Kindle Touch frame for text-to-speech

thingiverse

For me, one of the "killer apps" for Kindle has been the text to speech feature. I spend enough time in the car commuting that I get a lot of "reading" done, and can carry forward in the other small snippets of spare time when I'm not driving or working. The Kindle Touch is one of the few models remaining (or only) which does this. Starting and stopping playback by finding the right "buttons" is hard. This frame fits snugly around the top and bottom of the device. The "telegraph keys" should accurately hit the spots to activate the menu, start text to speech, and stop text to speech. This makes it actually possible to stop it from reading totally without eye contact. The "hoops" are meant to keep papers and other things I may put on the passenger seat from sliding over the touch screen (which uses IR interferometry and is thus triggered by the lightest touch from any random object). These are currently prone to break off (as shown in the gallery - this suffered a drop with the Kindle inside) but the unit can be used to hit the menu buttons without them. Instructions Print the top and bottom sections, taking care to avoid warping (avoid drafts, use heated bed, fresh coat of hairspray / ABS juice / whatever... you get the idea). Using a fine layer thickness (like 0.2mm or less) will help with printing the arched hoops. The clips will also be stronger if printed with a fine layer thickness. Print 2 of the "telegraph key" parts, which are already rotated in the best orientation for printing (flat side down). The "telegraph keys" are press-fitted onto the posts on the top and bottom parts as shown in the gallery pictures. The top "key" should hit the spot for activating the menu and the lower "key" should either select the menu item to start text to speech, or the button to stop text to speech playback. Freecad source included with guide objects - note that the actual spacing of the top and bottom parts is a bit closer than in the model.