iPhone 7 Megaphone Base

I got the idea for this from a giveaway iPhone base made of rubber that I saw briefly. The idea was cool, but it was so small it didn't have much effect. This seemed like a good first moderately complex project.

This was my first "parametric" design with Fusion 360. The upper part is parameterized so it can be adjusted easily to deal with the wide variety of covers that can be applied to iPhones. The lower part is fixed because it was really complex to design.

The first version had two megaphones, one for each phone speaker. I designed the right half and then mirrored it. Because of the complexity I printed the right half a few times. I got the idea to print it at 1/2 size so I could more quickly evaluate certain aspects. That means 1/8 the total volume, 1/8 the print time.








It came out OK but was a little too tight on my phone, and the sound amplification was not that great.



















Because of the concavity of the megaphone it needed to be printed on its back. I have a hole in the back to allow for the charging cord to come through, and that meant a little support material was needed. This was my first experience with support. It worked out pretty well, since it was all in the back where it couldn't be seen, so little to no cleanup was needed.

I reworked it to use a single big megaphone. This improved the sound amplification and in some ways simplified the design. It also made it bigger and so a little more stable for the phone to stand in.

I finished this in late January, about 3 weeks after getting started with printing and design.

Later I shared the STL and Fusion 360 files here on Thingiverse.