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Powermat in "underbridge" area

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by kdkuhns3, Oct 17, 2012.

  1. kdkuhns3

    kdkuhns3 Member

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    I cant be the first to ponder this. I am looking to see if anyone else out there may have tried hooking up a Powermat or something similar to wirelessly charge your phone while in your car. I think it would be a great convenience to just toss your phone down there and have it charge while you stream through the bluetooth. I bring this up because I just purchased a Galaxy S3 and trying to figure out the best way to take advantage of the inductive charging system hookups. Anyone else have any thoughts?
     
  2. Steve Robinson

    Steve Robinson Junior Member

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    That is a great idea! In fact, Powermat themselves suggest it for auto OEMs here: Solutions | Powermat - Be Powerful

    Here is someone that did it: Powermat your car

    He and others note that the Powermat requires an 18v DC source, so you would need to use an inverter (ugly) or find a 12v-18v converter. Here is an 18v, 80W laptop car charger for under $10: 80W Universal Laptop Notebook Car Charger 15V 16V 18V 19V 20V 22V 24V Compaq IBM | eBay. All it might need is some wiring and a check that 80W is enough (it should be plenty but check the Powermat wall cube). Pictures seem to indicate that the charger base is hard-wired to the power cube.

    I am going to Best Buy tomorrow to have a look!
     
  3. Steve Robinson

    Steve Robinson Junior Member

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    Well, I went and did it. Since I use a BlackBerry Torch, my install will differ but it might give you some ideas. There are 2 problems with Powermat in a car:
    1) Powermat requires 18v DC. You can solve this if you can find a cheap laptop car charger that will convert 12v to 18v.
    2) You have to find a way to prevent your phone from sliding off the charger. A horizontal placement is not so good in the car anyway - at least for me - I want to use the phone display to see the Caller ID since my head unit does not display it (that might be a BlackBerry) issue.

    Anyway, I solved those problem to my short-term satisfaction (the holder is pretty ugly) and will work more on it in the spring when it warms up again.

    For the curious, I've attached a couple of pictures. The Caller ID display is much easier to see at a glance than the picture suggests. For the very curious I've attached a write-up of the modifications and install.
     

    Attached Files:

  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    cool, great job steve!