Lego dock for Nokia Lumia 900

April 13, 2012 Update:

Thanks to Ron Buckton, parts list is now available in Lego Digital Designer LXF format here. Note that Ron made it all-black but I randomized colors of bricks in the LXF for you as all-black rendition was a bit hard to see the necessary details – it’s easy enough to edit colors. In case you’re not familiar with LDD, you can create build instructions and buy the parts from shop.lego.com.

Also important is the exact SKU of the micro-USB cable I used in this model. You can search your favorite shopping site for “ECC1DU2BBE” to get it. It’s for Samsung Focus and works just as well for Nokia Lumia 900.

Original post:

I got my cyan Lumia 900 yesterday, and realized that there aren’t any docks available yet — so I built one myself using Lego. Similar concept I used with the Lego dock for Samsung Focus last year.

Below I will include close-up shots in case you want to build one for yourself. Worth mentioning, cable is standard one that I had bought a bunch for Samsung Focus last year — it works just fine with Lumia 900.

First image below shows the most critical part, that is the mechanism that holds the micro USB plug in place. Remember, this needs to sustain 1000+ docks/undocks without breaking apart.

There are many ways to do this – but I used the time-tested method I developed when building the dock for Samsung Focus. Those circled connections as yellow is the first layer (note the orientation of the bricks, as they bite into the plug very nicely), those circled as red holds the entire vertical stack together. With this technique, you no longer rely on Lego brick’s ability to attach to each other. The plastic piece would have to break in order for it to let go. More photos added below..

Note the lower right corner area of the photo below. Couple of things going on there. First, I am locking the already-stable vertical bar that holds the USB plug to the back wall (the corner piece just above the cable entering to dock. Second, I left a small hole where I run the cable through. This back wall is made as heavy as possible because you don’t want this dock to move about too easily. You might want to add a metal piece in there for extra weight if you like. I have not done that. Inside, I’m routing the cable but that’s pretty straight-forward, no photos for that. Only thing I’ll mention is that account for accidental hard pull on the cable.

Below is the dock without the phone. Back wall is tuned very carefully. Because the phone needs to slide in from right, and has to align “perfectly” in order for smooth docking operation. I’d say tolerance is less than 1/10th of a millimeter. This will take some time but be patient and try to match what I have done exactly. Every layer has a purpose and allows phone to rest reliably and slide in perfectly. In addition, undock process has to work one-handed. For that reason, you would want to keep the top of the wall holding the cable end as low as possible. This allows for your thumb to push the phone out from left without having to hold the dock with your left hand.

Here.. bunch more shots from different angles…

That’s it!.