DIY smartphone car dock: 10 minutes, $2, and worthy of a MacGyver sense of accomplishment
By Ross Miller 
posted January 22nd 2010 3:14AM
posted January 22nd 2010 3:14AM
The problem: you need a hands-free option for safely espying your smartphone while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. Your equipment: Adhesive-backed craft foam, heavy duty plastic coated wiring, assorted PVC tubes and pieces. (Total value: approximately $2.) A "goofy vacant space" in the car dash for placement.
Target time is 10 minutes or less. Hit up the Instructables source link for your solution!
*Only compatible with cars that completely lack an instrument panel.
@(Unverified)
Yeah, what the heck is up with that car?
@(Unverified) Scion xB - the gauge cluster is in the center of the dash near the windshield.
@jcroscigno
I thought the xA was the only one with the instrument panel in the middle, I could've sworn the xB was normal.
That definitely is a Scion for sure though, I'd recognize that AC vent anywhere. :)
@dracoaffectus
it's an '04-'07 Scion xB. i drive an '05 and that's exactly what my dash looks like.
I have a nearly useless space under my stereo that I could mount something like this in... however, I found a much simpler, though more expensive, yet more satisfactory (to me) solution. I took one of those griffin iphone docks with the aux connector that plug into your cigarette lighter. Problem is that they flop around like nobody's business making them utterly useless. Maybe they work for an iPod nano but not with the weight of an iPhone. Anyway, I finally got fed up with it, and zip-tied the piece of crap straight to the dashboard through a few near holes in lucky spots. So now it stays perfectly still, you can only see the ties if you look because they are black just like the dock's riser and I cut them, and thus it has an air of professionalism to it despite being a total hack.
If I hadn't done that, I'd have given the pvc pipe concept a go, something I would imagine any remotely industrious geek would've thought of ages ago on their own.
Hmm...
I paid £40 for something that looks quite similar that's made by belkin.
Though it charges the phone, and broadacasts anything coming out of the audio over FM..
I still think it was worth the £40, since the iPhone's loudspeaker is nowhere near loud enough for handsfree talking while driving (what with that being the law in the uk, sensible anywhere in the world).
@geekthree
Oh, and how about when your badly sellotaped together joints fall apart and your iPhone hits you in the testicles while driving round a sharp bend...
Thats great! You even used the same materials as the interiors of modern American cars!
@Jakdaw clearly you have not seen MODERN American cars. Go look at the new Chevy Malibu, or the Ford Fusion. Maybe they'll let you test drive it back to your bridge....
@Jakdaw It's a Japanese car.
Hit a bump, and the whole thing comes down hit you on the nuts, and you crash your car at 100 mph and get KILLED. Ingenious!
@DeeeCoder why would you be driving at 100 mph on public roads and trying to use your iphone at the same time? Unless, of course, you're TRYING to kill yourself....
@Brokinarrow Why would you be driving your car at 100mph?
proclip usa...
learn it, live it, know it
Hmmm well this wouldn't pass in Australia...
To be a legal car dock in aus, it has to be a commercial product so you can use it while driving... But hey +1 for effort!
So that's what you get when you cross MacGyver with the Guyver ( http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/9247/guyver3.gif )???
I think it's MacGyver.... not MacGuyver....
@cromwelld
More like MacGruber!
@flanders mOre like PepSuber. He got sponsored.
Ah yeah why put a $1000 (3GS 32 GIG) smart phone in a $2 dock that could ruin it.
I got mine for $37 from an electronics retailer and it is great.
@CultOfOne
$1000 iPhone?
CultOfOne Posted Jan 22nd 2010 6:39AM
Ah yeah why put a $1000 (3GS 32 GIG) smart phone in a $2 dock that could ruin it.
I got mine for $37 from an electronics retailer and it is great.
***************************************************************************
CultOfOne
It's a joke.
Go drink some KoolAid
@(Unverified)
The holder was $37 not the iphone. Thats what iphones cost out right in Austrailan Dollars. Sorry I should have been more clear
That seems to me like the worst waste of strawberry Bubble Tape I have ever seen! Use some toilet paper or something! Save the Bubble Tape!!!
what, i thought the iphone was the instrument panel. it has an accelerometer in it and gps too.
He should name it the "get none"
This thing is awesome! why all the haters?
Illegal in some states.
Follow up article:
User sues Apple for the phone doing serious damage after rear-ending somebody while texting
Who's MacGyver?
Who's MacGyver?
Hit a bump, the bar falls over locking your steeringwheel in place, you try to quickly pry it loose and the phone slips under the break pedal.
There's your TV/movie plot, now you guys put a love interest in it please, and I don't mind if it involves the driver being saved by a korean gadget model.