I should start this by saying that I figured it out, but ultimately didn’t keep it.
The Issue
I had an iPhone 8 with a battery that wasn’t in the greatest shape, but I was having issues with the lightning cable I had run through the center console of the truck to the top of the dash. More specifically, the issue was that I had to have the cable perfectly in place for it to work. The slightest bump in the road would disconnect the phone.
I wanted to be able to just toss the phone up on a magnet and A) be charging it, and B) be able to use Carplay or navigation or otherwise.
The Solution
I found a magnetic charging mount on Amazon and attached that to my 67Designs arm. That charger ran from a USB-C, so I ran a USB-C up to the top of the dash. The look was great; no cables hanging anywhere- only a magnetic circle.
The problem was that I had to add an adhesive metal ring to the iPhone 8’s case and that it had to be perfectly aligned in order to charge. Additionally, it barely charged it. We’re talking 1% every 10 minutes, maybe. If you were navigating, it was practically as if it wasn’t charging at all. Last but certainly not least, it got really, really hot. I had to keep a vent pointed at it most of the time.
On top of all of that, the CarPlay adapter uses WiFi, not Bluetooth. So, no more using the truck’s WiFi. Switching between WiFi at home and that adapter was messy and often meant I was trying to load a destination before leaving the house and the phone was confused by being connected to WiFi that was just being used to transmit for Carplay.
Not Worth It / Easier "Fix"
All of that trouble because the phone charger cable wasn’t fitting well. Ultimately, this is gross, but I cleaned out the phone’s charging port and we’ll just say it was really, really dusty. Now chargers click right in like it’s new. So, I went back to the old 67Designs mount and figured I’ll keep it this way for now.
I recently got an iPhone 13, so I may consider trying this again, but I’m going to be cautious on the overheating situation.