MagSafe Ashtray Puck Holder
Joe Angell
I need to keep my phone charged on long trips. I’m too lazy to plug it in every time, and there’s no great place to lay it down. I mean, I have put it next to the shifter, but it slides around and and blocks the gear shift markings, so it’s not ideal.
What I did instead was 3D print a MagSafe puck holder that fits in the ash tray location. Since I have a head unit that supports wireless Apple CarPlay, I don’t need to see the phone’s screen to get access to my maps and music, and since the charger is magnetic I don’t need to worry about ti sliding around — unless I slam on the brakes, that is.
The video about my trip to DCS shows the charger in use.
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Inductive Charger Choice
I went with an official Apple MagSafe charger. Mostly this is because it’s guaranteed to work with my iPhone, is readily available, magnetic, and can charge at 15 watts (5v 3A) when paired with the appropriate power supply.
The down side is it’s relatively expensive and you have to provide your own USB-C power supply, although I’d likely have to to the latter anyway since I need it to work off of the car’s electrical system. Also, it’s white, which doesn’t quite match the black interior, but it’s fine.
Design
The puck holder was designed in Fusion 360 based on measurements from the original ash tray and the MagSafe puck.
The puck is held in place by friction. It snuggly fits into the circle in the print. The fact that the cable sticks out the back of the puck meant that I needed to add a visible notch to allow the cable to reach under the carrier.
A small complication is the camera bump on modern iPhones. I need the phone to sit flush, which game me two options: add a recess for the camera, or add a rise for the puck.
The advantage of the recess is that it provides a somewhat cleaner look while also keeping the phone from sliding during hard braking. While the magnet will keep the phone in place most of the time, it’s not strong enough to keep it from flying forward during an emergency stop However, the recess would have to be relatively large to accommodate different phones, and it might be tempting to use it for storage, which would then interfere putting a phone down for charging.
I did think of adding a kind of “bumper” to keep the phone from sliding, but it didn’t seem to be worth the trouble. Emergency stops are relatively rare, after all.
I retrospect, it might have been interesting to make the front of the design lower than the middle (where the puck is) and the front. This would keep prove a place for the cameras while also providing a surface for an anti-slip mat for the other end of the phone, reducing the chance of it sliding when hard braking. This also would have provided a place to hide the power cable.
The mounted carrier, with the MagSafe charging puck installed.
The underside of the carrier. It snaps into the center very snuggly.
Printing
The final part was printed in ASA plastic so that it wouldn’t melt in the sun, or possibly warp from the heat of the charging phone. The annoying thing is that the design can’t really lie flat without a lot of support. I would up bprinting it as it would be installed in the car, with a tree-style support for the bottom, which left a fair bit of support material to remove — but any damage from removing that would hidden once installed, so it worked out.. It may have made sense to try to print it on a corner or edge but tilted to reduce the need for support, but I’m happy with how this worked.
Amazingly enough, my first print was almost perfect. The puck snapped right into the carrier. The only issue is that the protrusions to help it snap into the center console were a little too deep, and I had to file them down a little. Even this worked out well, since it meant that it could be tailored to the specific center console it was installed in. The finally fit is appropriately tight to hold it in place without screws, and without risk of it popping out on its own.
Power Supply
I still needed a way to power charger. It was surprisingly hard to find a simple hard-wired 15 watt USB-C charger with a useful form factor. I finally wound up getting one with 45W USB-C power delivery in a cylindrical form factor. It’s a bit overkill, but it works.
I 3D printed a simple L bracket that I could mount in the lock box behind the driver’s seat. The MagSafe cable reached there with no problem. Actually mourning the bracket was a bit more annoying, since I had to drill a hole for the bolt. I had to use a 90 degree drill make the hole, run a long bolt through it, then go under the car to secure the nut. I tried to use rivnuts, but they wouldn’t grip the fiberglass reliably, or I just couldn’t get it from that angle.
I hooked the power supply to an accessory-switched fuse box I had previously instead under the parcel shelf behind the driver’s seat. This ensures that it is only powered when the car is on.
The USB-C power supply attached to its custom 3D printed bracket.
My accessory-switched fuse box, visible at the bottom of the image.
Final Result
I’m really happy with the charger. I used it my trip to the DeLorean Convention and Show, which was 35 hours of driving, and it worked exactly as expected.
The only issue is that it’s where the passenger might put their arm, just like the ash tray. That’s fine when you’re not charing the phone, but the passenger is likely to knock the phone off when it is charging, so it’s something to be aware of.
Final installation in the center console.
3D Files
You can use these files to print my design, or modify it as needed.
MagSafe Ash Tray Insert [STL, Fusion 360]
USB-C Charger [STL, Fusion 360]