Help How does the S4 know it's docked?

[lotus49]

I bought a cheap dock on eBay (charging only, no sound). It does what I bought it for but my S4 doesn't seem to know that it's docked.

This lead me to wonder how the S4 can tell whether it's docked or not. Does anyone know?

 

[skramblr]

There's a chip in the Samsung Docks.

 

[Adara]

It knows when it's in the iBolt dock, too. (Sometimes, anyway.) It isn't a magnet (which was what did it for the Bionic).

 

[nadeioval]

Hello

 

[nadeioval]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I have the bolse docking station in two rooms in my house and at my office. I purchase it for my S3 before I bricked it. While my docking station had an audio and micro usb jack, the audio jack seemed to do nothing with my S3. So the other day just for S & G, while my S4 was docked, I plugged into the audio jack and BAM! my phone switched to dock mode. I went in search like you to discover what per se was the triigger or any other possible triggers to no avail.

Now after stumbling across this thread between my experience and reading skamblr's comment I am inclined to believe that the phone is designed to have some type of discrete electrical return that, when present, triggers the phone into dock mode.

It seems that this dock has a switch to mimic this discrete feedback...
http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-desktop-dock-galaxy-s4
but without an audio jack or such a switch I think you are SOL... Sorry!

On a related note if you are looking to buy a new one, the one I purchased is pretty cool, has an led lit stylus port, and with an auxilary extender attached always enters dock mode.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BAO73Q4/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I paid $19.99 but it seems it is popular because they have raised the price to $23.99... perhaps due to S4 release.

Good luck and please post if you find there is a magnetic or other potential trigger.

 

[lotus49]

I forgot I posted this but I now know the answer to this.

It is nothing to do with chips in the dock, although there may well be one. There is a resistor between pins 4 & 5 in the dock and this is what triggers dock mode. For the S4 the value of the resistor is 365k but Samsung has not been consistent about this for different models.

 

[MikaelPe]

Hello, we here at iBOLT have been working on the DockMode issues for a long time. Basically Galaxy S3 handsets have both a "Car-dock" mode and a "DockMode" mode while the newer models, like the S4 and Note II only have the "DockMode". There are a few differences, below is a list of the Car-dock mode features.

1. When the phone is inserted into a car-dock the icons on the home screen can turn to horizontal position.
2. An "docking App" like iBOLT Dock'n Drive, CarHome Ultra or Ulysee Speedometer can be installed as the new "home screen".
3. Sound from Apps (music & gps) can be routed through the microUSB to the car-stereo making it possible to have ONE cable connection for both charging and aux-out to car-stereo.
4. A separate "home dock" App can be used when "docking" the S3 in the home or office environment.

In newer handsets, like the S4 and Note II Samsung have combined the "car-dock" and the "home-dock" mode into one, referred to as "DockMode" only. The main differences is that icons on the home screen does not turn horizontally and you can not have a separate Docking App for home and car. See YouTube video by searching "iBOLT S3 dock".

The modes are triggered via the microUSB connector, no chip, no magnet etc. Hope this helps?

 

[Goodspike]

You can also trigger dock mode via NFC.

 

[harinmenon]

Dock Clock Plus (Night/Desk) App resolves this. I was here looking for the same thing and finally found the app that resolves this. This has an option to enable dock (app) whilst charging and is pretty customizable as well.

 

[DILands]

I have a cheap car MOUNT (not a doc), and will usually be charging while in the car. Recently (like within the past 2 or 3 weeks), I'll be driving, listening to RDIO (my new favorite) through BT, then the music stops, and asks which app I want to use for dock. . . .

 

[lotus49]

I have a cheap car MOUNT (not a doc), and will usually be charging while in the car. Recently (like within the past 2 or 3 weeks), I'll be driving, listening to RDIO (my new favorite) through BT, then the music stops, and asks which app I want to use for dock. . . .

As I said above, this is supposed to be triggered by a specific resistance across pins 4 and 5.

Do you have a multimeter to check your charger because it sounds like there may be some sort of hardware issue here?