and charge it without needing the magnets to hold it in place.
Check ouy these spring connectors (might be kind of though to get them to sell you only 2 of them tho
)
Stacy, which positive point did you solder to? Is it the left mount of the resistor, or the gold plated circle above it?
AWS-24/2 is the best for our project?
spring connectors?
she hasn’t done the mod yet.
Did this over the weekend, let me confirm a few things that I couldn’t find confirmed answers here:
1. Four pieces of metal plates around the coil are NOT magnetic. Tested with the one from my Pre after taking it apart, and I purchased it within a week of the Pre’s release.
2. Compass works FINE when NOT on the touchstone charger. Though, may need to recalibrate your compass after using it on the touchstone.
3. I used 30 gauge wire.
It’s the gold plate above it. Confirmed with a multi-meter and my mod is working.
Tiny gold plated circle above it
Since people are asking… the positive on the phone is the little gold plated circle.
Thank you
Thanks a lot!
your responses are wonderful, I’ll probably use flat tape wire.
Is that for every other phone too? (positive = little gold plated circle?)
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4670393&id=587058239
Good grief stop lying or talking about things you don’t actually know. The steel plates in the battery cover are not magnets they just have enough trace magentism picked up from the base that they do skew compass apps. They’re not magnets and their certainly not “incredibly strong”. None of my 3 battery covers can lift even a paperclip, but my base can pick up a solid steel ratchet wrench that must weigh almost 2 pounds.
Faint as the trace of magnetism is in the battery cover, yes it’s enough to skew a compass if the compass is right next to it since a compass has to be extremely sensitive to detect a field thats diffused over the entire surface of the earth.
So, granted, compass apps don;t work. So what? Theres no contest in this trade-off. Not even close. Google navigation works perfect. If I was walking through the woods and needed a compass I would NOT be relying on my EVO since the EVO’s battery wouldn’t last the first day and that’s IF I even was willing to trust something like that to actually be an accurate sensitive reliable instrument. (alright, in that hypothetical situation I’d actually be turning the phone off and only boot it up just to get a reading and right back off so maybe it’d last a few days that way.) Really. Lets compare numbers. How often and how likely is that? Compared to, how often do I dock/undock my phone? 20 times all day every day? countless times really. Not to mention the touchstone bases look nicer on my various end tables and desks than having usb cables just hanging out, or having to actually dig out and plug in a cable into the wall every time I sit down anywhere. These are things that matter a hundred times a day every day all day. No contest. I installed a compass app just long enough to see if it worked or not, had it installed a total of 10 minutes one time, and never missed it. I have sensed no other app that might be trying to use the compass that might be screwing up. The “Teeter” game works fine so the G sensor is unaffected. The Torque app shows that the accelerometer is unaffected. Google nav works fine. What else is there?
What a silly thing to worry about.
But mostly, stop lying. Show me a youtube video of your supposed battery cover “magnets” lifting something.
Maybe Palm changed the design and some people got magnets and others didn’t , but I doubt it, because you can’t just embed strong magnets in this kind of product where they will get laid down on top of all manner of magnetic recording media that people deal with in their jobs. Wups there goes that master recording of your bands new song, wups there goes that irreplaceable copy-protected program installer floppy from the company thats no longer in business to give you a new one, wups there goes that backup tape, wups there goes the mag stripe on your credit card or worse on your super important door key/id in your pocket next to your phone. Think a little.
Ok, this may be the last thing I needed to switch away from my Pre. I have four touchstones and two back plates, so I’m more than set for the modification. I can’t imagine giving up my wireless charging, but my Pre just isn’t up to today’s standards and I’m not sure how much longer I can wait for HP to get something out.
I have begun this project and have run into a problem at step one. My Palm Pre battery cover has the induction coil, magnets, etc embedded in the plastic casing. They do not come off when removing the adhesive cover with a razor. The part number on my backing is 170-10517-00. The one in the pic above is 180-10704-00.
I’m a stubborn modder, sooo… it’s Dremel time baby! Will post results.
did you get this to work yet on the incredible? im currently working on the teardown and will then have to determine the correct contacts to solder the wires to.
Infinite mods. Awesome and thanks. Now for the challenge. Can u do this on the new iphone 4? The back comes off so easy and I would really love to mod the sh!t out of my 4 just to shove it in jobs face. Please respond to my email if you can. If you don’t respond I may do it myself in efforts to trump you or screw up my 4, lol. Again thanks and much respect
So…I did the mod. It works great. Thanks to the original guy who put this out there and to the guy who put a huge closeup of the positive contact on a different page. What I did different:
The little circuit board in the Pre Touchstone cover sticker makes that part of the sticker too thick for the back of the Evo to sit flush with the original design. So 26-gauge wire doesn’t add to the thickness as long as it’s short, so that’s what I used. I got the extra battery set for $10 from tuttoit on Ebay and it fits too (awesome price- $10 for 2 batteries and a compact charger and free shipping). Plus, I bought a Pixi back cover from Radioshack for $8, pulled the metal disks off it’s sticker and added them to double-up the steel on the Pre’s sticker. That made my phone stick on my touchstone while driving in the car, although major speedbumps can dislodge it–just like with the Pre. Tip- it holds on better in landscape.
sticker= ‘adhesive cover’
Best mod ever. I used 26 awg “magnet coil” wire since it has just enough insulation to protect it but not enough to add thickness. fits perfect. almost no noticeable bump on the battery cover. charges perfect. although i cant charge with any kind of cover on the phone so i will have to mod the battery case and snake the coil to the outside of the phone.
Is it possible to get a “blown” up image of the positive contact solder location? It is pretty obscured from the picture?
Is it possible to run and tape down wires to the battery and have contacts so that you do not need to solder the wires on to the cover? leaving you free to remove the battery cover?
Not that I plan on cracking the thing open very often, but getting to the sd card…one would need to be careful not to rip the wires off.
I know the battery takes up quite a bit of space (and/or the position of it anyway) on the EVO…but maybe running the wires up and along the top edge above the battery?? That way you can even remove the battery without much disturbance to the wires.
I guess you’d have to charge the phone on the touchstone upside to reach the contacts…or possibly put something under the stone to raise it up to fit.
Thoughts? This would be nicer if it was a very clean execution.
Also, what exactly is holding the phone in place? What are those magnets touching? Is it possible to shim something in the battery case that’s magnetic? That way it holds on to that (which is the battery case) instead of whatever metal internals of the phone… or would the compass still be passing through a magnetic field even if it isn’t the physical phone itself? haha, remove the cover to use the compass in the woods =) I do agree, compasses on phones are worthless. Compasses are almost worthless with an (accurate) GPS anyway. That’s kinda the point of GPS.
ironically i can’t figure out how to get my pc to take a still pic of my work, but to make the phone stick to the touchstone really well, take the little metal discs off the back sticker, superglue them to the back of the cover (exposed). it actually matches the metal-on-black design like the kickstand does. the grip is awesome. do the wires and coil as described in earlier posts.
Can you describe how it might work on an Iphone 3Gs?
Also does the charger only work when it makes contact with the coil in the modified phone or when it is one inch above the charger?
Going to try this mod soon, just ordered some small battery connectors(male/female) with 28awg wire going to add to this mod by making it so that I can disconnect the back cover(coil) from the phone incase I want to slap a regular cover back on and use compass. Im going to mount the female side of connectors to the phone near the battery on the right side(as phone laying face down). need to remove some plastic a tthe spot where it has a faux vent (tape covers it up) I believe the female connector will fit there. Ill try to post pics if successfull.
Thanks again for a great simple mod!
Thanks a million, infinitemods! After having HTC replace my first EVO after the USB charger port broke after one month of use, I followed your tutorial and successfully modded mine. It works like a champ. The only scary part was that the picture of the exact location to solder the positive wire on the phone was grainy and my iron was bulky, but fortunately I sucked it up and let it drip onto the general vicinity and amazingly it worked! I used wire from a CAT5 ethernet cord I stripped and I bought a raised HTC EVO Seidio case (normally for their 3500mAh batteries) so that the rear cover fits perfectly. I also bought three Touchstones for work, home and my brother’s house. Wonderful solution!
Also, fyi, cuz this drove me nuts for a while testing many USB cables and Touchstones–I noticed that the Touchstone won’t charge the phone consistently if I power the Touchstone with a USB connected to the PC or USB hub. Only a real wall-plug AC powered USB cable seems to provide enough power every time.
Will this charge through a (relatively thin) external case or could you even attach the inductive cover coil between the case and the phone and run wires to the contacts under the cover (maybe a bit of modding)?
When I had the Pre, it wouldn’t charge with a 1mm thick case. Your idea of putting the coil sandwiched between the case and the door seems reasonable. Personally, I’d dump the case.
If this works I’d like to see pics please. My mod has my battery door tethered by wires and I’d like to see a slicker solution.
hello to all.. i have the commuter otter box, and i put the touchstone on the inside of that plastic which is thicker that the regular battery door, and i am getting a 5.76 VDC reading when sitting on the touchstone. though after pulling out my 30 yr old soldering gun, and solder, i decided to back out and get me a new gun that would heat up all the way to the tip and get some WAY thinner soldering wire. i will have pics up very soon! oh BTW i am using the wire form the inside of a phone wire (VERY thin) and may just not have the battery door on the phone since it is covered by the otter box. bet yall didnt think of THAT! pics coming soon!
hey… does anyone think this mod could work if your evo has a case like the Seidio Innocase Rugged hoslter?
http://www.androidcentral.com/sprint-evo-4g-case-review-seidio-innocase-rugged-holster-combo-video
that is pretty sweet… post pics or it didn’t happen.
I bet it does. You would just have to put it onthe inside of the outside plastic piece. On my commuter otter box, the magnets will stick, and the phone will stay on no prob, just not at good as without the case. I am getting the rest of the stuff today and possibly see if radio shack has stronger magnets . Plus I may use wire glue instead of solder.
OK, I just had an idea.. simple but if it works, would work a lot better for me at least.
Why not forget the wires going in to the phone itself? Is not the battery connector itself sufficient for the connection to the charging disc? Maybe a naive question. Since you can get EVO batteries for $10 and the palm touchstone back (they said the pixie back at Radio Shack is $6), why not just mod a battery instead of the phone. You can mod as many batteries as you want.
My issue is I carry two spare batteries with me (usually only use one), but I carry them just to be sure. Most of the time when my phone dies, I am no where near a place to charge, so I swap batteries.
The EVO battery is just a tad narrower and the same height as the Palm Pre touchstone sticker (I have the older touchstone back case so I would rather get the new pixie one with the sticker), someone posted that the older back does not come off as a clean sticker.
I am also unsure if you mounted the sticker to the battery (flipped around), changes the polarity of the contacts (have to test that). The two contacts on the charging sticker could be connected with some flat wire to the +/- contact on the battery (shave out the small plastic lip at the battery connector pads for the wire to come up and solder it to the pads. The spring connectors on the evo have plenty of play to allow a thin solder connection on the battery pad.
This way, the entire mod is to the battery. screw it up, and it is only a $16 loss with no change to the EVO (warranty intact).
For my case, I could mod multiple batteries and still have touchstone compatibility.
Any thoughts from this most awesome thread?
Waynedude
Anyone in the New York area willing and interested in doing this for me? I’m just not very competent at soldering, I would be willing to pay.
If interested please email me at drfosters@gmail.com
If you put current directly into a lithium ion battery without anything to modulate it, I think it may be dangerous. My knowledge is pretty limited there though. Perhaps the circuitry after the induction coil is enough to prevent overcharging; maybe somebody knows if that is the case with the Pre or Pixi? Great idea though. I’d do it if safety isn’t a real concern.
I can confirm this works. Really glad you guys posted where the positive is exactly located. Thanks soo much for that.
Does anyone know how to go about finding another positive point on the board (if any).
Thanks.
Any word about hooking this up to the battery connectors instead of the board?
I haven’t tried it yet.. If anybody does, please post the results.
Cheers!
I was just thinking the same thing this morning. What would happen if I just touchstoned my battery instead of the EVO itself? SOMEBODY has to know.
You don’t need a whole Pre! The Touchstone kit upgrades the stock Pre with a charger AND replacement back!
This should be perfect for my “Clear Spot” 4G mifi-type device, which is my primary (& mobile) broadband conduit. No more fingernailing the mini-USB cover off!
HELP…Is there other way to solder the positive terminal other then the one showing in the picture? It very fragile for me. Let me know if their other way. Thanks.
since this was my original post, I figured people would be interested in my latest touchstone mod shown at the end of the thread: http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-reviews/204999-powermat-htc-evo-4g-unboxing-overview-video.html#post2160557
It appears going directly to the battery may work afterall b/c it has a protective circuit. If you youtube ‘lithium explode’ then you’ll see why I haven’t tried it much yet.
AWS is welding wire. What are you talking about ?
I use the extended 3500 battery, and would like to do the Touchstone/Evo “to battery” mod, not the “to mobo” mod. I have a question.
Would all HTC Evo batteries have the built in circuitry (in the battery) ?
It’s not a rhetorical questions–would actually like an answer, but, here’s my layman’s thinking on this.
If one Evo battery has the modulating circuitry, then all batteries must have the modulating circuitry, and so, OEM, and after-market Seido, and Chinese, and all other Evo batteries must have this circuitry, or they would not work at all with the Evo.
What do you think ?
Chad: Oops, posted this independent, meant it as this reply.
I use the extended 3500 battery, and would like to do the Touchstone/Evo “to battery” mod, not the “to mobo” mod. I have a question.
Would all HTC Evo batteries have the built in circuitry (in the battery) ?
It’s not a rhetorical questions–would actually like an answer, but, here’s my layman’s thinking on this.
If one Evo battery has the modulating circuitry, then all batteries must have the modulating circuitry, and so, OEM, and after-market Seido, and Chinese, and all other Evo batteries must have this circuitry, or they would not work at all with the Evo.
What do you think ?
Also, second question.
Can you tell by the images of this Pre back cover if this is the later “easier” to get to, adhesive circuitry, or if this is the earlier harder “Dremel required” to get to circuitry?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Palm-Pre-Touchstone-Back-Cover-Gently-Used-Free-Ship-/130485835800?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item1e618fd818
I am trying to solder this to the gold plated positive but I cant seem to get it to stick. I tried scrapping the gold off and apply the solder but it wont stick. How can I get it to stick? Can I solder it with the resistor (dumb question). Thanks
Did you just drip and dry.. Then apply to the wires? I cant get it to stick. Any help? Thanks
I’m getting ready to do this. I’ve bought some stronger magnets and tested out the retention on my car touchstone for the past few days. I’ve looked at the PC board under a soldering microscope at work and here is my strategy. Solder the power to the left solder pad of the resistor just below the gold pad. The test pad uses the same copper flood plane. I ve also confirmed this with a multimeter. This way you can remove the wire later and if you do a good job, and no one will be able to tell you soldered it. Second, I am going to solder the ground wire to the left casing pad of the micro usb connector. Again for the same reason that there is solder already there and it can be removed without leaving a trace. I’ll check back when I’m done.
sorry guys I don’t look at this post often enough I guess. I put up a drinkwd40 channel on youtube for this mod. @Pancho: the pixi back cover I bought was fine but I think the circuit board gets in the way more than the Pre back cover. Whoever is saying you need a Dremel to get it off I don’t believe–use a razor blade at most. @Tclee use electrical solder which should have the stuff to make it sticky (flux) inside, or you can buy flux separately. @Jeff you don’t need extra magnets to make a strong connection, see the aforementioned videos. But your connections are a good idea, just post some pics if you can.
oh I tried the direct to battery option and for whatever reason it didn’t charge.
I saw your video. I see that you would get a strong connection with the magnets on the outside, but I want the EVO to look stock. In order for the cover not to bulge I put two new stronger magnets on the top and the original pre-disks on the bottom near the kickstand. All I need to do is connect the wires. An electrical engineer I work with who is a soldering wizard is on vacation until next week. After he gets back and does it for me I’ll take some snaps.
Also. I have been docking my EVO on my touchstone in the car. If my touchstone is on it seems to affect my capacitive screen sensitivity and gets flaky. Maybe it needs better shielding…or this goes away when the wires are connecting. Have you noticed this behavior?
Screen sensitivity does seem to be flaky at times (even when not on any charger, but I can’t blame it on anything in particular). If you are putting magnets in the phone, keep in mind they will erase credit cards (not good if you have a “European hand bag”/purse).
I watched your videos on Youtube. I am wondering if you buy the powermat door, why you couldn’t use the USB connector that came with it to connect to the touchstone coil?
It really is that simple. Use the Powermat door but replace the coil with a Touchstone coil and it works fine. The drawback there is the ‘magnetiness’ to the little metal disks will be reduced when they are further away. That makes for a ridiculously easy mod though.
Hi, can anyone tell me how to find another location on the pcb that is positive? Or if someone knows could they post a picture? thanks
So you connect to the flat wire that runs from the usb connector to the Powermat coil? wondering if the wire is thick enough?
I’m now waiting for the EVO 3D to ship (hopefully 6/24) and use the powermat USB connector from the standard EVO back.
As a test I took a retractable usb cable like you had in the video, and just soldered it to the touchstone coil still in the original Palm Pre back. Then plugged into the usb connector on the side of the Pre, but did not get it to charge. I wonder if the wire gauge is too thin for this to work?
I did replace both wires with 26g solid wire…that should work. I’ve done it on 3 phones now, so the method should be pretty solid? I’m thinking about the 3d…probably getting it, but I may wait to hardwire it until somebody smart tells me the +/- contacts.
Okay…gonna get the EVO 3D. ANYBODY know where the +/- contacts are so I can do the same awesome mod on it?
Just got my Evo Shift two days ago and would love to do this mod for it.
Two questions:
1) Does the battery mod definitely NOT work?
2) Could I just solder to positive and negative connections on the phone’s USB port instead of finding other places on the motherboard?
Looking at the pictures again I guess that is kind of what the OP did – as far as the positive connection goes. I’m thinking he traced the positive pin in the connector directly to that point he circled on the board. I’ll have to examine the connector and board on the Shift for myself.
I got my ‘set’ off eBay for less that 15 bucks (Shipping included).
I used 30 gauge and it’s been working perfectly. Thx for the great article.
wasn’t it better just to go out a buy the powermat?
Great mod but scary to one who solders like a blind person. (No offense to sight impaired people, just an observation of my soldering skills) Has anyone tried to make this work by installing the coil onto the inside surface of a silicone or rubber case for the evo and just having a right angle micro usb male cable to plug in? would this work?
thanks
Michael