Wood Induction Charger

Powermat has come up with a great induction charging solution, but I wanted something that fit into my homes design.  What I did was remove the guts from the Powermat office charging solution, route out some hardwood, and then glued the guts back inside of the newly routed out wood.  The hardest part to this concept was getting the wood thin enough to get a positive lock on the charging coils below the surface without going through the wood.

All-in-all, I am pretty happy the way it turned out.  I also added a piece of industrial felt to the bottom of the wood with some space to the left for my keys, wallet, etc.  This keeps the wood from scratching any furniture surface it may come in contact with.

Wood Induction Charger from Jason V on Vimeo.

Step 1 Wood Induction Charging Mat

Buy Powermat charging mat.

Comments

[jacobusvanwyk]

how to use wood as a "power mat" just take a pice of wood and cut out the thiknes of the powermat itself. lay it inside and cover with wood look alike vineer
[e-mail]

[jvalal]

Sorry man, but the powermat coils aren't strong enough to go through two pieces of material. Not only that, but you'll increase the size of the product by 1/3 if you try and wrap a piece of wood around the existing solution. Good luck.

[joeri reynaert]

Hello,

I'm a graduating student product design. For a mobile lighting system I basically want to do the same thing as you did. Before buying the powermat and powerpacks (will be sold later) I have a questions:

Thanks for the thickness number. But what about the distance, for instance if you keep it 5mm from the surface, will it charge? I hope so..

[jvalal]

Joeri,

If you read the thread I state that I think the distance between the top of the coil and the bottom of the wood is probably 1-2mm.  I cannot get calipers in there to measure.  Also, 5mm distance will be too far unless you find a way to increase the power i.e. distance the coils transmit.  

j

[joeri reynaert]

Thank you for your answer! In my application the rapid prototyping material will be 1-2mm thick but the second coil will be farther away. You can compare it to holding your ipod dock 5mm above the surface. If I understand you right, this will not work unless I find a way to increase the power?

[jvalal]

yes. not just power to the device, but the coil's power.  5mm will not work.  Even Powermat's production model doesn't do that.

[Grodzman]

Nice DIY! You know you can put this thing under any surface (except metal) and feel free to spill water/fluid on it too. The capabilities of the technology are pretty endless since it's inductive, and the closer you have it to the surface the more efficient the charging. I've been waiting for someone to think up of some creative mods to our mats; next up is rigging it to your car.

- Assistant Product Manager of Powermat

[joeri reynaert]

Hello,

I'm a graduating student Product Design from Belgium and I would like to integrate the Powermat technology into my prototype of a mobile lighting solution. I have some questions about the possibilities of the new powerpacks. Could I pherhaps mail you a presentation pdf of my project? I already contacted Powermat UK but they didn't reply. My plan is to commercialize the product; I believe there could be benefits for Powermat. I hope to hear from you.

Thank you!

[mattccc]

will you post more images of the pcb

[ubr.bzkr]

yes more images of the actual power mat please. im surprised how simple the actual wireless energy part is. it looks to me like its just three primary coils with a magnet in the middle to make sure your device is positioned right on top of the coil. the powermat website doesnt say jack about how it actualy works, just that it is basically a digital controlled transformer- oh boy like i didnt see that one coming. the only reason why i think it costs over $100 is because of all the digital logic. did you see all of the digital microprocessors and circuitry on the bottom of the coils? seems a little excessive so there must be more to this than simple magnetic induction through a coil. it is likely a lot more complicated.

[hms1018]

What is the purpose of spending $90 + dollars on this gadget in order to tear it up?

[jvalal]

HMS1018

If I want to spend $1000 dollars and tear it up its my choice.   Why do people spend thousands on cars and completely redo, why are there services to colorize macbooks, etc, etc?  It's called personal design preference.  Do you see a wood powermat option?  I built something that I liked.  If you don't have anything constructive to say don't post!!

Have you read instructables "be nice" policy?  Let me re-post it for you.

We have a "be nice" comment policy. Please be positive and constructive with your comments or risk being banned from our site.

[hms1018]

I just asked a question.  Looks to me as if you have a attitude.  There was nothing UN nice about what I asked, it was just a question!

[jvalal]

1.  Yep! I do have an attitude. I have no tolerance for people who refuse to enable themselves and actually do any work and just shoot off a question.  If you would have took the time to read the other posts, or just thought about why people "may" want to buy something for $90 and tear it apart you probably would have figured it out.

2. I answered your question. Just because it wasn't in the tone you liked doesn't mean it wasn't answered. Sorry I couldn't make it all warm and fuzzy for you.  Get your hugs and sugar coated comments elsewhere.  

Next time think about the question you are writing first and do some up-front research.

[hms1018]

Then you need to learn to be nice!

We have a "be nice" comment policy. Please be positive and constructive with your comments or risk being banned from our site.

I hope you don't talk to YOUR children like that, my dad would just let me know why people try to do things differently!

[jvalal]

sorry, I was raised to learn how to be self sufficient and find things out on my own first and make the effort.  Don't be lazy.

[hms1018]

Well it was a nice personal touch. I thought maybe you would know how to use the magnetic wiring for this and it would be a lot cheaper, but please don't get mad at me for saying that!

[jvalal]

did a quick look around and didn't see anything that was related to magnetic writing and induction charging.  What magnetic writing?

[hms1018]

Maybe you could check this out:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Wireless-Power-Transmission-Over-Short-Distances-U/

[jvalal]

Most wireless(induction) charging solutions have different frequencies and aren't interoperable.  So I doubt these two would work together, especially if you are talking through the air vs. proximity.  Take some time and do research on charging if you are interested. You'll find there's a lot out there and get some education why doing so.

[hms1018]

I'll check into that.

Thanks

[Remag1234]

A powermat is $99 and you can only charge 4 items. IMO, it's not worth the money.

[reinovator]

Very good Idea

[irishjim68]

I see this as just being version 1.0.

I'm sure that there will be more mods to come for this particular piece of home tech.

[astrong0]

wouldn't it be cool if it was integrated directly into your counter top! then you could just chuck your crap on the counter and it would charge!!!! :)

[frollard]

I 'wood' say the project is pretty neat - I don't find the original casing that unattractive, but this is a neat hack to involve regular shelving, counterspace, or furniture into the magical charging abilities of technologytastica!

[crapflinger]

which actually brings to mind a suggestible change to the original product..

instead of making a stand alone wood block with charging guts that you put on a shelf or a table....just route out the table or the shelf and build the powermat right into into it...invisible charger

[moorea7]

Following the suggestions of others reading this Instructable, adding this to a table would be real easy if you've got a table with an existing veneer top. Get it went around the edges, the veneer comes loose enough to get a paint scraper under. Carefully remove with paint scraper, route a suitable hole for your PCB and cables, then plug it all in, glues the veneer back down. Done.

A nicer way would be to get matching USB/power sockets and just keep the wires to the sockets on the back of the table.

I may well do this to mount a few in-desk connectors for devices.  Imagine a table with a built in USB and network hub:)

[Lighthouse]

I think you would likely end up ruining your veneer, especially if the piece is of newer vintage. newer veneered furniture generally uses waterproof adhesives. even with older pieces you are more likely to see the veneer bubble and warp if you soak it too much. this *might* work if your top is a laminate veneer, but even then, i think the suggestions to route from underneath the top would be the better option.

[jhines0042]

Great job.  I saw these power mats the other day and when they drop in price some more I might pick one up.

Did you think about using a piece of veneer for the top instead of routing out a hunk of wood?  Might get better precision on the thickness and of course veneer comes in a variety of species.

[jvalal]

I'm not sure how simple it would be to match up the veneers with the base wood, but it did cross my mind.  How do you think that would work?

[jswilson64]

Why use veneer?  You could easily use hardboard (Masonite), or even food-box cardboard, covered with wood-grained contact paper...

Or, (and I've always wanted to try this, never got around to it...) use real wood, but scan it.  Then if there are any holes that need to be cut, you can create a laminate of the wood grain from your actual workpiece. 

Hard to explain...

[Lighthouse]

wood-grained contact paper? really?

[Valche]

Seems like an awful lot of work to just make a DIY veneer...

[jswilson64]

 Yeah, the original idea was to build a computer in a nice wooden box I found - I'd use the scans to apply wood grain to the CD drive, etc., so they'd match exactly.   Just never got around to it.

[jhines0042]

I don't know that it would matter so much.  After all, lots of tables have veneer tops and you will rarely find a veneer that is actually the grain pattern you'd need to make it look like solid wood.

So you could do a couple of things.

1) veneer everything but a 1/4" around the edges and then stain it all a consistent color.  This would give the impression of a two tone wood effect.

2) veneer the whole top in a complementary wood.  For example, you could buy a block of cherry, route out what you need and apply a cherry veneer.  If the grains don't line up, most people would not notice.

3) veneer the edges as well.  This technique is used on wooden pedestals or boxes that can be viewed from all sides.  It gives the effect of a 45 degree miter joint on the corners.

[jeff-o]

I'm not sure if the veneer would be strong enough to support anything placed on top.  A cell phone or something sure, but if someone inadvertently places something heavy of top it'll tear right through. 

Typically veneer is applied over much cheaper stock (say, fiberboard) to give a nice finish to a cheap piece of furniture.  The fiberboard provides the strength, and it's usually pretty thick.

[eh9]

You can laminate fiberglass and wood veneer to get adequate strength with the appearance you want. You'd need to seal the wood first before laminating to prevent the resin for the fiberglass from bleeding through.

[helifino]

How about styrene sheets? You can get them at any hobby store...

[jeff-o]

 Hmmm, that might work!!  You can get bare fiberglass, like the type used to make circuit boards, but obviously with no copper.  Use spray adhesive to mount the veneer onto it.  Yeah, that would work quite well...