Build a hidden Qi wireless phone charger!

Build a hidden Qi wireless phone charger!

Phone docks are expensive and platform-specific. Charging cables are annoying and unsightly. Wireless chargers alleviate some of these inconveniences, but still leave a lot of polish to be desired. I set out to eliminate all of these complaints, and in building a wireless charger into a nightstand or desk, I am now able to plop my phone down on my nightstand and watch as the battery fills up - like magic.

For this Instructable, I will be demonstrating the process of building a wireless Qi charger into a desk or nightstand. The results are polished, convenient, and impressive. Done right, you'll make your phone-charging experience seamless and attractive.

Step 1:

In terms of supplies for the project, you'll need the following parts and tools ready to use. You may have to hunt around to find a MakerSpace with a ShopBot CNC Router, but you could (in theory) chisel out your wood surface instead.

• PowerBot Qi standard induction charger (any color!)
  • I chose the red model knowing that I wanted to use one of the rubber rings to indicate where my charging pad is hidden.
  • This model comes with a USB cable long enough to use for this project!
• Any 5v AC - USB power adapter, 1.5A output or greater works best
  
  • You can use any 5v USB adapter, including the one that came with your phone. A higher output adapter will charge your phone faster.
• Small phillips screwdriver
• Small flathead screwdriver
• Hot glue gun
• Router (CNC or manual)
  • I used a ShopBot, see if your MakerSpace has one!

You'll also need the obvious:

• A desk or nightstand that you're comfortable taking apart and manipulating
  • I used a board of walnut to illustrate my project since my desk is made of glass and my nightstand is ugly.
• A phone that supports induction charging via the Qi standard
• iPhones are not supported
• Most Samsung Galaxy phones are supported with a special back cover
  • Example: Samsung Galaxy S4 Qi Battery Cover
• Many recent Windows Phones and Android Phones support Qi
• Phones with MicroUSB charging ports that do NOT natively support Qi can use the following adapter to add Qi charging capability using the MicroUSB port
• MicroUSB Qi Charging Film

• Step 2: Disassemble the PowerBot

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• Dig in! Peel away what you can of the plastic housing with your flathead screwdriver, then pry the rest off. The PowerBot casing is in two halves, you'll need to separate the two. With the PCB exposed (it's screwed into the top half of the casing), use your phillips screwdriver to remove the guts of the PowerBot. What you see in my final picture here is where the magic happens - that's an induction coil you're looking at! Your Qi compatible phone has a similar coil inside it, to receive the electromagnetic field produced by the PowerBot.
  The induction charging system can only work within a limited distance. The coil in your phone can't be too far away from the coil from the PowerBot, so removing the PowerBot's casing reduces unnecessary obstruction between the two coils. This will come into play in the next step...

 Step 3: Find the maximum charging distance

As you can see in these pictures, I've confirmed that the naked PowerBot is working with my phone, and I've confirmed that the PowerBot continues to charge my phone when the phone is raised above the induction coil. I estimate from this test that it will continue to charge up until around 0.3 inches. If you have a case on your phone, this may be a little tight - you'll definitely need to use a CNC router for better precision. If you keep your phone case-free, you may be able to get away with a hand router (or even a chisel!).

Remember - GREEN means it's charging. RED means there's no connection

Step 4: Fit and attach naked PowerBot

 your naked PowerBot will fit in just about perfectly! You shouldn't have to use any excessive force sliding the naked PowerBot into the hole, and the MicroUSB cable should fit happily, too. Make sure the MicroUSB cable is plugged in BEFORE sliding the naked PowerBot into place.

After confirming that the naked PowerBot fits and still functions (red light means "Ready to Charge!" in the second picture), use your hot glue gun to (CAREFULLY) glue the naked PowerBot into place. This is key - you don't want your hidden charger falling fate to gravity. I glued in/around the existing screw holes, and my naked PowerBot is held snugly in place. Keep your MicroUSB cable ATTACHED throughout this process, but keep your 5v AC/USB adapter UNPLUGGED from the wall.

Step 5: Flip your surface over and test!

Success! I drop my phone onto my hidden charger, and immediately it begins to charge. I also hot-glued the red rubber ring from the first step to the top of the surface (desk or table) to indicate where the charger is. You can now reassemble your desk or table, and enjoy your hidden charger!

Intro and Materials

This fun project comes from Instructables user Roy02. With a few materials and a little bit of time, he shows us how to put together a working battery made from water. This project, which is part of the Instructables Green Design Contest, could be used to add a little charge to your smartphone or be a fun way to introduce battery chemistry to kids.

Roy02 says, "The concept behind it is to make a galvanic cell that works on either a saltbridge or a sourbridge. In this case it's a saltbridge, but you could try using plants or wine (sourbridge) to create the same effect."

Things you'll need:

- copper sulphate
- zinc sulphate
- water
- led lights low voltage (testing)
- clamp cables
- 6 plastic bottles (1L)
- 6 pieces of copper
- 6 pieces of zinc

How to make a water battery

Get started

The first step is filling the bottles with water. I recommend using six (6) 1L bottles.

Put the bottles in a wooden frame so you can move them around more easily.

Cut the copper and zinc into 6 pieces each that you can clamp and put into the bottle neck.

How to make a water battery

Make the battery

Fill the bottles and connect the anodes en cathodes:

left bottle above: add 20 gr of copper sulphate
left bottle below: add 20 gr of zinc sulphate
center bottle above: add 20 gr of zinc sulphate
center bottle below: add 20 gr of copper sulphate
right bottle above: add 20 gr of copper sulphate
right bottle below: add 20 gr of zinc sulphate

Each bottle will produce around 2 volts.

When you have this prepared, connect the copper to the red wire, with zinc on the other side so you will have a + and - side. Put zinc to the dark wire and on the other end copper. Start in the first bottle with copper and the end in the next bottle (zinc) in the second bottle you start again with a red wire that will end in the next bottle and there you start again with a black wire. This will create the electric circuit.

(Make sure the clamp cables do not touch the water.)

Close bottles and test voltage

When you're finished filling the bottles and connecting the cables, you'll end up with a red + and a black - wire from the first and last bottle.

Make sure you cover the bottle necks with plastic or rubber so that you minimize evaporation.

Measure the voltage using a voltmeter. You can also test it by using a LED that is close to the average volt that is produced.

The picture shows a 12 volt LED burning.

Finished

By using the clamps, you could connect the battery to a charging wire. This makes it possible to charge a low-powered gadget or possibly even a cellphone like in the 3D concept.

A Whole Computer Inside an Altoids Tin

Granted, there seems to be no end to the cool things we can create from Altoids tins - cameras, emergency kits, solar powered gadget chargers. But an entire computer?! Yep, someone pulled it off. Time for famously portable netbooks to step aside? Check out this video and decide. Red Ferret points us to this eeeetty bitty computer stashed inside an Altoids tin. And it's really functional, built with an 8-core 80MHz CPU, a (whopping) 32K RAM, Ethernet port, video out, infrared controller sensor and speaker.

Best of all - it's a kit. You can actually make one yourself in an afternoon if you want, thanks to Think Geek. However, it would be extra cool, extra geeky, and extra green if you figure out how to do this from recycled computer parts.

Sure, you could use it to write code for a fun new game...or you could write the next climate science program that saves the world!

Build a Solar Charger For iPhones In 30 Minutes

Images via Joshua Zimmerman of BrownDogGadgets

Earlier this year, Joshua Zimmerman brought us the super easy DIY solar charger made from an Altoids tin. We loved the project, however, he noted that "Apple doesn't let its products play nice with generic USB chargers." So, he has created a new project that works specifically with iPhones and iPods.
This new Instructable is made specifically for those of us who want to charge our Apple gadgets, and it can be made for under $20 -- and it can be done in as little as 30 minutes (or 60 if you're less experienced with putting these little chargers together).

The parts include:
Charging Circuit
2x AA Battery Holder
2x Rechargeable Batteries
1N914 Blocking Diode
Solar Cell greater than 4V
Stranded Wire
Tape
And of course, the trusty Altoids Tin that is the mark of all things small, gadgety and DIY.

You can get an entire kit of all these parts at BrownDogGadgets, Joshua's website. It's the quick and easy way to get everything you need if you don't have parts laying around in the garage or workroom.

The steps are straightforward. First, you need to get the charging circuit right. Joshua notes, "Apple decided to have its newer iDevices not follow USB standards. When an iDevice is plugged in, it checks the data tabs on the USB to see what it's plugged into. Depending on what it finds it sucks more or less power, which makes sense but is annoying because NOTHING ELSE DOES THIS. Thus no charger out there has any power flowing to the data tabs. So the key is to find one that works for your newer iPod or iPhone. If you have an older iPod or iPhone when you don't really need to worry all that much."

After the charging circuit comes the batteries.

"We need to use rechargeable batteries for this project. I prefer NiMh AAs over everything else because they're easy to find, cheap, and reliable. You probably even have a few at home. Since we're using two AAs in this project our charger will have 2000 - 3000 mAh of current. You could even have two sets of AAs in parallel and boost that capacity to 4000 - 6000 mAh."

And of course, we need the solar panel component. Joshua reminds us that while a bigger panel would give us more power, we're limited in space since we want it to fit nicely inside an Altoids tin. There are 4V panels that fit perfectly in the tins (I've seen these for sale at Maker Faire and they're perfect for these projects).

Joshua's Instrucable gives the detailed step-by-step, but the short of it is first stripping the ends of your wires, and wrapping them around and soldering them to your solar cell:

Next comes wrapping the free ends of the positive and negative wires together, and soldering the wrapped wires to the circuite board (this is the trickiest part of the project):

And finally, covering everything in tape and gluing it to the inside of the Altoids tin:

And Voila! Done.

Joshua has some good tips for getting started with the charger to ensure it works with your iPhone or iPod, and you're good to go. A cheap, easy, and fun solar charger for your Apple gadgets!

Conceptual plant lab allows you to harvest 'enriched' air to breathe in

From their medicinal, culinary and aesthetic qualities, to their amazing air-purifyingabilities, plants are amazing organisms that play a huge role in life on this planet. But beyond the general breathing in of oxygen produced by plants, or the ingestion of them, might we possibly tweak this symbiotic relationship further? Eindhoven Design Academy graduate Sarah Daher believes so. Her conceptual Air Culture project harvests the "enriched" air produced by certain plants by offering a controlled environment that optimizes plant growth and its production of certain therapeutic compounds.

Over on Dezeen, Daher explains that the interdisciplinary project "question[s] the value of air, [proposing] a more amplified vision of plants in a future scenario where their volatile emissions become part of our daily lives." The idea is provide the user with tools such as a glass plant chamber, water pump and air pump, allowing them to manage the various conditions of plant cultivation, thus optimizing the plants' release of certain chemicals. These beneficial molecules are then captured with bags or "air cutlery" to be breathed in.

While researching those compounds I found out that most of them have high pharmaceutical value due to their chemical properties and an impact on our health. We usually harvest the plants to extract those compounds. Plants will start to synthesize those compounds under specific circumstances as a response to environmental stimuli. If the environment changes, plants' chemistry will also change.

Daher sees a future where this "enriched" air will be experienced and consumed like food and drink, and believes that it could be scaled up to encompass the interiors of whole buildings, where occupants could breathe in fresh, fortified air. Air Culture reminds me of a safer, green version of mood-altering wearable tech gadgets, minus the potential privacy issues. In any case, the underlying concept makes sense, as we've been using plants medicinally for thousands of years, and it's tantalizing to think we might scale it up for whole buildings or perhaps whole neighbourhoods or "vegetal" cities. More over at Dezeen.

Rs.300 Emergency Solar-Powered Radio Made With an Altoids Tin

Joshua Zimmerman has a great project up on Instructables for turning an Altoids tin into a compact solar radio. All said, the entire project cost a whole $3. It seems like a project coming at a time when everyone is ultra aware of emergency situations, so it is both a fun and practical weekend tinkering project. It even comes complete with plug-in headphones.
Joshua writes, "In honor of all my good friends still over in Japan I've decided to create an Instructable for a $3 Emergency Solar Radio. It's a great thing in case of tsunami, nuclear melt down, or zombie invasion. Plus it's really cute when put into an Altoids tin."

And he's right. I have a soft spot for Altoids tin projects. Everything looks better in them.

With a project time of just under an hour, it's ideal for testing out your DIY skills on a weekend. The tools and materials look simple enough:

Joshua lists parts and tools as:
an FM Radio, two Solar Garden Lights, 1 Diode ($1 for 100 of them online, or take one out of any random junk pile), and a few basic tools like a soldering iron, drill, some wire and wire strippers, a headset or the speakers from a set of earbuds, and of course, the Altoids tin.

The full instructions are on Instructables, so you can get the details for putting this together yourself -- the steps don't look daunting, and it's a great learning project.

Here is a beefed up version Joshua created that he says still only cost about $6 to complete.

Joshua runs a site called Brown Dog Gadgets and he has a bunch of different solar cells and various you can use for creating this tiny radio yourself -- or a few completed radios (so you can just buy them and say you made it yourself). It's a great site for gadget geeks so definitely check it out for parts and supplies.

Emergency Light Powered by Fire and Water

Make an emergency light powered by fire and water

We are fans of creative DIY designs for gadget charging and lighting. So of course we were drawn to this entry in the Instructables Green Design contest for creating asimple thermoelectric emergency generator for an LED light (or possibly other gadgets) using just a handful of parts. It is not only a neat project for creating an emergency light but also an excellent project for kids learning about science.

From the project: "I´m using a thermoelectic module, also called peltier element, TEC or TEG. You have one hot side and one cold. The temperature difference in the module will start producing electricity. The physical concept when you use it as a generator it's called the Seebeck effect. Thermoelectic modules are mainly used for the opposite effect, the Peltier effect. Then you apply a electric load and it will force a heat transfer from one side to the other. Often used in smaller refrigerators and coolers."

The list of materials is short -- some food tins, tea lights, and a few electronic components -- and away you go!