As you may have read in other threads, I recently acquired the Tesla Center Console. I am one of the people not happy about the circumstances surrounding that acquisition, but we can leave the discussion of that to the other threads. I am starting this thread for others who will be receiving or have already received the console, or those who may be considering it, and who are interested in using the dock to charge their phone.
First, let me say that I am one of the least handy people I know. I had read in some older threads that it was reasonably easy to modify the height of the charging connector on the center console, but I was still pretty intimidated at the thought of having to take the thing apart and attempt it. With the caveat that to meet my needs, the height did not need to be adjusted much, as my wife's iPhone case does not add much of a gap, I'll say that if I could do this, I can't imagine that there is anyone who can read this post who can drive a Tesla who would have any trouble doing it. I'm not being overly self-deprecating. I'm completely serious.
The first thing anyone buying or considering buying the Tesla Center Console should know is that due to what I have to call poor design, you won't be able to use a standard USB plug in the 12V port. The folding door (the part that is Piano Black on most consoles and a different finish on a lucky few owners' consoles) is too close to the port. I found that a low profile adapter would work, but barely. The port also has a cover, as you know. That cover is still being pressed on by the console cover, especially as you fold and unfold the console cover, because before the console cover can fold towards the dash, you have to press on the end closest to the armrest to release it and then again when opening it, to lock it open. With the low profile adapter I purchased it works, but I'm pretty sure I can feel the cover making contact with the 12V port cover, somewhat inhibiting the motion required to achieve the "click" to open and the "click" to close the console cover.
Below are pictures of a standard USB 12V adapter that won't work as well as the one I purchased from Amazon (and the link) that does, just barely, work.
Too long to work:
This is the one I purchased that does work. Here's the URL to purchase it on Amazon if you like:
Amazon.com: SCOSCHE USBC242M 12 Watt USB Car Charger for iPhone/iPad/iPod Lightning/Micro - Retail Packaging - Black: Cell Phones Accessories
You also could just plug the USB end of the charging cable into one of the USB ports, but if you do that you waste a USB port, and your device is going to charge more slowly. Since the above costs about $13, I think it's pretty much a no-brainer. The cable supplied with the console is long enough to reach the 12V port.
Also, before we get into the modification I actually did, let me show you something else that you might expect to work, as I did, that really doesn't, for a couple of reasons. I told you I was intimidated at the thought of having to take my console apart. I was intimidated enough that I had purchased one of these, hoping to completely avoid any modification work:
(The first of the following two problems would apply equally well if you purchased an equivalent device for micro USB.)
There were two problems with this. Neither were insurmountable, but both were annoying enough that I wanted a better solution.
The first issue is that it is not possible to leave this little adapter attached to the Tesla docking area and also close the console cover. Because when the cover starts to fold, it would make contact with the adapter in such a way that either the door or the adapter would break. There is very little clearance between the door and the top of the Tesla adapter as the door is folding. So if you were going to use one of these you would have to choose between leaving the console door open all the time, or removing the adapter whenever you wanted to close the door.
Which brings me to the second problem. As it turns out, removing the adapter wouldn't be an issue. The adapter winds up staying in the phone when the phone is removed from the dock, rather than staying attached to the dock.
With both of these issues, I decided to just jump in and take my console apart. It really was not hard at all.
The only tool I needed was a Phillips head screw driver. There are just four screws involved.
This is a picture of the disassembled charging port. I believe the only parts not pictured are the rubbery floor piece that just slides in place and two screws. There is a notch in the rubbery floor piece at the left corner, closest to the armrest, to feed the cable through.
Here is a picture of the two pieces that hold the lightning adapter.You can see that the lightning adapter base is flush with the top of the pieces holding it. In this position, an iPhone can be charged if it is out of its case, but even in a very thin case, like my wife's Seidio Dilex Pro, the adapter is just too short to reach in this position.
This is what the cable looks like inside one of these two pieces:
Playing around with this a bit, I noticed that it was possible to achieve a bit of a gap at the bottom, which would push the adapter out and up a bit:
I thought if I could find a slightly different cable to fit in instead, my problem might be solved. I found this one on Amazon:
It appeared to me that unlike the cable Tesla supplied, that had the cable coming in pretty much flush with the bottom of the adapter, making the right angle, this one had the cable coming in a little higher, so that the area below where the cable came in might take up the space in the holder, resulting in the business end being just a little higher up. (I couldn't find any accurate measurements.) I knew this cable was three feet long, but I wasn't worried about the extra cable length, as there is room for that underneath the dock.
Below are pictures of the two adapter ends. The Tesla one is the unmarked one:
It turns out that they are exactly the same length, and what I had hoped would work to fill that gap did not work.
On top of that, the non-Tesla adapter, on the left in the picture below, is actually a little thicker, and doesn't fit in the channel the two dock pieces create when they are screwed together. So using that cable was out.
I needed to figure out what I could get into that gap that would stay there, and hold the end of the adapter in place. I went low-tech. I cut off the end of a tooth-pick. It worked perfectly:
Here's a shot of the assembled, modified dock. Note the additional height achieved:
Although I took these pictures in the house, the actual toothpick insertion "for real" had to be done in the car. Someone more adept at taking things apart and putting them together than I could probably remove more console pieces and avoid having to do this, but I left as much connected as possible, which meant I had to thread the lightning cable through a small hole, and then pull it up through a larger hole on the other side before attaching it to the holder. The small hole is large enough for the lightning adapter end to fit through, but not large enough for the USB connector end to fit through, so the assembly of the lightning adapter and the dock had to be done once the cable was in place.
Here's a shot of the reassembled, tooth-picked dock:
And here's the payoff shot--my wife's iPhone 6, in its Seidio Dilex case, charging in the modified dock:
If the case you are using has a bigger recess than the pretty small one my wife's case has, you'll probably need to make a more significant modification to the dock. I think I've read of people using tools to carve away part of the plastic in one place or another. While I can give no advice on that, perhaps the pictures I've included will at least give you an idea of what you might need to do. But please don't ask for more pictures, as I'm not taking that puppy apart again!
Seriously, though, doing this gave me a little confidence and peace of mind. Before undertaking this, I had been at least a little concerned about the future, and what would happen years down the road if Apple had a different connector type, or if sooner than that I wanted to set things up for use with my Android phone and a micro-USB cable instead of the lightning cable. I now know that switching the cable would be relatively simple. I'd just need to find a right-angle cable that fits in the narrow channel, but that really shouldn't be all that hard to do.
I'm happy to answer any questions I can.
First, let me say that I am one of the least handy people I know. I had read in some older threads that it was reasonably easy to modify the height of the charging connector on the center console, but I was still pretty intimidated at the thought of having to take the thing apart and attempt it. With the caveat that to meet my needs, the height did not need to be adjusted much, as my wife's iPhone case does not add much of a gap, I'll say that if I could do this, I can't imagine that there is anyone who can read this post who can drive a Tesla who would have any trouble doing it. I'm not being overly self-deprecating. I'm completely serious.
The first thing anyone buying or considering buying the Tesla Center Console should know is that due to what I have to call poor design, you won't be able to use a standard USB plug in the 12V port. The folding door (the part that is Piano Black on most consoles and a different finish on a lucky few owners' consoles) is too close to the port. I found that a low profile adapter would work, but barely. The port also has a cover, as you know. That cover is still being pressed on by the console cover, especially as you fold and unfold the console cover, because before the console cover can fold towards the dash, you have to press on the end closest to the armrest to release it and then again when opening it, to lock it open. With the low profile adapter I purchased it works, but I'm pretty sure I can feel the cover making contact with the 12V port cover, somewhat inhibiting the motion required to achieve the "click" to open and the "click" to close the console cover.
Below are pictures of a standard USB 12V adapter that won't work as well as the one I purchased from Amazon (and the link) that does, just barely, work.
Too long to work:
This is the one I purchased that does work. Here's the URL to purchase it on Amazon if you like:
Amazon.com: SCOSCHE USBC242M 12 Watt USB Car Charger for iPhone/iPad/iPod Lightning/Micro - Retail Packaging - Black: Cell Phones Accessories
You also could just plug the USB end of the charging cable into one of the USB ports, but if you do that you waste a USB port, and your device is going to charge more slowly. Since the above costs about $13, I think it's pretty much a no-brainer. The cable supplied with the console is long enough to reach the 12V port.
Also, before we get into the modification I actually did, let me show you something else that you might expect to work, as I did, that really doesn't, for a couple of reasons. I told you I was intimidated at the thought of having to take my console apart. I was intimidated enough that I had purchased one of these, hoping to completely avoid any modification work:
(The first of the following two problems would apply equally well if you purchased an equivalent device for micro USB.)
There were two problems with this. Neither were insurmountable, but both were annoying enough that I wanted a better solution.
The first issue is that it is not possible to leave this little adapter attached to the Tesla docking area and also close the console cover. Because when the cover starts to fold, it would make contact with the adapter in such a way that either the door or the adapter would break. There is very little clearance between the door and the top of the Tesla adapter as the door is folding. So if you were going to use one of these you would have to choose between leaving the console door open all the time, or removing the adapter whenever you wanted to close the door.
Which brings me to the second problem. As it turns out, removing the adapter wouldn't be an issue. The adapter winds up staying in the phone when the phone is removed from the dock, rather than staying attached to the dock.
With both of these issues, I decided to just jump in and take my console apart. It really was not hard at all.
The only tool I needed was a Phillips head screw driver. There are just four screws involved.
This is a picture of the disassembled charging port. I believe the only parts not pictured are the rubbery floor piece that just slides in place and two screws. There is a notch in the rubbery floor piece at the left corner, closest to the armrest, to feed the cable through.
Here is a picture of the two pieces that hold the lightning adapter.You can see that the lightning adapter base is flush with the top of the pieces holding it. In this position, an iPhone can be charged if it is out of its case, but even in a very thin case, like my wife's Seidio Dilex Pro, the adapter is just too short to reach in this position.
This is what the cable looks like inside one of these two pieces:
Playing around with this a bit, I noticed that it was possible to achieve a bit of a gap at the bottom, which would push the adapter out and up a bit:
I thought if I could find a slightly different cable to fit in instead, my problem might be solved. I found this one on Amazon:
It appeared to me that unlike the cable Tesla supplied, that had the cable coming in pretty much flush with the bottom of the adapter, making the right angle, this one had the cable coming in a little higher, so that the area below where the cable came in might take up the space in the holder, resulting in the business end being just a little higher up. (I couldn't find any accurate measurements.) I knew this cable was three feet long, but I wasn't worried about the extra cable length, as there is room for that underneath the dock.
Below are pictures of the two adapter ends. The Tesla one is the unmarked one:
It turns out that they are exactly the same length, and what I had hoped would work to fill that gap did not work.
On top of that, the non-Tesla adapter, on the left in the picture below, is actually a little thicker, and doesn't fit in the channel the two dock pieces create when they are screwed together. So using that cable was out.
I needed to figure out what I could get into that gap that would stay there, and hold the end of the adapter in place. I went low-tech. I cut off the end of a tooth-pick. It worked perfectly:
Here's a shot of the assembled, modified dock. Note the additional height achieved:
Although I took these pictures in the house, the actual toothpick insertion "for real" had to be done in the car. Someone more adept at taking things apart and putting them together than I could probably remove more console pieces and avoid having to do this, but I left as much connected as possible, which meant I had to thread the lightning cable through a small hole, and then pull it up through a larger hole on the other side before attaching it to the holder. The small hole is large enough for the lightning adapter end to fit through, but not large enough for the USB connector end to fit through, so the assembly of the lightning adapter and the dock had to be done once the cable was in place.
Here's a shot of the reassembled, tooth-picked dock:
And here's the payoff shot--my wife's iPhone 6, in its Seidio Dilex case, charging in the modified dock:
If the case you are using has a bigger recess than the pretty small one my wife's case has, you'll probably need to make a more significant modification to the dock. I think I've read of people using tools to carve away part of the plastic in one place or another. While I can give no advice on that, perhaps the pictures I've included will at least give you an idea of what you might need to do. But please don't ask for more pictures, as I'm not taking that puppy apart again!
Seriously, though, doing this gave me a little confidence and peace of mind. Before undertaking this, I had been at least a little concerned about the future, and what would happen years down the road if Apple had a different connector type, or if sooner than that I wanted to set things up for use with my Android phone and a micro-USB cable instead of the lightning cable. I now know that switching the cable would be relatively simple. I'd just need to find a right-angle cable that fits in the narrow channel, but that really shouldn't be all that hard to do.
I'm happy to answer any questions I can.
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