Work in progress
A rugged printed carrying case for the Pine64 Pinecil, with the lid turned into a portable instrument panel. A 4.3 inch touchscreen where the empty ceiling used to be, and an EspoTek Labrador behind it: two channel scope, waveform generator, logic analyser, bench supply and multimeter.
The model below is the real assembly, in your browser. Drag it around, and switch between the eight configurations it holds.
Warming up
Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom
Open, stand deployed out of the tub, iron docked through the 608 bearing at 19.29 degrees. One 3.5 MB file carrying all eight keyframed configurations as a baked animation, exported from the same assembly as every image on this site. The geometry it embeds is third-party, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, non-commercial use only.
01 / the idea
A soldering iron needs a case. A case has a lid. A lid, once it swings past 90 degrees, is a flat surface pointing at the person using it, with 12 mm of unused depth behind it. That is a front panel nobody was using.
A rugged printed shell, 194.6 by 119 mm and 78 mm tall shut, with two stacked trays inside. One carries the iron, its tips, a flux syringe and a solder reel. The other carries the stand, which lifts out and works on the bench with the case nowhere near it.
A 4.3 inch capacitive touch panel recessed into the lid's inner ceiling, with an encoder and two softkeys beside it. The hinge swings a full 180 degrees, so the lid flips right over and the instrument face is the surface looking back at you.
An EspoTek Labrador, 36.8 by 34.7 mm of board, brings a two channel scope, a two channel waveform generator, a two channel logic analyser with serial decoding, a 4.5 to 15 V supply and a V/I/R/C meter. Jacks on the lid face, the board behind.
02 / why the inside of the lid
The obvious place for a panel is the outside of the lid. It is also the wrong one. A rugged case should not carry BNC barrels proud of its outside, and anything mounted there is exposed exactly when the case is shut and being carried.
Because the hinge goes the full 180 degrees, the lid's interior is what faces up in use. A display recessed into the ceiling therefore looks at the operator while working and is fully enclosed when shut, protected by the case's own geometry rather than by an added cover. Nothing in the tub can reach it either: the tallest thing stowed below tops out 24.6 mm short of the glass.
| Clear interior | 92.0 × 180.0 mm |
|---|---|
| Outer skin thickness | 1.20 mm |
| Display active area | 95.54 × 54.36 mm |
| Carrier window | 98.05 × 57.05 mm |
| Clearance to tub contents | 24.60 mm |
03 / it comes apart
The tub takes a stacked pair of trays. The lower one holds the stand flush in its floor; the upper one holds the iron in a snap cradle with the tip clipped alongside, and lifts straight out. Above both there is 24.11 mm of headroom to the rim, which is what lets the lid carry electronics instead of foam.
The whole assembly lives as one set of parts with eight keyframed configurations layered over it, from shut to fully exploded. An interference audit runs across all eight and currently reports zero unexpected contacts, so a part that would foul something in use shows up before anything is printed.
That is also why the pictures on this site are not photographs or hand staged scenes. Every one is rendered headless from the same assembly, from a committed shot list. Move a tray and the images follow.
04 / what travels with it
Iron and tip, three spare tips, the 608 skate bearing that forms the stand's ring, the stand itself, a flux syringe, a solder reel on its own spool halves, and a TPU item lid over the small parts. Each has a cavity cut for it rather than a slot it happens to fit.
05 / the stand
The iron does not sit in a holster. It wedges nose down into a 608 bearing pressed into the stand's head: the 8 mm bore against a 5.55 mm barrel over a 7 mm width puts the iron at 19.29 degrees, resting on its collar, with the hot end hanging clear off the end of the case. The bearing turns, so the iron can be swung aside without lifting it out.
The stand blades into a ramped socket in the upper tray, which means it works with the tray on the bench and the case shut, open, or in another room.
06 / where this is up to
The case half is real and measured. The instrument half is a plan with some of its hardest questions still open. Both are more interesting stated plainly than dressed up.
07 / standing on other people's work
The shell, the trays, the latches and the stand all come from published designs by PjotrStrog, iamdrew and kriscovery, with a reference flux syringe by Atiesh. They are licensed Creative Commons, non commercial, share alike. Everything on this site that is ours sits on top of that: the Blender assembly, the build and audit scripts, the lid electronics and the fitment work.
