Ultra rugged Kyocera phones,GPS smartphones ..my guide

I'll try that; thanks!

l ordered Perfect squeeze with ram bundle. l'm excited.

I'm sure you will like it. I know I do.

I also have a duraphone XD that I use for gps on my F800gsa. I haven't mounted it yet because im trying to figure out a way to mount some contact pins and charge the phone through the charging ports on the back of the phone. This will keep it sealed to rain. I see duraphone pro also has charging ports My question is....is anyone charging their phones through these ports? What voltage? What was your contact solution. Right now I'm thinking about mounting a couple of pogo pins in the perfect squeeze. Just need to understand the voltage and polarity. I have a request in with the Kyocera tech support guys?



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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

If you plan on wireless charging of your Duraforce Pro please be aware it is PMA protocol NOT Qi !!!

I am searching for a PMA charging cradle for use on the bike. So far no luck, but the search has just begun!

I saw the term wireless charging and wasn't sure if they were referring to inductive charging or connecting to the 2 contacts on the back of the phone without wires. I think the pro model has inductive charging capabilities. Pretty sure XD does not.


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I am also interested in this, from what I read the pogo pins are a very efficient way of charging as opposed to the charging pads. Maybe the perfect squeeze guy could build them into his mount ? I would buy it

I will keep you informed of my research. I can easily mount a couple of Pogo pins into whatever I decide to use for a mount. (I'm currently leaning towards the perfect squeeze) but really need to understand which pad is + and -. And the voltage. I can come up with some way to convert to any voltage other than 12V. Most Li Ion Battery chargers are around 4.2 VDC, USB voltages are 5 VDC and as you know Bike voltage is approx. 12 VDC. As long as one of these works for the Duraforce XD, I'll be in business. I hope Kyocera Tech support gets back to me next week.

I asked Kyocera about this after getting an XD, but their response was underwhelming - no specs to share, no way to purchase a cradle from them, and only a suggestion to search online for 3rd party cradle manufacturers...

Afterwards, I ohmed the pads out on my XD, and found the center-most pad appeared to connect USB shield, so I'd assumed that to be GND while the outboard pad to be V+.
I'd also guessed V+ would be USB voltage, so I attached it to an adjustable bench supply, started increasing voltage from 4->+5V, and it appeared to kick into charge mode at around 4.6V or so. Left it charging for a while at +5V, and it seemed to work. Didn't want to take a chance going higher than that though. It'd be great if Kyocera gives more info. on this.

On the pogo pin idea, I thought about hacking a set onto the backside of a Protech case (https://www.amazon.com/Kyocera-DuraForce-E6790-Rubberized-PROTECH/dp/B01G4AXIGM), and then placing that in a RAM X-grip. As it ended up, the case was just a tad too big for the Xgrip.
If the perfect squeeze guy could come up with something, I'd be interested in getting one as well.

Salty dog. You're on the same path as me. I agree that center-most pad is V- . It is connected to the pin that contacts the - on the battery. Seems logical that 5v would work. I'll let you know what I find out.


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I'm interested too!!!

With saltydogs info and mine I soldered some pogo pins to a USB cable. It makes sense that Kyocera would use the internal charging circuitry. Works great. Charges at the right rate. So electrical is solved. 5Vdc. Positive is the outermost contact and negative is closest to center of phone. Now on to the mechanical portion of the show. Electrical is solved. Thanks salty dog for not frying your phone


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I'm leaving for a month to Peru and Equador. This will have to be a project when I return. I prefer landscape mode. Right now I am thinking of a 3/8 sheet of plastic with rubber bumpers on the bottom and guide pins in the sides. I'll drill a couple of holes to glue in some pogo pins and buy a 12v to 5v transformer to hardware into the bike. Just need to figure out a good clamping mechanism for the top.


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Made this from PE for a 7" tablet. When I get the smaller phone, I'll make another one for the smaller bike.

Awesome , I am not sure if this helps but it's an app that will read the charge rate when it's hooked up.

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/use-ampere-to-ensure-your-android-device-is-charging-properly/

I ride off road, single track stuff. I've tried my Motorola Droid Turbo as a GPS but it looses the satellite signal under most any foliage. Do any of you use the Kyocera in these type conditions? Does the Kyocera work under heavy foliage?

Thanks,
Ken

i predict the DF XD becomes harder to find overnight... because you're making it awesomer by the minute !

that's cool. love seeing the stuff people make in their garages ! the wingnut is a really simple idea i've forgotten about. thanks for that !

have you set the droid turbo to "gps only" in the location settings ? it may be set to 'high accuracy' which means wifi+cellular are included in triangulation, and it will be very poor as soon as either of those signals degrade.

that isn't an exucse for poor performing gps antennas, just a helpful hint.

IF it really is a bad gps antenna, i would be surprised, but can confirm that I've used several phones, including the kyocera lines, in deep woods, with good results. generally the triangulation 'bounces' 10-30 meters (i'm trying to wrap my head around metric this year) when the conditions are worst like:
heavy trees + flat/high rock faces.

the rest of the time i usually see +/- 5 meters while moving on singletrack, and consistantly +/- 3meters while in open views of the sky. i've tried testing in the worst possible conditions, or what I have HEARD were the worst possible conditions:
rain + valley with shear rock faces (or cities with tall buildings) + tall trees + tin roofs and similar sky blocking structures.... and the results are always repeatable/consistant:

if a motorcycle will fit through the crevice, the gps works fine. sure, it might bounce 5-10meters because of the odd terrain, but it's painfully obvious where to go next when the slit in the rocks is only 1 meter wide ;-)

ohgood, thanks for the suggestions. It looks like my phone was set to GPS only. I'll make sure of the proper settings next time I'm out. I thought it might be something I was doing wrong since most people seem to have good luck using their smart phone as a GPS.

Thanks!!