Another iteration of the phone mount

Sunday, November 8, 2020

Learnings

So, what did I learn from v2's failure (see the previous blog post)?

I need more than 150mm to clear the phone. Going to try with 152mm, which should be more than enough.
I don't like the look of the top, and it's not solid either as it snapped during finishing.
The cover groove didn't work at all, gotta think of something better to mate the mount and cover.

Back to the drawing board, again

So I've been thinking about how to make the top stronger, and how to connect the top to pillars is a nicer fashion - when inspiration struck.

I've no idea why I didn't think of this in the first place - seems obvious now. It's more structurally sound, is simpler, and looks much better! I gave the horizontal holder width 2 more millimetres, and go.

I honestly love the look of this one. My wife commented "wow, it looks really professional now". 😂 Seems very strong too - no floppy bits that could break out, and I don't think have less material in the base will be a problem.

Oh, and the phone fits PERFECTLY now! Even better than v0, as it goes in smoother, yet is grippy enough that it doesn't flop around at all.

The charger pocket now has pegs to support the charger itself - but of course I messed up one of the measurement, and will have to cut out the top peg. Still works though, and otherwise fitment is good. (Cable issue fixed too, snaps into place nicely too)

The plan for the back plate on this one is to fit it in the pocket and cable tunnel, so I gave the main mount an extra 0.8mm to allow it to sit flush. Off to design that now...

Interlude: 250 km day trip

I went out to the country side today, and drove the whole time using the instrument cluster (still using the v0 mount). It worked super well, with only a couple of issues:

The battery on my phone ran out on the way back (it was 9pm at that point, and we'd left at 10:00am). This isn't normal for my phone, I normally make it through the day with 30-50% to spare. So the charger I'm building is 100% necessary to making this a viable solution.
I lost connectivity a few times. There are still pockets where no cellular signal is available, and it's pretty disruptive to have your cluster not updating. I'll solve this by adding a BLE direct mode (the prototype is currently using the same web socket system used for the main display, which works but direct is faster and more reliable).

I'm pretty much in love with this thing. It works amazing in direct sunlight and is much easier to read than the main display. And night driving, oh my goodness! The pure black of OLED are just so good! I'm never going to put an IPS panel in there. If I ever decide to make a permanent installation it'll have to be an OLED display, which means I won't be able to use an off the shelf tablet or Raspberry Pi display (which are all IPS as far as I can tell). It also makes me want to have a switch to turn off the main display when I don't need the navigation map. Pure minimalist driving experience! (Does anyone know if/how this can done?)

It's also feels great as a location for information. I really noticed it when the battery ran out and I suddenly I had to use the main display. It felt jarring and clunky. I'm 100% convinced that I want this now, and 99% sure that Tesla should design one too. The great "no cluster" experiment worked, I guess, as people are buying the cars, but also having a minimalist cluster for people that like driving over auto-piloting would make them even better.

In terms of the information displays themselves, there are a few things I need to address asap.

I need to add animations everywhere. Hard transitions don't feel good on something that's in your face like this - even for simple things brake lights.
The lane keeping indicator needs to fade out when changing lane (or really, whenever the turn indicators are on).
I don't like the numerical speed indicator turning yellow/orange. I can't put my finger on why, but it feels off. I'll try experimenting with all numerical indicators being white and see how that feels.
Having the time and temperature would have been nice. (A couple of times I had to glance over to the main screen for this, and it felt bad.) I think I can easily fit this in the bottom left corner. I'm thinking the "mini display" title (which currently just shows "TIRE PRESSURE") can go away a few seconds after switching to a new mini-display.

PUZZLE: One of the big things I'd like to add is the navigation's next turn information. I repeatedly to glance over to the main display for this. (I turn the voice nav lady off, I can't stand having a robot talking to me. It's especially bad has she has no idea what to do with bilingual names!) Not sure if this is even possible, or where I'd put this information.

IDEA: It occurred to me during the drive that having my phone notifications show in the bottom section in suitable large print would be awesome. The could zip in, replacing what there, for a few seconds and then the screen goes back to normal.

At any rate, I'd call this a super positive field test!

Back cover, take 2

At this point, I was a little sick of all the measuring, and so mostly yolo'ed it, eyeballing a lot of stuff, and giving everything pretty loose tolerances.

It's not perfect, but it'll do. It fits a little loosely, but with the USB plug wedging it at the base and the screw I'll put in the middle, it'll be okay. The looks are okay, but the fact that I printed the cover flat, means that it looks different from the holder when mounted, as seen here.

I may try re-printed standing up at some point, but not now. It doesn't look as bad in real life as it does in the picture. You need direct light and angle that probably won't exist when it's mounted in the car to see the discrepancy (or the PLA striations for that matter). Also, even when mounted, I'll be able to remove the cover at will, and therefore change it if it bothered me later. The only part I won't be able to service is the power feed, so that better not break! Although, come to think of it, I could always cut the lead and re-solder it. Not ideal, but could work in pinch.

Powering

I don't think I've mentioned my plan for powering the charger. I'm going to use a "HitCar" 12v to 5v converter I used in an old project on my previous car. Looks like you can still get these - a good sign I guess.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00U2DGKOK

I'll be connecting this to the power source others have mentioned exists in the driver footwell area. At least that's the plan, I haven't checked the routing yet. Hopefully, that works out and I can mount this new holder and go for a test drive!