DIY 3-Pin car dock kit for you Galaxy Nexus!

Sweet, my phone's got 3 pin connectors on the side!

If you own a Galaxy Nexus, I'm sure you were like I was, excited to hear about the 3 pin connectors on the side of the phone. That excitement quickly died off when we saw that the docks that Verizon was selling for the Galaxy Nexus did not come with pogo pins to charge our phone. The dock is really nice, but you still need to unplug and plug in the phone every time you need to take it off and on the dock. 

GSM Car Dock

The GSM version of the Galaxy Nexus has this type of dock available in Europe and is slowly making it's way to the US. When it finally does get here, it's expected to be priced around $60-$80 (http://www.clove.co.uk/official-vehicle-dock-samsung-galaxy-nexus-ecs-k1f2begstd)  The GSM Car Dock with pogo pins is not compatible with the LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus and there are rumors that Verizon is not going to support the pogo pins so we may never even see this dock.

So it's up to us then...

This is when I decided to take things into my own hands, literally. I saw that there were a few people that have already done a similar mod in online forums, so I knew it would be possible. The only thing was that to get the parts, you need to order direct from the manufacturers which have a minimum order of 1,000! 

Need funding!

So I decided to start an Indiegogo project for all of those Verizon customers that would like try this mod out for themselves and save them the trouble of trying to find the right pieces to make it work. If we can get enough supporters, these parts will be available to anyone, not just big companies. 

So, exactly what are we talking about here?

In this DIY kit you not only get the pogo pins that will work with your phone but also a pogo pin holder which will space out the 3 pins perfectly so that they will line up with the connectors on the side of your phone. All you need to do is take out a bit of the rubber with a dremel from your dock and pop in the holder with the pogo pins inside. They are then soldered to 2 pieces of wire which are embeded inside the rubber of the case by making 2 slits. This makes it practically invisible once you're done. The wires are then soldered to a micro USB receptacle that you will attach to the back of the dock. 

Smart, programable dock

You will also receive a programmable NFC sticker that you can hid inside of the dock (behind the "Samsung" cover). This will let you program your dock to do a variety of things once the phone is docked. It can launch apps, adjust settings, etc...

You can purchase the official Samsung Dock in Amazon for about $30 which doesn't have the 3-pins. http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-ECS-K1F8BEGSTA-Verizon-Galaxy-Nexus/dp/B006NYP61K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337128515&sr=8-1