Starting a quick dumb project: wooden Qi charger

gee

gee

Finally a new goddamn title
Sep 29, 2012
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Several months ago, I picked up one of these chargers for my Nexus 4:

http://www.fasttech.com/products/1154/10001946/1197503-qi-inductive-wireless-charger-large

It does the job. However, I have a few issues with it:

#1 It's got a bright blue LED indicator that lights up the bedroom when the phone's charging. This is easy enough to fix by cutting a trace, unsoldering a component or something similar but it doesn't fix issue #2 .
#2 It's a cheap, ugly lump of plastic.

So I took it apart to see what's inside it. I don't have pictures of the guts in their original casing, but it consisted of two PCBs and a wireless charging coil. The power cord plugs into PCB #1 , which has some current sensing bits on it to light up half a dozen blue LEDs during charging. This connects with a couple of jumper wires to PCB #2 , which has the actual Qi charging chipset on it. Conveniently, this PCB is designed to accept a DC connector directly - of the same type that's on "PCB #1 ". so I desoldered the connector from PCB #1 , soldered it onto PCB #2 , plugged in the wall adapter, tested it with my phone, and it works!

Now for a case. I went to the local specialty hardwood store and bought myself a nice chunk of cocobolo. Shown here with the Qi charger guts (with PCB #1 thrown away, and PCB #2 now stuffed with the DC connector)

131002126IMG20131001143413.jpg


So here's the plan. The cocobolo is 90mm wide, which I'm gonna keep. I'm cutting two pieces of cocobolo to a length of 160mm, and running them through a thickness planer to get a 12mm thick piece and a 6mm piece. (Yeah, I'm wasting wood, but I don't have access to a bandsaw, or the dexterity to properly halve the wood.) Then it hits the router table. I've thrown together the basic concept in Sketchup:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=4eef718bbb3aedc4c82ae8b3b9e1d190&result=4

Where the wireless coil is, I have to route the wood to a thickness of 1.5mm. Wish me luck on that...

I've got a few other projects to get off the plate so this might end up taking weeks to finally get done, but I'll keep this thread updated with the progress.
 
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I originally planned on routing through the whole piece for the charge coil location, and buying veneer for the top, but I'd have to special order it and it's a bitch to get a suitable thickness.
 
I will fire off an email today. He only works a half day on Wednesdays, and has been having issues with his internet provider at home, so he might not get it till tomorrow.
 
Why not just rout out the backside and mount the coil from underneath? Then you'd have a clean surface up top to set your device on
 
CletusJones said:
Why not just rout out the backside and mount the coil from underneath? Then you'd have a clean surface up top to set your device on
Click to expand...
That's the original plan. Problem is I need to route to a 1.5mm thickness from behind.

Think I've got a good idea now though - I'll thickness plane to 15mm instead of 12mm, route to a depth of 4.5mm by the coil, then thickness plane the last 3mm off.
 
gee said:
That's the original plan. Problem is I need to route to a 1.5mm thickness from behind.

Think I've got a good idea now though - I'll thickness plane to 15mm instead of 12mm, route to a depth of 4.5mm by the coil, then thickness plane the last 3mm off.
Click to expand...

Great idea
 
gee said:
That's the original plan. Problem is I need to route to a 1.5mm thickness from behind.

Think I've got a good idea now though - I'll thickness plane to 15mm instead of 12mm, route to a depth of 4.5mm by the coil, then thickness plane the last 3mm off.
Click to expand...

Why is that difficult? Set the depth on your router based on the thickness of the entire board.
 
gee said:
I'm afraid I'll tear/split the 1.5mm thick part trying to route it from behind. Maybe not though.
Click to expand...
I was thinking it might be close, but I you likely run the same risk with a planer too. How hard is the wood you're using? Do you have extra to do a test on first?
 
Dad said:
Cocobolo is difficult to work with hand tools; it’s hard, dense, and the grain is frequently rowed.* And 1.5 mm isn’t enough to be forgiving.* The only thing I can think of besides what he plans is to cut the recess all the way though the block and then veneer the face.* If he has a bandsaw, he could even saw the face veneer off the original block and glue it back down after the recess is cut, so that the grain matches up.
Click to expand...
I let him know what your plan is, sounds like that might be your best option
 
Thank your dad for the info. We've got a bandsaw at work, but it's only got about an inch of usable blade so I can't divide the board in two with it.

Our manual mill at work is capable of 8000RPM. Might take longer than using a router, but I might give it a try..
 
gee said:
Thank your dad for the info. We've got a bandsaw at work, but it's only got about an inch of usable blade so I can't divide the board in two with it.

Our manual mill at work is capable of 8000RPM. Might take longer than using a router, but I might give it a try..
Click to expand...

Will do.
You might have some luck asking around and visiting the shops of local woodworkers, I have lost track of how many times I have gone with dad to the shop of some random guy and wandered around while he BSd with the owner. When he finally got to the point of asking for what he originally showed up for he would usually get it as a favor or barter
 
Mr. Asa said:
Will do.
You might have some luck asking around and visiting the shops of local woodworkers, I have lost track of how many times I have gone with dad to the shop of some random guy and wandered around while he BSd with the owner. When he finally got to the point of asking for what he originally showed up for he would usually get it as a favor or barter
Click to expand...
This works surprisingly well. You can usually get people to help you out if you make friends first
 
Did some playing with card stock, my phone and the charging coil. A 3mm separation is reliable, even with the bumper case on my phone. I can do 5mm but it's finicky getting the charger to recognize the phone, gonna do 2-2.5mm. Makes me feel a bit better about the top surface.
 
thats a lot easier than 1.5

I think you would have had to go veneer with a 1.5 requirement.
 
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