I just came home from my christmas holidays and found a nice, little parcel from Shapeways in my mail box. It contained my first experiment with the Blender 3D software and the Shapeways 3D printing service.
Update: Follow the efforts here: 3D printed GTA04 Case
The Story
A few weeks earlier I started to work on the original Openmoko Neo 1973 (GTA01) CAD files, as found at goldelico.com, with the intention of creating a 3D printable model, which I could print and use as a case for my new Goldelico GTA04 smartphone. To get started I got a Blender 3D crash course by a friend of mine.
First Attempt
As I never did any 3D work before I started with the easiest part – the battery cover:
This first prototype was printed using the “White Strong & Flexible” material offered by Shapeways. As you can see on the pictures, this material is a little rough, but still feels nice in the hands. Furthermore I removed the hole at the bottom, as it was pretty hard to design.
The printed part fits nicely on my existing Openmoko Neo Freerunner (GTA02) case, which contains my GTA04 board at the moment:
Future Plans
Now, that my first attempt was pretty successful, I plan to further work on this topic, to acquire a full case for my GTA04, so I can use the old case for my beloved Openmoko Neo Freerunner (GTA02) again.
As a next step I’ll modify the Neo 1973’s middle and front parts to be printable with a 3D printer and I’ll probably try to print them using a less rough material, to compare the results.
How you can help
If you like this effort, I’d be happy if you’d go to my Shapeways site (“SlyParts”) and order the first part of your GTA04 case, which will raise 1€ for myself, which I’ll use to order further prototypes.
If you don’t have a Goldelico GTA04, yet, you should take a look at the GTA04 Group Buy Tour, where we collect a batch of 350 orders which will be produced at once, so the price can get squeezed down.
If you ordered a part at my Shapeways site, please leave a comment here about which material you used and how it feels.
I do not understand: 3D model for GTA2 cover should already exist as Freerunner is open. Why redesigning from scratch?
Yeah, as stated in the post I’m basing my work on top of the already existing Openmoko Neo 1973 CAD files. The problem is, that they have a wall thinkness of 0.4mm sometimes and “White Strong & Flexible” needs at least 0.7mm. Furthermore the existing Openmoko CAD files require some extra material (rubber) on the top and bottom of the case, which I removed, so it can be printed as a single part.
Please, note this is advertised in the following page:
http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/432-3D-Printing-Replacement-Parts.html
Looks awesome, nice job. Are you using this phone still? I’m interested in building my own and maybe using your case but my primary concern is reception quality. If the GTA04 is just like other normal phones, I’m probably interested in digging further. I’d like to find the best possible reception and package that into a custom case somehow. What’s your opinion of the GTA04?
Thanks, yes I’m using it. Just like some more people from the very active community (see: http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/gta04-owner ).
I’d say reception quality is just like with any other “normal” phone, but it should be possible to connect a better antenna to enhance the quality.
In my opinion the GTA04 is a _very_ fexible mobile tool, which can do whatever you want, if you’re willing to invest some energy into it.