[Galaxy Note 3 Accessories] kjinmn:
My iBolt QI charging dock for my Note 3 PART 1

MY WIRELESS CHARGING CAR DOCK BUILD

I posted earlier my displeasure about my iBolt charging dock's early wear and tear. I have also been following the XDA wireless charging thread for the Note 3 and the quest in both threads to find the best wireless charging car dock for the N3, since Samsung has not offered us one.

I think I have built the best option for me, and I want to share it with the rest of you. I think it looks nice, works well, and solves a lot of issues.

My requirements:

1) Easy to put phone in and take it out, yet hold phone securely

2) Wireless charging that is stable, and causes no other phone features to fail to function

3) One handed use... Primarily meaning nothing to plug in.

Parts required:

iBolt xProDock For the purpose of this build, there is no reason not to consider the cheaper xProDock for the Blackberry 10. My friend had one, and after careful comparison, it is identicle in size to my $40 one made for the Note 3 and is available for the bargain price of $25.

Lumia 920 by MCPOWER Ultrathin Qi standard Wireless Charger Wireless charging pad purchased on Amazon for $24.99

Loctite Clear Power Grab outdoor Mounting Tape available for under $7 on Amazon, in your local WalMart, or most auto parts stores.

Diztronic High Gloss Clear (Frosted Matte Inside) Flexible TPU Case for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 $9 at Amazon

Galaxy Note 3 Wireless Charging Cover I bought mine on ebay from someone who didn't like that it didn't work with the fitted case he'd bought. retail is $40, but it should be able to be purchased for $20-30 if you are willing to go to a secondary market like ebay. You could do this with your stock battery cover and one of the many NFC charging adapters available through many retailers. I made my choice for a few reasons, explained here: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=49459715&postcount=1571

The Parts:

I wanted to keep everything as thin as possible, but ended up choosing this thicker 2 sided tape because of the temperature range it promises. -40F to +248F is an impressive range, and should manage well in the cold of winter here in Minnesota and heat of summer in my black truck. The thin tape from Duck tape says it is indoor/outdoor, but gives no temp range. The same goes for 3M, except 3M has a thick and thin version. The thick version from 3M looks identical to the Loctite, but does not specify a tested range. (It may well be that 3M id the mfg. of the Loctite tape, but I chose one that was willing to make the promise on the packaging.)

Tools needed: Dremel with grinding wheel on low speed, scissors, pencil, small piece of cardboard, ruler

Time required: 20 minutes.

The MC power charger is thin... Really, really thin.

The iBolt set at the thickest setting had room to spare behind the phone, even with the thicker OEM charging battery cover, and TPU case on the phone.

With the thickness of the double sided tape, I didn't have much room to spare, so I used my dremel to shave down the ridge that frames the little foam rubber pads on the bottom of the charging puck. This brought me under 6mm of thickness.

It also allowed for the disk to fit flush against the iBolt:

I put the disk on the iBolt, and put my phone in to assure the correct positioning. With my phone and case it ended up with the two un-sanded ridges abutting the bottom of the iBolt frame, I left them intact instead of sanding them down so I could keep them as a position reference.

This position gave me 3-4 mm of spread that the spring arm can travel to keep the phone in place and about a 1 1/2 mm even with the case removed.

This is more than enough to allow the iBolt to hold the phone securely with or without the case. *I did mention in another post, that I did the iBolt mod to remove one of the tension springs to make it easier to place and remove the phone one handed.

I marked the front of the iBolt with a pencil to I would know where to put my double sided tape.

I cut 3 strips of the tape, contoured them to fit the top and bottom borders of the iBolt, and one strip for the middle. I placed the disk onto the taped surface. I cut a little piece of cardboard to wedge the spring arm open to make placing the disk a little easier. I recommend doing that, it really helped.

Once placed: here is the finished product:

From the back:

From the front:

Oblique view:

Phone in place:

In use on charger:

I am now 3 days into using it, and I really like it. My car has no bluetooth in the stereo, but it does have an audio in plug. I use a Britelink bluetooth audio receiver I bought a couple of years ago. I ordered a pack of Tec-Tiles and hope to program it to autoconnect when I dock it. I will post once I figure that out.

Charging has been good.. I gain charge using Scout Navigation and listening to Pandora via bluetooth.

Additional photos from the build.