Nook Simple Touch Troubleshooting & Tips

[CHA-LEE]

I wanted to start a thread here on troubleshooting the Nook Simple Touch. This should be a repository for fixes for issues that we have run into and resolved. We should try to use the below template for conveying the content. Hopefully this will help all of us quickly find solutions by looking at a single thread.

Simple Template Example....

Issue/Tip - Nook is not charged

Solution - Plug Nook in

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - How do I take apart my Nook Simple Touch

Solution - The below YouTube video gives a pretty decent talk through on how to take apart the Nook Simple Touch.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - How do you perform a hard power reset on the Nook Simple Touch?

Solution - Listed below is the step by step procedure on performing a hard power reset on the Nook Simple Touch.

(1) Disconnect USB cable from Nook.

(2) Remove SD card

(3) Using the "How do I take apart my Nook Simple Touch" tip above, disassemble the Nook by removing the back cover and disconnecting the Battery from the main board.

(4) Push and hold the power button on the main board for 60 Seconds, then release

(5) Let the Nook sit disassembled for 30 minutes.

(6) Reassemble Nook

(7) Reinstall SD card

(8) Power On Nook

Edited December 31, 2012 by CHA-LEE

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - The Battery meter on the upper right corner of the screen shows a "?" instead of the actual battery charge level. It may also show an unrealistic battery charge percentage (such as 187%) when you plug in or unplug the USB cable.

Solution - The Nook Simple Touch some times gets confused about how to calculate the charge level of the battery. The only way to recover from this is to perform a hard power reset on the Nook. Perform the hard power reset procedure on the Nook. When the Nook Powers up from the hard power reset the proper battery charged level should be listed in the upper right corner of the screen. The proper battery charged percentage should also be listed when you plug in the USB cable.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - The Nook is powered up and in the middle of being used but it locks up and does not respond to any inputs.

Solution - Press and hold the Power Button for 30 seconds then release. This should force the Nook to perform a reboot and recover from the locked up condition.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - Is there a quick way to get the Nook connected to the wireless network without going into the "Setup" screen?

Solution - Yes. Tap on the upper right corner of the screen where the wireless antenna Icon would normally be listed. This will pop up the Wireless Network connectivity screen so you can easily turn on or connect to a wireless network.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - I have left my Nook Simple Touch unplugged for too long and even though I plugged the Nook into the USB to recharge for multiple hours the screen is still displaying the "Please Wait 15 Minutes to power on" screen. It will not boot up or get past the "Please Wait 15 Minutes.. " screen.

Solution - In order to recover from this failure mode you need to perform the hard power reset process on the Nook. After performing the hard power reset procedure reconnect the USB cable to the Nook and wait at least 30 minutes for it to charge up enough to boot.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - How should I store the Nook Simple Touch between matches?

Solution - The best way to store the Nook is to power it off then reconnect it to the USB so it can recharge and stay fully charged until the next time you need to use it.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - Why do some people have a hard time tapping on things or selecting items on the Nook Simple Touch Screen?

Solution - The Nook Simple Touch uses an infrared (IR) beam style screen. When you touch the screen your finger is blocking vertical and horizontal IR beams and this beam blocking action is what tells the Nook the coordinates of where you are touching on the screen. Since this technology is not pressure sensitive what matters is the size of the touching point, not the pressure of where you touch. This means that if you tap on the screen with the pad of your finger it will respond better than tapping on it with the tip of your finger or finger nail. The IR beams are being transmitted and received though the outer edges of the screen. If the outer edges of the screen get dirty or blocked it will block the IR beams and cause issues. Keep the outer edges of the screen clean with a Q-Tip or soft cloth to ensure proper IR beam transmission and reception. If you want to use a stylus instead of your finger get one with a soft round tip that would emulate the pad of your finger touching the screen. A hard fine point stylus will not work well with the Nook Simple Touch because it does not block enough IR beams to properly determine the location of where you are tapping.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - How can I use the Nook Simple Touch in wet or rainy conditions?

Solution - Since the Nook Simple Touch uses an IR beam style touch screen you can not put the device into a plastic bag and press through the plastic bag onto the screen. It is best to get Gallon or Two Gallon size Zip Lock bags then place the Nook into the Zip Lock bag along with your hand. This way you can touch directly onto the screen with your hand while looking at the screen through the bag. This will allow the water to get on the Zip lock bag, but not onto the Nook.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - How do I change the "n" button function so that it does not take you to the Nook eReader home page?

Solution - The rooted OS should have a "Nook Touch Tools" app. Open that App then click on the "B&N buttons" button then make the Following Changes.

(1) Put a check mark in the "'n' button goes home directly" option. This will take the user to the rooted OS home screen (where your PractiScore icon should be located) when the 'n' button is pressed.

(2) Tap on "'Reading Now' button action" then select the "Go to home" option. This will take the user to the rooted OS home screen when the open book icon is tapped on the upper left corner of the screen.

(3) Tap on "Long press 'n' button action" then select the "Go to home" option. This will take the user to the rooted OS home screen (where your PractiScore icon should be located) when the 'n' button is pressed and held.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - How do I minimize the chance of score keepers accidentally opening the Button Savior menu then it getting in the way of inputting scores? The Button Savior menu is the small vertical button menu that opens when the small arrow on the middle of the right side of the screen it tapped.

Solution - The rooted OS should have a "Button Savior" app. Open that App then make the following changes.

(1) Tap on "Auto Hide" then select the "10 sec" option. This will automatically close/hide the Button Savior menu when not used for 10+ seconds.

(2) Tap on the "Long Click Trigger" to place a Check mark on the option. This will require you to tap and hold the small Button Savior menu arrow before it actually opens up the menu. This should greatly reduce the chance of the Button Savior menu from being opened up by an accidental tap of the small arrow.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - How can I keep people from accidentally removing or uninstalling apps from the home screen menu or short cut bar at the bottom of the screen?

Solution - You can "Lock" the desktop so that you can not edit Apps or move App Icons on the home screen. To lock the desktop click on the Circle/Line icon just to the right of the Circle/Arrow icon. This will open the tools menu on the bottom of the screen. click on the "more" option. Then click on "Lock Desktop".

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - Sometimes when you are trying to clean the screen by wiping up or down the Nook jump out of Practiscore and display a Nook eReader page.

Solution - There are special functions configured by default to jump to different eReader functions when you swipe up or down on the screen. You can disable these special functions by following the below procedure.

(1) Click on the Circle/Line icon just to the right of the Circle/Arrow icon. This will open the tools menu on the bottom of the screen.

(2) Click on the "more" option.

(3) Click on "ADWSettings".

(4) Click on "General Behavior".

(5) Click on "Swipe down actions", then select the "NONE" option.

(6) Click on "Swipe up actions", then select the "NONE" option.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - How do I eliminate the extra home page screens that are present when I swipe left or right on the home screen?

Solution - You can add or remove the extra home page screens by following the below procedure. To keep the use of the Nook as simple as possible for the score keepers all you need is a single home page screen where the PractiScore icon is located. That way if they accidently exit out of the PractiScore program they are simply dumped back into the single page home screen where the PractiScore icon is located and they can tap on the PractiScore icon to get back into the program without needing to search for it.

1) Click on the Circle/Line icon just to the right of the Circle/Arrow icon. This will open the tools menu on the bottom of the screen.

(2) Click on the "edit" option.

(3) This will show the multiple home screens with a "+" on the top and an "X" on the bottom of each home screen.

(4) Click on the "X" for all of the extra home screen pages. Keep clicking on the "X" symbols until you get an error stating "You cant delete the last screen".

(5) This final home screen may or may not contain the PractiScore or other App Icons that you wish to be located there. Go to the main app desktop screen and click and hold on the app to drag it over to your home screen. Repeat the process for all apps you want on your home screen. Keep in mind that if you have the desktop locked it will not allow you to drag and drop app Icons over to the home screen. The desktop must be unlocked to perform this function.

[beltjones]

Help - I accidentally DQed a shooter, and I can't figure out how to undo it in practiscore.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - I accidentally DQed a shooter, and I can't figure out how to undo it in practiscore.

Solution - Back up to the main menu where "Edit Shooters/Squads" is listed. Go into "Edit Shooters/Squads" and select the DQed shooter. On the "Edit Shooter" page there is a "Disqualified" box that is checked. Uncheck the "Disqualified" box and it will Un-disqualify them. All of their prior stage scores should still be validly entered. You will have to double check the stage score where the shooter was DQed to make sure that the score is valid.

[jcwren]

Issue/Tip - How should I store the Nook Simple Touch between matches?

Solution - The best way to store the Nook is to power it off then reconnect it to the USB so it can recharge and stay fully charged until the next time you need to use it.

Bad idea. The devices should be turned off after use, and plugged into the chargers 24 hours before a match. I turn off the NSTs after a match, and 29 days later, they'll still have nearly a full charge.

Even the best battery charging systems aren't perfect, and heat is the ultimate enemy of battery life. This is what kills cordless tool batteries (DeWalt *wants* to sell you batteries, at $80 a pop). Plug them up the night before, they'll be fully charged in the morning, and you'll get a full weekends use out of them with no problems.

One thing we discovered about the NST chargers: The chargers that come with the NSTs will DISCHARGE the battery if you have the charger plugged into the NST, but not into the wall. I have a power strip with 6 charges on it, and I thought "Ah, they're charged, I'll just turn the power strip off". It turns out there's a sneak-path back through an un-powered charger that will discharge the battery. Luckily, I had time to charge them all again before the match, so I didn't show up with dead NOOKs.

Edited January 6, 2013 by jcwren

[CHA-LEE]

My suggestion was to keep the Nooks plugged into an active charger. The charging system within the Nook will keep the batteries fully charged without overcharging the battery. The charging system within the Nook will not allow the battery to be over charged. So the battery will not over heat from being over charged.

The Nook's have LiPo batteries in them. This type of battery works the best and lives the longest when it is kept at 80% charged or higher. Over discharging LiPo batteries is what ruins them. This is why most devices that use them take proactive measures to minimize the chance of the battery being over discharged.

The other consern is that the Nook OS seems to be buggy when it comes to dealing with an over discharged battery condition. This is the portion of the code that forces the "please wait 15 minutes...." Screen as it forces you to not use the Nook until there is a minimum level of charge in the battery. Some times the Nook will get stuck in this mode after being excessively over discharged. The only way to recover from that is to perform the Hard Power Reset procedure which can take over an hour to complete.

Long story short, keep the Nooks on active chargers between matches for optimal performance and long battery life.

[wgnoyes]

I'm with Chris on this one. Power 'em off, not sleep, power OFF. They'll trickle just enough juice to keep the date/timestamp current, if that's even where it comes from. Then the day before your match, break 'em out and charge them all up until they light green, and you're good to go for all day, and very likely all weekend! Anything that's designed to sit in sleep mode for a couple of months will surely do all right being powered down for less than half of that.

[CHA-LEE]

The problem here is that most clubs probably don't use all of their Nooks for their club matches. If a club is using electronic devices for scoring they are also going to have extra devices as backups. The backup devices are easily overlooked if not normally rotated through match use duty. It's easier to simply keep all of the Nooks on active chargers.

My club has 10 Nooks. We usually only use 6 during a club match. So there are usually 4 that are used as backups but rarely get used. It's easier for us to simply keep all Nooks on the charger and know that there isn't some unknown power issue with any of them.

We all have a mountain of normal every day stuff to worry about. I am not going to add yet another thing to worry about by not keeping the Nooks fully charged all the time.

[wgnoyes]

Issue/Tip - How can I use the Nook Simple Touch in wet or rainy conditions?

Solution - Since the Nook Simple Touch uses an IR beam style touch screen you can not put the device into a plastic bag and press through the plastic bag onto the screen. It is best to get Gallon or Two Gallon size Zip Lock bags then place the Nook into the Zip Lock bag along with your hand. This way you can touch directly onto the screen with your hand while looking at the screen through the bag. This will allow the water to get on the Zip lock bag, but not onto the Nook.

Two gallon. You >CAN< get by with one gallon bags, but your hand and the nook are a cramped fit. Hefty[TM] even has a 2.5 gallon bag which we use. (Yes, our first time out this last weekend, it rained on us for a little bit.)

[jcwren]

The problem here is that most clubs probably don't use all of their Nooks for their club matches. If a club is using electronic devices for scoring they are also going to have extra devices as backups. The backup devices are easily overlooked if not normally rotated through match use duty. It's easier to simply keep all of the Nooks on active chargers.

My club has 10 Nooks. We usually only use 6 during a club match. So there are usually 4 that are used as backups but rarely get used. It's easier for us to simply keep all Nooks on the charger and know that there isn't some unknown power issue with any of them.

We all have a mountain of normal every day stuff to worry about. I am not going to add yet another thing to worry about by not keeping the Nooks fully charged all the time.

We have a dozen of them, and only ever use 6 during a match (although I load the match to 8 so we have 2 hot backups). I turn them off after the match, charge ALL of them 24 hours before a match.

The other down-side to leaving them connect to a charger full-time is the risk of them getting blown up by a lightning strike. Now I'm not one of these uber-paranoids that run around unplugging everything I own when a T-storm rolls through, but by that same token, I don't leave things connected to power, phone lines or cable unnecessarily. We get a lot of moderately violent pop-up storms here in the south during the summer. I'm not going to bother risking the clubs investment in devices by leaving them charging when they don't need to be.

[CHA-LEE]

Issue/Tip - The Nook battery is completely Dead and needs to be replaced.

Solution - The Nooks use a 3.7v 1250mah Lithium Ion rechargeable battery. Direct replacement batteries can usually be found on eBay for around $10 - $15 each. Alternately you can replace the battery with a generic Lithium Ion battery and move the charging circuit and connector from the old battery to the new one. Generic 3.7v 1250 - 1800mah batteries can usually be found for $6 - $7 each so they are a more cost effective replacement if you are willing to move the connector and charging circuit over to the generic battery. Doing this requires some soldering but nothing very difficult or time consuming. I have listed a link to the battery repalcement/rebuild thread below.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=181822

[Jim Norman]

Not fer nutin, but how about splitting the how to store out of this. The initial idea was to have a tips and tricks list. it has devolved into a discussion. Feel free to delete this post when moving the others.

I like the tips and tricks to the point that I am printing them out in a list to keep with our Nooks. Too easy to forget how to... if you thankfully have not had to... is several matches.Thanks for creating this thread.