** Updates **
Thought I'd share another project just so others know something like this is possible, not too hard to do, and is completely reversible.
In my 2021 Prime XSE, the OEM Qi charger was giving me fits as my iPhone 12 Max was recognized and started charging maybe 1 out of 8 times. When it did activate charging, most the time it would do so, stop after about 20-30 seconds and then flash the Qi's power button light... super annoying, and this happened with a case on my phone and without (so it wasn't a matter of distance)
Decided to do something about it, picked up the official MagSafe charger, an Anker 12v USB C power adapter, and a female 12v socket.
Followed this video on taking out the bottom of that cubby. They take off the top of the shift knob, but that's not necessary if you shift the shifter into neutral (and obviously sit there holding the brake pedal down), you can move the panel around the shifter up out of the way enough to get the bottom of the cubby out.
![168143]( "168143")
![168144]( "168144")
Flipping that over, you'll see 4 screws, 2 on each side, holding the OEM unit in from the sides, there are 4 clips holding it in as well
Where the power button is, remove those two screws that hold the cover, then push up the clip holding the ribbon cable and the cable will slide right out, so not you can hold the stock unit out completely uninstalled. I put this in a ziploc bag and added to my "Stock Rav4 Parts" bin.
![168145]( "168145")
Here is the stuff to put in it's place
![168146]( "168146")
Took some trial and error to get the MagSafe and my phone lined up correctly to charge, but once I found that sweet spot, I used 4 dabs of hot glue to effectively "tack weld" the MagSafe in place.
![168147]( "168147")
Tested things out again (and again and again), once I was happy with the positioning, I put the cover to the stock power button back on and fully hot glued the MagSafe to the bottom side
![168148]( "168148")
Wired up the 12v socket to the 2 pin plug for the stock 12v power source, white was 12v and that light blue-ish wire on it was the ground (warning: the two shiny 10mm back in the subdash are NOT ground spots, so don't waste your time with that lol).
Put everything back together, making sure to tuck away the MagSafe's wire to the side of the sub dash opening so the shifter rod won't catch it and here is everything up and working.
I haven't driven the Prime since I finished this earlier today, but in playing around with things and trying it out, I now reliably start the charging action on my phone. Here is a video of the charge starting as well at the end you can see my wireless CarPlay kick on from my CPlay2Air adapter.
- Post 7 below I started over to make it reliable
- Post 19 has details for the wiring
Thought I'd share another project just so others know something like this is possible, not too hard to do, and is completely reversible.
In my 2021 Prime XSE, the OEM Qi charger was giving me fits as my iPhone 12 Max was recognized and started charging maybe 1 out of 8 times. When it did activate charging, most the time it would do so, stop after about 20-30 seconds and then flash the Qi's power button light... super annoying, and this happened with a case on my phone and without (so it wasn't a matter of distance)
Decided to do something about it, picked up the official MagSafe charger, an Anker 12v USB C power adapter, and a female 12v socket.
Followed this video on taking out the bottom of that cubby. They take off the top of the shift knob, but that's not necessary if you shift the shifter into neutral (and obviously sit there holding the brake pedal down), you can move the panel around the shifter up out of the way enough to get the bottom of the cubby out.
Flipping that over, you'll see 4 screws, 2 on each side, holding the OEM unit in from the sides, there are 4 clips holding it in as well
Where the power button is, remove those two screws that hold the cover, then push up the clip holding the ribbon cable and the cable will slide right out, so not you can hold the stock unit out completely uninstalled. I put this in a ziploc bag and added to my "Stock Rav4 Parts" bin.
Here is the stuff to put in it's place
Took some trial and error to get the MagSafe and my phone lined up correctly to charge, but once I found that sweet spot, I used 4 dabs of hot glue to effectively "tack weld" the MagSafe in place.
Tested things out again (and again and again), once I was happy with the positioning, I put the cover to the stock power button back on and fully hot glued the MagSafe to the bottom side
Wired up the 12v socket to the 2 pin plug for the stock 12v power source, white was 12v and that light blue-ish wire on it was the ground (warning: the two shiny 10mm back in the subdash are NOT ground spots, so don't waste your time with that lol).
Put everything back together, making sure to tuck away the MagSafe's wire to the side of the sub dash opening so the shifter rod won't catch it and here is everything up and working.
I haven't driven the Prime since I finished this earlier today, but in playing around with things and trying it out, I now reliably start the charging action on my phone. Here is a video of the charge starting as well at the end you can see my wireless CarPlay kick on from my CPlay2Air adapter.
