AMPLICHARGE: IPhone Amplifier and Charging Station

Tired of listening to music with just your earphones? No speakers to watch movies with your friends Then use AMPLICHARGE!

AMPLICHARGE is a device that can amplify iPhone speakers AND serve as a charging dock for your iPhone.

The device works best with the iPhone 6 Plus, 6S Plus, 7 Plus, 8 Plus.

Step 1: Prepare Tools and Materials

To make this project, you will need to have the following:

Software programs

Fusion 360
Inkscape
3D Printer software

Materials

6mm thick transparent acrylic sheet
ABS plastic filament (for 3D Printer)
Mighty bond/instant glue
Plastic primer
Acrylic spray paint
Sand paper
Box & newspaper (cover for painting)
String
Polyester body filler (if needed)

Tools

Laser cutter
3D Printer

Step 2: Download the Files

Download all the attached files for the production process.

The SVG file will be laser cut while the STL file will be 3D-printed.

Step 3: Customize Settings and 3D Print

Set up the downloaded STL file using the program of your 3D printer. Since I used a CubePro 3D printer to print my device, I used the CubePro 3D printer software to customize the settings to my liking before starting the print process. Changing the settings is important because this could help in reducing the printing time as well as the amount of ABS filament to be used.

Feel free to play around with the infill percent and infill pattern settings, but be sure to make it at least 15% infill so the device will be sturdy enough to hold the phone.

On CubePro, I customized my printing settings like so:

Layer Resolution: 300 um

Print Strength: Strong

Print Pattern: Honeycomb

Support material: ABS white

Upon doing this, the overall printing time was 6 hrs 15 min, and 98 g of the ABS filament was used.

Step 4: Post-processing of 3D Object (Filling and Sanding)

After 3D printing the device, I noticed that a certain part of the object had a rough texture due to printing errors within the 3D printer, so I used a 3D printing pen to first fill in the chipped areas before applying polyester body filler to cover up the outline created by the pen.

Afterwards, I sanded the filler until it was thin and smooth. To do this, I started out by using low grit sandpaper (around 100) to level the area and get rid of the excess filler. Work your way up with higher grit sandpaper (100 to 200) to smoothen out the rest of the object's surface and remove the lines created by the path of the 3D printer nozzle. Finish off your device by sand it in a circular motion using fine sandpaper (300 to 600 grit).

Step 5: Post-processing of 3D Object (Priming and Painting)

After making it smoother using sandpaper, hang the object with string and place a large box/newspaper behind it. Then, coat the object with a spray of plastic primer. Apply a first light coating and let it dry for 10 minutes before spraying another primer coating. This will allow the spray paint to adhere to the surface of the object.

Once the primer dries, lightly coat the object with acrylic epoxy spray paint and wait 10 minutes for it to dry. Repeat this process twice more or until the surface is evenly coated.

Step 6: Laser Cut Stands

Load the SVG file using the program of your laser cutter. I chose to laser cut the stands on a 6mm thick transparent acrylic sheet to better support the device when the iPhone is already inserted.