Touchstone hard-wired into owner's BMW 21
Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:57 pm EDT 
Technically, it’s not supposed to work. As many of our members have discovered, your typical 12-volt car power outlet is not enough to work a Touchstone Palm Pre charger, and even most in-car AC converters aren’t up to the task of charging sans wires. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Bretov over at iSmashPhone.com had the will and hardwired his Touchstone charger into his BMW, taking advantage of the empty slot where his iDrive control knob would have gone. It’s a bit more involved than just plugging in the micro-USB car charger, but like many of us, Bretov would rather do more work now than deal with the silly micro-USB plug every time he got in the car. Now all we need is Palm to come up with an OEM solution to this so we can stop cutting holes and splicing wires in our cars.
[via: Engadget]
Thanks to Dave in our forums for the tip!
21 Comments
So you can't just plug it into your cigarette lighter?
If you buy the Palm car charger with USB end it will work with Touchstone. It worked on my lexus and I use it everyday. My other converter did not work. Just make sure to buy the Palm brand and you are all good.
How well does the Pre stay on the Touchstone on your car? I'm going to do this but i'm worried about how stable the Pre will be in case I stop short, take a sharp turn, or hit a pot hole.
I posted this in the forums in response to a similar question.
Palm was asked this back in early February. Their response was...
One of the cool parts about Touchstone, is the micro-suction base that we use to adhere Touchstone to a desk or office environment. This allows for a firm base for your Pre and won
I'm have my touchstone, and I'm getting my charger tonight. I was going to mount horizontally where I was sure it would hold, but now I've decided to mount vertically, because I'm sure it will hold. How am I so sure? Well, I got brave and attached the Pre to the touchstone. I then grabbed it only by the touchstone and held it over my bed. Then I shook it like a mad man, both gently and sharply to simulate different types of shocks. To my delight, it held fast. I'm realize I'm still taking a small chance with a vertical mount, but I don't think a seemingly rare two foot fall onto the carpeted floorboard will hurt it (much).
From the article:
"As you can see from the attached photos, a good friend of iSmashPhone.com did just that in his BMW. After mounting a Touchstone on the center console, he ran a Sprint car charger with a mini-USB connector from the Touchstone to the car's electrical system. (The cigarette lighter will work just as well.)"
I can see no reason why a normal 12V - USB charger wouldn't work. I agree, if you go with a Palm Pre car charger - you can be certain that it puts out enough current.
i just did it this am. I bought an extra touchstone and bought the ciggarette lighter micro usb charger from sprint that has their logo on it.. The box said it is compatible with the palm pre, however the rubber around the usb tong is to big to fit in the touchstone receptor. No problem. Just bought some fine sandpaper from home depot and sanded the rubber a little. It now plugs in and charges the pre while driving.
The first thing I asked at Sprint is - can you use the Touchstone in the car and was told there was no hook up for it. So I'm glad people are rigging their own.
2 questions -
1) I have pre-ordered the Touchstone and the Motorola car charger from Pre Central because I was told that the Palm car charger might not provide enough juice to charge and run apps on the phone at the same time. If I want to use the Touchstone in my car should I switch back to the Palm charger?
2) I was wondering if the magnet in the Touchstone might be a problem in the car if it is close to buttons in the mid-seat console.
Thanks
on the charger, you can rotate the phone any way you like... it will charge up side dawn
Um, did he install the Touchstone in his BMW this way so he wouldn't be tempted to look at it while driving? Notice that the Touchstone looks to be installed 180 degrees in the wrong direction.
Where do you put your beer now?
The Palm-branded Pre car charger is the correct current for the Touchstone (1A @ 5V). The Sprint branded car charger is NOT (I believe it is only 0.8A) -- also, as others have noticed, the Sprint-branded charger does not fit the opening on the Touchstone, requiring some physical modifications.
The Palm Pre car charger has the exact same voltage and current specs as the home AC adapter -- and works just fine with no modifications at all with the Touchstone.
What's the point of hardwiring, my middle console got a cigarette lighter, I could do just about the same without tearing it up.
Just saw a posting that went up on the Treonauts Blog stating that they tested the Touchstone in the car with both the Palm and the Motorola charger (quoted below). So maybe the Motorola charger will work.
"As I found out to my delight, the Touchstone Dock is also an ideal solution to hold and charge your Palm Pre in the car (I tested with both the Palm Vehicle Power Charger and Motorola MicroUSB Car Charger). As some Preonauts have discovered however, the Touchstone will unfortunately not work in all car models
Did anyone else notice that its installed backwards? ...Shouldnt the word "palm" be facing the driver and not the dash? call me crazy but it just seems sketchy
I think he may have done that to keep the Pre from hitting the console due to the sloped shape of the Touchstone. He matched the slope of the charger with that of the console.
This is HOT!!!!
One thing I don't get on the original article is saying that most inverters can't handle the Touchstone power requirements, after doing quick calculations, even really basic AC inverters can handle the Palm AC adapter. The Palm AC adapter is listed at 0.2 amps, and even under the highest voltage level (240), that's still only 48 watts. Even most cheap AC inverters handle 100 watts continuous in the 100-120V levels, which is only 20-24 watts, well under the continuous capability of even cheap inverters.
I was using it this weekend with a Black and Decker AC Inverter (only rated at 100 watts), and it ran without a hitch.
Touchstone in the car works great!
I got a Palm car charger and Touchstone and they work great in my car together. If I understand right, the Touchstone needs 1 amp, which the Palm charger provides, but many other chargers only provide 0.5 amp, which is why the Touchstone might otherwise not work.
The only downside is that it can run a bit warmer than a Touchstone indoors, as the car tends to heat up when its been parked. I have a temperature warning installed, but I sometimes wish I could bump up the warning, as the phone tends to hit 45 degrees periodically when its on the Touchstone, indoors or outdoors. When that happens I just unplug the USB cord from the end of the Palm charger. The phone's still in place, but without a charge it will cool down.
It's nice in the car because you can plug in (I don't have Bluetooth audio) and it will play music on your speakers, run GPS and quiet your music as needed, and quiet it all and channel a phone call through your speakers whenever they come through. Using the car for speakers and mic on the phone actually works pretty well. Much better for me than messing with a headset or earpiece or even a dedicated hands-free set in the car.
Interesting. How many more pictures can be taken from similarly bad angles?? What about the wiring and how he connected it?
One thing I have noticed is that the Touchstone charger seems to affect my GPS. Now that I have a dedicated GPS that is not a problem but for people that do use the GPS I would do some test runs. When I had my Pre on the touchstone it got me unbelievably lost in Oakland and I missed my seminar. Just food for thought. Also addressing whether the touchstone will hold or not, just be aware that the original Sprint Touchstone chargers have a little bit stronger magnets in them. I have a Touchstone from Sprint and one from Verizon and I use the Sprint one in the car and the hold is awesome.