Facetime Handle for iPhone 4

thingiverse

Facetime is fun, but after awhile the arm gets tired and the phone drifts down to chest height, giving your caller an unflattering view up your nose. This handle will help you keep the front camera closer to eye level without holding your hand in front of your face the whole time. The phone can tilt and swivel on the ball joint, and turn 90 degrees to one side for landscape view. If you want to put the phone down, you can convert the handle to a tabletop stand. The handle is built in 3 pieces that slide together and are held by a short length of shock cord (the kind used in tent poles). When you want to set the phone down, turn it sideways,then pull apart the handle pieces and arrange them in a triangle. The iPhone holder is sized to accommodate a Case-Mate which adds 4mm to the overall thickness of the phone. The vents on the front keep the speaker and microphone from being completely blocked by plastic. I'm thinking it might be fun to change the speaker opening to a socket which can take a phonecone (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6957). I haven't been able to try this out because my 3D printer hasn't arrived yet, but I would love some feedback. My biggest concern is the tension in the ball joint since there is a cut on one side to allow the ball to turn 90 degrees, which precludes wrapping a band around the socket to tighten it up. Perhaps a thin coat of plasti-dip can be used on the inside to add some friction. The conversion to tabletop stand would be easier to do if I used hinges. The hinges could be designed to only turn to one side, but there would need to be some way to lock them so the handle doesn't accidentally fold up while being held. The ball joint is from StefanHH (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5578) and the phone holder is derived from Jag's iPhone Wall Mount Dock (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7476). Instructions Print the parts and glue the ball mount to the bottom of the iPhone holder. Snap the ball into the socket, and tie a short length of shock cord to the eyelet on the bottom of the socket. Run the cord through the handle pieces, and fit them together. Pull the cord tight, tie it to the eyelet on the Handle 1 Cap, and cut off the excess.