Did you just cut the top plastic flange off? I just ordered my D3 and have a dock from the D1 that would be great to have use of.
Not for the faint of heart......
Ok, so here is a guide for modifying your D1 Cradle to fit the D3 phone. The process is the same if you are adding an HDMI cable (note the cable will exit the cradle unless you can find a 3 inch long HDMI cable extender).
Tools: Dremel tool, Torx t6 and ? a smaller one which I don't know the size - but it is tiny! and two part epoxy.
There are 8 t6 screws (left the adhesive backed rubber feet to reveal two screws per side).
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New cable routing. You will be switching sides so this cable is too short to leave in the factory position.
This is the factory position. You'll need to unscrew (the two tiny screws).
Using the Dremel tool, cut the cover at the ends. Right up to the edge. Take a good look at this image and the next one. Ensure that the phone back can rest flat against the cradle.
Inside view of the cut out.
Continued in the next post....
Last edited by cyber3dx; 09-27-2011 at 12:22 AM.
.... continued
Using the Dremel tool cut out a hole for the connector at the back and in the cradle trough. The trick is to line up the phone to the cradle, using a drill bit, make a hole as close as possible to the location of the connector (be sure to remove the phone before you drill). Put the phone back in and you can see the position of it's connector through the inside of the cradle. Now, it's a little clearer where to cut out the hole. FIt the phone and plug in the connectors to see if it fits well. I tossed the retaining metal part (the part with the tiny screws).
Once the cables are in place. You will need to dremel some clearance on the base for the connector to fit. Epoxy the connectors in place. Be sure to keep the phone docked while the epoxy sets (otherwise the connector will move out of place and you're screwed). AND be sure you don't over do the epoxy - you don't want to glue your phone to the dock! Be sure to put the metal weight back in. And fit all eight screws and the rubber pads back in.
The final product. The fit is a hair tight. But, I love it.
Good luck. I hope some of you will make this mod!
Last edited by cyber3dx; 09-30-2011 at 12:47 PM.
Looks great, I will need to look at my Seidio dock when I get home to see if I can do the same to fit my D3 with Otterbox, not getting my hopes up.
Thanks for the instructions! I will do this 'mod' to my OG Droid dock.
I have one question.... how do you start the 'desk/multimedia' app?
Last edited by pistacio; 09-30-2011 at 10:29 AM.
Well, I've been using this modified D1 Dock daily for a while now and I love it. It is a whole lot better than the D3 Dock.
I decided to connect the cable directly to the power plug (wall socket) rather than the computer as I don't need to transfer or backup as often as before. As a matter of fact, I am starting to use BT Transfer rather than the cable for small file syncs.