Some of you may remember that my phone screen turned dark when I used a
magnett to hold it to the dash.

Imagine my surprise when I returned home and remembered that I used a
magnet here in Baltimore and everythign worked fine. And it still did.

Maybe the Greek magnet was stronger! So I waited until I unpacked and
found the Greek magnet (not Aristotle Onassis, the Greek magnate.)

That didn't make the screen turn dark either. Huh? Maybe the magnetic
field in Greece was different. Finally, I noticed that only when the
magnet was at the bottom inch of the 5" phone did the screen turn black.
And my rentacar had only two AC vents that would accept a magnet, both
of them right above the car radio screen, so I had put the phone as high
as possible to not obscure the screen.

My car here has a vent to the left of the screeen, so the phone is
closer to touch and easier to see with minimual moving my vision from
straight ahead. And I put the middle of the phone over the magnet and it
works fine.

So that's another thing to keep in mind when buying a car.

micky wrote:

> Some of you may remember that my phone screen turned dark when I used a
> magnett to hold it to the dash.

I must have missed that thread, but sounds like it has a hall effect sensor, so
that closing a folding phone case with a magnet in the right spot puts the phone
to sleep.

micky wrote:

> Some of you may remember that my phone screen turned dark when I used a
> magnett to hold it to the dash.
>
> Imagine my surprise when I returned home and remembered that I used a
> magnet here in Baltimore and everythign worked fine. And it still did.
>
> Maybe the Greek magnet was stronger! So I waited until I unpacked and
> found the Greek magnet (not Aristotle Onassis, the Greek magnate.)
>
> That didn't make the screen turn dark either. Huh? Maybe the magnetic
> field in Greece was different. Finally, I noticed that only when the
> magnet was at the bottom inch of the 5" phone did the screen turn black.
> And my rentacar had only two AC vents that would accept a magnet, both
> of them right above the car radio screen, so I had put the phone as high
> as possible to not obscure the screen.
>
> My car here has a vent to the left of the screeen, so the phone is
> closer to touch and easier to see with minimual moving my vision from
> straight ahead. And I put the middle of the phone over the magnet and it
> works fine.
>
> So that's another thing to keep in mind when buying a car.

On my LG V20 smartphone, it has a "Quick Cover Case" option. If
enabled, flipping a cover over the screen makes the phone lock (goes to
lock screen, and blacks out). I thought it used the proximity of the
cover against the screen-side (back) camera to know when the phone was
covered, like when putting the phone face-down on a table turns blacks
the screen to save battery life (obviously you cannot get your eyeballs
between the table and the phone's screen when the phone is laying on the
table, so no point in wasted the battery to illuminate the screen). I
suppose some phones use a magnetic sensor to know when you've flipped a
case cover over the phone's screen.

I've never trusted magnets to hold my phone in the car. A big bump,
like going over a speed bump or pot hole could knock off the phone to
have it bang against the center console, or something even harder. I
also don't trust those suction cup holders that affix to the windshield
or dashtop. Suction cups dry out or warp in sunlight and heat, and
dashes usually have a pebbly texture, and effuse chemicals with heat.
For the silly putty or gel holders that stick to the phone and dash, I
don't trust those any more than the suction cupped holders. I prefer
something better to hold the phone. I have an old car with a CD player
into which I insert a bracket that expands to grab onto the CD slot and
ratcheting side clamps to hold the phone. Another choice was to use a
phone bracket that clamps onto the phone and expands into a cup holder
bracket. Alas, I'd have to arch over the phone to reach the gear
shifter. I might just drop the phone into a cup holder or in a dash
recess which is typical for a rental car. I tried visor brackets, but
they were too close to my eyes (driver visor) or had me take my eyes too
far off the road (passender visor). I even had one that affixed to the
steering wheel, but didn't like the idea of the phone ballistically
impaling my face if the air bag blew. I even tried one of those clamps
that slide onto the lip of the dash just above the console gauge section
(in front of the steering wheel) and clamped onto the phone, but I
didn't like it with the phone obscuring the road near the car, and some
dashes don't have much, if any, lip of the dash overhanging the cluster
section. While I don't like suction cups for windshield mount (and you
can get in trouble in some areas with regulations against blocking the
windshield while driving, just like for a handicap placard hanging from
the rearview mirror), I've see some phone brackets that affix to the
rearview mirror.

If I have the smartphone attached to the dash, I could care less about
obscuring the head unit in the car. After all, I'd be using Google Maps
on the phone rather than some nav app in the head unit. I don't answer
or make calls while I'm driving, plus you can probably link your phone
to the car's head unit to do hands free calling. Since you never know
if the rental will have a head unit, or you have to fumble for days to
learn how to use it (you do not get the manual(s) with a rental), I just
rely on my smartphone to which I'm very familiar. If you're linking
your phone to the head unit (to car what is displayed by the head unit),
why do you have to mount the phone anywhere? Isn't the point of the
link up to view the output of an app on the phone but on the head unit?
Leave the phone in a cup holder, sitting on the front passenger seat, in
a dash recess, or even in the glove box (probably can even close the
glove box door with the USB cable pinched if you can't just use
Bluetooth from phone to head unit).

Unless it's a small smartphone, it won't work well with the air vent
clips. They don't have much grip on the phone, and they have no grip on
the vent's vanes (they rely on tension to snap lips on the backside of
the vane, and plastic fatigues with heat). The vanes could be wider
than the clips on the holder. The phone's weight makes the vanes move
down making it hard to see the phone's screen unless you put something
on the bottom of the phone or on the dash to keep the phone from sagging
down. For my phone, it is way too large to use with vent-mounted
holders, and will definitely block something on the dash, like the
heat/AC controls. Car makers don't design their dash layouts with the
intention of having phones dangling from the vents.

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
> Car makers don't design their dash layouts with the
> intention of having phones dangling from the vents.

You would expect car designers to understand the problem and add
a phone holder to their designs, some pull-out thing similar to a
cup holder but with an adjustable clamp to hold a phone in a place
where it can be viewed or used.

Apparently too much to ask for.

On Tue, 21 Jun 2022 19:31:46 +0100, Andy Burns
<usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

>micky wrote:
>
>> Some of you may remember that my phone screen turned dark when I used a
>> magnett to hold it to the dash.
>
> I must have missed that thread, but sounds like it has a hall effect sensor, so
> that closing a folding phone case with a magnet in the right spot puts the phone
> to sleep.

Good catch, sir!
--
Regards,
Kees Nuyt

In comp.mobile.android, on Wed, 22 Jun 2022 10:41:26 +0200, Rob
<nomail@example.com> wrote:

>VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>> Car makers don't design their dash layouts with the
>> intention of having phones dangling from the vents.
>
>You would expect car designers to understand the problem and add
>a phone holder to their designs, some pull-out thing similar to a
>cup holder but with an adjustable clamp to hold a phone in a place
>where it can be viewed or used.
>
>Apparently too much to ask for.

That would be nice. Maybe in a few years they'll think of it.

Altnhough the '84 Lebaron had a cup-holder, the 88, or 95, didn't. I
had to take one designed to hook into the window slot, cut off the hook,
and use some brown aluminum siding to make a bracket that went mostly
under the radio bezel to which I could pop-rivet the cup holder. It
looked very nice.

On my previous vacation, the rentacar had a Hertz-labelled magnet in the
AC vent, but the phone's case was made of plastic. I took the lid from a
can of corn, bent it a few times to break off a piece small enough to
fit in the phone case, and I used that. It worked pretty well. I
bought a second can of corn and added another layer and it worked well
after that.

In comp.mobile.android, on Tue, 21 Jun 2022 19:31:46 +0100, Andy Burns
<usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

>micky wrote:
>
>> Some of you may remember that my phone screen turned dark when I used a
>> magnett to hold it to the dash.
>
>I must have missed that thread, but sounds like it has a hall effect sensor, so
>that closing a folding phone case with a magnet in the right spot puts the phone
>to sleep.

I suppose, but I wish it had had an option to turn that off.
>