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Accessories Simulate Car Dock behavior

biggdaniell

Well-Known Member
Jan 5, 2010
114
10
Hi guys,

I want to buy a car kit/holder for Desire and I really want the functionality the official car kit offers (auto start NaviPanel or other dock app). The only car holder (I know of) that actually does that is the official one which is due in 21 August (yes, they postpone it from 21 July)....and it's EXPENSIVE!!

I know there might be some circuit board involved but maybe it's just a simple trick...does anyone know if there is a way to modify a regular charger to act as a dock?
 
Forgive my typing I was in a rush this morning. I meant Navigator, but the file/app is called Navipanel: HTC NaviPanel - xda-developers I just downloaded and installed the non moded zip file. And my desire is stock, I have not rooted it or anything and this works fine, albeit the manual intensive process of a single icon press ;-)

Apologies if the link breaks any forums rules, if it does please feel free to delete it.
 
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....albeit the manual intensive process of a single icon press....

It's not just about one click...it's the whole process...

Regular car-holder:
- pull the usb cable out of the hole you stuff it in (most car holders don't have the usb wire attached) and stick it the back of the phone - use both hands in the process and your full attention (it's hard to do that without looking, unlike most phones)
- put the phone in the cradle
- unlock the screen
- start the NaviPanel

Official car-holder:
- put the phone in the cradle and....your good to go.

Keep in mind that most people use their cars for more that "home-work-home" and believe me, most of the people rather not use the phone in the car than go trough this process 10 times a day. Actually I don't use it even its one time a day unless I REALLY need it. So what I want will come in handy for those situations when just want to see (hear) the speedcams while driving (using some navigation software) or to auto-start bluetooth while in car only (I'm only using the bluetooth headset while driving and I have no other use for battery draining bluetooth device) or I just want to charge the phone without going trough that ritual (I know there are some car-holders with dock-like charger but not in my country and I'm sure the official one will get here too...but still very EXPENSIVE).
 
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Nope, I did not. I said there are 3rd party car holders out there with built in USB socket that allow you to quick mount the phone (and charge) in one step (dock like) but they act like any other chargers (does not auto start anything).

I also said I can't find any of those in my country.
 
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Hello,

I have made a little experiment with a breadboard and two USB plugs.
I wanted to figure how to trigger car mode and eventually trigger desk mode.
I used 4 different resistors connected to ground:

1k
10k
100k
1M

The first three and direct connection triggered car mode as can be seen in the attached picture.
The last one did not trigger anything.
I also tried direct connection of ID pin to Vcc, this did not trigger anything either.

So it seems that car dock is when connected to ground, but there is no way to trigger desk mode.
The next step would be to create a usb micro female to usb micro male with the ID pin grounded on the male side so that you can use it in between the phone and the car charger cable. It would thus trigger car mode automatically.

I'll try to create one after I come back from holidays in two weeks one and will post a picture of it here.
 

Attachments

  • car_dock.jpg
    car_dock.jpg
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OK simple solution that works well if you have a Bluetooth enabled headunit in your car.... (if you haven't you really should get one ;)) and works with any car mount.

I just installed Custom car Home and Bluedock.

Custom Car home replicates the Carhome dock but is even better as you can configure whatever apps you want on it.

BlueDock is an app that you configure to launch another app/shortcut when a bluetooth pairing occurrs so is just configured to automatically launch the Custom Car home app as soon as i get into the car and turn the car stereo on.

Edit: Don't even need BlueDock now as the new Google Car home app has built in bluetooth launching.
 
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Hi obones,

did you research anything more on this?

I'm currently trying to get a dock mode started but always failed by now.

Thank you very much.

KR klaernie

Hello,

I have made a little experiment with a breadboard and two USB plugs.
I wanted to figure how to trigger car mode and eventually trigger desk mode.
I used 4 different resistors connected to ground:

1k
10k
100k
1M

The first three and direct connection triggered car mode as can be seen in the attached picture.
The last one did not trigger anything.
I also tried direct connection of ID pin to Vcc, this did not trigger anything either.

So it seems that car dock is when connected to ground, but there is no way to trigger desk mode.
The next step would be to create a usb micro female to usb micro male with the ID pin grounded on the male side so that you can use it in between the phone and the car charger cable. It would thus trigger car mode automatically.

I'll try to create one after I come back from holidays in two weeks one and will post a picture of it here.
 
Upvote 0

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