The Case for a Case

Published on 2017-11-11 in µGame.

Just before going on a two week vacation, I decided to try and see what I can do in terms of a case for this device. Why do I even need a case? Well, there are two reasons:

1. To protect the glass (but not gorilla-glass) screen from scratches, so that I can carry it in my pocket,

2. To protect the battery both mechanically and electrically from random objects in that pocket.

It’s connected with the fact that I want to use a bigger LiPo battery than the 40mAh button cell battery I use right now.

With those goals in mind, what are my options?

1. Use an existing, commonly available container of roughly the right size.

2. Make the case out of layers of laser-cut transparent acrylic.

3. 3D-print it, possibly adding laser-cut transparent acrylic as screen protection.

To see which of those options would be the best, I exported the PCB to Inkscape and prepared a model of the device, with all buttons, switches, sockets and the screen marked.

Then I tried to fiddle with it a bit, trying to come up with the layers for the laser-cut case. I immediately stumbled on a problem: the power switch (and also the reset switch, but that one could only have a hole to be pressed with a paperclip) only sticks out of the PCB very little — about 1mm. That means that the wall of the case can’t be thicker than that, or that it needs to add some kind of an extension of the switch’s knob. The USB port has a similar problem, but fortunately in this case it’s more like 2mm, so it’s not so bad.

There is also another problem if I decide to go for thin walls — the front panel needs cutouts for the buttons, and those pretty much touch the edge of the PCB, making this arrow-shaped corner of the panel, where the only mounting screw is, very fragile and easy to break off…

That’s the status for now. I will probably keep thinking about this during my vacation, and will try something when I get back.