A few weeks ago I published a gadget diary post sharing my experiences with trying to get Qi wireless charging working with my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3. Long story short, I ordered a wireless charging patch (receiver) and a Nokia DT-900 Wireless Charging pad and it didn’t work. One of our frequent readers (Haesslich) left a comment suggesting that the Nokia DT-910 Wireless Charging Stand might be a better choice… I took that advice, sent the DT-900 back to Amazon and ordered a DT-910. I’ve had a lot better luck with that one except for a couple new problems…
Note: Images can be clicked to view a larger size.
The charging stand itself is great. Instead of laying the phone flat, it keeps the phone standing upright. There’s a tiny white LED on the base, that is a little bright, but I just covered it with a piece of tape. There’s even a built in NFC tag that you can program to do certain tasks whenever you place the phone on the stand.
I bought the DT-910 to use on the night stand next to my bed. It along with the WakeVoice Android app I had found earlier, it completed my ultimate alarm clock setup. Or so I thought… Unfortunately, around 1am in the morning, I discovered a fatal flaw… Once the phone was fully charged, the display would come on and a beep-boop chime would signal that charging was completed. The sound wasn’t enough to really wake me up, but the light from the display did. After a several seconds, the display would automatically turn off, but then minutes later, I would hear the chime and the display would pop back on. This happened again and again and again until I removed the phone from the charger stand. Talk about annoying.
With the help of a couple apps, I was able to solve the beep-booping chime problem. But after hours of scouring forums trying to find a way to keep the display from turning on, I came up empty handed. I became more than a little obsessed with trying to find a solution for the screen issue. That is until Haesslich posted another comment talking about the fact that Android version 4.2.2 had some fixes for wireless charging algorithms. Our resident Android guru Ian Lim had been trying to get me to at least root my SGS3 for months, so I decided it was time.
After a lot more research, I found that rooting from a Mac is less than easy unless you have Windows installed on it too. I didn’t want to install Windows on my Macbook Air, so I ended up making a trip to Walmart last weekend to buy their cheapest laptop currently in stock at my local store – an Acer Aspire One for $268. I got it home and after a little trial and error, I had my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 rooted. Then it was a matter of wading through thread after thread on XDA and other Android forums for advice on which ROM to try first. I knew I wanted the ROM based on Android v4.2.2, and I settled on one called Carbon. More research was required to actually figure out how to flash the new ROM on my phone, but I finally was able to get it done last night… just in time for bed… and guess what? It worked!!!!!! No beep boop chime and no glaring display popping on and off! Problem solved at last! Thanks Haesslich! :)
I may try another ROM based on v4.2.2, now that I know how to flash, so recommendations are gladly accepted. But as is, I’m very happy that I can now use my SGS3 on the Nokia DT-910 wireless charger next to my bed and not have it wake me up in the middle of the night any longer.
Tagged as: gadget diary
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