#atrix lapdock

[qn4]

I'll never understand Firefox's spell checker... today, it complained about one instance of "iPad", yet ignored an identical instance of the word in the sentence immediately prior. And yes, I was using the name with appropriate grammar and identical capitalization. Similarly, the term "lapdock" is underlined in red only the first and third time I've used it in this post... not the second or fourth. Argh. For a while, the Firefox actually refused to acknowledge its own name as a validly spelled word... though that was probably the result of using an existing word library. Why reinvent the wheel, right? This may be my last (or second-last) post to this account; I'm still accumulating reasons to host a (non business related) website, and having full control (i.e. geek options) over my blog would put me at more ease regarding its content. Once my finances level out a bit (and probably in the summer when/if I have free time again) I'll probably make the move. I know that most of the visitors to this blog are strangers; most are interested in the Sansa Fuze line-out connector or the Motorola lapdock power supply. Nevertheless, find some way to bug me if you're a person who wants to keep following my antics if/when I move to a new blog (for if and when I decide to splatter them onto the internet). For what it's worth, the line-out connector fell to disuse a month after I made it when the battery in my Fuze dropped to less-than-convenient capacity (also around the time I repaired my Gigabeat F10 (currently with 40GB HDD) for the umpteenth time). The lapdock power supply adapter, however, has been in regular use since then and works spectacularly. The lapdock actually gets amazing battery life... I've had it running on battery power for over six hours at full volume in combination with a Wii (through a component to HDMI adapter from Monoprice.com and an female HDMI to female micro HDMI adapter from dx.com... both retailers are highly recommended). The screen still reported two out of five battery lights when the people I was with finally got bored of Mario Party (college students... haha).

[qn4]

So, I got myself a 'Lapdock', originally designed to be sold with Motorola Atrix phones, acting as a portable charging dock, netbook-sized screen, and keyboard/touchpad input for the phone. A number of people have also discovered that, as a side effect of using almost-standard connections, the device can function as a cheap, battery-powered HDMI monitor and/or USB keyboard/mouse. And, better yet, as the phone's been discontinued and newer phones (or any phone but the one this was designed for) don't have the exact port configuration and orientation (likely intentional on Motorola's part), these things are going for about $50, used, on eBay right now. So, what's the catch? Models that include a power adapter run a whole lot more than that, power adapters are uncommon and, (almost unreasonably) expensive, and the tip on such power adapters has relatively unusual measurements. Oh, and the cables needed to make it useful to non-Atrix devices are uncommon and either expensive on eBay or available only from Chinese export shops (complete with looong shipping times and relatively high prices, relative to similar, standard cables from the same places).

So, figuring I'd be waiting on a few odd adapters from China for a few weeks, I bought a non-power-adapter model and did some research. Based on my research, not much is available on what size plug is needed, what voltage or amperage is required, or much of anything of the sort, so I did my own experimenting and figure someone else might find this later on and benefit. You're welcome? Just don't blame me if you fry anything.

The 'lapdock', model  SJYN0737A, requests 19 volts at at least 1.58 amps, according to a small label on the bottom. A label near the barrel jack indicates a positive-tip polarity for the barrel connector.

Using a set of digital calipers (recent new toy... dunno how I lived without them!), I got measurements of the power socket itself, and have labelled such on the (remainder of an) index card in the picture above.

(For the visually-impaired and human-impaired, e.g. search engines and people who can't load or see the images, that is: 4.1mm outside diameter, 12.18mm depth, ~1.3mm diameter inner pin, and the inner pin is recessed by about 4.1mm, so it needs a long-ish barrel plug).

After a bit of searching through my room, I found donor a barrel jack of about 11mm in length and 4.0mm in diameter, with an inner diameter that seems about right, but is something I don't have the proper tools to measure. somewhere in the 1.3mm-1.6mm range, I imagine. I attached this through a makeshift adapter to a duplicate adapter-jack on one of those 'universal' laptop power adapters, this one is a Targus (model APA32US) rated at 19.5 volts (and 4.8 or so amps), but any adapter with a stable 19-volt output and enough amperage should work sufficiently.

Notes:

1) There are, apparently, several newer models of 'lapdocks' from Motorola for some of their newer phones, and I have no idea if any of this applies or not. I wouldn't really bet on it.

2) I already had the universal power adapter sitting around, and I used a plug that I had absolutely no use for, but have the funky 'adapter' designed to keep the power adapter itself unmodified and useable for other purposes at will. If I didn't have this sitting around already, buying an official Motorola power adapter from eBay would probably cost me fair bit less than buying the adapter I'm using.

3) I have yet to receive the aforementioned adapter cables, so I have no way of testing any of this outside of watching the 'charging' light slowly pulse (Apple-style, presumably by design... at least I hope so!) and seeing more lights light up on the 'battery fill gauge' thing.

Maybe I'll post an update when I have the cables... maybe not. Only time will tell!

[vladteppi-blog]

Just made my Atrix Lapdock compatible with my Atrix 2

Very happy