The company ZTE has been making a lot of the Next G Telstra handsets and quite a lot of their value for money handsets. Handsets like the F series (f152,f156 etc) and the popular T6. They are generally well featured and most people seem quite happy with them.

There is one interesting feature that the ZTE handsets have and that’s the USB/Power connection. It’s the same across all the models so far! This is cool, because chargers, earphones, usb cables and car kit connections are all common, so if you upgrade to a new ZTE your accessories are still useable.

For those that wisely have hands free car kits this can be a big bonus. The only downside with the car kits is that the cradles change with the different handset models.  You can buy cradles on their own from ZTE which is heaps cheaper than buying a whole new kit or as I discovered it’s a five minute job to mod the cradle to fit different model ZTE phones.

Here’s my guide for modding a ZTE F150 car kit (ck150) to fit a ZTE Telstra T6

If it’s already installed, take the cradle out of the car. Remove the six Phillips head screws from the back of the cradle.

Once the screws are removed the cradle simply pulls apart, with a front and back piece.

Looking inside the back piece,  you can see an aerial wire which comes in the bottom and runs up to the top, the aerial fitting is actually in the wrong position for a T6 so lets take it out for now..

Removing the aerial wire is easy, simply undo the single screw on the small circuit board them remove the aerial wire.

Now the centre wire, which is the connection to the handset, needs to come out the side as shown in the picture below. A hole needs to be made for the cable to come out, so, put a mark on the housing where the cable comes out like in the picture below. Once you have placed a mark remove the wires.

Simply click the housing back together and drill a hole where you marked earlier. I used a 7/32 drill bit and made the hole right on the join of the two housings. If you haven’t got a drill you could probably just file a half moon in either side of the housing….

Now put the wires back in and screw that little circuit board back down, then hold the cable in the new hole you made and screw the housing back together.

And thats it! As you can see the T6 fits perfectly into the cradle and the connecter fits just like it should.

Most of the candy bar shaped ZTE phones will fit this cradle quite snugly, as the T6 does. For some ZTE models the cable will need to come out the other side of the housing.
You now have quality hands free!

But what about the aerial, you ask! If you got this far I think you get the idea. The cradles are fairly simplistic and easy to mod, for the aerial a little glue and another drill hole is needed that’s all probably, but I just want the hands free to stop getting expensive tickets! If you want a guide for aerial I’ll add one, just let me know in the comments section.

Enjoy!

Update: These car kits have been selling on ebay for 20 bucks, which is a steal! Try here for the discount car kits.