Recently got a new phone, and didn’t want the same kind of case I had before, so my previous car-holder was no longer viable… plus it kept popping out of the CD player (the mount friction fit into the CD slot and used a magnet to attach to a piece of metal between the case and my phone… and it’s wearing out anyway).
I revived an old design I made using my 3D printer… which worked ok, but melted in the hot CA sun.
So I made it a little more simple and voila! I have a Mini, which has these rails in the center console, so I made the holder to sit on the rail, just in front of the shifter. I do have to make a minor revision and shift the front cross-bar back to allow the cable clearance from the bottom. Also, I might need to add something so that the phone can’t shift side-to-side. Not sure exactly what I’ll do for that, but it’ll be simple. Other than that I am happy with it.
It took maybe an hour to adjust the design, less than 10 minutes to cut. All friction fit.
Ok. 30 minutes this morning to shift the tabs to allow the cord to fit in front of the cross-bar. Then I made a shiftable crossbar to hold the phone from shifting side-to-side. It has two sets of notches and I can set it for portrait or landscape.
I’m going to make a more general base as well and use this design on the bedside table.
For the record, the way my car is set up, I can’t really stand the phone up if the car is in drive, because the shifter hits the top of the phone.
In other words, I just needed the option for landscape in the car. And, if it’s in landscape, then I can increase the angle a bit to make it easier to see.
Re-working aside, the base fits the rails in the car beautifully!
And for grins… here’s the 3D design for the 3d-printed version.
! I have a (manual) Mini also, and was just thinking about getting a cell phone holder for the occasion that I’m using google directions. I’m definitely putting this on the todo list. Does it fit behind the shifter? In front of the stick I just have 2 drink holders, but behind the stick you are getting into e-brake territory.
It’s between the shifter and e-brake. If you need to see the screen while driving (i.e. navigation) then this is a poor position for it. Mine has a Garmin nav attached off of the steering column so I only use the phone for media, so I have minimal interaction with it while driving.
Thank you. They were neat, but ultimately unnecessary. In the car I can only put the phone landscape or it interferes with the gear shift.
I really wish iOs music player would support landscape when playing back music, but I typically listen to podcasts anyway, and that player does support the landscape view.
