Clean Magsafe iPhone Charger

Hi all,

I am looking for a bit of advice for wiring in a Magsafe iPhone Charger into my 2019 Sport. Right now my plan is to mount the Magsafe charger on the dash (where it is in the first picture) and wire it down to the fuse box located in the driver's footwell (second picture). The Magsafe charger requires 15W to charge and can only plug in via USB C, so right now the plan is to use an Add-A-Fuse female cigarette lighter (

$13 Jtron 12V Add-a-Circuit Fuse Tap Adapter for Car Cigarette Lighter - 3.3ft（1m） 18AWG Cable with Fuse Holder, （LP-Mini APS）

Link) in that fuse box, plug in a USB C cigarette adapter (

USB C Car Charger, Anker 30W 2-Port Type C Fast Car Charger with 18W Power Delivery and 12W PIQ, PowerDrive PD 2 with LED for iPhone 15/15 Pro/Pro Max / 14/13 / 12/11, Pixel, iPad, and More

Link) and plug the Magsafe charger into that. Where I am stuck is determining which fuse to tap in order to get enough power for 15W and to have it so power is only running to the charger when the car is running (not constant). In addition I am not sure where I should ground the adapter to. Any help would be much appreciated.

Also I feel like no one has a great solution for a clean Magsafe mount yet so please feel free to use this thread to share ideas about a decent looking way of going about this. Thank you!

 

I wouldn’t do an add a fuse in that fashion on any of those circuits if you require that high of a wattage, chances are it could work but when you use the circuit for what it’s made for and have the phone charging it could overload it. I would run your power from the battery or an added fuse box instead

 

Use P/Outlet No1, thats the cigarettes' socket. If it blows nothing else fails.

Ground to any 10mm bolt to the chassis.

 

I’ve bought some random charging MagSafe stuff online. I just haven’t gotten past disassembling it all and on to 3D printing a clean surround to hold it all mounted to my dash.

I’ll post up here if I get to that point.

 

I am thinking about running one under the center console. I will mock it up tomorrow and post here.

 

@regrubuen - I really like your setup, what kind of clip is that that holds the Magsafe charger?

 

Following, been also looking for ideas on a nice setup for the magsafe charger.

 

I just found this solution which I really like:
https://coursemotorsports.com/products/toyota-direct-fit-magnetic-phone-mount?variant=39482071449651

I like that it bolts on without having to drill, glue or suction cup. And they offer a wireless charging head, which sounds like it's MagSafe compatible, as I don't want to put a metal strip on the back of my phone.

 

for what it's worth, the magsafe doesn't require 15w input, it is capable of outputting up to 15w. if you use a lesser input it will still charge, just slower.
with that being said, there were actually very few bricks on the market that will output the correct PD profile for the oem magsafe to function at 15w the last time I looked. to my knowledge, the OEM apple 20w usb-c brick will do it, and maybe the new version of the anker 20w nano brick. most 30w bricks did not have the right PD profile. it needs to be PD 3.0 and have the 9v @ 2.22amp profile (20w input, 15w output, because of the loss that is inherent to wireless charging). The DC adapter you posted is close at 9v@2amps but I'm not sure how the magsafe will react with that. I attached a link to the article that goes into detail about the requirements for 15w, and I'll look to see if I can find the video I watched that did meter testing with a bunch of different bricks.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...fe-usb-c-pd-and-why-you-need-a-20w-ac-charger

I use a Moment multi-thread magsafe mount on a Taco Garage DMM, but I don't use wireless charging in the vehicle since I'm almost always plugged in for CarPlay.

 

Curious if anyone can comment on how "sticky" the MagSafe is between the phone and the charging puck? How much effort does it take to remove the phone? Could it fall off easily? I certainly don't expect it to stay in place in a bumpy off road situation or anything like that.

Thinking of going with the RAM MagSafe adapter to the vent mount and paring the set up with a wireless carplay adapter.

 

@mattsolnitzky - my wife has a magsafe charger/phone mount in her van, and it holds my phone really well (iPhone 13 Pro). I think offroad might be a different story, but it's never come off around town.

 

Awesome, thanks. 99% of my driving is on pavement. The extent of my off-roading is maintained dirt/gravel roads.

 

Curious, is this the mount you are considering?

https://www.rammount.com/part/RAM-B-102-AP-MAGU

In the picture, it looks like it’s mounted on a Tacoma vent, but looks like they had to screw something into the plastic of the vent.

 

Yes, was going to use that mounting it to the vent with this: https://hondogarage.com/collections/popular-products/products/un-holey-tacoma-dash-mount

 

I have a magsafe wireless charger/ mount attached to the AC vent. I ran the wires into the vent and hard wired them to a aux circuit (I have an aux fuse panel under the hood). I used a USB-A hardwire adapter and then a USB-A to USB-C cable that came with the magsafe charger.

As for the mag strength, mine is plenty strong without a case, but not very strong with a case. I ended up buying a phone case that has an additional magnet integrated into the case. Now the phone and case work great. It is not hard to pull off and it holds strong even off-roading.

However I am not super thrilled with the charging speed. I am interested to see if anyone has any suggestions on ways to get faster charging speed via hard wiring.

 

your issue is coming from either the usb-a to usb-c cable, the charger itself or a combination of both. what is the claimed output (for an iphone, android isnt restricted like the iphone is) from the charger you bought? to get the max speed of 15w out of magsafe charging, you need an actual apple magsafe puck plugged into a 20w pd 3.0 usb-c brick. anything less maxes out at 7.5W i believe

 

I got a Spiegel magsafe charger since its reviewed to hold stronger than the apple magsafe. Works perfectly with my Speck magsafe case on my iphone 13 pro. Not worried at all about it falling off with bumps in the road. Have not tested off road yet though.

https://getspiegel.com/products/wireless-car-charger

 

I like that one!
Where did you mount it? Any pics?

 

The charger it self claims to be 15W but it is not an apple one. I'm not sure what the output of the hardwired stepdown converter I installed is. I am thinking about switching to this instead since it has a rated output of 3A@5V.

$11 SSLHONG DC 12V/24V Input to DC 5V Output 3A 15W USB C Step Down Converter Buck Module

https://www.amazon.com/HOMREE-Step-...=hard+wire+usb+c,electronics,107&sr=1-13&th=1

 

Sorry that's not the right link, this is the one I was looking at because it has the QC3.0

$12 SSLHONG QC3.0 USB C DC DC Converter Buck Module 8-35V 12V/24V to 5V 3A Type C USB Output Step Down Voltage Regulator Charger

https://www.amazon.com/SSLHONG-Conv...ocphy=9052218&hvtargid=pla-1191673102052&th=1