One-Handed Magnetic-Charging Car Phone-Holder

It’s sized for a phone wearing this case; you can edit it online in Tinkercad to fit your own phone (case).

I see that the magnetic charging cable I used is currently unavailable, but these from the same brand look to have identical connectors – if not, or if you use a different brand, you can edit the model online in Tinkercad.

My photos are of an older design, identical but for a different magnetic charging connector and a slightly wider bed (which got slightly in the way when pressing the side buttons).

WARNING: While my print of this holds my phone firmly during normal driving, I haven’t tested what happens during severe braking or a crash – something the weight and hardness of a phone flying around at head height wouldn’t help.  Plus this holder, with its sharp corners, should itself be securely attached to the car.  Finally, due to the small contact area between layers, the weak point is the charging-connector loop which bears the phone’s weight over bumpy roads, in between the phone being repeatedly dropped onto it.  This loop is 50% wider and twice as long (so three times the layer contact) compared to a PLA unpublished predecessor that broke after eighteen months and two heatwaves in my car, but still…

Print settings

Main body

Layer height: 0.2 mm

Line width: 0.8 mm walls (and I used 0.4 mm top/bottom/infill).  (My nozzle diameter is 0.4 mm.)

2.4 mm wall thickness (three walls @ 0.8 mm), to make the charging-connector loop solid for best strength.

I used three top and bottom layers and two initial bottom layers, with Lines as the top/bottom pattern and Zig Zag the top surface skin pattern (oriented for the phone to slide down the lines on the very top surface).

Infill: I used Grid – a 10.0 mm Infill Line Distance gives a whole number of diamonds between the side walls, for aesthetics when the light shines through – and a line width of 0.4 mm.

Update: Though a slight warp doesn’t affect functionality, in an attempt to reduce it I reprinted a similar model with just two top and bottom layers and 5% Gyroid infill.  The print is more easily crushable but still fine for the job – and zero warping fresh off the bed!  Though the corners have curled a little in the few days since.

Supports: none

Spring clip

Line width: 0.4 mm walls

Put the Z seam at the end of the long side, so its bulk helps keep it jammed into the slot.

Post-printing

Fix the spring clip securely into the slot at the top.  For me, it pressed in very tightly; if in doubt, glue it in.

Push the head of the charging-cable connector into place through the slot just above the loop.

To mount the holder, I stuck this adhesive mount onto the back, and used it to replace the jaws of an older model of this suction base.  The adhesive mount’s socket is smaller than the base’s ball, but the socket’s locking ring holds it all firmly together anyway.

I spliced the charging cable into this charger – but if you didn’t want to cut the cables, you could probably just connect them with an adapter from this collection.