Gadgetory

last week I showed you how to program NFC tags to automate your life this week I'll show you how to step it up a notch and really integrate NFC into your day-to-day life we're making a DIY phone dog that not only charges your Android phone but also uses NFC to automate things you do before you go to bed so Molly I already made this one you can have it slightly drinkie and I'll go ahead and make a new one with my practice and I'll show you how to make it so you can follow along too so to get started I'm just gonna take this one apart you're going to need your USB cord a hardcover book with a sleeve but you don't mind murdering a box-cutter with a brand new blade this one is nice and sharp you'll need a pencil a ruler and of course an NFC tag okay to get started take the sleeve off of that hardcover book and we're going to need to cut a small rectangle in the cover use your ruler to cut a rectangle pretty close to the spine it doesn't have to be perfect it just needs to be big enough so that the court can actually go through it now grab your box cutter and get to work this is where you're really gonna need to bring the muscles out because this hardcover is actually a lot tougher to get through than it looks so okay I think we're almost there and don't worry about making this really pretty it's gonna be covered with the sleeve anyway it looks like we're almost through all right that wasn't that hard now comes the kind of tedious part but it is kind of fun ripping a book apart because you know your parents never let you do that when you're a little so the first time I did this it really made a mess so be prepared to bring out the vacuum what you're doing is making a tunnel you're really digging out a tunnel so that the court can run through it it needs to be about an inch thick so for me that's gonna be pretty much through the entire book all right here we go for the first few I'm going to use the ruler to make sure it's a nice clean line if you need to take a break at some point go ahead because trust me your arms are gonna be a little sore after this project I need a garbage can if you mess up a little bit it's okay the book will be closed since you really can't read it anymore can you confetti for the next party you throw halfway there arms are so sore I need a glass of water I'm sweaty things we do in the name of technology oh alright now we just want to clean it up a little bit you'll never really open this but I do like to keep my projects pretty clean okay let's see if it's deep enough to hold our cable actually that's perfect let's see how it sits that looks pretty good to me now if you want you could just keep it raw you don't have to put a sleeve back on you could use a hard cover without a sleeve but I like the really clean look because I want this to be a stealthy NFC dock oh and speaking of NFC we still need to put our tag in there so I'm just gonna take this tag and slip it in the corner here cover goes back on and right where's the USB cord is pushing on the cover I'm gonna cut a little slit okay there we go your NFC Talk is done now it wasn't easy I can't say it was easy because my arms are sore and I'm sweating but it is so worth it so I'm just going to take a couple of bucks stack them on top and this will probably end up going by my bedside table now because of that I programmed this NFC tag to do things like set my alarm put Pandora on and put my phone on silent so I tap the phone here all those things happen automatically with NFC I put my phone on the dock it charges and you're set okay Molly I hope you enjoy your NFC dock as for me I need my much-needed drink of water you