
Nokia releases 3D printing files for Lumia phone cases - kenjackson
http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-releases-3d-case-printing-files-for-lumia-820-18265821/
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jeffbarr
This is excellent, but it it important to see it as more than something that
enables you to print your own case.

Think, instead, about the number of times you need some kind of mounting
bracket or adapter to connect two pieces of consumer goods to each other.
Think about mounting a phone on a car dashboard, or on a bike or motorcycle.

If there are N of the first and M of the second, there's no practical way for
any manufacturer to support all MN combinations. As soon as some more
companies follow Nokia's lead here, you should be able to combine two models,
apply any final tweaks or customizations, and print your own adapter, perhaps
even iterating over time as you add subtle new features.

This is the future, and you'd better be ready for it!

~~~
barrkel
Your NxM problem is generally tackled by RAM Mounts; the common interface is a
ball / clamp joint.

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slacka
My company has a variety of 3D printers and we actually produced several
iPhone case/adapters in the past. It's a small company, so we all helped out
by testing different case designs.

The first round of testing involved a simple case design utilizing all of the
plastics and printers that we have available. Most plastics were too brittle
and would crack when you snapped them on the iPhone. In fact, only 1 ABS was
usable. The consumer models had a hard time with the curved surfaces and felt
much grainier in the hand. But once I tried out the final soft-touch part that
was produced using injection modeling, I would never go back to the 3D printed
model. The difference it feels in your hand is night and day. Oh, and the mass
produced cases cost < $.10 per unit. I think we spend more on packing than
parts themselves.

3D printers are great for prototyping and hobbyists doing 1-offs. But the tech
has a way to go before being useful to the average consumer.

~~~
mercuryrising
I have no idea what you tried for your prototype, but I find it kind of
interesting that almost nothing ended up with nice parts. They won't always be
nice, but if they're designed with the constraints of 3D printing in mind,
they can be significantly better than just a generic part without any care in
mind for the characteristics of 3D printing.

> Most plastics were too brittle and would crack when you snapped them on the
> iPhone. In fact, only 1 ABS was usable.

I haven't injection molded anything yet, but I have made some 3D objects with
my home made fused deposition printer. This may not hold for other types of
printers, but selecting the correct infill orientation, fill percentage, and
pattern can drastically change the properties of the final printed part.

> The consumer models had a hard time with the curved surfaces and felt much
> grainier in the hand.

I'm not sure what kind of printer you have, but if it's correctly calibrated
you can print some pretty nice curved surfaces. They'll always feel grainier
because the "normal" direction is on the Z axis. With something like injection
molding, as you get 'flat' faces everywhere as you have normal surfaces on
every part of your mold. SLA does a little better with the layer heights, but
the plastic isn't as strong.

> 3D printers are great for prototyping and hobbyists doing 1-offs. But the
> tech has a way to go before being useful to the average consumer.

That's absolutely what they're for. What if every piece of tech you had came
with a CAD drawing that you could load up and make that thing you wanted but
can't buy yet? What if you just wanted one, but someone wanted to buy them
from you, and would be willing to skip the design step completely by letting
you design it, and them buying it from you. Freelance engineering is getting a
little closer (instead of having a full blown design studio, you can make the
parts you need for a project in the comfort of your home no matter how bizarre
they need to be). Nokia isn't trying to get anyone to mass produce cases with
their designs (although they could be used that way), they're trying to entice
people with access to a 3d printer and their phone to make something cool.
Just check out the search for 'iphone' on thingiverse [1]. People are making
anything and everything for them that enhances the functionality of the phone.
Nokia wants in.

[1]
[http://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=iphone&sa=](http://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=iphone&sa=)

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zacharydanger
This is easily the most exciting thing I've seen out of Nokia in years.

~~~
laumars
Unfortunately I agree. It's such a shame to see what was once the most
dominant mobile phone company reduced to becoming yet a another Microsoft OEM
:(

~~~
specto
While the windows phone isn't bad, I think Microsoft made it impossible for
Nokia to succeed.

I have a feeling if they had decided to go with android, their phones would
have been purchased as a direct competitor with Apple and Samsung, though
Samsung may have played a smaller role if Nokia had jumped in sooner.

~~~
chokolad
How exactly did Microsoft made it impossible to succeed ?

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NoPiece
I think the biggest problem is that they charge for their operating system,
which is fine for the Lumia 920, but isn't practical on low end phones where
Nokia actually still has some market share. Or at least not practical at the
rates Nokia is obliged to pay.

~~~
barista
Are you saying that the charges made Nokia impossible to succeed? What about
the patent fees android OEMs have to pay?

~~~
NoPiece
I don't know if I would say impossible to succeed. But by demanding full price
for the OS, even on low end phones, it meant that Nokia rolled out far fewer
windows phones. I think that was bad for Microsoft and Nokia, and indicative
of old school desktop thinking on Microsoft's part.

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jonemo
This is nice PR by Nokia but not much more.

Nokia are wrong in saying that they are the first to do this. Granted, Apple
didn't realese STL files (which are a huge list of coordinates describing the
vertices of triangles). But for several years now Apple released very detailed
engineering drawings of their products publicly:
<https://developer.apple.com/resources/cases/>. These drawings are actually
useful for someone who wants to design and make their own case, whereas
Nokia's STL files only let you reproduce whatever Nokia designed for you
(modifying STL meshes is possible but the format limits the possibilities).

I also don't understand why Nokia puts a "noncommercial personal use only"
license on this. Isn't an accessories ecosystem something they should want? I
would have loved to use this design for adding this Nokia phone to an online
customization tool for iPhone cases which I run. Thanks to this license my
website will stay iPhone4/5 only.

Footnote: One of the Nokia downloads claims to be "mechanical drawings" but it
only contains STL files.

Footnote 2: And why on earth do I have to register as a Nokia developer to get
this?

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graeham
Someone capable enough to design STL files from a dimensioned drawing is
probably also capable enough to make a dimensioned drawing using calipers and
the phone.

I agree that it is a PR thing, but I also see that what they are doing as
quite different from Apple. Apple is enabling hardware developers, Nokia is
letting people who don't have mechanical skills make the cases. I think what
would have been more interesting is if Nokia had released both STL as well as
CAD files, which would allow for the modification that you point out.

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vellamike
Nice. It's been such a long time since I've read something about Nokia and
thought, "wow, cool!".

~~~
glass-
The last time for me was when they showed off the OIS and low-light capability
of the Lumia 920. And the time before that was when they showed off the 41MP
camera on the 808 PureView.

Both of which are far more interesting than them throwing up some schematics.

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rikacomet
Is it compatible with the three 3D Projects from the kickstarter?

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1682938109/robo-3d-print...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1682938109/robo-3d-printer)
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/formlabs/form-1-an-
affor...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/formlabs/form-1-an-affordable-
professional-3d-printer)
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/b9creations/b9creator-a-...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/b9creations/b9creator-
a-high-resolution-3d-printer)

~~~
MCompeau
Yes, they are .stl files which, for the most part can be opened with any
CAD/3D Modeling software and processed by pretty much every 3D printer.

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seferphier
This is very cool and may become the norm in the future when 3d printers are
abundant.

Instead of purchasing expensive cases, consumers can just go and pick their
design and colors and print their cases out.

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FredFredrickson
This is quite awesome. It's the next logical step from all the custom phone
case services out there (mostly for iDevices, it seems).

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thechut
Very exciting concept for Nokia to come up with. Although, I'm not sure it's
any more likely to make me buy a Nokia 820 even though I do own a 3D printer.

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prodigal_erik
This is clever, though it'll probably disillusion me about whether even
tinkerers can take a principled stand against walled gardens.

~~~
jerf
Expansion? It's not clear what you're saying here; I don't see any walled
garden here.

~~~
prodigal_erik
Microsoft has asserted the authority to decide what you can and cannot do with
phones like this one. I harbor a faint hope that 3D printer owners are the
type of empowered people who find that unacceptable.

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senthilnayagam
Hope every company starts offering STL files for current and past products.

call me lazy but don't want to signup and login to download it.

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josteink
While cool, the cynic in me says this is driven by nothing but desperation.

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senekisa
This is a very cool

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jmount
Its not like you are printing a phone- just a useless case.

~~~
fredoliveira
Why the dismissive comment? And how do you justify the blanket statement that
cases are useless, given how many are sold all the time?

Your comment tells me you're the type of guy who, if given the chance to print
an _actual_ phone, might just comment "Its not like you are printing an
iphone/samsung - just a useless nokia". Some people can never be satisfied, I
guess.

