Accessories Anyone here using the HTC Car Dock?

[sintricate]

I have one major complaint with the HTC car dock for our phones...

Whenever I put my phone it the dock, the volume is reduced. It reduces the volume on everything.

It doesn't simply lower the volume indicator, it will just lower the volume and you can try to raise it all you want but it doesnt help. This sucks because I play most of my music from my phone (mp3s, and pandora). Whenever I use the dock, I have to put my car stereo volume way up and it sounds crappy.

Is this normal for the dock or is it just mine? Please don't respond unless you own or have owned the HTC Evo car dock.

 

[ArthurIhde]

no i have not used it before!

 

[TheSystem]

I'm not to sure about the volume being reduced. But i am not able to change the volume. Though whenever i am playing music from my EVO, sound is crisp and clear. I actually like that i can control the volume through my stereo headunit an not worry about the sound levels on my EVO.

My stereo system is all factory equipment and it gets hella loud, clear sound.

 

[archercc]

Mine is as loud as normal and I can change all of the volumes while in the dock (nav/ringer/audio). Even in car mode (although I am using Google's app, not HTCs, because it works in landscape).

 

[drexappeal]

I have one major complaint with the HTC car dock for our phones...

Whenever I put my phone it the dock, the volume is reduced. It reduces the volume on everything.

It doesn't simply lower the volume indicator, it will just lower the volume and you can try to raise it all you want but it doesnt help. This sucks because I play most of my music from my phone (mp3s, and pandora). Whenever I use the dock, I have to put my car stereo volume way up and it sounds crappy.

Is this normal for the dock or is it just mine? Please don't respond unless you own or have owned the HTC Evo car dock.

So strange because my volume bumps up significantly and stays at a high volume. This is my only complaint because I use an adaptor to listen to music from my phone through my car speakers and what happens is, the volume gets distorted when transmitting through the car speakers.

 

[sintricate]

This is interesting. I wonder if mine is just defective or is it my phone

 

[drexappeal]

This is interesting. I wonder if mine is just defective or is it my phone

It's not a defect. I think it's the same situation as mine. dabigcheeze and I discussed it back in forth on this thread:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-accessories/149183-evo-car-dock-now-available.html

It's the way that HTC designed it.

 

[s_special]

use vlingo

 

[archercc]

A

It's not a defect. I think it's the same situation as mine. dabigcheeze and I discussed it back in forth on this thread:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-accessories/149183-evo-car-dock-now-available.html

It's the way that HTC designed it.

It must be HTCs car panel app because my volume stays the same and i can change it.

 

[drexappeal]

A

It must be HTCs car panel app because my volume stays the same and i can change it.

Are you saying that your volume control stays the same (e.g. volume up and down can still be changed on the phone)? Are you referring to when it's in the HTC Car dock or not in the dock? Plugged in with the 3.5mm jack or not?

Just trying to make sure I understand your point correctly.

 

[sintricate]

It's not a defect. I think it's the same situation as mine. dabigcheeze and I discussed it back in forth on this thread:

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-accessories/149183-evo-car-dock-now-available.html

It's the way that HTC designed it.

So it's normal for the volume output of the phone to be decreased while docked using the 3.5mm output?

I was hoping something was wrong with my mount so I could just return it.

 

[drexappeal]

So it's normal for the volume output of the phone to be decreased while docked using the 3.5mm output?

I was hoping something was wrong with my mount so I could just return it.

LOL...I don't know if that's really normal. If you look at the original thread I posted that discussed it, the volume should go up 3/4 of the way (most noticeable when you connect the phone to the dock and 3.5mm jack going to car speakers).

The reason it may seem like the volume "decreases" for you is possibly because you're going from FULL volume. Usually, when I dock the volume, I had already gotten in a habit of decreasing the volume to half because when I plugged in the 3.5mm adaptor (to cassette), the sound would always be distorted when I had the media volume up to maximum volume (on the phone). Once I got the dock, there was no way around it (unless I connected the phone to the 3.5mm jack without the dock).

I think I'm actually going to take a stab at that bluetooth transmitter that was posted. This might solve the issue I'd been having completely with the connection being through bluetooth rather than through the 3.5mm jack.

 

[Zeosstud]

Would love to use Vlingo if the silly thing would not make my Evo reboot when Bluetooth disconnects and if the mic would act consistently. When it works, it is freaking awesome, it just needs to work a lot more of the time. I am confident it will, that it will only get better, and I look very much forward to using it in the future.

 

[sintricate]

LOL...I don't know if that's really normal. If you look at the original thread I posted that discussed it, the volume should go up 3/4 of the way (most noticeable when you connect the phone to the dock and 3.5mm jack going to car speakers).

The reason it may seem like the volume "decreases" for you is possibly because you're going from FULL volume. Usually, when I dock the volume, I had already gotten in a habit of decreasing the volume to half because when I plugged in the 3.5mm adaptor (to cassette), the sound would always be distorted when I had the media volume up to maximum volume (on the phone). Once I got the dock, there was no way around it (unless I connected the phone to the 3.5mm jack without the dock).

Yeah my volume is always at 100%. My music sounds so much better in my car when I don't have it docked

 

[drexappeal]

Yeah my volume is always at 100%. My music sounds so much better in my car when I don't have it docked

Yup. Same for me. That's why I'm seriously considering that bluetooth fm transmitter to see if it makes a difference. I've tried a fm transmitter that connects through the 3.5mm jack before, but didn't like it so maybe the bluetooth transmission without having to connect to the 3.5 jack will help.

 

[drexappeal]

btw, for those of you that aren't on the thread already, here's the one where the bluetooth fm transmitter was posted

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-accessories/202597-help-using-evo-car-without-aux-jack.html

 

[archercc]

Are you saying that your volume control stays the same (e.g. volume up and down can still be changed on the phone)? Are you referring to when it's in the HTC Car dock or not in the dock? Plugged in with the 3.5mm jack or not?

Just trying to make sure I understand your point correctly.

I think its the car panel app. I can be docked and control volume and what I had set before it remains set when I dock but I am using Google's car panel app,not HTCs

 

[drexappeal]

I think its the car panel app. I can be docked and control volume and what I had set before it remains set when I dock but I am using Google's car panel app,not HTCs

I don't use the Car Panel App at all. I have the Dock settings not to turn on at all.

It doesn't have anything to do with the App. It's something to do with the 3.5mm jack and the dock being plugged in simultaneously.

For example:
If I have my 3.5mm jack adaptor plugged into the phone, I turn the media volume halfway down, and the sound is fine through my car speakers. As soon as I plug it into the dock, the volume through my car speakers increases by A LOT and all of a sudden, no matter how much I change the volume on the phone itself, the volume transmitting through the speakers doesn't change. This is all without the Car Panel enabled.

 

[archercc]

Ah now I see. When I had used the headset plug I always had the phone docked first, otherwise I was using the speaker (which remains modifiable).

I can confirm that mine is doing the same thing. When docked and with the headphone jack it locks media/phone audio at 3/4. I guess I had not noticed because I always used the dial on the radio (in rentals).

 

[drexappeal]

Ah now I see. When I had used the headset plug I always had the phone docked first, otherwise I was using the speaker (which remains modifiable).

I can confirm that mine is doing the same thing. When docked and with the headphone jack it locks media/phone audio at 3/4. I guess I had not noticed because I always used the dial on the radio (in rentals).

Yup. And it sounds great when you're plugged into the 3.5mm jack and not docked, so it all goes back to what dabigcheeze was saying in the other HTC dock thread. The pin connectors in the microUSB connector are preventing some volume functionality. No clue how or why it was decided to do that, but just a minor annoyance to deal with.

 

[rtmeikle]

I'm hoping to figure out how to modify my dock so that the fourth pin isn't grounded, thereby preventing the phone from knowing it's docked.

Any hints on how to do this? It seems like this should be doable.

Rob

 

[drexappeal]

I'm hoping to figure out how to modify my dock so that the fourth pin isn't grounded, thereby preventing the phone from knowing it's docked.

Any hints on how to do this? It seems like this should be doable.

Rob

I'm not an electrical "guru," but I was discussing this with my cousin the other day. He had mentioned that maybe there's a way to change the pin on the actual dock, to a normal pin. He went into more detail, but that got too complicated for me to really understand.

One thing he did mention was that, he'd have to basically rip the dock apart to see how the wiring is in the post. From there, he'd be able to figure out if some sort of "bi-pass" could be accomplished, but at that point I told him that it's WAY too much work, just to get it working the way that I'd "ideally" like...HAHAHA.

If anybody is pretty skilled with electronics and is adventurous enough to try taking the dock apart to eliminate that issue, that'd be great if someone could make it happen!

 

[rtmeikle]

In the other thread dabigcheezze said that he'd taken his apart and saw two wires; one going to pin one and the ground going to 4 and 5. It seems like you could disconnect the ground to pin 4 and disable the "auto dock" feature. Hopefully he'll respond with his thoughts since he's taken it apart.

Originally Posted by dabigcheezze
Just did some testing and found out that it is froyo this causing the fixed volume problem, whenever pin 4 is grounded which automatically places the phone into dock mode, it fixes the volume at about 3/4 up..i tested it by using my homemade dock cable. i also disassembled my dock, there are only 2 wires going into it, power to pin 1,and ground to pins 4 and 5.
Shitty.

 

[archercc]

Yup. And it sounds great when you're plugged into the 3.5mm jack and not docked, so it all goes back to what dabigcheeze was saying in the other HTC dock thread. The pin connectors in the microUSB connector are preventing some volume functionality. No clue how or why it was decided to do that, but just a minor annoyance to deal with.

I didn't noticed a loss in quality. Figure they wanted it to work like a line out,control volume with stereo.

 

[drexappeal]

I didn't noticed a loss in quality. Figure they wanted it to work like a line out,control volume with stereo.

Yeah, I think part of that "sound quality" issue is the adaptor I'm using (I don't have AUX input on my car). Since it's a "cassette" adaptor, I have to make sure that the wire is not being pinched by the cassette lid on my OEM head unit, otherwise it distorts the sound. I made some adjustments the other day and it works okay again.

The only thing I'd say is, the output volume on the phone makes the bass too heavy when transmitting through the adaptor to my car speakers. I had to turn the bass WAY down in order for it not to mess up the clarity.