Cooking your phone

[logicman]

On a recent trip to Florida I decided to leave the Garmin Nuvi at home and use my Droid for navigation. All in all I was quite pleased. However, I wanted to share one issue I had. Although the outside temperature was in the low 60's it was bright and sunny. About 25 minutes into a trip to Naples, I noticed the phone stopped charging even though the battery was at 70%.

After ensuring the car charger connections were tight, I pulled the phone from the windshield mount. It was extremely hot from sitting in the direct sunlight. Plugged the charger back in but it still would not charge. I turned on the AC and held the phone in front of a vent for a few minutes. Plugged the charger back in and voila, the phone started charging. Only thing I can figure is that a protection mechanism kicked in and shut down charging because the battery got too hot. 

It should be pretty easy to fashion a shade out of cardboard. By cutting a slot in the shade for the arm of the windshield mount it should stay in place and hopefully shade the phone enough to prevent overheating.

BTW, Google Maps Navigation on the Moto Droid made Wired Mag's Editor's Pick in a comparison with TomTom for iPhone and the Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition. 

[#2]

Thanks for the heads-up.

[Kitten_Call]

...and please return next week for the latest post on "how to sautee your Droid without frying your budget" (joke)

[logicman]

I made a sun shield for my Droid over the weekend. I have the Motorola Droid Custom 7" Freedom Mount  from Extremepda.com. This mount features ratchets and tightening knobs at the adjustment points and is rock solid.

It was very simple to make a sun shield for this mount. The cradle has a square section on the back that snaps on to the mount.  I cut a piece of foam core board (available at arts & crafts stores), slightly larger than the Droid. I positioned the cradle over the foam core slightly off center vertically (to leave a larger border at the top) and pressed to mark the position of the square section. I then used an Xacto knife to cut out the square section. Once the cradle is attached to the mount the shield is locked in place. I'll have to wait for the warmer weather to test its effectiveness.