DIY Revives Sony Tablet Z1 with Magnetic Charging

If you're interested in DIY charging for a Sony tablet, this article might just be what you're looking for.

The Sony Tablet Z1, Sony's first-generation tablet released in 2013, came with a 10.1-inch full HD display (1920x1200), a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro MDM9215M quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage. It also featured a dual-camera setup with a 2MP front camera and an 8MP rear camera. The tablet measured 266×172×6.9mm.

Now let's talk about the DIY process.

This vintage device originally came with a proprietary charging dock, but it's extremely rare and nearly impossible to find online. The original dock used spring-loaded contacts placed awkwardly on the bottom-left corner of the tablet—a rather unfriendly design. Given its age, this tablet doesn't support magnetic charging either.

However, there's a workaround. The contact points on the side are connected via a separate ribbon cable, and there's a bit of space between them and the plastic shell of the device. These contacts are made of copper, which isn't magnetic, so you'll need to add magnets yourself if you want to enable magnetic charging.

A solution is to repurpose a magnetic charging cable from a kid's smartwatch. The spacing and contact length are a near-perfect match. But before connecting anything, be absolutely sure of the polarity—getting it wrong could kill the battery.

You'll need to cut small magnets to the right size and use a rotary tool to shape and smooth them. Once that's done, glue them in place using something strong like T-9000 mobile phone adhesive. After that, reassemble the back cover of the tablet.

And that's it—you've successfully enabled magnetic charging. DIY complete.