# Amazon cover hinge system



## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Right now all I have is a WaterField slip case.  It may be all I need.  But I keep thinking about a leather cover.  I had an Oberon for my K1 (both sold to a board member recently).  Oberon's are beautiful, but kind of heavy and bulky.  I want something not too heavy and bulky / thick (not too pricey).  So Amazon's cover.  I've heard and seen posts about the hinges occasionally creating a problem for the Kindle.  How bad is that really?  Happen often?  Does the cover / hinges easily come off the Kindle?

I looked in the review section here.  Saw the simple brown leather Octovo cover for K2 on sale.  That's exactly what I want at that sale price -- for K3.  Big disappointment when I saw it was for K2 and there were no covers for K3.


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## splashes99 (Aug 11, 2010)

I have a K2, and used an Amazon hinge cover for a long time.  No problems with the hinges.  It seems like most complaints/problems are because of 2 things:

1) Follow the instructions when inserting the hinges or taking them out of the Kindle.  (ie.  insert bottom hinge with the kindle at an angle, rotate the kindle up, and slide the top hinge down before sliding it into the kindle)  Don't force them in or out, or you're bound to damage something.

2)  Be careful to open the case from the front and not the back.  You see, the hinges only secure the kindle to the cover on the left side.  In some cases, the right side of the kindle is not firmly attached to the cover.  If you accidentally open from the back, the kindle will flop forward and put pressure on the hinges.  This can cause the Kindle case to crack.

So, if you put the kindle on/off the hinges properly and make sure the case doesn't open from the back (if it does not have a right side securing mechanism), you will be fine.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

Thanks.


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## teri (Sep 13, 2010)

Although I haven't experienced any problems with my hinges there have been reports of some people suspecting the hinges were causing their Kindle to restart.  I love mine and have absolutely no issues with it at all.  I haven't even come close to opening it the wrong way as the tag and strap are in the front so it would be very difficult to confuse which side you were opening.


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## Shawna (Feb 25, 2009)

teri said:


> Although I haven't experienced any problems with my hinges there have been reports of some people suspecting the hinges were causing their Kindle to restart. I love mine and have absolutely no issues with it at all. I haven't even come close to opening it the wrong way as the tag and strap are in the front so it would be very difficult to confuse which side you were opening.


I returned my Amazon cover for this exact reason. I really loved that cover but since I've taken my Kindle out of it I haven't had one reboot (I was having multiple daily before that). So, now I'm getting a nice hand made sleeve from Etsy instead. 

BTW, I never had any problems with getting my Kindle in or out of the hinge system - I think it's a great system and I like it much better than straps over the corners of the Kindle but, for some reason it seemed to make my Kindle goofy.


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## Tatiana (Aug 20, 2010)

Personally, I like the hinge system but in the last month my non-lighted K3 cover is causing my Kindle to spontaneously restart or lock up so I can't wake it up.  Out of the cover I have no such issues.  DH is getting me the Celtic Hounds Oberon cover for Christmas.  I never had any problems with my K2 hinged cover which DH is using, altho' he wants an Oberon cover for Christmas.  I had one or two random restarts from the beginning with this cover and K3 but the frequency is increasing rapidly.  Last night it either restarted or locked and would not wake up at least a dozen times when it was in the cover.  It's just too frustrating for me to deal with any more.  It's a good reason to get an Oberon, they are beautiful!


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## Wilker (Oct 17, 2010)

I have had my K2 along with the Amazon leather hinge cover for over a year now and I have never had any problems with it. I wanted something just like you described...light weight, thin, and easy. I think is the best cover as far as function goes. I really want the "tree of life" Oberon case, but I'm not willing to give up the hinge system for those straps. Too bad Amazon doesn't put out a line of different designed cases.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

I guess problems with the hinges are just hit or miss.  I'm not taking chances.  Ordered an Oberon yesterday.


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## ErinLindsey (Jan 18, 2009)

I was probably one of the first people to report the rebooting problem with the Amazon non-lighted cover. I posted a review about it on Amazon. I've been getting a lot of responses to that review lately. That cover pretty much fried my first K3. I returned both the cover and the K3 and had a new K3 the next day. 

I sent back that Amazon cover and got a JAVOedge flip cover. Works great!  Only reason I hadnt gotten a JAVOedge cover in the first place was because I had to wait for them to develop covers for the K3. I got impatient and decided to try the Amazon cover. Bad move. I had to wait another 3 weeks for JAVOedge to get their covers perfected. I love that flip cover now. I'm buying another one as an Xmas present to myself.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

I've had no problems with my Kindle in the Amazon non-lighted case, and I know of at least two other people with these cases who (AFAIK) haven't had problems. 

Don't get me wrong, it's clear from these posts that some people have had problems, but I bet there are a huge number of people out there with Kindles and Amazon cases (they are, after all, the 'default choice' unless you know enough to shop around) and so I think the vast majority are working fine.

I certainly wouldn't have any concerns about buying one if it's what you want.


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## ErinLindsey (Jan 18, 2009)

I dont think it's every one of those cases that causes the problems, just a small amount. If it was a huge widespread problem, there would be more reports of it.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

How does anyone know that the hinged case is causing the restarts?


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

mlewis78 said:


> How does anyone know that the hinged case is causing the restarts?


Empirically. The people who have had problems with the kindle in the case and once taken out of the case, the problems have stopped. All other variables being equal, while it's not proof positive, it is reasonable.


Spoiler



(in mythbusters lingo, plausible if not confirmed).


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Mine has only restarted when my battery was below half-charge.  So I think that is the reason mine restarted.  The cover isn't an issue as far as I can tell.  This never happened with the K2 hinged covers.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

If you look at the video of the insides of a K3 here - http://www.eevblog.com/2010/09/03/eevblog-109-amazon-kindle-3-3ggsmwifi-6-teardown/ - about 6 minutes in you will clearly see the guy talking about the case connectors. He doesn't know about the lighted case and so he guesses that they are some sort of interface, but you can clearly see the two connectors within the lower case mount slot which feed power to the light in the case. Chances are those two connectors are positive (probably either +5v or +3.3v) and ground coming from the battery. (Question to somebody with a lighted case - does the light switch on even when the Kindle is turned off? If so, the power's coming direct from the battery not via the power switch).

Clearly, if anything metal does touch these two contacts and shorts them out, it's going to cause problems  ! A good guess is that even a momentary short will cause the kindle to restart due to the power from the battery being interrupted. A longer short will probably blow the battery.

I'm guessing that in the lit case there will be two contacts on the lower clip which will connect with these contacts.

In my unlit case, the case clip that goes into that slot is metal, but is painted (or coated) black. This will make sure that the metal of the clip does not touch these two contacts.

I think it's a reasonable assumption that if this paint coating gets scratched or removed, or is too thin or not applied properly, the case will cause problems. Further, it's possible that if the Kindle is put into and out of the case regularly, the contacts will scratch the paint and eventually cause a short.

So, my hypothesis (and that's all this is) is that occasionally the metal clip gets damaged or is not made properly, and then starts causing the problems described.

If you want to be safe, I would suggest that you check the clip before you put the Kindle into the case, and don't regularly remove it afterwards.

Thnughts, anybody?


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Answering my own post here, I've watched the video more carefully and in fact it looks like the ground connection is at the upper clip, so presumably the connectors at the lower clip are both power. This is a more sensible design, and would mean that a short is much less likely.

Also, looking at a picture of a lighted case I can see that both connectors are metal so these are clearly the power connectors to and from the light, whereas with the unlit case, the connectors are coated metal.

My gut feeling, however, is that the problem is still related to those power connectors in the slots, and I think the fact that Amazon have coated the clips on the non-lighted case is significant, they wouldn't have bothered to do that if they were not concerned about problems caused by the metal clips.


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## GinnyB (Dec 19, 2009)

I had the worst time with my K2 when I set it on the treadmill with that LED front gizzy where one reads all the data. After I got off the treadmill and walked away with my Kindle, it switched from the book I was reading to a full reboot and never rebooted! I ended up having to call CS and they couldn't get it to reboot. They did some kind of thing that caused all my archived books to load as new. 

That has never happened again, nor have I ever placed my K2 on the treadmill bookstand again! One may have had nothing at all to do with the other, but no one will convince me otherwise! 

Finicky little gizzy, but I love it.


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## ff2 (Oct 20, 2010)

Morf said:


> Answering my own post here, I've watched the video more carefully and in fact it looks like the ground connection is at the upper clip, so presumably the connectors at the lower clip are both power. This is a more sensible design, and would mean that a short is much less likely.
> 
> Also, looking at a picture of a lighted case I can see that both connectors are metal so these are clearly the power connectors to and from the light, whereas with the unlit case, the connectors are coated metal.
> 
> My gut feeling, however, is that the problem is still related to those power connectors in the slots, and I think the fact that Amazon have coated the clips on the non-lighted case is significant, they wouldn't have bothered to do that if they were not concerned about problems caused by the metal clips.


Attempting to answer both of your messages in one

The LIGHTED case - the light only turns on if the power is on for the k3. If you place the k3 in sleep mode by momentarily sliding the power switch, the light goes off. The light only comes on when it is also pulled out of its sleeve and power is ON for the k3 (I don't know about any other kindles).

My theory is that the UNlighted and lighted cases are the exact same but that they terminate the wiring in the UNlighted one under the hinge pin area. But possibly the wires/circuits were not sufficiently protected against shorting against one another. I think the hinge pins are the same but maybe covered in paint or vinyl in the UNlighted case to insulate them but not successfully.

I don't know if top or bottom are hot or ground but looking at the pins, the bottom is ONE piece so it cannot carry both hot and ground. The two pins are needed for the circuit - anyway that's my guess.

Maybe it is the wearing away of the covering on the pins on the UNlighted that is causing the problem but only if they somehow allow the internals to still be carrying current to a place where they may cross.

All is my SPECULATION. Clearly amazon now has enough complaints to be investigating the problems. It could also be a combination of bad case and something in SOME kindles so they may need both units to figure it out.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

ff2 said:


> Attempting to answer both of your messages in one
> 
> The LIGHTED case - the light only turns on if the power is on for the k3. If you place the k3 in sleep mode by momentarily sliding the power switch, the light goes off. The light only comes on when it is also pulled out of its sleeve and power is ON for the k3 (I don't know about any other kindles).


That tells us that the power connection is switched. Probably not relevant to the problem, but useful to know 


ff2 said:


> I don't know if top or bottom are hot or ground but looking at the pins, the bottom is ONE piece so it cannot carry both hot and ground. The two pins are needed for the circuit - anyway that's my guess.


That's the conclusion I reached from the pictures, but it's nice to have it confirmed by somebody who's actually seen one. 


ff2 said:


> My theory is that the UNlighted and lighted cases are the exact same but that they terminate the wiring in the UNlighted one under the hinge pin area. But possibly the wires/circuits were not sufficiently protected against shorting against one another. I think the hinge pins are the same but maybe covered in paint or vinyl in the UNlighted case to insulate them but not successfully.
> 
> Maybe it is the wearing away of the covering on the pins on the UNlighted that is causing the problem but only if they somehow allow the internals to still be carrying current to a place where they may cross.


It's this covering that's puzzling me, why would Amazon go to the bother of covering the clips on the un-lighted cover unless it was important for some reason. In design terms, you would simply make sure that inside the hinge (where the user can't get to) the two clips are not touching and cannot touch. Once you've done that the coating on the clips (which can get worn/damaged) should be entirely pointless... unless there's something we're missing!


ff2 said:


> All is my SPECULATION. Clearly amazon now has enough complaints to be investigating the problems. It could also be a combination of bad case and something in SOME kindles so they may need both units to figure it out.


I'm only speculating as well, it's a fun way to pass a bit of time! Thanks for your input.


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## Tabatha (Oct 4, 2009)

mlewis78 said:


> Mine has only restarted when my battery was below half-charge. So I think that is the reason mine restarted. The cover isn't an issue as far as I can tell. This never happened with the K2 hinged covers.


I have only had my K3 for a short time, and a hinged non-lighted cover for a shorter time. The other day, I had the reboot problem, and I think it also was due to the battery being low as I had not charged it since the initial full charge on receiving the K3 on 11/30. I also find it much more difficult to see the battery indicator on the K3 as apposed to the easy distinction on the K1.

Since the full charge after the rebooting, I haven't had a problem since, so I am really leaning toward the low battery being the reason for the reboots. I think if I charge it on a regular basis, I won't have this problem again. I really really like the lightness of the Amazon cover and don't want to have to return or change it as I HATE the corners on most of the other covers available. Do like the Noreve holder, but not the new cover with all the pockets and easel, also cannot afford the price.


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## CathyQuinn (Dec 9, 2010)

I have a cover with the hinges. My Kindle dropped from a very high place (don't ask...) and broke (brand new...). But the cover and the hinges work perfectly with my new Kindle. So it doesn't seem fragile at all.


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