Issues with magsafe charging in car

[crispy.ltt]

Hey, 

I'm experiencing some issues setting up a magsafe charger for my phone in my Vw up.

Due to the cars original mount being limited to landscape mode I have 3D printed an adapter to fit a magsafe charger into. The printed part fits right in and the magsafe charger is safely secured to the mount. However, the magsafe charger does not seem to be communicating with USB port in the car correctly and the phone is not charging at all. 

I have tested the charger with a oneplus power adapter plugged into a wall outlet and it works fine. I have also tested with my laptop and it works fine while connected using the integrated usb-C cable that is attached to the magsafe charger. To use it in my car I connect it with a usb-A -> usb-C adapter that came with the magsafe charger. 

My first find was that the magsafe charger did not work with the usb-A adapter at all so I bought a 10GB/s adapter after I read on some forum that the type of adapter can be sensitive. However, that did not change anything.

I looked up the technical spec for the USB connection in my car which classifies it as a "data" USB port. However, charging my phone with a USB-A -> USB-C cable works just fine.
 

TLDR;
1. Magsafe Charger does work in my car (VW Up! 2018)
2. The Magsafe charger works fine everywhere else but the car
3. The USB-A port can charge my phone just fine using a regular USB-A -> USB-C cable
4. The Magsafe Charger has an integrated USB-C cable and is connected to the car with a tiny USB-C -> USB-A adapter
5. Replacing the "simple" adapter that came with the Magsafe charger to a 10GBps USB-C -> USB-A adapter does not work

Any tip on how I could solve this? Anyone with similar experiences? My best guess is that it's just the magsafe charger that needs to be replaced for another variant although I have no idea what to look for since I can't find the root of the issue.

USB-C -> USB-A adapter: https://www.amazon.se/-/en/dp/B085ZYJWDW?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
Magsafe Charger: https://www.amazon.se/-/en/dp/B0CKXKYSMY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Magsafe Magnetic Ring (I have a Nothing Phone (1)): https://www.amazon.se/-/en/dp/B09BZ17JM7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

(No the magnetic ring does not interfere with charging, it works fine anywhere but my car)

[OddOod]

Can you charge in your car via the USB adapter? Like, if you go VW >A2C > C cable > Phone port, does the phone charge? If so, can you load up Ampere or some other app to see how many amps it's giving? If that doesn't work, it's probably the adapter, though it's also worth checking the power you get with that A2C cable. Do try and make sure your phone is under 70% when doing this test so it'll suck back as much juice as it can

Also, can you share the specs of the car port you found in your research?
 

[crispy.ltt]

15 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Can you charge in your car via the USB adapter? Like, if you go VW >A2C > C cable > Phone port, does the phone charge? If so, can you load up Ampere or some other app to see how many amps it's giving? If that doesn't work, it's probably the adapter, though it's also worth checking the power you get with that A2C cable. Do try and make sure your phone is under 70% when doing this test so it'll suck back as much juice as it can

Also, can you share the specs of the car port you found in your research?
 

I could not find any technical specifications of the port in the manual. I found a video on a guy measuring the output of the Vw e-up USB port, which should be the exact same as mine. His measurement showed roughly 1.26A and 4.9V so the output is 5W based on that. Magsafe chargers can output up to 15W, and my phone can receive up to 15W through QI-charging. 

According to the magsafe spec on amazon the charger does 12A and 7,5W. Is that going to cause an issue? Do i need something that matches the 5W output on my car? I've seen alot of other people using magsafe charger in the VW-up but maybe they are using the cigarette outlet instead...

[OddOod]

Ooof, given transmission losses inherent in qi charging, it might not even be worth it to do wireless charging on 5W. If it's possible, I'd try going from the cig lighter because those can deliver up to 120W. 
My guess is that the charger you're using is just refusing to spin up on such low power, determining that it's not worth it

[crispy.ltt]

12 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Ooof, given transmission losses inherent in qi charging, it might not even be worth it to do wireless charging on 5W. If it's possible, I'd try going from the cig lighter because those can deliver up to 120W. 
My guess is that the charger you're using is just refusing to spin up on such low power, determining that it's not worth it

Yeah, that's what im getting as well. Just unfortunate that i have to route a cable all over the car cause the port they put in at the phone holder only deliver 5 watts...who at volkswagen thought that was a good idea?

[OddOod]

6 hours ago, crispy.ltt said:

who at volkswagen thought that was a good idea?

What model year do you have? 
But TBH, 2A has been a pretty standard power level for USB ports for a good long while and it delivers enough power to at least slow charge most phones even with the screen on at full brightness, at least on a wire. Wireless is just so much more power hungry.