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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
Thanks
jacobusvanwyk@afrihost.co.za
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..
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
- Assistant Product Manager of Powermat
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!
I'm sure that there will be more mods to come for this particular piece of home tech.
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
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:)
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.
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...
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.
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.