Introduction: Powermat Your Car
Few months back i made a powermat case for my phone: https://www.instructables.com/id/Powermat-your-phone-in-this-case-my-HTC-Arrive/ part of the reason was i wanted to add a charger to my car. Well a few people out there have beat me to it but here is how i did it.
I have a 2011 Kia Forte Koup that i just love (not as much as my old truck though) but i hate having to plug in my phone into it and there is no real good like docking place so when i use navigation or anything with my phone. So the idea was to fix both problems.
With the case i have comes a single charging unit, there is a magnet that aligns and holds them together. I hoped that the magnet would be strong enough to where i can just use that and not have to make or modify some other holder. So i connected the phone and charger and shook it, it held on pretty well so i was hoping that with basic driving it would not disconnected the two. So make sure yours in strong enough.
Now the parts needed for this is as follows:
Sheet of kydex: http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?cPath=41_54_136&products_id=272
Kydex is mostly use for gun and knife sheaths, it is some pretty nice rather cheap heat pliable plastic like thing. I choose it mostly because it is easy to bend and is pretty tough and match the interior of my car.
Powermat single charger: Need it to charge of course
A power inverter:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016LEAN0
This i cheated on by stealing the one another guy used to make his car charger: http://geeked.co/ this guy makes and sells some chargers, mine is different but i stole his converter.
Note: there is talk that you can use a HP Mini 110 type laptop car charger because it does 18v which is what the charger takes, though the amps is different. I went ahead and used a fan less converter figuring it would be safer and it gives me another usb port
Vecro strips for plastic: Any hardware store.
I wanted to use vecro so i can remove the charger when i wanted to.
I have a 2011 Kia Forte Koup that i just love (not as much as my old truck though) but i hate having to plug in my phone into it and there is no real good like docking place so when i use navigation or anything with my phone. So the idea was to fix both problems.
With the case i have comes a single charging unit, there is a magnet that aligns and holds them together. I hoped that the magnet would be strong enough to where i can just use that and not have to make or modify some other holder. So i connected the phone and charger and shook it, it held on pretty well so i was hoping that with basic driving it would not disconnected the two. So make sure yours in strong enough.
Now the parts needed for this is as follows:
Sheet of kydex: http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?cPath=41_54_136&products_id=272
Kydex is mostly use for gun and knife sheaths, it is some pretty nice rather cheap heat pliable plastic like thing. I choose it mostly because it is easy to bend and is pretty tough and match the interior of my car.
Powermat single charger: Need it to charge of course
A power inverter:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016LEAN0
This i cheated on by stealing the one another guy used to make his car charger: http://geeked.co/ this guy makes and sells some chargers, mine is different but i stole his converter.
Note: there is talk that you can use a HP Mini 110 type laptop car charger because it does 18v which is what the charger takes, though the amps is different. I went ahead and used a fan less converter figuring it would be safer and it gives me another usb port
Vecro strips for plastic: Any hardware store.
I wanted to use vecro so i can remove the charger when i wanted to.
Step 1: Cut and Fold
Ok so i took the charger and cut a strip out of the kydex, its easy you just score it with a knife and snap.
I wanted to keep the little cubby area clear under the center console and on my car i have a wall that goes around this space, i wanted to 'pinch' this wall and have it go out onto the passenger side leaving the cubby free and room to shift.
So i decided to fold the kydex over the wall and then fold it back to make the platform for the charger. I also knew i had to turn it to some degree to create a good viewing angle. Luckily for me with just a basic heat gun i could fold and retry as much as i needed.
I placed the bottom onto the side of the wall and marked on the kydex where i needed to fold. I heated it with a heat gun and folded it over a hammer that was a similar width.
Once that was cool, i marked and heating the other side to get it to fold back over onto itself so it would fit over the wall.
I made sure it would fit nicely on the wall and if not i would reheat and modify.
Now i have to fix the viewing problem, i placed it on the 'wall' and marked how i thought i should heat it to then turn it to a viewable position. I heated that area put it back on the 'wall' and turned it to where it should be good and let it cooled. I would place the charger on it with the phone to make sure i could see it well.
Then i used the Velcro to adhere the charger to the top of the kydex. I wanted to use velcro so i could remove it if needed. I thought it would be cool to be able to remove the charger and place it on my pants where my phone is in the pocket and charge like that through my pants.
Now the kydex will slide over the smooth 'wall' so i used the velco to give it some support and yet if the passenger needed room i could easily remove it.
I wanted to keep the little cubby area clear under the center console and on my car i have a wall that goes around this space, i wanted to 'pinch' this wall and have it go out onto the passenger side leaving the cubby free and room to shift.
So i decided to fold the kydex over the wall and then fold it back to make the platform for the charger. I also knew i had to turn it to some degree to create a good viewing angle. Luckily for me with just a basic heat gun i could fold and retry as much as i needed.
I placed the bottom onto the side of the wall and marked on the kydex where i needed to fold. I heated it with a heat gun and folded it over a hammer that was a similar width.
Once that was cool, i marked and heating the other side to get it to fold back over onto itself so it would fit over the wall.
I made sure it would fit nicely on the wall and if not i would reheat and modify.
Now i have to fix the viewing problem, i placed it on the 'wall' and marked how i thought i should heat it to then turn it to a viewable position. I heated that area put it back on the 'wall' and turned it to where it should be good and let it cooled. I would place the charger on it with the phone to make sure i could see it well.
Then i used the Velcro to adhere the charger to the top of the kydex. I wanted to use velcro so i could remove it if needed. I thought it would be cool to be able to remove the charger and place it on my pants where my phone is in the pocket and charge like that through my pants.
Now the kydex will slide over the smooth 'wall' so i used the velco to give it some support and yet if the passenger needed room i could easily remove it.
Step 2: Power and Done
Now i just have to power it.
Since i have two 12v plugs that i am not using i figured i would use them first for some time, and maybe one day wire it to the car proper.
The charger i have chosen is very thin so i decided to hide it under the passenger foot well. It fit nicely next to the mat which kept it in place. I then tucked the extra cable to reduce slack. I might even have a plan for that extra usb port on the convertor.
So now i have a nine powermat charger that if needed can easily be removed and adjusted.
So what i then did was place the phone and take it for a spin. It took a lot of effort to knock the phone off the magnet. So all in all this worked out really well and took less than a hour to do and was very simple.
Since i have two 12v plugs that i am not using i figured i would use them first for some time, and maybe one day wire it to the car proper.
The charger i have chosen is very thin so i decided to hide it under the passenger foot well. It fit nicely next to the mat which kept it in place. I then tucked the extra cable to reduce slack. I might even have a plan for that extra usb port on the convertor.
So now i have a nine powermat charger that if needed can easily be removed and adjusted.
So what i then did was place the phone and take it for a spin. It took a lot of effort to knock the phone off the magnet. So all in all this worked out really well and took less than a hour to do and was very simple.