Apple does not make an iPhone with internal wireless charging support. Scotty of Strange Parts found a guy in China who developed a kit to add wireless charging capability inside an iPhone 7. It is a slim circuit including Wireless Charging antenna and a connector which slips into an iPhone 7 connector. It requires replacing the back, so there is a port-hole through which wireless charging signals can get into the phone.
The video attached here is a fascinating look at not only getting into an iPhone 7 and making modifications, but the hardware development environment in the Chinese electronics markets. We get to see Scotty taking apart and reassembling an iPhone 7 several times, testing and debugging, and finally getting the thing to work. Plus, we get to see Scotty negotiating with Chinese hardware developers.
The big result is that Scotty is making available kits at http://strangeparts.com/wireless
The business end of the wireless charging conversion. This ribbon cable has a connector that slips into the middle of an existing iPhone 7 connector. It has 7 contacts that interface with the existing power system. Source: Strange Parts
First stage of converting iPhone 7 to wireless charging ... "hey, it works" ... At this point Scotty had installed the conversion, and found it necessary to put in some foam tape to apply a bit of pressure on the connector. It worked that night, but the next morning it was no longer working. There were more tricks to learn such as using a better foam tape.
How We Added Wireless Charging to an iPhone - in China
You guys have been asking me for a long while now - Is it possible to add wireless charging to an older iPhone? Could you add wireless charging to an iPhone 7 or even a 6s? But it sounded pretty hard, so I held off. But I recently got a twitter DM from a Chinese guy named Yeke, who said he'd designed a circuit board (flex PCB) to do just this. So of course I had to go meet him, and try it for myself, which of course started me on an unexpect journey through the cell phone world of Huaqiangbei.
About the Author(s)
David Herron:
David Herron is a writer and software engineer focusing on the wise use of technology. He is especially interested in clean energy technologies like solar power, wind power, and electric cars. David worked for nearly 30 years in Silicon Valley on software ranging from electronic mail systems, to video streaming, to the Java programming language, and has published several books on Node.js programming and electric vehicles.
