I am preparing for the HRPT in a few weeks and one of the items I wanted to address is some method to hold my cell phone while I use google maps. It needed to be readily visible, but not in the way of accessing the HVAC controls, radio, or vent flow. I also didn't want to drill any holes in the plastic surrounds... so I ended up taking some 16ga metal and wrapping it around the aux gauge pod and welding it to the metal support bracket underneath.
I might cut the bracket back off for the cell phone and weld a shaft collar and stub shaft to the two parts. This would make the upper section removable and I could rotate it to point more directly towards the driver.
Not bad!!! One recommendation is since phones seem to be upgraded/changed once every two/three years nowadays, having to weld in a completely new bracket every time you change phones could be a hastle; leaving the bracket flat without the bends to secure the phone and using a securing a magnetic style mount like this would be a good idea in the future?
I love seeing what people engineer... Too awesome!
------------------ "Discord" Red 1988 GT under restoration!
Originally posted by Orig88GT-NC: Question. Does the bracket interfer with the GPS signal reception?
Likely could... Depending phone and area used could be minimal or a big problem. Worse if bracket is grounded to the car. Can cause problems for normal phone operations too.
Other real example is "Antenna Gate" for Apple iPhones.... Humans can block cell, Bluetooth, and GPS when owners don't hold the phone "properly."
Likely can cut off a big chunk of metal over back of phone.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
I did some more tweaking to the holder. I opened up most of the backside of the cell holder, added a shaft collar and stud so the top portion is removable and can be rotated, and angled the edges and rounded the corners of the wrapped base.
I painted both parts, then installed the phone in the holder and took it for a drive in the truck. GPS works with the phone in the holder. I then parked and compared the network signal strength between the phone out of the holder and installed. No difference.
I am pretty much finished with this project until I finish a few other ones while the dash it out.
I used this cell phone holder on the HRPT. It works and is easy to read, but with the sun beating down on the cell phone with the display on and battery charging, it over heats and starts shutting programs off to help it cool down.
I really like the location, but will likely add a 2nd mounting location off my laptop stand that will place the phone directly in front of an AC vent. When the phone would get too hot, I would hold it in front of the AC vent to quickly cool it down, so with the AC constantly blowing on it, I don't think it will overheat.
