I’ve been playing with alternative phone platforms on and off for a few months now and I’m pretty much ready to make my Google Pixel 3A XL running GrapheneOS my daily driver, so I need a couple of stands for it - one for my bedside and one for my desk.
I decided to design my stands around a mag-safe-style USB cable, and ended up grabbing three of these “elough”-brand cables:
As usual the design process started with taking a bunch of measurements of the cable and phone:
These measurements then were defined as parameters in Fusion360:
The modelling process was a bit finicky because of the 10-degree angle I needed to put on the stand bed, and the various cutouts I had to make for the cable track. The final design looked something like this:
Finally here’s the print in white PLA with 20% infill:
The tolerances on the cable channel and the socket for the magnetic plug were a bit tight on the first print, but after enlarging with a blade and a power drill I got it to friction-fit snugly into place:
Finally with the phone mounted in it:
The design came out great. The only issue is the base is very light given the small amount of plastic, so when you grab the phone the whole stand comes with it. Actually I had the same problem with my official Apple phone stand for my iPhone and just solved it with Blutac (of course) so I’ll probably do the same here.