Thread: Mod idea: inductive charging from Palm Touchstone kit
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Benson is offline Benson
2011-03-28 , 22:30
Posts: 4,930 | Thanked: 2,272 times | Joined on Oct 2007
#9
Originally Posted by Benson View Post
Odd coincidence that this thread got bumped just when I was going to hunt it down. Thanks, Descalzo!

My N900 just took one too many power-cable-assisted dives to the floor yesterday, and now has an IV, if you will, piggy-backed into the battery contacts, and running to my hobby charger.

After my post above, I looked into it, and there's really not room for all the cool stuff I mentioned above. But now that I need a charging system fix anyway, I'm going to attempt the touchstone mod instead of or in addition to soldering the port back down.

So I'm off to buy the hardware; will report back when I get the mod done.
Mod accomplished!
Pics and detailed description to follow in a bit.

Since the USB port lifted the VBUS trace off the board, and I couldn't locate VBUS anywhere else (except, per the schematics, under one of the EMI covers which I'm not keen to cut into), I am unable to use the N900's USB charging abilities. I had to add a separate 5V Li-ion charging circuit, wired to the battery connector and the Pre circuit. The circuit I used is a fixed 720mA current, so it won't even maintain the battery constant in real heavy use, but it should be adequate for practical use. (I've only had it back together for an hour, so...)

The N900, with its extrafat battery, is a bit heavier than the Pre, but it still hangs on the touchstone in either portrait or landscape, no trouble.

Now I've got to either locate my camera, or maybe borrow a friends iPhone (*spit*) to document it. Will post back.
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World's first inductively-charged N900!
 

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