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Quadlock Wireless Charging Head review


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Think of this as a continuation of [mention]geofferz[/mention]'s Quadlock review https://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=73164


I was looking for ways to mount my phone on my bike to use Calimoto, I have a tank bag with a pouch for a map/phone, but you do have to look down to see it, I knew I'd prefer something in my eyeline that I could glance at. I also knew I'd want something easy to mount the phone on and off on.


I originally planned to change my phone using my powerbank in the tank bag.


Quadlock was one of the options I spotted and looked good, even though I could see it was expensive. Then I also spotted they'd just released the wireless charging head, which was perfect as it meant that I didn't have to muck around putting on the tank bag and wiring up the phone - put phone on the Quadlock, start the engine, phone charging. Perfect.


Expense wise, yes it was expensive and you do pretty much 'buy in' to the solution. For me I got the case, the rain jacket (not strictly necessary for my phone as it's waterproof and there's loads of videos on YouTube of the model sitting in a tank of water for ages with no ill effects, but I'm still cautious with it around water) and the mount and and wireless charging head.


Total all in was just over £160. Yup I know, but I was going for convenience. If you don't want to go all in there's a USB charger instead that sits under the head and draws power from the bike battery, which you then plug in a charging lead to your phone. But I didn't want the additional wiring.


The case


Personally I find the case really good quality. I have a Samsung S8+, the one with the curvy screen edge, and it fits brilliantly, better than my last case. There is a bulge at the back (stop giggling at the back) where you attach it to the mount but I find my fingers fit neatly around it to hold the phone. I keep it on all the time.


Connecting it up


There's a couple of choices for connecting up the charging head. If you know what you're doing you can install a relay on the bike which will ensure the head isn't drawing power when the bike off. If you know what you're doing this should be simple from what I've seen... but I didn't feel like I knew enough about what I was doing. If you have already gone to the effort of installing an additional fuse block then of course you could just wire it up to this.


Alternatively you can use the supplied ring terminals and connect direct to the battery. The one thing you need to remember is it'll draw power even with the bike off - but there is an off switch on the back. Allegedly even if it's powered off it'll still draw a minuscule current which will only be a problem if the bike is laid up for a while, either way I've unplugged the USB plug at the rear if I knew I wasn't going riding for a few days.


Finally if you have a USB socket installed (or maybe a DIN socket with a USB plug for it) you can just plug it directly into that.


Once your wires are in it's just a case of sympathetically running the wires along your bike and zip tying them up along the way, installing the mount on your handle bar and plugging in the USB to the back.


The mount has a multitude of potential angles, meaning with a bit of playing around you can ensure it's not fowling up the movement of your bars nor obscuring the clocks. In my case I could mount it on the bars themselves, if this is an issue on your bike you can also get adaptors for mirrors or fork stems at the point of purchase.


Here's a pic:

 

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Using


Once you've got over the expense of it all (and I swear it's a cult, now I'm considering the in car mount and the ring stand you can attach to the rear of the case to stand the phone up) it's a doddle to use. Attach it to the mount, it's beyond sturdy and the phone just charges (subject to the post below I'll follow up with!). The way the attachment works, there's no uncertainty if you've connected it properly. If you're worried you won't connect it properly and it'll end up bouncing down the road I can assure you that I can't imagine a way that you could achieve this. The phone is either attached or it's not.


When you're done, push the two sides of the mount down, twist the phone and walk away. No additional cables to undo. Yes OK unplugging a charging lead is hardly effort but this is just so SIMPLE.


Bits that could be improved


Other than the expense, the only other thing I wish could be improved is the spare parts. Currently Quadlock aren't flogging spare bits, which is a shame as when they send the mount and wireless charging head, you have to remove the original mount and install the charging head instead. So now I have a redundant mount that I would love to utilise in some way (in the car, in the kitchen, on my bicycle etc) but can't.


But other than that, and the expense, I'd happily recommend you give this a try.

Edited by SometimesSansEngine
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Right the immediate follow up post, as I have to keep this honest.... But I decided to separate this out from the initial review.


I did have issues with my charging head. Which for the price I paid, was irksome. BUT what saved the day was the customer services team were great to deal with.


Basically I got everything connected up and it was working fine, but on the first ride I noticed the unit had stopped charging around five miles in.


I assumed that maybe somewhere I had a loose connection so stopped, and I could see from the LED on the unit that it was going into 'low power mode' when the phone was attached (discovering what the LED meant also required a quick roadside internet search!) Magpie84 was with me and she also has a Samsung, so I held her phone over the unit and was getting the same result (disregarding my phone as the cause)


I twiddled everything I could and carried on riding, but couldn't fix it. When I got home I started doing as much diagnostics as I could (plugging a USB power bank to the end of the wire, plugging my phone directly into the SAE connector) and eventually I thought it was the USB wire supplied. I swapped for another wire and went for a ride, it charged for over an hour but then stopped again. When we stopped for fuel I fiddled and got it working again, but only for about another mile.


Returning home again I realised that the USB wire I was using didn't sit snug in the SAE connector so plugged the original wire back in. However then I noticed that the charging head once again was giving an error light indication or the low power notification. It may have occasionally been giving a been doing this the day before when riding, however whilst riding I can't see the LED status.


So then I did another test ride with my USB powerbank underneath my seat and it performed fine the whole time. Therefore I was led to believe that the SAE connector was faulty - especially as I had even disconnected all accessories (eg heated grips) to be sure the battery was coping.


I dropped the customer services team and email and they quickly came back with a load of questions. I sent them a video showing how it was all hooked up and the tests I'd done - they replied saying it was really helpful and if I didn't mind they were going to send me a new unit to test, and if I could replace one component at a time and report back that would be ace. They were apologetic and explained it was a new product and whilst they weren't seeing many issues, some were clearly there and understanding the cause would help them a lot. Being a product person myself in my role I understood that.


So a couple of days later a brand new unit arrived. The first thing I did was change the SAE connector (to be clear, connection is ring terminals to SAE plug, SAE connector with a USB socket, USB wire, wireless charging mount). Went for a ride and boom, problem fixed.


I dropped them an update and said if it was OK I'd fit the new unit and original SAE connector to my wife's bike and see what happened. And almost as expected, with the new mount and the original SAE connector she got the same problem.


The flipside of doing all this now is I now have an additional charging head, so I've got two heads for the price of one, and that has gone a long way to making the cost a bit more palatable!


Some may say the above issues aren't acceptable on a unit that isn't cheap, but I'm happy to give them slack as new products ALWAYS have the odd issue that don't crop up in testing, and they dealt with it really quickly and efficiently.

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Final post for now (again trying to keep everything separate and clear)


My new bike has a plug for accessories already wired up to the battery with switched power, usually used for plugging in sat navs. The bike is coming with a TomTom mount but no sat nav, so I'm planning to remove the mount and the connection that is bound to be there, and have already ordered a harness from Nippy Normans that connects directly to this plug and has a female USB socket, meaning I can plug the USB wire for the mount directly into this and not worry about battery drain. I'll update on this when I've done it!

 

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