Design Magnetic Phone Mount
A good phone deserves a good mount
A while back I got a phone with the intent of having it for somewhere in the range of 5-10 years. The phone had a car mount that was specifically branded to the Moto-Mod line of phones. Reviews on it were hit and miss so I figured I’d wait for the product to be discounted before buying. After waiting a while I found the mount had been discontinued. Anyone selling a used one on eBay usually had a broken part or something. Probably missed a bullet there, I don’t think I would have been happy paying full price on a semi faulty product.
DIY
I bought a generic phone mount, the suction and adjustable arm appeared to be of good quality. The problem was with the mechanism that held the phone. It had plastic ratcheting gears that broke within a month or two. I had a friend who was a fan of blender and I had gotten the idea to use it for designing my own phone mount.
Design look
The Moto-Mod line used magnets to stick batteries and stuff to the back of the phone. I was initially not certain where they were but I used a picture from a what’s inside video of a disassembled device to line up where the magnets went. Beyond that I wanted a kind of spider web look where when the phone was not in it’s mount I could see past/through it.
Neodymium holds stronger than gravity
I purchased some 6mm cylindrical neodymium magnets. Knowing just enough about 3D printing at the time I put the magnets right next to the phone itself. To keep them from getting pulled out the 6mm holes had to be spot on. I gave them a hole that was about 6.3mm and that did it, those magnets were snug. one or two were slightly bigger due to the variance of the 3D printer but I put small slices of paper as shims to fill the gaps.
Magnetic phone mount and a photo showing how strong the magnets held
I used a clamp to press fit the magnets into place and they held strong; Strong enough to be secure upside down. I was fairly certain my phone was secure and not going to be flying after hitting a pothole.
3D print with ABS
At the time I did not have my own 3D printer so I worked with a local shop to print in ABS. ABS is harder to print with but that was fine, I was not the one dealing with it and I needed it for it’s heat resistant properties. Any phone mount should be able to survive baking from the greenhouse effect in a hot car.
I still use my design to this day, I am very happy and proud of the results. I had someone say they thought it was a professional product since it worked seamlessly with my phone and the magnets were embedded into the plastic so well. Unfortunately a heat wave melted my first print but I had my own 3D printer by that point to easily make a replacement.