This iPhone 4s is charging without a dock connector because [Tanv28] added inductive charging hardware inside the case.
The hack is not for the faint of heart. But if you’ve got a precision soldering iron and a stead hand we bet you can pull it off. It starts with disassembly to get at the cable that connects the circuit board to the dock connector. [Tanv28] solders fine enameled wire to pins 16, 23, 25, and 27. The other end of these wires are soldered to the guts from a Powermat inductive charging system. After the connections are made there’s not enough room under the back cover of the phone for this added bulk. But laminating a second plastic frame onto the assembly will correct for the 1mm difference in thickness. The clip after the break walks through the entire process.
You can see that [Tanv28] also built the charging station into a piece of furniture. We just saw a post last week that used this technique to add Powermat hardware to a shelf.
[via Phone Arena]
You made an iphone 1mm thicker?! Can you even call something that fat an iphone anymore? Steve Jobs must be rolling over in his grave
Sounds great, but the presentation method is really awkward and hard to follow.
If any body is willing to do the assembly and sell it online, I think it will be a blockbuster!
This is pretty cool, could see a market for this as a kit (supplying pre-soldered connectors with charging circuits and modded back panel) but you’d probably run afoul of the iLawyers.
I always wondered why they didn’t include this as a feature on the 4s/5, since some of the android handsets (s3) come with this built in. A fairly weak excuse was tendered; That it would be confusing for for the apple flock.
“Having to create another device you have to plug into the wall is actually, for most situations, more complicated,” – Apple senior VP Phil Schiller
So is changing the dock connection…. But that didn’t stop them.
zing! +1