A few months ago a co-worker received an iPod
as a gift. I observed that he was propping up his new status symbol, er, I mean his MP3 player on some papers. It kept sliding off and he couldn’t read the screen. Generally he didn’t like it. He was talking about buying a over the counter holder and was lamenting the fact that all of them were a bit expensive. I said give me a second and I’ll build him one. So I pulled out a few binder clips and some Post-it notes and built this
I just pinched two large clips together to for a back rest and used a small clip at a foot so the iPod won’t slide off.
The Post-it notes are on there to keep the finish on the Ipod looking good, I hear they scratch pretty easy.
So with just stuff around the office I saved my friend a few bucks and let him view his iPod in true hacker style.
I used the first two clips from the previous instructional video to assemble the simple iPhone holder. However, I snapped these into the slot of one of the original, weighted, 3M Post-It Notes popup dispensers (it’s a basic, black square for 3×3 Post-Its. I don’t think this early 1990’s model is sold any longer, but we have two of them. The newer dispensers are smaller and have gentle swooped tops that may or may not work — I’ve never looked at one in the stores). This is a two-piece product, with a weighted base that sits in a plastic, bottom plate. The binder clips hold the the iPhone 3G USB charging cable in place; the Post-It base securely holds the binder clips in place.
This looks more finished than the Rube Goldberg, multi-clip assembly in the video, although it clearly is not as clever.
Assemble the first two clips together according to the instructions in the video. Instead of adding all the extra clips for a broader, more stable base, I eyed the old Post-It Notes popup dispenser sitting right in front of me on the desk. I studied it and decided to try and push the binder clip/iPhone 3G charger assembly up into the slot that normally would dispense the Post-It Notes. I held my breath and pushed hard from the bottom of the dispenser to snap it into place. Because of the rolled edges on the binder clip, it’s a tight fit going into the slot and I was afraid it would break the iPhone charging port. However, it snapped (loudly) into place. It may never come back out though.
After passing through the the slot, the nearly-finished assembly does have a loose fit sitting in the slot — too loose. So, I cut a piece of black foam core board into a 3- by 1 1/2-inch pad to cover the bottom opening of the weighted dispenser and force the clip assembly higher (and more tightly) into the slot. I secured the foam core and clip assembly in place with a piece of duct tape. Now, it’s nice and snug.
I ran the cable back up through the top slot and routed it to the back of the dispenser (or should I say, iPhone 3G dock), but I could have used a Dremel Tool to drill an actual cable slot into the side of the dispenser (the cable can’t run out the back because the weights are in the front and back). Perhaps I’ll do this later. Griffin makes a matching black, iPhone USB charging cable that would make all this look even better. I also added a couple of tiny, cabinet bumper pads to the bottom front, to tilt the whole thing back and make the screen easier to read.
HD Boy: Cool hack, I’d like to see your version. I didn’t do the video your referring to, his looks like it would work with both the iPhone and the iPod but I’m not sure I’d trust the docking connector to support the entire weight of the device. It would suck big time if it snapped off. BTW, where did you find a link back to this post? I can’t see my version mentioned on any of the pages that link to the video.
(this is the video that I think the comment was based on)