Droid 3 car dock

[DrForester]

Picked this up when I went to return the awful multimedia dock. I like it, way better than the Droid 1 mount, also like the way you plug in the power.

Only dislike was the mount am is shorter than the Droid 1 dock, and with where I want to mount it, it just wouldn't work. Nice thing is the Mount arm and mount itself have the same size ball joint as the Droid 1 dock, I just used that arm on this one (works perfectly).

 

[b00mb00mchuck]

Nice... good info... I just hooked mine to the OG dock arm and I likth the extra adjustability at the base of the arm...

Solid hookup

 

[kmwatts]

Excellent case

I'd just like to second that this is a huge upgrade over the old D1 mount, that design was terrible. I'm using the Motorola case/holster combo and this works great with that case, as stated before you do need to make sure you seat it down all the way on the dock for a proper power connection but that is to be expected with a case on.

The clip on top is quite nice and seems to hold the phone securely while allowing for quick removal, no fumbling with wires and stuff like my old D1 dock, just park, grab and go.

Also my package, which I picked up at a local Verizon store came with both the standard micro USB to 12v charger adapter and the micro USB to USB/3.5mm audio combo cable.

 

[640k]

does the D3 dock have HDMI out?

 

[nednarb]

does the D3 dock have HDMI out?

no it does not, but it is a nice upgrade from og dock

 

[640k]

^^ lame. i wonder how much better the d3 dock is compared to the d2. i thought the d1 dock was far better. i never had issues with rattling, etc.

 

[nednarb]

just to be clear i am talking about the car dock. i don't have the home dock.

 

[nednarb]

looks like the home dock does have hdmi support.

please watch whole video

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-3-faq/158212-droid-3-motorola-accessories.html

 

[solar]

I liked the D2 one best. The d3 docks arm kinda gets in the when when im pulling the status window down. It also doesnt have a clip for the audio cable, only power.

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

 

[vfrc46]

Question related - On the OD and D2 the car dock interface was available in the list of apps, and I would use it even though the phone wasn't docked. I don't see it on the D3, any way to launch it w/out the dock?

 

[solar]

Question related - On the OD and D2 the car dock interface was available in the list of apps, and I would use it even though the phone wasn't docked. I don't see it on the D3, any way to launch it w/out the dock?

I don't see any easy way to do it. I can create a way to launch it using Tasker, but the tasker all isn't free. There might be a free app in the market, but I'm not really sure. I use tasker to suppress the car dock, but I cancreate a task to do the opposite as well.

 

[vfrc46]

Thanks solar.

Sent from my DROID3 using DroidForums

 

[JimCT]

I just bought the shell/holster combo (with car charger and screen protectors) and the car window mount from Verizonwireless.com. These are compatible, correct? I should be able to mount the D3 into the car mount bracket with the shell still on the phone... I think!?!

I'd just like to second that this is a huge upgrade over the old D1 mount, that design was terrible. I'm using the Motorola case/holster combo and this works great with that case, as stated before you do need to make sure you seat it down all the way on the dock for a proper power connection but that is to be expected with a case on.

The clip on top is quite nice and seems to hold the phone securely while allowing for quick removal, no fumbling with wires and stuff like my old D1 dock, just park, grab and go.

Also my package, which I picked up at a local Verizon store came with both the standard micro USB to 12v charger adapter and the micro USB to USB/3.5mm audio combo cable.

 

[trayson]

I wouldn't try using any old micro usb to plug into the back of the dock... motorola has done some tricky wiring to make the dock work properly... and they warn not to use the cable that came with the dock on any other devices...

This cable showed up as "faulty" on the USB cable tester...

So it's wired specifically for the dock.... one thing you don't wana do... don't unplug from the back of the dock and stick directly into the phone... bad news... don't do it

And don't use a regular micro usb cable into the back of the dock...

Bah, I call B/S. I have an OEM Micro USB that I hardwired into my car and I plugged it into the back of the car dock and it works fine. I additionally used an OEM motorola car charger into the back of the car dock and it again worked with no issues.

I figure the way they'd create the car dock was so it'd work with a regular charger, but if you used it with the special cable with the 3.5mm, you would get the additional functionality of the audio out.

So far I've used BT, but the 3.5mm out might be nice as sometimes my BT is kinda flakey and skips on songs...

Question related - On the OD and D2 the car dock interface was available in the list of apps, and I would use it even though the phone wasn't docked. I don't see it on the D3, any way to launch it w/out the dock?

I don't see any easy way to do it. I can create a way to launch it using Tasker, but the tasker all isn't free. There might be a free app in the market, but I'm not really sure. I use tasker to suppress the car dock, but I cancreate a task to do the opposite as well.

I might have to try this "tasker". I have been looking for a way to avoid having the stupid car dock home come up. I yanked out the magnet from my D1 using pliers!

My understanding is that the Car Dock Home is triggered via the micro usb. I haven't found an app to disable car dock home, so I'll try tasker.

My other annoyance is that when I get a text message in car dock, it pops up a window that voice promts me to speak "listen" to hear the text. Annoying as hell as it disrupts anything you might have been doing on the phone, including being IN the text messaging app. In older O/S's there was an option to disable TTV (text to voice) in car mode. In gingerbread it appears not to exist.

Plus, I find car dock home a little buggy. I've had the notification icon that it's "running" be showing well after I've removed it from the dock.

 

[clshaeffer]

Check out a program called "Dock Nothingness". It is one of several that do the same thing. It comes up as an option to run when docked and if selected does.... nothing. Thus defeating the docking auto program nuttiness.

Just got home with my D3 desk and car docks and it shows up on the list for both. For the desk dock you have to go into "Other" in the first picker but its there - along with the option to do it every time.

I also have (and love) Tasker. It doesn't automatically show up as an option in the dock autolaunch menu but once you create a condition that checks for docking state it does. I did a quick check to see if it recognizes the desk dock correctly and it does. I haven't checked the car dock but I would assume it does since the desk dock worked.

In other news, I can confirm a couple of bits about the audio with the car dock.

First, it is audio out only. If you use earbuds with a mic on them the mic doesn't work and you'll instead be using the ambient mic on the D3. I didn't check it with a call but voice input worked well enough.

Second, voice commands - which is otherwise pretty slick for an android device - does NOT play its audio prompts through the headphones. It seems to default to the speakerphone. My car isn't particularly quiet and my hearing is particularly bad... so this kinda kills voice commands for me. I was hoping that I could leave a headset plugged into the dock but it looks like I'll have to plug it into the D3 directly in order to hear the voice command prompts.