Google Nexus 7 hack adds wireless charging, voids warranty

Here's a guy who wants to teach his tablet some new tricks. Rod Whitby – an experienced tinkerer who has hacked more than a few smartphones already, is at the final steps of completing his wireless charging mod for his Google Nexus 7. He is using a Touchstone charging dock and circuitry taken from old Palm smartphones, just like other hardware hackers have done in the past.

However, Whitby had to deal with several obstacles during the process. The first one of them was that he had to find enough room behind the tablet's back cover to fit all the extra electronics. And after that he found out that a single charging coil was not supplying enough voltage to charge the Nexus 7. The solution? Wire two of them in parallel to provide a more stable supply of power. He is also currently testing an alternative, which is to put in a bigger coil taken from an HP TouchPad. 

Although his hack is not complete yet, we're pretty confident that Rod will eventually manage to put his tablet back together. Make sure you keep an eye on his Google+ page for updates on his project.

source: Rod Whitby (Google+)