Hi all,

After much searching and asking I cannot find a dock that utilises Fiat's and Alfa's built in TomTom dock in the dashboard.

Now I've done some work on designing a dock that would work with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S. It would charge (5V 1A) without any cables trailing everywhere and would function as a holder in both landscape and portrait modes. I'm an electronic & electrical engineering student so it's pretty straight foward.

I have looked at getting this manafactured but it won't be cheap and I'll need to sell some significant quantities (over 500) to break even. Looking at around £50/unit, but they will be well made, I can try and get a deal for fellow Fiat Forum users.

This is not some random on the forum flogging crap you can find on ebay, I'm here trying to proactively fill a hole for us Fiat and Alfa owners.

So if you are interested please let me know ASAP and spread the word as I can't be the only one who, every time gets in their car is frustrated at the lack of a native dock? Especially with iOS 6 maps here.

Yours

Stuart aka SCOLANATOR

SCOLANATOR said:

Now I've done some work on designing a dock that would work with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S. It would charge (5V 1A) without any cables trailing everywhere and would function as a holder in both landscape and portrait modes. I'm an electronic & electrical engineering student so it's pretty straight foward.

I have looked at getting this manafactured but it won't be cheap and I'll need to sell some significant quantities (over 500) to break even. Looking at around £50/unit, but they will be well made, I can try and get a deal for fellow Fiat Forum users.

Click to expand...

Have you thought about putting this idea on Kickstarter? I believe they now allow UK-based projects. It would get you a much bigger audience/customer-base....

Nice idea ! But my next phone will not be an Apple device...

Have you pictures of CAD project ?

I haven't tried a kickstarter before, any ideas how I should do that?

If all goes to plan I'll be trying to support at many smartphones as is feasible to do, highend Samungs, HTC's, Nokia's as well as iPhones.

Glad to see there's some interest! Please if you can spread the word, I want to know if there really is a market for this. I really want one for my own car at the moment!

SCOLANATOR said:

I haven't tried a kickstarter before, any ideas how I should do that?

Click to expand...

I've only funded projects so far; but this link should set you off in the right direction! Good luck!

I'd be interested in one of these

I'd be interested too. You could have the plug in bit which could then mate to the specific phone holder for your phone, and cater for all popular handsets (you've probably thought of this already )
I'm surprised that brodit hasn't thought of this already. VW group do a similar type of dashboard plug hole for the UP Citygo etc. seems like a winner to me.

Thanks for the positive responses, yes if all goes well I would love to support other handsets, including Android and Windows. Thanks to the EU stating they all need to use micro-USB ports this might prove fairly straight forward.
My crowdfunder project is up, remember I'm not a company, I'm a student so I need all the help I can get. The sooner I hit my target the sooner the docks go on sale - I am to include a years warranty and build them to last! I hate buying cheap Chinese docks that break after a week.
So please go here and support! Spread the word! £60 and you will receive your very own dock!

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/iphone-3g-4-dock-for-fiat-alfa-romeo-1315

Thankyou All, Stu :worship:

Decided to risk and ask for £40, remember I will have to try and hopefully break even after tooling costs etc. So here's your chance to preorder for less!

Stu

As much as something that plugs into the dash would be good, even £40 is IMO a lot for what will be a plastic thing that plugs into the hole with some electronics in.

Try and get a Chinese co to pinch the idea from you.

Any update

I would love to see a dock like this -- I've been looking and I'm very surprised some Chinese or Korean company hasn't made one already.