Cheap easy way to car dock your Droiid

[bkdegraw]

Ok, so I've had my Cellet magnet for about a week now. I didn't want a big plastic mount stuck to my windshield or my dash, with wires hanging....and this eliminates that. As you can see from the photos the magnet is inconspicuous by itself so when my car is parked somewhere it doesn't draw the attention of would-be thieves who might see a mount and wonder if there was a phone or gps in the glove-box.

The phone attaches very solidly and does not move at all, including while driving over rough surfaces. In landscape position it will rotate if there is tension on the aux cable or charger, but a little repositioning of the cables easily solves that. I have my magnet located to the left of the steering wheel, which was just a nice place to put it since I'm a southpaw but it also keeps the dash uncluttered and still gives me unobstructed view of the phone.

Sometimes the phone will automatically go into NAV mode when I place it on the magnet, sometimes not. I'm sure this is due to where I attached the metal plate to the phone and how that affects the position of the phone relative to the magnet. I personally use NAV very rarely so I'd rather it didn't go into that mode. I can always hit the CAR shortcut on my screen to access that feature.

I attached the metal plate to my battery cover and it is very thin and hardly noticeable.
As far as concerns about magnets, "takeshi" posted a link to an article that addresses this, earlier in this thread. It's worth a quick read, and it dismissed the concerns that I and others have had: Busting the Biggest PC Myths - PCWorld . Thanks takeshi.
I got the magnet and a Motorola car charger from Amazon for a total of less than $18.00, including shipping. Beats any other deal I've seen and makes for a clean, simple installation.

 

[PhoS]

Ordered me one , exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[DuctTape]

Mine does not enter NAV mode, instead it goes into multimedia mode. Is the location of the magnet important? If so, what is the proper location in order to get NAV mode instead of multimedia? Thanks.

 

[bkdegraw]

If the magnet contacts the phone on the camera-end it puts it into multimedia mode. Closer to the middle of the phone activates nav mode. You can experiment with the magnet before you apply the metal plate to the phone, to determine where you want the magnet to contact the phone. My decision was based more on how I wanted the phone to be situated on my dash, I wasn't concerned with nav.

 

[Pagaldesi4life]

question about the magnet piece that attaches to the dashboard, i'm guessing the back piece is flat with 3m adhesive tape right?

i was looking at my console today trying to figure out where i would place this if i were to buy it..and it turns out my console does not have a single flat surface where the phone would comfortably sit without blocking any buttons or interfereing with the shifter.

 

[DuctTape]

Ok. So when I hold the magnet "backwards" against the back of the phone it goes into NAV mode. When the strong side of the magnet is against the back it goes into multimedia mode. At first I thought magnetic strength was the variable, but when I put a thin magazine between the magnet and phone it still goes into multimedia with the "strong" side towards the phone (and NAV with the other side). Is it possible the phone is discriminating between the different polarity?


edit: Follow-up. I pulled apart the magnet from its casing. Depending on which side of the magnet I place against the phone, it will either go into NAV or multimedia mode. Apparently the phone IS sensitive to the polarity of the magnet. I reversed the magnet in the casing, and now the phone goes into nav mode when the magnet is applied.

 

[KZIWarrior]

edit: Follow-up. I pulled apart the magnet from its casing. Depending on which side of the magnet I place against the phone, it will either go into NAV or multimedia mode. Apparently the phone IS sensitive to the polarity of the magnet. I reversed the magnet in the casing, and now the phone goes into nav mode when the magnet is applied.

Sweet, good find DuctTape:icon_ banana:

Now if someone will just try putting the magnet 'in' the Seidio case we'll have all the important answers :woot:

Edit: anyone try this one yet?
http://www.amazon.com/Naztech-3168-Universal-Magnetic-Holder/dp/B002EVPCRE/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t

 

[cuskit]

Ok. So when I hold the magnet "backwards" against the back of the phone it goes into NAV mode. When the strong side of the magnet is against the back it goes into multimedia mode. At first I thought magnetic strength was the variable, but when I put a thin magazine between the magnet and phone it still goes into multimedia with the "strong" side towards the phone (and NAV with the other side). Is it possible the phone is discriminating between the different polarity?


edit: Follow-up. I pulled apart the magnet from its casing. Depending on which side of the magnet I place against the phone, it will either go into NAV or multimedia mode. Apparently the phone IS sensitive to the polarity of the magnet. I reversed the magnet in the casing, and now the phone goes into nav mode when the magnet is applied.

Yes - you nailed it. This has been discussed many times before. It is the polarity of a magnet that determines which mode the phone will display, not the location. You will have either multimedia mode (north pole) or car mode (south pole - which includes the navigation features as well as others). mike

 

[bkdegraw]

Well, dang! Sorry for my incorrect advice! I never thought about the polarity.....it just seemed that if I positioned the camera-end of the phone over the magnet it would consistently go into multimedia, whereas when I just pop the phone onto the magnet where I have it already (about in the middle) sometimes it goes into nav, sometimes not.
Now I'm curious.......how did you get the magnet out of the housing to reverse it?

 

[cuskit]

Well, dang! Sorry for my incorrect advice! I never thought about the polarity.....it just seemed that if I positioned the camera-end of the phone over the magnet it would consistently go into multimedia, whereas when I just pop the phone onto the magnet where I have it already (about in the middle) sometimes it goes into nav, sometimes not.
Now I'm curious.......how did you get the magnet out of the housing to reverse it?

Hey - no reason for apology! You did have a very logical conclusion based on your experience. For some reason - putting either pole of a magnet on different locations of your phone back can cause erratic behavior - this I've seen myself. The only time it will give consistent (and correct) results is when it's applied at that "sweet" spot that Motorola incorporated into the phone. mike

 

[MdicnMan]

So this is intriguing indeed. I also would like to know if when someone has tried this with the metal plate mounted under a Seidio case. Seems like it would work if the magnet is really that strong.

 

[RandyL712]

I've tried it with a thick silicone gel case and it isn't strong enough - but I'd bet it's totally fine for the thinner plastic cases.

I'm thinking I may end up going with the Body Glove case which has the optional round clip attachment on the back - it's likely in a good position to activate the magnet and also clip onto the little arm the Cellet provides. We'll see! I may end up jury-rigging a plate that has two cellet magnets.

 

[FSRBIKER]

The magnet isn't strong enough to hold the Droid with the Verizon rubber case the sell, while it holds it shifts position over small bumps and the power wire will swing it out of position very easily. The 3M adhesive would not hold the balck metal piece onto the outside of this case either as it has a textured finish...not sure what to try now but maybe Super Glue the piece to my case now?

The magnet was strong enough to switch the Droid into Car mode though through the case.

 

[RandyL712]

Now I'm curious.......how did you get the magnet out of the housing to reverse it?

The back of the casing (with the sticky tape) pops off with a mini-flat head screwdriver. Or, you can do what I did first and try to go at it from the rubber front side. Which is messy and the wrong way to do it

 

[DessoThumbs]

so you have to permanently attach something to your droid?

I love navigation on my droid, I was looking for a jewelry store and after a voice command, it found 4 nearby and directed me to one that was now a house and I thought this can't be the place and I glanced at my Droid and there was a hi res picture of the front of the house!
mr. tomtom never did that!