Hi guys, a friend and I recently decided to try our luck at creating a custom dock for the nexus 5. What we're shooting for seems pretty ambitious, so I'd like to hear what you guys think.
For Dock Materials, we're thinking either wood or aluminum. I have access to a CNC Mill, plenty of aluminum and there are a few places I could get to make it in my area if need be. The same goes for wood. I'm not exactly well versed on how well aluminum would work because of the next big part of the dock. We plan to implement a wireless charger into it. Would heat from the charger be able to heat up the aluminum enough to damage the phone? I also need some help choosing a charger that could work in the dock. I'm thinking about the Ruix Wireless Charger (http://amzn.com/B00EBQ8RSG) because it seems reliable and fairly cheap. If anybody has experience with this charger, it would be greatly appreciated as well.
The second part of the design is an LCD display on the front. We've been thinking E-Ink displays because they're thinner and less battery-hungry than LCD displays. We have contacted a possible retailer and are waiting to hear back, but do you guys think this is a good way to go, or should we go with LCD? Another thing is actually programming the screen to work. I was thinking we could use Pebble Source Code and just trick the screen into thinking it's a pebble so we could use pebble apps and such. The screen will be a different size though, so i was thinking that could be our issue. I'm not quite fluent in C, but I'm learning at a fast rate and could probably change it up a bit if need be.
We were also considering adding speakers, but that's not a very high priority, so I won't bother you guys with that. Also, I forgot to mention, our 3D model also has a hole for routing a regular cable up to the phone in case it doesn't work with QI wireless charging.
Any help would be much appreciated! (Even if it's just an explanation to why it isn't feasible)
For Dock Materials, we're thinking either wood or aluminum. I have access to a CNC Mill, plenty of aluminum and there are a few places I could get to make it in my area if need be. The same goes for wood. I'm not exactly well versed on how well aluminum would work because of the next big part of the dock. We plan to implement a wireless charger into it. Would heat from the charger be able to heat up the aluminum enough to damage the phone? I also need some help choosing a charger that could work in the dock. I'm thinking about the Ruix Wireless Charger (http://amzn.com/B00EBQ8RSG) because it seems reliable and fairly cheap. If anybody has experience with this charger, it would be greatly appreciated as well.
The second part of the design is an LCD display on the front. We've been thinking E-Ink displays because they're thinner and less battery-hungry than LCD displays. We have contacted a possible retailer and are waiting to hear back, but do you guys think this is a good way to go, or should we go with LCD? Another thing is actually programming the screen to work. I was thinking we could use Pebble Source Code and just trick the screen into thinking it's a pebble so we could use pebble apps and such. The screen will be a different size though, so i was thinking that could be our issue. I'm not quite fluent in C, but I'm learning at a fast rate and could probably change it up a bit if need be.
We were also considering adding speakers, but that's not a very high priority, so I won't bother you guys with that. Also, I forgot to mention, our 3D model also has a hole for routing a regular cable up to the phone in case it doesn't work with QI wireless charging.
Any help would be much appreciated! (Even if it's just an explanation to why it isn't feasible)