Wood Magnetic Qi Wireless Charger

BruceCLin · May 13, 2014

So, a few months ago I came across this DIY post by kidgenius, and my inner artist totally got inspired. Thanks, kidgenius! I have decided right then and there I want to design and make one myself. I am a 3D animator by trade, so design and modeling the charger in the computer is really simple for me. To actually make it, besides the basic on-the-fly-engineering that most handy person are capable of, I have basically no experience in engineering, machining of any sort. Greatest thing we have now I consider to be the internet. In a few basic search terms, I was presented with more reading material than I can digest in a short amount of time. So for the following 2 solid weeks, I was learning as much as I can about the whole range of topics in order to continue this project.

Now, five months later, after spending the amount of money would usually invoke the Hulk in most spouses on machines, tools, softwares and materials, I have finally something to show for.

Front

Back

Side

Charging

Charging horizontally

Ok, shameless plug time. Hoping to recoup some of the cost of this project, and to provide a product hopefully some may also like, I've put two different designs of the chargers on my Etsy store. These chargers take about 2-6 hours of setup and machine time and about an hour of hand finishing here in Illinois, USA. If you have any comments, I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Lokke9191 · May 14, 2014

Dude that's awesome. I'd buy one but, my wife would kill me for spending that much on a charger. On another note, I grew up in AH, BG class of 98. Out in Glenview now.

GTDarthYoda · May 14, 2014

Lokke9191 said:
Dude that's awesome. I'd buy one but, my wife would kill me for spending that much on a charger.

same

neuroval · May 14, 2014

This looks great. Is it just the wood design that is different between the 2 chargers?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

BruceCLin · May 14, 2014

Thanks. Very nice town. I used to work there while I was in college.

EDIT: Apparently, I need to work on my reply skill on xda. This is to Lokke9191.

BruceCLin · May 14, 2014

petemills8 said:
This looks great. Is it just the wood design that is different between the 2 chargers?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

Yeah, I started with the design with all the non-parallel edges, angles and concave surfaces, and it turn out to be really difficult to machine. So I have simplified to a design that's a bit easier to make but still keep the same general look and feel. They both function the same as a nexus 5 charger.

gvoima · May 14, 2014

Oh man that is beautiful! May I ask, what QI charger did you use in this stand? Did you take the Nexus Wireless Charger and embedded it in wood or the coil+circuitboard from the other thread?
The QI standard accepts a 5 mm looseness between the phone and the base, how did you take this into account?
How are the two pieces attached (the base and the slope), i.e. does it last?

FapMaster784 · May 14, 2014

Man this charger is awesome!
but very expensive

Geo2160 · May 14, 2014

FapMaster784 said:
Man this charger is awesome!
but very expensive

Dude, it's hand-made. What were you expecting?

BruceCLin · May 14, 2014

Geo2160 said:
Dude, it's hand-made. What were you expecting?

Thank you for understanding. Each one actually take me 3-4 nights from start to finish, and each one is made to order. After the material cost, I make less than minimum wage per hour on these. I do them because they are the product of love. If I have to make hundreds of them, I will probably find help in mass produce them and adjust the price accordingly.

BruceCLin · May 14, 2014

gvoima said:
Oh man that is beautiful! May I ask, what QI charger did you use in this stand? Did you take the Nexus Wireless Charger and embedded it in wood or the coil+circuitboard from the other thread?
The QI standard accepts a 5 mm looseness between the phone and the base, how did you take this into account?
How are the two pieces attached (the base and the slope), i.e. does it last?

Taking an existing charger and putting it in the wood would make it too far from the phone and will not charge well. I follow kidgenius' thread and came to a very similar way with the magnets, coil, and circuit board. This is actually a lot of prototyping and test to get this distance correct. Without the magnets it will be a lot simpler.

Originally I designed to have dovetails like how you would usually to a wood joint. But in order to have a more seamless look to it, I've changed it into them to have multiple faces at different angle as the contact for force distribution at multiple axises. On top of that, There are holes drilled through the back top piece that line up with holes on the bottom piece. Then I bolt them together right after applying adhesive at those previously mentioned faces, so the bolt action act as a self clamp for the 2 parts. I'd say they are quite strong. I have a tendency to over engineer.

Boomslang_x64 · May 14, 2014

BruceCLin said:
Taking an existing charger and putting it in the wood would make it too far from the phone and will not charge well. I follow kidgenius' thread and came to a very similar way with the magnets, coil, and circuit board. This is actually a lot of prototyping and test to get this distance correct. Without the magnets it will be a lot simpler.

Originally I designed to have dovetails like how you would usually to a wood joint. But in order to have a more seamless look to it, I've changed it into them to have multiple faces at different angle as the contact for force distribution at multiple axises. On top of that, There are holes drilled through the back top piece that line up with holes on the bottom piece. Then I bolt them together right after applying adhesive at those previously mentioned faces, so the bolt action act as a self clamp for the 2 parts. I'd say they are quite strong. I have a tendency to over engineer.

Is the charger tolerant of phone cases? That is, will the magnets still hold and is the charge rate acceptable?

BruceCLin · May 14, 2014

Boomslang_x64 said:
Is the charger tolerant of phone cases? That is, will the magnets still hold and is the charge rate acceptable?

I can't say it is. I did a lot of testing with different cases. In the end it's just no consistently enough to claim as such.

gvoima · May 15, 2014

BruceCLin said:
Taking an existing charger and putting it in the wood would make it too far from the phone and will not charge well. I follow kidgenius' thread and came to a very similar way with the magnets, coil, and circuit board. This is actually a lot of prototyping and test to get this distance correct. Without the magnets it will be a lot simpler.

Originally I designed to have dovetails like how you would usually to a wood joint. But in order to have a more seamless look to it, I've changed it into them to have multiple faces at different angle as the contact for force distribution at multiple axises. On top of that, There are holes drilled through the back top piece that line up with holes on the bottom piece. Then I bolt them together right after applying adhesive at those previously mentioned faces, so the bolt action act as a self clamp for the 2 parts. I'd say they are quite strong. I have a tendency to over engineer.

It's always good to over engineer a little bit

What about trickle charging, does the board support it? And how fast is it charging from empty to full? Most QI's does it in about 2,5 hours.

BruceCLin · May 15, 2014

gvoima said:
It's always good to over engineer a little bit
What about trickle charging, does the board support it? And how fast is it charging from empty to full? Most QI's does it in about 2,5 hours.

I am pretty sure all modern Li-Ion batteries in smart phone do not want trickle charge. If you mean by if when it's full, will it stop, the answer is yes. It work just like the ones from google. At least for N4 and N5, the charging is controlled by the phone itself and not the charger. As far as the speed of charging goes, that's a very good question that I have not fully tested on. I will have to try to see what the difference between using a wall charger and a usb port. An initial guess is that It will be about the same behavior like the google ones, which is slower on a usb port.

rubin110 · Jun 29, 2014

Would you be willing to build one with a small shelf/lip on the bottom to hold up devices that don't have the metal discs in? Specifically a Note 2? I would be happy to draw up where the wireless charger sits on the back of the device and mail it over.

BruceCLin · Jun 30, 2014

rubin110 said:
Would you be willing to build one with a small shelf/lip on the bottom to hold up devices that don't have the metal discs in? Specifically a Note 2? I would be happy to draw up where the wireless charger sits on the back of the device and mail it over.

Sounds pretty doable. I can probably design one to work with it if you can provide the correct measurements. Email me a drawing and I can check first if the coil location can work with note 2. Also, any preference what the ledge you want to look like, or it's up to me to design something look nice?

rubin110 · Jun 30, 2014

Drop me an email an we'll talk.

http://rubin.starset.net/id

rollerdyke44 · Jun 30, 2014

this looks awesome!

how is the fone attached to the stand btw??

BruceCLin · Jun 30, 2014

rollerdyke44 said:
this looks awesome!

how is the fone attached to the stand btw??

Thank you. It's sort of like miter with rabbet joint with 2 countersunk screws for extra strength.

Wood Magnetic Qi Wireless Charger

What do you think?

Like it!

Pshh!! What a potato.

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