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The big Phone Mounting topic
Quote from dstnrgrs on April 15, 2021, 09:06Just to share what I’ve been using since Sept 2019 after I discovered the Scenic app. At the time I couldn’t find any reasonably priced wireless charging mounts, but I admit I’m a cheapskate and also enjoy DIY projects, so I made my own. I have an iPhone 8, so no image stabilization issues. I ran this mount on my Vstrom and even transferred it to my DR650 for a 500 mile gravel/off-road ride. The mount held up superbly and kept my phone battery charged up nicely. The only change I’ve made since this video is to extend the wiring from the charging coil to the circuit board and waterproof it better with some adhesive lined heat shrink tubing.
I’ve since created a similar mount that snaps directly to the handlebars of my DR650 and rests atop the handlebar clamps. I’ve been over some very rough terrain and it’s held up well with no issues.
Very nice 🙂
Has anyone had issues with overheating with a wireless charging head?
Since I installed my QuadLock wireless charging head I noticed that sometimes (on longer rides under the Mexican sun) my phone's brightness was less than maximum (it looks like 25% or so), even though the brightness slider in the control panel showed at 100%. Pretty hard to see anything on the screen at 25% in full sunlight.
I've since then learned that this is a built in protection against overheating of the iPhone. Also, it happened to me once that the phone overheated entirely upon which this screen shows:
No harm done, but had to wait a while and restart phone.
I never had this problem with the quad lock before installing the wireless charging head. I knew that wireless charging heads create some heat simply due to the way they work, but I guess in combination with direct sunlight and a energy intensive navigation app running, it can become a problem.
I think I'm going to remove the wireless charging head because of this.
With the overheating I have found that the amount of power the charger puts out has a lot to do with heat. To Keep heat down you want a charger that only puts enough to charge your phone slightly. ie a faster charge heats up phone. I have a 2.1A in the wife's car and that will heat up my phone, but in installed one under my dash and I run gps and music and it only gets warm. I can't remember size of the unit but I would guess .75 to 1 amp charge.
This doesn't qualify as a big phone, but it is an iPad mini. It's a RAM mount that I put onto my 2021 Harley Davidson Road King. I like basic bikes with minimal solid fairing, so I really liked the Road King's clear fairing. Most modern touring bikes come with touch screens now, but I thought the iPad mini was a far superior option for all of the reasons why. This one is the cell version which also comes with a built-in GPS. The screen real estate is more than generous, but it's also very discrete.
There is a longer arm available for the RAM mount, but it's on backorder. I will probably order it to center this a little better between the handlebars. I haven't road tested it yet, but probably will in a couple of days. I have a short USB-A to Lightning cord that will connect nicely to it to keep it powered.
It will play my music through Bluetooth and Scenic of course. I won't be able to make phone calls, but I really hate doing that on the bike anyway.