[DIY][GUIDE] LeGOptimus Charging Phone Dock

Wow, this escalated quickly. Couldn't have imagined this amount of attention, and the XDA News, too! I want to thank you all for your support. :highfive: :victory:


Hey, guys, I've made a simple DIY desktop dock with charging for our 4X HD out of Lego bricks and parts and I want to share the building instructions with you in case someone else wishes one. All the Legos used are quite usual, some can be easly substituted and some aren't really required, but I've included them nevertheless. Three main points of this guide:

1. No Lego bricks are damaged/irreversibly altered.
2. No additional materials required, other than USB cable, naturally. Only pressure, friction and stacking are permitted while assembling to keep the parts in place.
3. No too-specific/weird-looking/rare parts that can't be easily substituted or not be used at all. Only the more common ones.

The dock isn't a looker, but this is a really sturdy, riggid and robust phone stand considering the materials used in the making as Legos can be quite wobbly.

Some images of the dock

I've attached a Lego Digital Designer 4.3 file, and an HTML guide (if you do not want to utilize LDD) which a bit confusing at at first, but that's the way the program auto-made it, no helping it. The attached files hold all the information on the Lego parts necessary. The only thing that is missing from the attached guide and the only thing I weren't able to do in LegoDD is the merging of the bottom and top parts:


The charging part is achieved through this Roline microUSB cable. The reason I mention a specific cable is because the male MicroUSB connector absolutely must have 8x10 millimeters face, as shown in the pic. Obviously, you can use another maker's if it it meets this condition.



8x10mm are the measures of a standard 1x1 Lego brick. This is imperative because we'll jam the mUSB head into the Lego parts and the friction and pressure will hold it firmly in place.

UPDATE: For most of us who have only LG's USB cable, here's an alternative base design Post #17. It doesn't conform to this design, but it solves the "keep-the-cable-in-place" problem and opens the posibilities for other designs to be constructed.

Here's a (really) short video of the dock in action. The mUSB plug holds the phone even when upside-down. The grip is so strong that the side beams and the back aren't really needed, but I feel better having them. In adition, the phone slides between side beams and the back nearly perfectly and, despite not appearing so, there is no chance of it to be scratched, the Legos are smooth.

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Further thoughts: the design is fairly changeable. I started it as a horizontal dock but then changed it b/c it's more practical in my views. A "backplate" out of long flat tiles can be added to the back beams so you could stick an LG NFC tag onto it (I have no spares to do this).

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UPDATE :
Our own @LGaljo was kind enough to make instructions for his dock
HTML Guide
Lego Digital Designer file

UPDATE:
Other XDA members' creations: Post #20, Post #26



Please, tell me what you think of it.

Hahaha, oh, wow! Guys, thank you all so much for the support!

Now, I have another treat for you all. I got inspired by @LGaljo's creation.

Most of us got only one USB cable, LG's, that is. Its problem: doesn't conform to the measures I've posted. So, how to fix it's microusb plug inside the dock? With this:








This solves the main problem which is how to make the mUSB part stay in place. I won't be making a whole new dock out of this. Rather, I leave it to your imagination. Use it as you like

@UsernameWasTaken Can you add my design of charging dock to your thread? I don't really want to make another thread
I used simpler legos, because I didn't have ones you had.

If you agreed, I will add .lxf and write build instructions

You're a fuc*ing genius man!

Awesome!