A Pinephone case that'll actually prevent the screen from cracking

[KNERD]

I am awaiting my keyboard to come in the mail yet.  Really curious how any case might work with that.  I guess I will give it a frob and some thought once I get it.

filament based 3D printing is just not suitable. The stuff is just not very durable.  I have stuff breaking on the grain all the time. I try reprinting in a different orientation, and another area of the print breaks.

I wonder about ABS?  I know that Voron printers use that for the functional parts.

low volume injection mold production.

This sounds a lot more viable to me than fancy resin solutions (I could be wrong).

Printing with any filament still gives parts that grainy weakness to it (like breaking wood on the grain, but much easier). I tried printing a part with 100% infill and  it still a part of it snapped off with ease right on the grain. Though parts which complete a type of defined solid shape such as a cube, or sphere are much better. When you have mechanical shapes like if you printed a hammer for example, there would be weak points.

The resin solution is for making the molds for low volume injection runs. The idea is you don't have to spend a fortune for metal molds which are designed for very high production runs in the millions. The resin ones would last long enough to make a few hundred items.

[jc_pine]

Lots of software devs donating to this project, I say those of us with mechanical engineering abilities need to pull our weight! To that end, I have started some development on this subject.

I'm thinking that we develop a case under a Libre-type license. Editing and manufacture are rights retained by the end user. You are permitted to sell the physical components, but you must provide .stp files upon request.

My initial thoughts are to make a single-piece hard plastic case with undercuts in the corners to retain the phone. This could be 3d printed as a PoC, but molded later using "stripping" methods, similar to how coke bottle caps are made.
All outside edges are to protrude somewhat above the screen to protect in case of flat-on-screen impact/sliding. This is a deficiency in the current case (soft tpu) that I noticed immediately.
I think that the reason for the success of otterbox et al is the use of a hard shell around a soft foam core. The hard shell distributes the forces away from area of impact, and the foam is very inefficient at transferring energy.
One other deficiency in the existing cases is the fact that a corner impact is immediately lethal. I would recommend (on our end) making the internal radii on the corners smaller than the corners of the phone to permit the case to deflect on impact. On Pine64's end, I think making the rear case fit somewhat tighter and enlarging it to make the case become the first component that impacts would help, although proper design on our end would negate the need for action on their end.

Josh

[jc_pine]

Lots of software devs donating to this project, I say those of us with mechanical engineering abilities need to pull our weight! To that end, I have started some development on this subject.

I'm thinking that we develop a case under a Libre-type license. Editing and manufacture are rights retained by the end user. You are permitted to sell the physical components, but you must provide .stp files upon request.

My initial thoughts are to make a single-piece hard plastic case with undercuts in the corners to retain the phone. This could be 3d printed as a PoC, but molded later using "stripping" methods, similar to how coke bottle caps are made.
All outside edges are to protrude somewhat above the screen to protect in case of flat-on-screen impact/sliding. This is a deficiency in the current case (soft tpu) that I noticed immediately.
I think that the reason for the success of otterbox et al is the use of a hard shell around a soft foam core. The hard shell distributes the forces away from area of impact, and the foam is very inefficient at transferring energy.
One other deficiency in the existing cases is the fact that a corner impact is immediately lethal. I would recommend (on our end) making the internal radii on the corners smaller than the corners of the phone to permit the case to deflect on impact. On Pine64's end, I think making the rear case fit somewhat tighter and enlarging it to make the case become the first component that impacts would help, although proper design on our end would negate the need for action on their end.

Josh

Update:

REV 0 ready for printing. I'll toss it in the printer and let you all know how it goes. Will need to buy self adhesive EPDM from McMaster.

Not sure how to test if my screen is already cracked

[KNERD]

Lots of software devs donating to this project, I say those of us with mechanical engineering abilities need to pull our weight! To that end, I have started some development on this subject.

I'm thinking that we develop a case under a Libre-type license. Editing and manufacture are rights retained by the end user. You are permitted to sell the physical components, but you must provide .stp files upon request.

My initial thoughts are to make a single-piece hard plastic case with undercuts in the corners to retain the phone. This could be 3d printed as a PoC, but molded later using "stripping" methods, similar to how coke bottle caps are made.
All outside edges are to protrude somewhat above the screen to protect in case of flat-on-screen impact/sliding. This is a deficiency in the current case (soft tpu) that I noticed immediately.
I think that the reason for the success of otterbox et al is the use of a hard shell around a soft foam core. The hard shell distributes the forces away from area of impact, and the foam is very inefficient at transferring energy.
One other deficiency in the existing cases is the fact that a corner impact is immediately lethal. I would recommend (on our end) making the internal radii on the corners smaller than the corners of the phone to permit the case to deflect on impact. On Pine64's end, I think making the rear case fit somewhat tighter and enlarging it to make the case become the first component that impacts would help, although proper design on our end would negate the need for action on their end.

Josh

Update:

REV 0 ready for printing. I'll toss it in the printer and let you all know how it goes. Will need to buy self adhesive EPDM from McMaster.

Not sure how to test if my screen is already cracked

Could always order a new screen

[mil]

Check out https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=17580 also -- there is a otterbox case that fits perfectly.