Otterbox wireless charging mod

[TopBanana83]

I'm waiting for my case to come. I ordered an Amzer TPU case today from ebay, it should come Tuesday or Wednesday. When it arrives, I'm going to have a crack at doing this.

I will let you know my outcome and I will post some pics!

Pic of case uploaded!

Wayne

 

[TopBanana83]

Worked for me!

 

[ceraf]

Worked for me!

Nice work! Just wondering...does wireless charging the coil show a visible bump on the outside of the case when you put your case onto your 1020?

 

[Hydrated]

I modified my Otterbox Defender/Nokia Charging cover yesterday, but I made a couple of changes to correct the shortcomings that I found in the original charging cover design. It works great!

First off... I was afraid that the charging cover would be difficult to disassemble without damaging the coils or fine connecting wires. The glue securing the innards looks like it's impregnable, but rest assured... a little heat from a hair dryer loosens it up nicely. When that glue gets warm, the cover almost falls apart in your hands. I surely wouldn't want to forget and leave this thing lying in the sun on my car dash!

As for the changes... I found that the Nokia Charging cover for the 1020 wasn't the best design. The contacts inside were tensioned so that they make contact lightly with the phone's contacts, so about half the time I had to adjust or squeeze the cover to get it to charge on my Nokia charging pads. When I installed the coils in my Otterbox, I attached a tiny piece of 3M double sided foam core tape to the back side of the contact pad. This puts additional pressure on the contacts when the Otterbox is assembled so that the contacts are securely touching. So far I have had great results... no adjustment necessary.

I also found that the 1020 charging cover is much more sensitive to its position on the charging pad than my Lumia 920 was. And that hasn't changed with the Otterbox mod. I could just throw my 920 down on the pad and it would start charging... off center... sideways... it just charged. The 1020 charging cover (and now Otterbox charging cover!) is much more sensitive and will not charge unless it is centered on the pad just right. Couple that sensitivity with the weak contact points and it makes for a frustrating process to get the phone to charge wirelessly. The additional contact pressure from the foam core tape fixed the most troublesome part of the problem. So now I just have to be aware of how I center the phone on the charging pad.

 

[tweedie]

Has anyone tried or considered using any of the qi wireless pad which many can be found on eBay for s4 phones, etc?

 

[sibrecat]

I'm waiting for my case to come. I ordered an Amzer TPU case today from ebay, it should come Tuesday or Wednesday. When it arrives, I'm going to have a crack at doing this.

I will let you know my outcome and I will post some pics!

Pic of case uploaded!

Wayne

View attachment 45050

thats brilliant, I have just bought a 1020 and gave my missus the charging plate that come with it as she had my old 920, I got the very same skin as you, Deffo going to do this mod. did you stick the qi coil down with anything?

 

[ceeesquared]

I was wondering if I can use the charging coils found in the Lumia 720, 820, or 925 wireless charging covers, as the official wireless charging cover for the 1020 is not yet available here in the Philippines. It seems that the charging coil for the 720 would fit in the 1020 (it has 2 exposed points similar to the 1020), but I am not sure. The advantage that I see is that the wireless charging cover for 720 is cheaper. However, I'm not sure if the charging coil specifications will work on the 1020, or if they would really align in the 1020.

I am thinking if I am going to buy the 1020 wireless charging, and paint it luminous red/magenta; or disassemble it and transfer to a Nillkin case or to a wallet flip cover similar to these: Baseus Faith PU Leather Skin Case For Nokia Lumia 1020

 

[n7slc]

Great mod. I just ordered the Poetic case and will be performing this mod too. I think it would look much better with just the coil... is that silver pad required?

UPDATE: I've completed this mod and the results are disappointing. The phones shows it's charging and I get a steady light on the charging pad. After a short time, the light begins to blink rapidly and the phone no longer shows charging. Not sure what to do now as the wireless shell was hit or miss before I disassembled it.

Any thoughts?

 

[tkuhe]

My guess is that you do not have a strong connection with your contacts. The plate is seeing the Qi coil, but you are probably not charging the phone.

 

[n7slc]

My guess is that you do not have a strong connection with your contacts. The plate is seeing the Qi coil, but you are probably not charging the phone.

Yeah, I thought that at first but looking at my Battery app it was charging at 24%. Turns out it works fine on my pad at home. I'm suspecting an issue with the charging pad.

 

[itrooper]

Thanks for posting this. I was able to put together what you did and accomplish it for myself. I was successful in using both types of Nokia charger (lay down flat, stand up kind). I monitored battery stats off and on during two days and had no real issues. One note; I skipped the whole heat gun/hair dryer step and just peeled using some tweezers and a razor blade. It worked fine as I didn't care about the crappy Nokia charging case.

 

[tkuhe]

What case are you using?

 

[itrooper]

If you were talking to me: Otterbox Defender

 

[Moiz Mian]

What's the thinnest least obstructive way to do this? I miss my wireless charging from my 920, but most cases are just too big and thick. What about using a zagg invisible shield on top of the wireless charging unit? Lol

 

[Alex Boasman]

Just brought a Defender Case, Will attempt when I receive, curious about how to set in correctly from what I can see from OP, you're putting the cover fron the charing case over the base of the defender casing?

 

[cubanaso]

Just brought a Defender Case, Will attempt when I receive, curious about how to set in correctly from what I can see from OP, you're putting the cover fron the charing case over the base of the defender casing?

I simply put some regular tape on the side of the coil with the contacts pointing towards the device and affixed the qi coil onto the device. I then put double sided tape on the other side of the coil. I carefully placed the phone into the case and put firm pressure. When I carefully removed the phone the coil remained firmly in place inside the case. You must ensure that you use cheap tape that doesn't have too much adhesive. And the double sided tape I have is the variety that is used on smartphone internals (bought it on ebay). You can actually reuse the double sided tape that is on the coil if you make sure to keep it on, the hair dryer works wonders because it softens the adhesive and allows you to remove the coil without ripping the tape off. Hope that makes sense. BTW if you ensure that there is adequate contact between the coil and the phone you wont have any issue charging the device. Good luck!

 

[mahear]

So I have the 1020 and am contemplating doing an internal install, is it possible...slight chance. I used the image of the coil in the nokia case found on this site (hope dtk31883 doesn't mind), scaled it and overlaid it on an image from the teardown service manual. Looks like there may be enough room under the battery compartment, but that would put the coil off center. From the teardown it looks like just removing the battery wouldn't be too bad, three sensor cables to unhook and three torex bolts. The only issue would be if needing to get under the main board to connect to the wireless charging prongs.



I have a few questions if anyone can help me out:
1. If off center will it cause issues with charging, or will the phone have to be placed at an angle, Seems like this charging coil is pretty sensitive from what I have heard?
2. In order to install it I would have to remove the connector prongs off the coil (How they did in the 925 Wireless mod video) and attach the offset connectors (right where the copper terminates, dtk31883 posted great pictures of this above) to the wireless charge terminals on the phone. I would have to flip the inductor over to do this (Compared to when in the Nokia Case because the coil will be offset to the right inside the phone and the copper terminals need to be at the center where the charge terminals are), I can probably test the current with a multimeter, but does anyone know if this will cause issues as far as incorrect current path especially if connecting to opposite prongs on the phone (when it is flipped over the right prong on the coil will connect to the left prong of the phone)?
3. Because of the camera hump on the 1020 will the charge coil be too far away from the charger when it is inside the phone? (How far is a reliable charging distant, 3mm, 5mm? )
4. How hot will this get? How hot does the nokia case get when it is on the phone? Since it is under the battery I would hope that it would be not directly touching any sensitive sensors in the area.
5. How thick is the coil, not counting the connector since that will be removed. Not sure how much "play room" there is under the battery but that would be something to see before attempting anything else.

I know it is a pretty risky operation, that may not work. I will be taking it one step at a time and if it seems like something isn't possible, project terminated. Hopefully the only thing I'll mess up is the $25 case (best case scenario) or worst case screw up the phone as well...I guess my upgrade is coming up in a month (Lumia 1820 release in April...Please?!) and my backup L900 would have to do for a bit. Any thoughts on if there are other issues/hazards/conflicts with attempting this are welcome.

Thanks

 

[Malcolm Clement]

Any update on this?! I'm looking at picking up a Lumia 1020 but would hate to not have the Qi like my L920.

From what I saw when taking apart my L920 a little bit ago - as long as you are careful and take your time anything can be taken apart and put back together and work 100%. I say go for it with lots of pictures and videos!

 

[sadude69]

So I have the 1020 and am contemplating doing an internal install, is it possible...slight chance. I used the image of the coil in the nokia case found on this site (hope dtk31883 doesn't mind), scaled it and overlaid it on an image from the teardown service manual. Looks like there may be enough room under the battery compartment, but that would put the coil off center. From the teardown it looks like just removing the battery wouldn't be too bad, three sensor cables to unhook and three torex bolts. The only issue would be if needing to get under the main board to connect to the wireless charging prongs.

View attachment 54724

I have a few questions if anyone can help me out:
1. If off center will it cause issues with charging, or will the phone have to be placed at an angle, Seems like this charging coil is pretty sensitive from what I have heard?
2. In order to install it I would have to remove the connector prongs off the coil (How they did in the 925 Wireless mod video) and attach the offset connectors (right where the copper terminates, dtk31883 posted great pictures of this above) to the wireless charge terminals on the phone. I would have to flip the inductor over to do this (Compared to when in the Nokia Case because the coil will be offset to the right inside the phone and the copper terminals need to be at the center where the charge terminals are), I can probably test the current with a multimeter, but does anyone know if this will cause issues as far as incorrect current path especially if connecting to opposite prongs on the phone (when it is flipped over the right prong on the coil will connect to the left prong of the phone)?
3. Because of the camera hump on the 1020 will the charge coil be too far away from the charger when it is inside the phone? (How far is a reliable charging distant, 3mm, 5mm? )
4. How hot will this get? How hot does the nokia case get when it is on the phone? Since it is under the battery I would hope that it would be not directly touching any sensitive sensors in the area.
5. How thick is the coil, not counting the connector since that will be removed. Not sure how much "play room" there is under the battery but that would be something to see before attempting anything else.

I know it is a pretty risky operation, that may not work. I will be taking it one step at a time and if it seems like something isn't possible, project terminated. Hopefully the only thing I'll mess up is the $25 case (best case scenario) or worst case screw up the phone as well...I guess my upgrade is coming up in a month (Lumia 1820 release in April...Please?!) and my backup L900 would have to do for a bit. Any thoughts on if there are other issues/hazards/conflicts with attempting this are welcome.

Thanks

Off-center should not be an issue but it will affect how the phone sits on the charger. The safest bit might be to buy a new body and potentially create some space otherwise I think the battery may end up being raised up too much. From what I can see, I think the space is very tight...attaching the internal cable to the coil is the easy part

 

[Daniel Megson]

Definitely going to try this. For anybody who doesn't want to try making a homebrew case, I found this on eBay: Nokia Lumia 1020 wallet case with built-in Nokia CC-3066 Qi Wireless Charging | eBay.

For myself, when I get around it I want to try with this case... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Wars-N...ag=hawk-future-21&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU2439695