SmartPhone or iPod Touch Windshield Mount

Using a $5 GPS windshield mount from the flea market a few "Super" magnets and some Sugru ( http://sugru.com/ ) to make a holder for my iPod Touch. By changing the hard case and attaching the manets with Sugru this should work with any SmartPhone too!

Step 1

I wanted to make it iPod easy to remove from the mount, so I chose magnets.

Comments

[grahambob68]

My smart phone ( htc desire s ) has a magnetic compass as well as GPS, It can also measure magnetic fields around it and some apps available are metal detectors. They would be affected by magnets but does anyone know if these magnets would have any lasting effects?

[kentkb]

Wow! your phone is sure fancy! How does the compass and GPS work inside the car? You have a lot of magnetic things likre the high energy ignition system and speakers. Your car may even have metal roof too.
I looked (googled) pretty much on the subject, and did not find any warnings, in fact I turned up some "wallets" for the Blackberry that have a strong magnetic latch on them.
GPS is electronic not magnetic, I believe, but the compass... do you have to hold it flat for the compass? Perhaps it is electronic too.
I was not able to test it with every type of phone.
As my grandpa used to say: "When in doubt, throw it out" So perhaps this hack is not such a good idea given the phone you have.
Thank you for the comment.

[grahambob68]

the compass part of my phone works while GPS is disabled, GPS and satnav work fine in the car. The magnetic compass part only seems to be affected when close to metal objeccts, typically less than 50mm, but magnets do affect it, but they don't affect the GPS compass (ie, when GPS is active the magnetic compass is off) I think it's similar to the cheap adventure watches you can buy that have a built in electronic compass, I don't think they rely on satellites.
I just wondered if you knew if magnets could cause any lasting effects.
thanks anyhow.

[kentkb]

Sorry, I do not know of any long term effects on electronic compasses, I do use this with a iPod touch a few times a week, and have not seen any problems.
Thank you for checking in again.

[gnelson2]

why not just sugru the ipod case to the stand that way when you hit a bump it doesnt fly off the mount

[kentkb]

Yes! Sugru would do a great job sticking both parts together, but if I change phones ( mmmm iPhone 5 ) all I have to do is buy another ( cheap) hard shell and add the Sugru and magnets to it, and the windshield mount will not be altered.
Thank you for a great question!

[zazenergy]

great work!

[kentkb]

Thank you, zazenergy.

[Truehart]

Maybe somebody smarter than me can calm my fears, but as awesome as this 'ible is, I'd be afraid to put rare earth magnets that close to my phone. Yeah, their great at holding things, but that's exactly why I don't want them near my computers.

[kentkb]

Good question.
I looked around the net and found some discussion of this :
 Magnets affect magnetic media. most cellphones do not have magnetic data media in them, just SD cards which are electric, most modern storage devices, such as SD and CompactFlash memory cards, are immune to magnetic fields. "There's nothing magnetic in flash memory, so [a magnet] won't do anything," says Bill Frank, executive director of the CompactFlash Association. "A magnet powerful enough to disturb the electrons in flash would be powerful enough to suck the iron out of your blood cells," says Frank.
That magnets damage computer chips is generally a myth. For proof, dissect a hard drive. Inside are two of the largest magnets generally found in residential homes.
Putting a piece of metal close to the phone's antenna is never a good idea since it affects the reception and may force the phone to transmit with higher power to maintain a connection with the base station.
But there is no long term damage to the phone (except, perhaps quicker draining of the battery.)  As soon as the metal piece is removed from the phone's vicinity, the phone will be back to working normally.
The only magnetic thing in a cell phone is the speaker, though I moved a strong magnet around the back of my  2 iPod Touch's and a iPad,  I was not able to affect the speaker sound, plus I usually use headphones, or Bluetooth.
Thank you for the comment.