Volvo 480 Club Europe

Morning everyone,

When I got my 480 in August, it came with one of those suction cup smartphone holders as well as a cigarette lighter adapter. It worked fine for holding my smartphone but was decidedly off-period. Of course an iPhone in a 480 will always be off-period, but I figured I could do better.
So, I bought a dirt-cheap car radio on Wish with bluetooth and a USB port which nonetheless looked more period compatible, and installed one of those vent-clamping holders on one of the central vents. Much better. In case you are interested in the radio: https://www.wish.com/product/5e9185fa2e ... ?share=web (a bit tacky that it changes colours by itself, and noise suppression is not perfect, but it does an ok job re. bluetooth streaming and phone calles, and for the price...)
The next step would be to get the phone holder near or on the vertical vent to the right of the dashboard, and to get a very short, black USB cord to go from the radio to the phone.
Does anyone have ideas for that?

Many thanks from chilly Geneva

NillerGT.

Mine lives in the centre console, out of sight and reach, and I ran a USB cable from the Head unit, down and into the console, meaning it's always charged and can do handsfree calling etc.

Dont use vent clamps! The plastic wasnt designed to take the weight when it was new. Now it's old it's even more fragile.

dragonflyjewels wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 9:36 am

Dont use vent clamps! The plastic wasnt designed to take the weight when it was new. Now it's old it's even more fragile.

My immediate thought as well!! Not only are they very brittle these days, but they come apart from the guide rods behind them very easily...

I use bluetooth with my phone for hands free in the GT, with no physical connection, so the phone just lives in the door pocket. I will probably set up the same in Pud when I get the chance.

David

I personally just keep my phone in my pocket and adopt the notion that if anything comes through then it will just have to wait, rare for me. For navigation however I would go for the suction cup option. However if you are quite practical or want something more permanent, you could drill some holes where you want to make a bracket for a custom fitting, but make sure you get it right!


I still have the holes from when my car was fitted with a car phone, I'd love to get one fitted again but I doubt it would work now, even if I could trust the hardware!

MisterH wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:32 am

I personally just keep my phone in my pocket and adopt the notion that if anything comes through then it will just have to wait, rare for me. For navigation however I would go for the suction cup option. However if you are quite practical or want something more permanent, you could drill some holes where you want to make a bracket for a custom fitting, but make sure you get it right!


I still have the holes from when my car was fitted with a car phone, I'd love to get one fitted again but I doubt it would work now, even if I could trust the hardware!

If you could find an appropriate phone from the time it would be an interesting artefact and, of course, be original, but it wouldn't work. For a start we were all analogue in those days, young man!! Digital? What's that??

David

dcwalker wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:36 am

MisterH wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:32 am

I personally just keep my phone in my pocket and adopt the notion that if anything comes through then it will just have to wait, rare for me. For navigation however I would go for the suction cup option. However if you are quite practical or want something more permanent, you could drill some holes where you want to make a bracket for a custom fitting, but make sure you get it right!


I still have the holes from when my car was fitted with a car phone, I'd love to get one fitted again but I doubt it would work now, even if I could trust the hardware!

If you could find an appropriate phone from the time it would be an interesting artefact and, of course, be original, but it wouldn't work. For a start we were all analogue in those days, young man!! Digital? What's that??

David

Well I'd imagine that there are still some eccentric people out there still using it, which is ok as that is definitely how I would describe myself...

MisterH wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:38 am

dcwalker wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:36 am

MisterH wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 10:32 am

I personally just keep my phone in my pocket and adopt the notion that if anything comes through then it will just have to wait, rare for me. For navigation however I would go for the suction cup option. However if you are quite practical or want something more permanent, you could drill some holes where you want to make a bracket for a custom fitting, but make sure you get it right!


I still have the holes from when my car was fitted with a car phone, I'd love to get one fitted again but I doubt it would work now, even if I could trust the hardware!

If you could find an appropriate phone from the time it would be an interesting artefact and, of course, be original, but it wouldn't work. For a start we were all analogue in those days, young man!! Digital? What's that??

David

Well I'd imagine that there are still some eccentric people out there still using it, which is ok as that is definitely how I would describe myself...

They can try - there is no longer an analogue network for them to use

Funny you mention it....

The turbo came with a "proper" nokia car phone hard wired in (not that it was owned by a yuppie or anything!)

Still powers on! will grab pictures if there's any interest!

jifflemon wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 11:06 am

Funny you mention it....

The turbo came with a "proper" nokia car phone hard wired in (not that it was owned by a yuppie or anything!)

Still powers on! will grab pictures if there's any interest!

Ooo...yes, let's see it!

Perhaps it would look good fitted above Gloria the fire extinguisher...

David

Thank you everyone... It looks like I am quite alone in wanting to see my phone's screen!
The biggest reason is dynamic navigation. With COVID, I am taking the car to work through the city (daily driver!), and traffic changing means it is useful to have Waze guiding me according to what works.
More generally, I appreciate having the screen accessible for the GPS and also to swipe through some music. A habit, perhaps a bad one...
I take good note of the vent issue... if anyone has a better idea I remain interested.
I wish everyone a nice week-end.

Isn' the Brodit Pro Clip still available for our car? I seem to remember that it goes to the side of the tall air vent. That may be a bit delicate and far away for navigation screen though.

jamescarruthers wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:59 pm

Isn' the Brodit Pro Clip still available for our car? I seem to remember that it goes to the side of the tall air vent. That may be a bit delicate and far away for navigation screen though.

I just had a look at the Brodit Proclip for the 480, you are right, it would sit off the driver's dashboard - basically where my current mount is. But many thanks for this idea, I would not have thought these could still be ordered (found some here: https://www.brodit24.de/Brodit-ProClip/ ... 80-ES.html).
I am thinking, perhaps I could use the empty space below the radio to create a stable support for the vent mount... The starting point of my thinking would be some kind of spreader clamp, but obviously made to look much more elegant. I could see my phone near the right edge of that space...
Again, if anyone has an idea...

NillerGT wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:36 pm

Thank you everyone... It looks like I am quite alone in wanting to see my phone's screen!
The biggest reason is dynamic navigation. With COVID, I am taking the car to work through the city (daily driver!), and traffic changing means it is useful to have Waze guiding me according to what works.

I actually moved back to an “old fashioned” sat nav; I found phone ones less reliable, incredibly data hungry and battery draining (ate battery quicker than it could charge!). Garmin stuff is great, and can pair to the phone to do traffic updates, as well as using old fashioned RDS for traffic updates in areas of poor 3/4/5g

We use Garmins as well, squeezed in just to the right of the dash on suction mounts. Can you get something similar to hold a smart phone in the same place ? Easy to see and totally out of the way.