Mike Heller designed a 3D-printed Elevation Dock Lighting Adapter. I ordered one from Shapeways about 2 weeks ago, it came today and it works. (Thanks, Duncan!)
But it’s totally a DIY hack. Here are the cons:
- You’ll have to bend the end of your Lightning cable in a way most nerds would be highly uncomfortable with.
- Using the stock Lighting connector means you won’t have the pizzazz of what made the Elevation Dock so attractive. Your iPhone 5 won’t lift right out of the Dock without a care in the world because the Apple’s Lightning connector clicks in to the iPhone.
- If you haven’t already, you’ll probably want to buy another Lightning cable from Apple since the one you’re going to use with your Elevation Dock won’t be easily removable for when you go on trips, etc.
- If you ordered an Elevation Dock with the audio line out, you won’t be able to use that feature any more because installing this printed adapter requires removing the internal circuitry of the the Elevation Dock (which is easily done, by the way).
- Elevation Labs is right now in production of their own Lightning adapter mount that will surely be much more elegant. I don’t know how much they’ll charge for their cable mount, but they say it will be available in about a week, and you might want their version instead of this one.
But so what, right? It works, it looks good, it’s very inexpensive, and the phone sits securely. Assuming you don’t have your own 3D printer, you can sign up for a Shapeways account and place an order for Mike’s design which is already on file. I’m glad I ordered one.