[Gta04-owner] [ANN] A new 3D-printed case design

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi Denis,
thanks and thumbs up for sharing these great results!

Nikolaus


Am 20.06.2012 um 16:13 schrieb Denis Shulyaka:

> Hi all,
> 
> I have made another attempt to create a case with the original bottom
> hole and the buttons. The first attempt was unsuccessful because the
> hole was too big and couldn't fit.
> The second attempt was much more successful, but took very long to
> reach me due to horrible service in Russia of one of the most popular
> package deliver companies in the world. They failed to deliver the
> package, returned it back (and didn't return the money, I believe) and
> after all said that they don't deliver to Russia at all any more. We
> ended up using normal postal service, which is more reliable but more
> slow (Big thanks i.Materialise for the support! Shapeways refused to
> print my models due to the shipment problems).
> 
> Anyway, now I've got my 3D-printed case and must say that the back
> cover fits perfectly this time. I've also printed other parts of the
> case including buttons (see link below).
> The front cover was printed in Prime Gray material, it's easier to
> break than Polyamide, but looks and feels very "professional". I'm
> going to print the whole case in this material later. Buttons are
> harder to press than original, but they do work! Now I can say it with
> full responsibility: 3D-printing of a full-featured GTA0* case is
> possible.
> The quality is very good. Especially I like the look and touch of
> Prime Grey material. However it is still not as strong as I want and
> snap joints would break quite quickly. There is room to make them even
> thicker, but they would lose the flexibility they are supposed to
> have. This is not a big issue for the front panel which is not

This appears to find the right compromise.

> supposed to be removed very often, however the battery cover would
> possibly need something different to last reasonably long with daily
> use (note that even original openmoko plastic part couldn't last long
> in my hands).
> Polyamide is rather more strong and flexible but doesn't have this
> "almost luxurious" touch and gets dirty very fast. I will possibly ask
> the factory to paint it next time.
> I had to fix the AUX button with a rasp because it was too big (it
> might be my model or varnish the factory used). I will fix the model
> to avoid this in the future. There are also some other minor issues
> with the model (the screen space is a little bigger than original and
> the space left for the Power button is also too big, but those are not
> big issues).
> I've printed the speaker top part in ABS also, but the quality was not
> as good as Polyamide.
> I have successfully installed my GTA02 board into the case (keeping
> original speaker parts because they are a little different to give
> enough room for wifi) and will use it for some time and report back.
> The board fits almost perfectly except for one spot that is also not
> critical at all and easily fixable. I don't have a GTA04 yet because
> it's also not being shipped to Russia. I'm now figuring out the way to
> by it by someone in between, but would wait for a case kit first.
> 
> Now about the prices. It is expensive, especially the buttons printed
> in Transparent Resin which cost about 55€ each. The front cover (Prime
> Gray) was 22€, middle part and back cover (Polyamide) were about 36€
> each. The site shows that the speaker parts are 12€ each, but I
> believe it was twice more expensive when I ordered.
> 
> My work is based on official Openmoko CAD files as well as on Lukas
> Märdian's work (http://blog.slyon.de/2012/01/02/building-a-case-for-the-goldelico-gta04/).
> The models have some advantages over Lukas Märdian's files such as:
> - Have a bottom hole and buttons and look very much like original case
> - More 3d-printer friendly (100% manifold and have correct normals)
> - Better wall thickness in a number of places
> - Have a nice GTA04 title on front
> 
> And disadvantages:
> - Price is currently significantly bigger
> - OTG port for GTA04 is not implemented yet
> - Less tested
> 
> TODO:
> - OTG port
> - Camera hole
> - Tweaks to fix some minor issues encountered during testing
> 
> The photos and sources are here:
> http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/User:Shulyaka
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