Fixed: Wireless Charger for iPhone 12 Pro Max

[Bobby]

It took me a while to figure out exactly where to place my phone to get the wireless charging to work for my iPhone 12 Pro Max. As it turns out, if I push it all the way down into the slot it won't charge. If I push it down just far enough that the camera bump is just touching, it will work. But that's hard to keep in place. So, I 3D printed a small piece to fit down inside the slot to prop the phone up at the right height. When I place it in now, I need to give the phone a little horizontal side to side wiggle as I press it back against the pad until the phone indicates it is charging. Not sure why it requires that side to side movement, but it does. Here's some pictures!

Part:

Without it inserted:

Part in position:

 

[borski]

It took me a while to figure out exactly where to place my phone to get the wireless charging to work for my iPhone 12 Pro Max. As it turns out, if I push it all the way down into the slot it won't charge. If I push it down just far enough that the camera bump is just touching, it will work. But that's hard to keep in place. So, I 3D printed a small piece to fit down inside the slot to prop the phone up at the right height. When I place it in now, I need to give the phone a little horizontal side to side wiggle as I press it back against the pad until the phone indicates it is charging. Not sure why it requires that side to side movement, but it does. Here's some pictures!

Part:
View attachment 5048

Without it inserted:View attachment 5049

Part in position:View attachment 5050

Neat! You should throw it up on thingiverse or something

 

[LucidNC]

btw, do you have a case on your phone? Does it fit w/ the case?

 

[Bobby]

I have the Apple silicone case on my phone. It fits and charges fine.

 

[Lucideer]

I have a samsung fold3, anyone got a solution for that to work with the wireless charger in an Air here?

 

[Thinjake]

I find that my iphone 12 with a case charges without having to push it down. I just place it on top of the slot, so maybe the bottom 1/2 inch goes in and it still charges.

 

[Bobby]

The spacer I made puts it at the proper amount of “pushed in” for my 12 Pro Max.

 

[LucidNC]

No matter what I do (w/o breaking something), my iPhone 12ProMax with a slim Otterbox case will NOT fit (at least not well enough to charge). "missed it by 6mm"

I guess I'll have to put a cable in the car

 

[Bobby]

No matter what I do (w/o breaking something), my iPhone 12ProMax with a slim Otterbox case will NOT fit (at least not well enough to charge). "missed it by 6mm"

I guess I'll have to put a cable in the car

Try putting it in just to the camera bump. The temptations is to push it and all the way; that doesn't work. Then, while pressing against the back, slide/tilt it a bit left and right, a few millimeters in each direction. Eventually it will begin to charge! No idea why this works. If that is successful for you, I can send you a spacer that holds it at that level without having to get the exact right vertical position. Or get rid of the OtterBox and get an Apple silicone case which 100% works.

 

[LucidNC]

Try putting it in just to the camera bump. The temptations is to push it and all the way; that doesn't work. Then, while pressing against the back, slide/tilt it a bit left and right, a few millimeters in each direction. Eventually it will begin to charge! No idea why this works. If that is successful for you, I can send you a spacer that holds it at that level without having to get the exact right vertical position. Or get rid of the OtterBox and get an Apple silicone case which 100% works.

Ok .. finally got to try it. I found my old (and torn) Apple silicone case and it does fit a lot easier. I did have to wiggle it a bit for it to start charging, but it gave me a good idea of where the "sweet spot" is. I then switched to the Otterbox Commuter case (which is the one I use) and I was able to push it down far enough that, with some wiggling, it charged.

I need to keep the phone in the Otterbox case (as I go through the other cases waaay to fast), and, since it can't really go down too far (w/o serious pushing) I should be able to wiggle it enough to get it to work.

That said, I still think it's a far-from-perfect design and I'll be keeping an iPhone charging calble plugged in, just in case!

Thanks for the help

 

[victoryroad]

I have the Apple silicone case on my phone. It fits and charges fine.

I have the iPhone 12 Pro with an Apple silicone case the phone shows the charging/lightning indicator on the battery icon but after two hour plus drives it did not charge at all. Also tried it for an hour without the case and the same thing, no charge at all despite the indicator showing charging in progress. I did not think that there is a place to plug in the ordinary charging cable and hope that I am wrong because I need to be able to charge my phone in the car.

 

[borski]

I have the iPhone 12 Pro with an Apple silicone case the phone shows the charging/lightning indicator on the battery icon but after two hour plus drives it did not charge at all. Also tried it for an hour without the case and the same thing, no charge at all despite the indicator showing charging in progress. I did not think that there is a place to plug in the ordinary charging cable and hope that I am wrong because I need to be able to charge my phone in the car.

It’s only a 5W Qi charger so it will be slower than plugging into USB-C.

 

[Bobby]

I have the iPhone 12 Pro with an Apple silicone case the phone shows the charging/lightning indicator on the battery icon but after two hour plus drives it did not charge at all. Also tried it for an hour without the case and the same thing, no charge at all despite the indicator showing charging in progress. I did not think that there is a place to plug in the ordinary charging cable and hope that I am wrong because I need to be able to charge my phone in the car.

There’s USB A and USB C inside the console. My solution with the MagSafe has been working perfectly.

 

[LucidNC]

I have the iPhone 12 Pro with an Apple silicone case the phone shows the charging/lightning indicator on the battery icon but after two hour plus drives it did not charge at all. Also tried it for an hour without the case and the same thing, no charge at all despite the indicator showing charging in progress. I did not think that there is a place to plug in the ordinary charging cable and hope that I am wrong because I need to be able to charge my phone in the car.

I'll have to test the charging of the wireless pad.
That said, I have issues w/ using the wireless charger (I have an iPhone Pro Max) and have been using the USB-C in the center console .. seems to charge fine. (I believe there's also a USB-A in the center console)

 

[LucidNC]

I have the iPhone 12 Pro with an Apple silicone case the phone shows the charging/lightning indicator on the battery icon but after two hour plus drives it did not charge at all. Also tried it for an hour without the case and the same thing, no charge at all despite the indicator showing charging in progress. I did not think that there is a place to plug in the ordinary charging cable and hope that I am wrong because I need to be able to charge my phone in the car.

Sorry I just got to sending this .. see photos for where USB ports are located in the center console. There are, in fact 2 USB ports in the center console. 1 USB-A ("traditional" port) and 1 USB-C (more rounded port).

I did perform a, rather unscientific, set of tests for you ... using all 3 charging ports (had my iPhone 12Pro Max running iTunes and playing music in car via Bluetooth connection while testing -- simulating a real-world scenario for me).

Results:

• BASE CASE .... NO Charging: If I let the phone play (w/o being plugged in) for 10 minutes, I lose 1% of my charge
• Wireless Charging: After 10 minutes, my phone's battery charge increased by 1-2% (took me a second to get the phone out)
• Charging via USB-A ("traditional") port: After 10 minutes, my phone's battery charge increased by 4%
• Charging via USB-C ("rounded") port: After 10 minutes, my phone's battery charge increased by 10%

Note: In all 3 charging scenarios, I let the phone start at 70% battery

Therefore, my "unscientific" summary leads me to believe that wireless charging will likely keep you charge at about the same battery strength (assuming you are using the phone) and, in my case, using the USB-C provides more "bang-for-your-buck" as far as charging goes.

Hope that helps.

 

[victoryroad]

Sorry I just got to sending this .. see photos for where USB ports are located in the center console. There are, in fact 2 USB ports in the center console. 1 USB-A ("traditional" port) and 1 USB-C (more rounded port).

I did perform a, rather unscientific, set of tests for you ... using all 3 charging ports (had my iPhone 12Pro Max running iTunes and playing music in car via Bluetooth connection while testing -- simulating a real-world scenario for me).

Results:

• BASE CASE .... NO Charging: If I let the phone play (w/o being plugged in) for 10 minutes, I lose 1% of my charge
• Wireless Charging: After 10 minutes, my phone's battery charge increased by 1-2% (took me a second to get the phone out)
• Charging via USB-A ("traditional") port: After 10 minutes, my phone's battery charge increased by 4%
• Charging via USB-C ("rounded") port: After 10 minutes, my phone's battery charge increased by 10%

Note: In all 3 charging scenarios, I let the phone start at 70% battery

Therefore, my "unscientific" summary leads me to believe that wireless charging will likely keep you charge at about the same battery strength (assuming you are using the phone) and, in my case, using the USB-C provides more "bang-for-your-buck" as far as charging goes.

Hope that helps.

Thank you. I appreciate your findings. The phone does not add much charge in the car charge port, although I have not tried the cable, just the charge port with the phone inserted about three-quarters of the way in. I am glad that the trickle charge is not my imagination, as my Audis and Porsches charged the phone relatively fast. It does seem odd to this non-electrical engineer that such a powerful car cannot charge a mobile phone faster or fully.

 

[borski]

my iPhone 12 mini will not charge on the wireless charging pad in my Defender. At first, I thought it was the car, but the dealer confirmed it must be something with iPhone 12s. None of the iPhone 12s I tried at home will work on the charging pad, but the dealer could put an Android, and three other models of iPhones on the charging pad and they all worked. The phone will light up when placed on the pad, but will not show the lightning bolt for more than a few seconds. The indicator on the Pivi screen has a diagonal line though it. In the end, they could not find an issue with the car and said it must be a iPhone 12 issue. Anyone else have the same issue?

Between iPhone 12 and 13, the location of where the MagSafe antenna is was changed. That’s why on older models of the Air, newer iPhones have trouble charging, and older ones work fine. In later revisions, they moved it to match later phones.

Keep in mind this isn’t an issue limited to just Lucid. Mercedes, for example, has the same issues: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253605787