Tesla Cam + 2 Charging Ports Solution?

[kwest2]

I recently added a USB to enable TeslaCam, with the obvious loss of one of the front phone charge ports. I was trying to think of a solution to get back to two ports, and wonder if anyone has tried this:

Plug in a larger portable battery into the single USB still available. Attach (tape?) the battery pack to the front storage area wall so it doesn't move.
Plug in two outputs from the portable battery and connect those through the wiring ducts to reach the phone stand area.

Thus, when not charging phones, the car will charge the portable battery. Then when needing to dock phones, two ports are available with the stored battery charge.

Alternatively, maybe there are dongles that plug into one port then have multiple USB outlets on the other end?

Thoughts? Sorry if this has been discussed before.

 

[billh13850]

Sounds like it should work, but isn't a USB hub / splitter a cheaper solution?

 

[derotam]

Watch out, a lot of battery packs don't allow for charging the pack and providing an output at the same time. They are out there but it isn't common yet.

 

[commasign]

If you only need 7.5W to each phone (which is plenty IMO), this is the easiest solution:

https://www.teslaadviceblog.com/blo...a-usb-music-drive-and-two-7-5w-phone-chargers

 

[SWOrunner]

Watch out, a lot of battery packs don't allow for charging the pack and providing an output at the same time. They are out there but it isn't common yet.

Really? All of mine do. Try Jackery battery packs, they're pretty awesome.

 

[kwest2]

Ah, the splitter looks like a cleaner solution even if the battery pack would work. Of course the battery pack would charge faster, since the front ports are already slow and splitting it in half must be super slow.

 

[commasign]

Splitting the ports for USB drives won’t make them any slower than stock configuration since USB drives use such a tiny amount of electricity. Tesla did bump up the output of the ports in a software update last year.

 

[Need]

Do you really need to have 2 phones charging at the dock all the time? If it's just occasional usage, you could just keep an extra cable in the many storage compartment and plug it into 1 of the 2 rear USB ports when needed. Usually the passenger wants to use the phone in hand while charging, so docking the 2nd phone is not ideal.

 

[Knightshade]

The splitters don't work with iPhones FWIW (the link even mentions that)

I just use a 4-port USB hub on one of the ports to run both phone charging dock locations and a 256GB USB key for music, and a 32GB key for dash cam.... leaves 1 open port for a USB->12v adapter to run a radar detector, and it all works fine, and was a ton cheaper than any of the battery pack solutions I've seen. The phones don't charge crazy fast, but can't think of a time I've ever needed em to... in daily driving I'm going from home (where they could've charged overnight) to work (where I can plug the phone in too for hours) and on roadtrips I'm in the car for hours so in both cases "normal" speed charging is fine.