DYI Qi Car Dock [ideas/thoughts/wish-list]
- Thread starter lpasq
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measurements not precise but are approximately 6.25 inches by 3.5 inches. share your idea when you're ready to see if anyone can take a precise measurement or create a template. it seems to be about 3/8th of an inch in depth.
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i was thinking of getting a dock from proclip when they come out, and then somehow adding the charging coils to the back of it. It would be much easier if there was a 5V USB powered charger though.
Would you mind posting the specs on the charging brick? Trying to figure out how easy the LG will be to modify for in car use. If you have time, a picture of the pad with the Nexus 4 on top at its limits in each direction would be very handy too, as that would allow me to determine how precise placement will need to be.
If the specs look good, I'll be a guinea pig for everyone as I'm looking to replace my carpc with the N4.
Thanks,
Ben
Unfortunately, the output of the included supply is oddball... 19v @ 500ma. That means a custom dc to dc converter as I doubt you're gonna find one in nature.
Thanks, might have gotten lucky: http://www.amazon.com/GSI-Quality-Charger-Adapter-Notebook/dp/tech-data/B004J15XOY/ref=de_a_smtd
30w, 19v (which should be 1.5A) for $12.
Thanks,
Ben
Yeah, should have Google it before assuming it was oddball. Seems 19vdc is pretty common for laptops. Cool!
I managed to ghetto rig a wireless car mount into the arkon mount (it's really ugly). I basically tore apart the lg pad and just put the coils in the center. It does the job though but has to be aligned correctly. I want to buy this for the LG charging pad but can someone confirm it uses the same plug as the same adapter plug For Dell Mini 9/10 Notebook? thanks
Beat me to it,,,
Im actually working on a DIY car charger for quite a bit.
My basic Idea is to take a car holder wich is wide enough to put the QI charger (LG WCP) into it and modify the holding arms in a way that they extend to the phone. Should be pretty simple if you have the right tools.
Getting the power to work was also pretty simple. I just had to buy a car power supply with 19v output (ampere output doesnt matter).
The problem was that I couldnt find a 19v car power supply with the righ 3,5mm plug for the LG WCP, so I had to cut off the original plug and put it on the car PS. (Be carefully when doing this, I had a friend who is electronics technician do it for me to make sure I dont have a short curcuit).
The charging works fine.
I hope that helps someone. Just keep in mind QI only charges at 500ma max, wich might not be enough for navigation for a long period of time.
Also keep in mind this is just proof of concept and I realy need to find a way to make it locking less retarted^^
Im actually working on a DIY car charger for quite a bit.
My basic Idea is to take a car holder wich is wide enough to put the QI charger (LG WCP) into it and modify the holding arms in a way that they extend to the phone. Should be pretty simple if you have the right tools.
Getting the power to work was also pretty simple. I just had to buy a car power supply with 19v output (ampere output doesnt matter).
The problem was that I couldnt find a 19v car power supply with the righ 3,5mm plug for the LG WCP, so I had to cut off the original plug and put it on the car PS. (Be carefully when doing this, I had a friend who is electronics technician do it for me to make sure I dont have a short curcuit).
The charging works fine.
I hope that helps someone. Just keep in mind QI only charges at 500ma max, wich might not be enough for navigation for a long period of time.
Also keep in mind this is just proof of concept and I realy need to find a way to make it locking less retarted^^
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Wow... I would never put that in my car. No offense. Great idea and I give you credit for trying. I will just wait and see if someone decides to make one.
sent from my perfect 32GB Nexus 7
sent from my perfect 32GB Nexus 7
Great! Now I know power will work fine. My car is built with an ashtray up front which I currently have a 7" LCD in with a simple metal bezel I created: http://nowsci.com/random-bits/20100626/7-lcd-ashtray-install-in-a-bmw-335i330i328i-e90e92/
My plan is to replace that by incorporating the LG charger underneath where the screen is now, and a slightly concave piece of rubberized coating throughout the entire spot the LCD is. This way it will just look like a smooth black surface that's a soft spot for the phone to sit, but will hold it in place via the rubber texture.
Can anyone think of a better way to do that?
Thanks,
Ben
I might beat you to it. (Same car) I've basically ripped the inductive transmitter coil out of a WCP-700 and put all the important parts inside just the ashtray part of it. Going to then cover the ashtray only with a piece of faux leather. This will leave the 12v receptacle, and the ash tray door in-tact. The little lip around the whole thing works well to hold the smartphone in place and is just large enough for a N4 or SGS3. I may have it all done by tonight!
GAME ON!
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any idea what it would take to instead tap power from a fuse box? understanding need for correct "30w,19v (which should be 1.5A)" regulator circuitry for wcp-700.
maybe someone tearing down a wcp-700 could post pics id'ing internals. it might be obvious to most but could be helpful to some. there are tear-downs related to disabling its speaker but thought pointing out the core charging bits would make a nice thread resource.
It's really not that complicated, once you take it apart, it's just the PCB and coil. The coil is glued to what feels like a ceramic base, which is then glued to the bottom shell. Anyway, got my mod done. Works well with my SGS3 but my N4 doesn't work. I think it's because the coil is offset in the ash tray. Oh well. At least it works with one of my phones.
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=35494410
I received my transmitter coil today that is Qi compliant. I took apart a Palm touchstone to compare the coils.
The Qi transmitter coil is quite a bit larger than the Touchstone coil. I am going to swap coils but don't expect much since Qi requires a handshake signal between transmitter and receiver. I ordered a Qi receiver sleeve off of eBay to test things with. I wish the Dev kit from TI was cheaper. It has the coil and required electronics for $200.00.
The Qi transmitter coil is quite a bit larger than the Touchstone coil. I am going to swap coils but don't expect much since Qi requires a handshake signal between transmitter and receiver. I ordered a Qi receiver sleeve off of eBay to test things with. I wish the Dev kit from TI was cheaper. It has the coil and required electronics for $200.00.
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If I can get it working I may look into creating a writeup on my website terracode.com so others can benefit. There are many possibilities. Issue is getting the touchstone to power up since it uses a second thin wire to create an electrical potential to provide a start signal to the board using magnets surrounding the wire loop and the palm receiver back magnet. The board then energizes the primary coil of the transmitter. If the Qi protocol is only used to send info to the power transmitter from receiver to start and stop power transmission, turning on the transmitter via a pressure activated switch could be used instead.
I been thinking about giving something like this a try with the nokia charging plate (DT-900). It appears to be one of the few qi chargers that doesn't look like you're setting your phone on top of something the size of tablet (which is probably great for the nightstand, but not so great for turning into a car mount). The nokia is smaller (length and width) than the n4, and the voltage it expects from it's wall wart is already 12V. 
I also picked up a generic "universal gps car mount" that looks like it would be easy to attach things to. I still need to find something to actually hold the phone in place, but that should be fairly straight forward.
The real issue at the moment is that the phone does the connected-disconnected-repeat cycle that has the lg pad owners tearing their speakers out (fortunately the nokia charger doesn't have a speaker built in). Since this is happening with multiple different qi charges, hopefully it's something that'll get fixed in a software update. That's assuming that qi isn't just a complete outright face-palm.
Which brings up an interesting question, are we going about this all backwards? Like many others I've been hoping that someone will find a way to stuff the guts of a qi charger into something like the touchstone. (Great work terracode, I'll be keeping an eye out for more on that.) But with the touchstone-esque google charging orb having no indication of being anything more than vaporware, and with Google officially joining the qi-competing PMA (apparently announced the same day they announced the nexus-4), perhaps we're doing this all backwards? If qi isn't the universal wireless charging standard of the near future (and so far I'm not impressed), perhaps the thing to do is replace the qi coil in the phone with a touchstone compatible one (and associated magnets) much like the galaxy nexus mod.
I also picked up a generic "universal gps car mount" that looks like it would be easy to attach things to. I still need to find something to actually hold the phone in place, but that should be fairly straight forward.
The real issue at the moment is that the phone does the connected-disconnected-repeat cycle that has the lg pad owners tearing their speakers out (fortunately the nokia charger doesn't have a speaker built in). Since this is happening with multiple different qi charges, hopefully it's something that'll get fixed in a software update. That's assuming that qi isn't just a complete outright face-palm.
Which brings up an interesting question, are we going about this all backwards? Like many others I've been hoping that someone will find a way to stuff the guts of a qi charger into something like the touchstone. (Great work terracode, I'll be keeping an eye out for more on that.) But with the touchstone-esque google charging orb having no indication of being anything more than vaporware, and with Google officially joining the qi-competing PMA (apparently announced the same day they announced the nexus-4), perhaps we're doing this all backwards? If qi isn't the universal wireless charging standard of the near future (and so far I'm not impressed), perhaps the thing to do is replace the qi coil in the phone with a touchstone compatible one (and associated magnets) much like the galaxy nexus mod.
I've been hearing the N4 has issues with the DT-900. Some say positioning, some say weak signal causes cycling. I would look this up first. If it's positioning, it shouldn't be a problem for a custom build.
Thanks,
Ben
The Qi whitepapers say that there are some things that need to happen prior to Qi transmitter sending power to the receiver. The initial one is the handshake signal. If this is received from the device being charged, the transmitter will power up. In case no reply, the transmitter powers up for 20 seconds (or so) in case the device battery is too weak for the device to reply. If no signal then the Qi transmitter turns off for a period and then polls again. I wonder if this is the on/off that is happening and the issue is in the DT-900 listening for a different reply than what the Qi standard reply is. Just a thought...
Changing out just the coil in the receiver to get Touchstone working is just a theory. Need to wait until my Qi charging sleeve arrives since I don't want to risk my Nexus 4 on this test.
