Booting a Tab 4 while using STS and Kiosk

One of the main quirks when integrating a Samsung Tab 4 with any of our STS products (or Kiosk enclosures) has to do with booting up a Tab 4 from a power off state.

Samsung’s design of the Tab 4’s internal boot sequence is such that both charging and booting end up being disabled whenever a Tab 4 detects the appropriate single from an STS device (or Kiosk enclosure) to indicate SimulCharge Mode.

For our STS products this issue could be resolved by disconnecting the Tablet and either charging it for a bit or powering on the Tablet before reconnecting it. However for a Kiosk solution (which is often connected all the time) this really isn’t a feasible option. Since disabling of booting and charging is only an issue when the Tablet is in SimulCharge Mode we’ve managed to overcome this quirk by implemented a “Mode Select” button which provides the ability to toggle between SimulCharge and ChargeOnly Mode on the fly.

By pressing the Blue “Mode Select” button for at least 10 seconds the STS device (or Kiosk enclosure) will go into a charging cycle (ie ChargeOnly Mode) for 10 mins, indicated by the Green Charge Only LED lighting up, before automatically reverting back to SimulCharge mode at the end of the 10 min charge cycle. A 10 minute charge cycle is often more than enough time to either boot the tablet, or build up enough of a battery charge to allow for a boot.

Given this little quirk we’ve put together a recommended power on sequence when using a Tab 4 with either our STS products (or Kiosk enclosures).

1. Power on the STS (or Kiosk enclosure). For PoE devices: Plug in Ethernet cable.
2. Wait for Yellow (SimulChage) LED beside the Blue Button Side to turn on.
3. Depress Blue Button for at least 10 seconds or rather until LED changes from Yellow to Green, indicating ChargeOnly Mode.
4. Release Blue Button and take a look at screen of tablet – if tablet was off, screen will turn and display a battery symbol and a % charge.
5. If charge is greater than 3% proceed to step 6, otherwise wait for tablet to build up a charge.
   1. NOTE: After a couple of seconds the screen will eventually go blank – to see battery symbol again, briefly depress the power button on the Tablet..
   2. NOTE: If you pull the Ethernet cable you will have to re-start from Step 1.
   3. NOTE: If you wait for too long (approx 10 min) the unit will automatically go back into SimulChage Mode (ie the Yellow LED by the Blue Button will light up) if this happens you’ll need to return to step 3 above.
6. Ensure that the unit is still in ChargeOnly Mode (ie Green LED beside the blue button is on) and power on the Tablet.
7. Once tablet starts booting depress blue button 2 times (One second down, one second off, one second down).
8. The Yellow LED beside the blue button should light up again indicating that it is in SimulCharge Mode.
9. Tablet will continue booting and should re-enable access to any of the attached peripherals.

While the steps above are specific to the Tab 4 there is no reason that they can’t be extended to any other supported Samsung Tablets.

– Lava Support Team