Phone charger in place of a useless cubby. (1 Viewer)

[flagstaff]

So, I have been thinking about this for a long time. I never know what to do with my phone when driving. I doesn’t fit in my pocket when I’m sitting and it would be nice if I could put it somewhere and it would wirelessly charge. So, bla, bla, bla … I made a wireless charger in place of the useless cubby!

I machined the base out of black plastic, covered the top in plexiglass (what I had lying around.) and installed a charging kit underneath. It even fits the wife's missive OtterBox phone case.

Wireless chargers never seem to charge as fast as the corded one, but I'm happy to have a place to put my phone.

Jut thought I would share.
Flagstaff

 

[Kernal]

Got details on the charging kit, where purchased, how installed, etc, etc?

 

[flagstaff]

I Pulled electronics from an old charger for the first revision. Currently connected to the USB from the deck power but I'm guessing that will not be good enough. I just ordered a 12V to 5V power supply to see if it will charge faster.

I'm also looking for a higher power charging station but not really interested in buying a complete unit just to pull it apart.

 

[White Stripe]

Cell phones are just a fad.

 

[lelandEOD]

I love creative solutions like this.

Very cool.

 

[Francis K]

I like the concept a lot, I’ve thought about fitting one in the LC center console cubby, where the speaker is on the LX. The problem for me with putting it in the useless cubby is that I can’t my your phone while it’s in there. If I had a head unit with Apple car play that would be absolutely perfect though….hmmm

 

[clx16]

I was at Walmart in the clearance section and they had wireless chargers for 8 bucks so i bought one for parts however i have a three coil wireless charger i got off Amazon a while back that i have also used. It is usually cheaper to buy one on sale and harvest parts than get the guts separately.

 

[flagstaff]

if a charger isn't that important for somone, would anyone still be interested in just a place for your phone?

I personally like the charger, but I am concerned that the technology will be outdated in a few years.

 

[clx16]

Have you heard of new charging tech coming?

 

[rolliges]

Could it be a bit deeper so only ⅛ to ¼" of the phone sticks out?

 

[flagstaff]

Have you heard of new charging tech coming?

I have seen higher power wireless chargers. I believe the new iphone and even Google's Pixel 6 can handle higher power wireless charging. Their wireless chargers are ~$100 so buying one to take apart seems dumb.

 

[clx16]

@flagstaff yeah so leaving a void in the holder will let upgrades later be option. I've designed and created an extremely crude version of this cell phone holder with a charger in it. It is really rough and i haven't been happy with my design that printed, but holding the charging coils and taping in to the power i get from the sig lighter will be the same no matter what i get. I agree they go up in power for faster charging but I think they all standardized to the Qi tech for negotiating the charge rates etc. the design that works and looks good in that space is by far the hard part, keeping a void that isn't too thick and can accommodate a variety of coil setups would make it upgradable. Basically the design you have is really good and flexible, however if you want to add a little more individualization for others, you can and would likely be appreciated by a lot of people.

Now i don't currently use that space that way because currently i have a USB-C cable going to my center console top box which has it's own cooling fan and connects to my android auto head unit. I have thought about making that space in the dash more of a dock but it would be very phone dependent and less easy to get the phone to slide in and just plug in to the usb-c. It is also not worth pushing that direction when wireless android auto is becoming more common. In short wireless charging is the right direction according to my opinion.

 

[Francis K]

My sister picked up 3 mousepads that double as wireless chargers and they charge really fast, they were like 10 bucks each. I have them in my office I’ll get the brand and ask her where she found them tomorrow, would work really well for this application I think…

 

[flagstaff]

My sister picked up 3 mousepads that double as wireless chargers and they charge really fast, they were like 10 bucks each. I have them in my office I’ll get the brand and ask her where she found them tomorrow, would work really well for this application I think…

It would. Thanks

 

[Francis K]

Alright, so my sister picked these up at CVS they were Christmas clearance she got a few of them for $2 each. Might be too late to find them on clearance like that but I did find them on Amazon and a few a little cheaper on ebay:

Amazon product ASIN B09QM62LTS
The thing works flawlessly for my iphone 11 as well as her old ass android and charges really fast, as fast as any OEM charger I've ever had. The charging mechanism is sectioned off to only the left side of the pad and there is a little indicator light that turns blue when it is charging. Before I even saw this thread I was thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea to chop one up and fit it in the cruiser somewhere, maybe up against the front of little center cubby in the LC where the extra speaker is in the LX. Run the wire through the bottom of the console somewhere and up to it......someone probably much better at these things than me would probably make it work really nice....

Here it is on my desk with my crusty mouse.....

 

[clx16]

Could it be cut? Here is where i used mouse pads.... Hands Free Solution Center Console - Other Ideas? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/hands-free-solution-center-console-other-ideas.1067854/