Casteyanqui.com | Electric Vehicles | Jeda Wireless Smartphone Charging Pad

Getting Juiced
(Click to enlarge)

Jeda Wireless
Smartphone Charging Pad
for our Model 3

Mark D Larsen
July 23, 2018

Several months ago I saw on the internet that a new company, Jeda, was planning to create a wireless charging pad to fit in the Model 3’s smartphone compartment. To gauge potential demand and ramp up production accordingly, they asked interested owners to sign up as early adopters, for which they would receive a discounted price when the pad was finally released. Naturally, I immediately added my name to their customer database, and later placed an order when they started accepting payments.
The development and manufacturing took longer than anticipated, but today I was delighted to finally find the Jeda Pad in my mailbox. Model 3 Owners Club has already posted a good review of it on YouTube, but for whatever they’re worth, below are my own comments about the pad —to which I made a tiny “improvement.”

NOTE: You can click on the following photos to enlarge them.

The package was sent via USPS Priority Mail. Here is the box that it contained, with an illustration of the pad and a smartphone on the cover.

Upon opening the box, I found the pad itself, with an instruction card on top.

The back of the instruction card outlines the easy steps to install the pad in a Model 3.

Underneath that pad were two wires to connect the pad to the Model 3’s USB outlets. There was also an empty cutout, roughly in the shape of a cell phone. I surmised that this was for the quick charge device that was an optional addition to the pad. I didn’t order one, as I do not mind charging my smartphone at a slower rate when on the road.

Upon installing it, I found that the pad fits in the very same space as the original Tesla pad. I understand that some of the first pads had four sticky, round adhesives on the back to help keep it from slipping around on the shelf. However, apparently because of feedback from the earliest adopters, Jeda had now put six such sticky circles on my pad.

It struck me as curious that the original Tesla pad didn’t use such adhesives, but rather had four raised “nobs” on the underside...

... which fit into four corresponding holes in the shelf. This struck me as a better solution to keep pads from moving around on rough roads than using sticky adhesives.

It then occurred to me: perhaps I could “add” similar nobs to the back of the Jeda pad...? I remembered that I had a sheet with some unused, round bumper protectors for drawers and cabinet doors in my workroom. Lo and behold, I found that they fit nearly perfectly in the shelf’s holes.

Fortunately, both pads are the same size and dimensions. I therefore placed four bumper protectors on the Tesla nobs, sticky side up. I then carefully lined up and lowered the Jeda pad on top of it so that the two pads were back-to-back.

I pressed down on the four areas of Jeda pad that were making contact with the bumpers. Voilà! Upon lifting the Jeda pad back up, the bumpers were now stuck to its underside, precisely where they would fit in the shelf’s holes.

The bumper nobs should keep the pad from sliding around, but they wouldn’t keep it from bouncing out of the holes if the car were to go over a harsh bump. I therefore also decided to stick some very thin strips of velcro along the pad’s bottom edge and the lip where it rests on the shelf.

When the shiny black plastic cover is then slipped back onto its mount on shelf’s base, you can’t even see those velcro strips.

And the good news is: my modifications work! The bumper protectors underneath the Jeda pad fit neatly in their corresponding holes, keeping the pad from moving around, and the velcro strips keep it from bouncing up.

We placed Tamara’s iPhone on the pad to test it out, and its battery icon immediately turned green, indicating it was charging wirelessly.

In the photo at the top of the page, you can see both of our phones on the pad. We noticed that Tamara’s phone seemed to be charging faster than mine. Of course, I did have a lot of apps open on my phone. I also suspect that our different cases might affect the charging rate. As you can see in that photo, although Tamara’s case is thicker, it is also softer, more pliable, rubbery. Mine is thinner, but made of harder, denser plastic.
This piqued my curiosity: how would the charging speed with the Jeda pad compare with plugging in my phone at home? I decided to purchase (99¢) the iPhone app Amperes to make a comparison of how many seconds it would take to charge 1% of the battery. I then ran several tests and these were the results:

In The Car
(Click to enlarge the image)
At Home
(Click to enlarge the image)

Device Seconds Device Seconds
Jeda Pad
1 app running 119 Apple Dock
USB hub 200
Jeda Pad
3 apps running 119 MacBook
USB port 59

According to these tests, the Jeda pad charges at only half the speed when my iPhone is plugged directly into my MacBook. However, it is faster than the dock that I always use to charge the phone at home! I’ll take it!
I am delighted with this upgrade. No more hassling with wires! We can just drop our phones onto the Jeda Pad and let them charge while on the road. Of course, not all smartphones can charge wirelessly (our previous iPhone 6s couldn’t), so I can understand why Tesla didn’t include this type of pad in the car. Nonetheless, I hope —and am willing to bet— that in the future their online store will offer a wireless pad as an optional accessory.
Thank you, Jeda, for a great product!

The package was sent via USPS Priority Mail. Here is the box that it contained, with an illustration of the pad and a smartphone on the cover.	Upon opening the box, I found the pad itself, with an instruction card on top.
The back of the instruction card outlines the easy steps to install the pad in a Model 3.	Underneath that pad were two wires to connect the pad to the Model 3’s USB outlets. There was also an empty cutout, roughly in the shape of a cell phone. I surmised that this was for the quick charge device that was an optional addition to the pad. I didn’t order one, as I do not mind charging my smartphone at a slower rate when on the road.
Upon installing it, I found that the pad fits in the very same space as the original Tesla pad. I understand that some of the first pads had four sticky, round adhesives on the back to help keep it from slipping around on the shelf. However, apparently because of feedback from the earliest adopters, Jeda had now put six such sticky circles on my pad.	It struck me as curious that the original Tesla pad didn’t use such adhesives, but rather had four raised “nobs” on the underside...
... which fit into four corresponding holes in the shelf. This struck me as a better solution to keep pads from moving around on rough roads than using sticky adhesives.	It then occurred to me: perhaps I could “add” similar nobs to the back of the Jeda pad...? I remembered that I had a sheet with some unused, round bumper protectors for drawers and cabinet doors in my workroom. Lo and behold, I found that they fit nearly perfectly in the shelf’s holes.
Fortunately, both pads are the same size and dimensions. I therefore placed four bumper protectors on the Tesla nobs, sticky side up. I then carefully lined up and lowered the Jeda pad on top of it so that the two pads were back-to-back.	I pressed down on the four areas of Jeda pad that were making contact with the bumpers. Voilà! Upon lifting the Jeda pad back up, the bumpers were now stuck to its underside, precisely where they would fit in the shelf’s holes.
The bumper nobs should keep the pad from sliding around, but they wouldn’t keep it from bouncing out of the holes if the car were to go over a harsh bump. I therefore also decided to stick some very thin strips of velcro along the pad’s bottom edge and the lip where it rests on the shelf.	When the shiny black plastic cover is then slipped back onto its mount on shelf’s base, you can’t even see those velcro strips.
And the good news is: my modifications work! The bumper protectors underneath the Jeda pad fit neatly in their corresponding holes, keeping the pad from moving around, and the velcro strips keep it from bouncing up.	We placed Tamara’s iPhone on the pad to test it out, and its battery icon immediately turned green, indicating it was charging wirelessly.

In The Car (Click to enlarge the image)		At Home (Click to enlarge the image)
Device	Seconds	Device	Seconds
Jeda Pad 1 app running	119	Apple Dock USB hub	200
Jeda Pad 3 apps running	119	MacBook USB port	59