Galaxy Note Case-able Dock

Whipped this up for my wife.  

She recently got the Samsung Galaxy Note in place of her iPhone and immediately wanted to case it in a wallet style case as she aimed to carry all her financial ends along with the Note making it the primary item to pull from her mini purse.  The issue came when time to charge; she didn't want to just lay her Note on the desktop at work or home as she wanted to keep using it while charging.  We looked at docks but they all were for the naked Note and I didn't like the idea of her needing to pull the device in/out of the case over and over each day.  What to do, what to do, well you design and print your own!  Over the course of a few days I designed this 3D printable case that allows the Note to charge/sync with the factory adapter, hold the stylus in a readily accessible location and hold the Note while still in a nice leather folding case!

This dock has been designed to print on small build platforms so any home printer should have success printing.  The placement of the parts in the stl files attached produce the two dock halves and clip even with less than perfect printer/slicer settings.

You can grab my 3D model here: http://www.123dapp.com/123D-3D-Model/Galaxy-Note-Dock/647399 and use the free 123D app by Autodesk here: http://www.123dapp.com/123d to mod if you like and then export to your preferred format for 3D printing; here is a sample workflow I have used  at home designing and printing with great results: https://www.instructables.com/id/Basic-workflow-for-3D-design-in-Sketchup-and-3D-pr/

I also uploaded my finalized stl's for direct use on your 3D printer.  Use those if you don't care to mod my design and simply want to slice and start printing.


Instructions:

1. Print dock portion A
2. Print dock portion B
3. Print dock clip
4. Insert Samsung factory adapter into front groove of either dock portion
5. Push dock A and B together
6. Slide clip down into channels
7. Plug USB adapter into outlet adapter
8. Slam your Note in with or without case!

If you like any of my projects please vote for me in the "Make It Real Challenge" using the vote button in the top right of the page.  Thanks a ton for your votes!

Make On!

Comments

[jpetazzo]

This is pure genius. It's exactly the product I was looking for. Following your guide, I am now checking Shapeways to see if/how it's possible to use your design to build my own dock. I'm totally new to 3D printing, so this might probably end up in a miserable failure, but it's exciting enough to be worth trying :-) Thanks again for sharing this design!

[megaduty]

So glad someone else can use it! Do post pics of your results and don't be afraid to mod my model.

[Zaphod Beetlebrox]

Do have any tips for modeling a phone case, I'm having a hard time trying to get a decent model (samsung galaxy ace).

[megaduty]

I sure do! Download Sketchup and start frame'n this Galaxy Ace model: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=46c1eb51d4765225ff189a84874f34e7&prevstart=0

That should net you a case or a dock with a good fit. Go nuts and make it custom!

Make on!

[Zaphod Beetlebrox]

Thanks hope it's real world scaled and not just trying to look good. Guess I'll have to learn sketchup. :)

[megaduty]

If you have a micrometer you can scale it up nice in Sketchup without having to model all the joints and surfaces.

[Zaphod Beetlebrox]

Is there any way to export it as an .obj instead I am much more comfortable working in 3Ds Max and sketchup is running really slow with the model. ( I don't have a micrometer but the specs are online) thanks for finding the model I looked all over but they cost like $60.

[megaduty]

I sent you a PM regarding exporting of a .dae file from Sketchup, importation into Blender then exportation from Blender to .obj for free. FYI, there are also free Ruby scripts for Sketchup that allow you to export directly to .obj: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=33448

[Zaphod Beetlebrox]

Thanks

[Zaphod Beetlebrox]

btw do pms show up in you're instructables inbox?
if so your message hasn't reached me yet (8 hours after).

[megaduty]

Yeah, sent the PM way early in the morning:
~~~~~~~~~~~
May 28, 2012. 1:34 AM
subject:
.obj from Sketchup
Give me your email and I can attach the .obj I created from a .dae export from Sketchup and an import into Blender for final export to .obj format. Or you can do the same.
~~~~~~~~~~~
PM me back with your email and I can send you the .obj with 3 different Ace phone models in it for your review.

[Zaphod Beetlebrox]

sweet the one you sent me before was pretty good maybe a bit thin. Anywase I'll invest my time for a case on the best one. [e-mail]