Sony Xperia Z Lego dock prototype.

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Having got fed up with my Kenwood KDC-8T8401U headunit's poor support for large MP3 collections through it's USB port, I decided to use my Xperia Z to provide my tunes on the move. The main obstacle with this is that no dock or mount would support the phone in the Case-Mate Tough case for my phone and allow me to charge to phone without opening the USB flap all the time. At first I purchased one of these docks from Amazon (click picture for item page):

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  Generic Xperia Z dock

My plan was to take a Dremel to it to widen it enough to accept the phone and case but upon disassembly that proved to be a non starter as the phone case is just too bulky for the charge pins to reach the connectors so on too plan two. Borrowing the internals from the above dock and a quick mod to a couple of lego bricks I now have a working prototype for my in car dock, in a rather amazing coincidence it happens that my Honda must of been built with the dock in mind as it fits exactly into the width of the cubby hole I wanted to place it in.

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  Prototype Lego dock

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  Top view showing charge pins from purchased dock

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  Rear view, needs tidying and more secure mount

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  Modded Case-Mate case to accept charge pins

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  In car shot, will look much better when painted

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  Somehow Honda managed to make the flap exactly the right size 😎

Eventually the design will be tidied up and painted black, safety wise all is good as the headunit can change tracks and the console recesses far enough to be well out the way of the gear stick.