Seidio Innotraveler car dock

[Murz]

Anyone who is keeping up on the discussion regarding the Droid not charging while docked in the car should check out this thread. It looks like there may be a different explanation to our problem.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/37061-car-dock-overheating.html

 

[solar]

Anyone who is keeping up on the discussion regarding the Droid not charging while docked in the car should check out this thread. It looks like there may be a different explanation to our problem.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/37061-car-dock-overheating.html

Thats interesting. I went and read the thread, but I wonder how accurate it is to attribute the heat being the issue. Like I posted in the other thead, I never had the issue with the stock motorola mount and stock car charger. I only started having the issue of it not charging when I began using the seidio car charger. Its mounted in the same location in my can, and it is indeed in direct sunlight sometimes, othertimes, depending on the direction i'm traveling or the time of day, its not and I haven't noticed this affecting the charging.

 

[whteglve]

This may be a dumb question but should my Droid show the screen while in the dock? I just picked up my Seidio dock and using this morning I noticed that while driving the screen would black out and later it would come back on to the lock screen. Is there a way to keep it from going to sleep so to speak while in the car dock?

 

[solar]

This may be a dumb question but should my Droid show the screen while in the dock? I just picked up my Seidio dock and using this morning I noticed that while driving the screen would black out and later it would come back on to the lock screen. Is there a way to keep it from going to sleep so to speak while in the car dock?

If its receiving power, the screen should not go off unless you turn it off. Mine stays on regardless of which program is open, which is why I prefer it plugged in whenI lesten to music over bluetooth.

Are you sure its getting power? You're getting a green light on the dock and all? It could be related to the issue a lot of us are having. I get a green light, but and the screen stays on, but te droid doesn't receive sufficent power to charge it.

There is a checkbox to keep the droid awake while charging under applications-->development, but you shouldnt need it if the droid is recognizing that its in car dock mode. The dock mode, shoud take care of that as long as its plugged it.

 

[whteglve]

Thanks it was losing power from the dash plug. I think I might change out the charger itself now cause after charging for about 45 minutes it only went from 40% to 50%.

Seidio - I love the mount but not the charger.

 

[Bret65]

Anyone who is keeping up on the discussion regarding the Droid not charging while docked in the car should check out this thread. It looks like there may be a different explanation to our problem.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/37061-car-dock-overheating.html

Thats interesting. I went and read the thread, but I wonder how accurate it is to attribute the heat being the issue. Like I posted in the other thead, I never had the issue with the stock motorola mount and stock car charger. I only started having the issue of it not charging when I began using the seidio car charger. Its mounted in the same location in my can, and it is indeed in direct sunlight sometimes, othertimes, depending on the direction i'm traveling or the time of day, its not and I haven't noticed this affecting the charging.

Did you switch to the Seidio so you could dock with a case installed on the Droid? That is the reason most have switched to the Seidio car dock. The difference may be the extra insulation of the case; the phone can't dissipate the heat as efficiently. It may be worth taking the cover off and doing everything else the same to see. Just a thought.

 

[solar]

Anyone who is keeping up on the discussion regarding the Droid not charging while docked in the car should check out this thread. It looks like there may be a different explanation to our problem.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/37061-car-dock-overheating.html

Thats interesting. I went and read the thread, but I wonder how accurate it is to attribute the heat being the issue. Like I posted in the other thead, I never had the issue with the stock motorola mount and stock car charger. I only started having the issue of it not charging when I began using the seidio car charger. Its mounted in the same location in my can, and it is indeed in direct sunlight sometimes, othertimes, depending on the direction i'm traveling or the time of day, its not and I haven't noticed this affecting the charging.

Did you switch to the Seidio so you could dock with a case installed on the Droid? That is the reason most have switched to the Seidio car dock. The difference may be the extra insulation of the case; the phone can't dissipate the heat as efficiently. It may be worth taking the cover off and doing everything else the same to see. Just a thought.

No I don't use the case. I rock a holster for extra nerd power, lol. I have the seidio car mount because I use the extended battery. But i've tried the stock battery in the seidio docks and it performs just as pooly.

 

[GZ20TT]

I'm worried now that I didn't see this thread earlier.
I'm in Australia and have just heard that my Seidio package is on the truck and on it's way to my place.
I'd heard many good things about the company and it's products (I was mainly after the innocase, but bought the dock and screen protector to make postage worthwhile) and I'm concerned I may have purchased a dud.
I'd heard about the innocase woes with some older stock - but I'd also heard that they had fixed it in later runs.
I'm hoping that the dock I will receive will also have some fixes to it.

UPDATE
I installed the dock on the weekend and have been trying it out.
Fit and finish on the dock is very good and the suction cap holds really well. I love that I can keep my innocase on and still dock successfully.
Cigarette lighter plug could be better - I need to take care when plugging it in as at certain angles the charge light on the plug goes off. However, once in the "sweet spot" it stays lit and keeps the phone charging.
In my car - I'm also not overly fond of the way the mini usb has to take a sharp bend as it comes out of the unit - based on the position of my 12V socket. I'd be happier with a 90 degree plug to take any strain off the cable. I'll probably end up getting a generic one somewhere.
Music from the Milestone speaker is OK - the cavity that is there for the extended battery seems to bounce sound back to me quite well.
I've not experienced the overheating issues yet as its coming to Autumn here and it's been cool - but I will need to give it the acid test with GPS and music running while trying to keep the phone charging.

 

[rbrown1]

bad story gets worse

Well, I got the third car dock today but they did not send another charging cord like we discussed on the phone. The bad news is the phone does not fit onto the charging prong in this cradle. I got it to mount once but it went in with a big click which did not sound like a good fit. After that I could not get it to mount at all and was afraid to really force it. This thing is too expensive to be hard to mount. The Droid fit the first two but they would not keep the phone charged. I have all the car docking stuff boxed up to send back. I wish it worked but I'm tired of the problems and ready to try something else. I've read elsewhere the charging problems may be related to heat from the sun but have had them at night and on cloudy, rainy days. The sun may be a contributor but it is not the whole problem. I still think Seidio is a good company and expect they will get the problems worked out.

The Innocase and clip holster are both great; couldn't be happier with them.

I have to say the people at Seidio are nice and good to help. They are sending a third car dock system and this time sending another power cord too. I hope the third time is charm or else I'm going to have to find a box to ship all this stuff back in...I'll post again when I have another set of results. My feeling right now is that Seidio is a good company that usually has very good products but right now they are dealing with a bunch of car docks that are poorly engineered or poorly manufactured.

I finally got to use the second car dock on a seven hour drive. I should say what should have been a seven hour drive because the phone was completely dead and shut down after six hours. From 100 percent charged to no charge after six hours in the car dock, plugged in with charger cord and dock both showing power. The charging icon on the Droid showed it should have been charging too. After this happened I removed the Droid from the dock and plugged it in with my original Motorola charger, the Droid powered up and in about fifteen minutes the battery was 10 percent charged. I wonder if the problem is the charger cord Seidio sent with the the first car dock??? They did not send a replacement for that. At this point the car dock is useless!

I had the same problem and just got the replacement unit. I'll use it some this weekend and see if the charger actually charges. It is frustrating when the phone shows it is being charged but then shuts down with a dead battery.

 

[GZ20TT]

Well, I got the third car dock today but they did not send another charging cord like we discussed on the phone. The bad news is the phone does not fit onto the charging prong in this cradle. I got it to mount once but it went in with a big click which did not sound like a good fit. After that I could not get it to mount at all and was afraid to really force it. This thing is too expensive to be hard to mount. The Droid fit the first two but they would not keep the phone charged. I have all the car docking stuff boxed up to send back. I wish it worked but I'm tired of the problems and ready to try something else. I've read elsewhere the charging problems may be related to heat from the sun but have had them at night and on cloudy, rainy days. The sun may be a contributor but it is not the whole problem. I still think Seidio is a good company and expect they will get the problems worked out.

The Innocase and clip holster are both great; couldn't be happier with them.

Sorry to hear about that.
I hope you get a full refund and can find something that works for you.

I've had the opposite so far - no complaints about the dock except for the need to be careful when placing the cigarette lighter plug in place and a request for a right angle mini usb option to reduce strain on the socket on the dock.

Re: charging - I had mine running GPS nav, plus some music and bluetooth this morning. Battery temp hit 40 celsius and it was still charging OK. Start at 80% and it fully charged in the half hour I was driving.
(Milestone running 2.1 RTINT/Asia update, innocase)
I'm wondering if my plug issue is what stops yours from charging? I have seen that the little charge light on the plug will go out if I don't have the plug in just the right spot.

Good luck.

 

[solar]

I think my replacement has been performing better. I will have to get some hard numbers over the next few days to confirm. They just sent the dock and not the adapter. I'll post them up when I get 'em.

 

[solar]

No, it wasn't performing better at all, lol. Not even at night. This innotraveler didn't work and the last one didn't work, so I doubt any innotraveler with the same parts would work any better. I just couldn't take it anymore, so I voided my warranty in order to make it usable! Basically, I opened it up, cut the wires, Pulled out the parts I didn't need, modified the ones I could use, and cut a hold in the bottom so that I can plug the Motorola car charger that actually charges. It was a dirty mod, but it works. I don't really even have the proper tools for it, so I had to make due. So, for your viewing dis/pleasure, my dirty, dirty, mod. ..Its not pretty, but it works.

 

[Sweet Kitten Feet]

post a pic

 

[solar]

post a pic

Sorry, I thought I had! I guess there was a problem when I tried to upload them and I didn't notice.... I re-added the pics to the previous post.

With some better materials, and being a little more careful with the glue, (thats what you can see on the bottom), it can totally be made to actualy work. It sucks that one has to purchase a product that doesn't work and isn't cheap in order to basically obtain a shell.

 

[kerr23]

So now if Seidio can learn from this and fix their design, customers such as myself can pull their car dock off the shelf and start using it again.