Tommyd

Hi all. Fairly new to the forums but thought I'd share a DIY I've been having some fun with lately.

The project came about because I wanted a place to put my phone in the car where it could charge and not rattle around all the time. I know there are clip on style ones available for vents/windscreen but decided to try come up with something a little neater/integrated with the car.

My idea was to integrate a charger and dock into the existing removable cup holder "divider" in the center console. So basically design a new "divider" to hold a phone and charge cable.

Initial concept of how the phone would "sit" within the console

Rough orientation the phone will sit in relation to the divider

Measured up OEM divider with some calipers, measured up the phone and this is what I came up with! First cut of the design in solid works

You can make out the charging pin below. Integrating it with the dock was a small project in itself!

First prototype 3d printed - a few clearance issues which were sorted out in rev 2

Close-up - you can make out the charging pin. Turned out to be a bit of a challenge to integrate the pin with the main body but got there in the end.

Pulling apart the center console trim to run the wiring. Coming from a euro car I love how easy it is to pull these cars apart!

Console trim removed first. Wiring disconnected from switches for ease of access to remaining trim

Shifter surround trim removed.

Small piece of trim adjacent to the cigarette lighter removed, required small amount of force

Pulling apart the cigarette lighter trim - this is where we will tap the power from.

Tapping the cigarette lighter plug

Now for the slightly scary bit - drilling a hole in the console for the USB outlet! A Christmas tree bit is perfect for this kind of thing but unfortunately I didn't have one on hand. Had to physically grind most of it with a dremel - didn't have any drill bits large enough.

Usb outlet installed directly underneath "divider" to keep out of view.

All wired up. Inline fuse installed b/w USB and lighter also. I routed the wiring to the right of the shifter and followed the path of the OEM wiring with a few zip ties. All in all pretty easy

And done! I'm relatively happy with the results. Nice easy place to put the phone without it getting in the way of anything and looks OEMish. The show unit can be disconnected easily for future removal, basically goes in/out the same as the OEM divider. The only issue is its printed out of pla which get soft around 50 deg, quite likely to be a summer issue! Will see how it goes anyway - I can always get it reprinted in ABS which has a much higher heat resistance. Enjoy!

Did have a look through the manual but no luck unfortunately. Will probably tell them I had to pull out the battery to start another car or something like that.

Did find this thread which is very helpful, but still have a few issues. Anyone else having problems I recommend having a read.

http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/42626-help-please-on-my-car-radio-pzq60-00525/page-3

Hoping someone can help me out with this one.

Disconnected the battery on my 2014 corolla today. On reconnecting I found the head unit was requesting the sd card be inserted, I assume it's a security as an alternative to a pin? Inserted the sd card and still no good - unable to read the contents or something along those lines. No radio functions work. I know why this has happened is because someone (who shall remain nameless!) decided to clear the card and put music on it thinking to play it through the radio.

Fully expecting to head to the dealership to resolve but thought it would be worth asking the question here. Is there any around the issue? It seems weird Toyota would leave security of the radio to an sd card which would likely be lost by the owner or just left in the radio anyway.

The radio is a touchscreen non-gps type

Hi all, keen Toyota enthusiast here! We've had them in our family for years (landcrusers, Camry's) and I've always loved how bulletproof they are and their simplicity in a lot of ways. Not currently an owner but on my list for my next car. My partner does have a corolla though. I love getting my hands dirty with modifications and would love to see whats happening in the Toyota world.