Designing a 3D Printable Case for the Khadas Tone Board

[WoodyLuvr]

Not meaning to argue with you for argument's sake but genuinely am curious about this heat build up that some are reporting. I just am not experiencing it at all.

"Running" as in actually outputting sound to your amplifier ?

Try doing exactly that for an hour. It gets warm, pretty warm.

Well over an hour as I listen to my headphones eight to fourteen hours daily while plugging away on my computer. Maybe my case aka copper tomb is big enough to dissipate the heat quickly but the DAC is generating no where's the heat that the DC DC converter module for the amplifier section is and that is well below 65 C so only warm to the touch.

After reading a few posts in this thread I ran it a few days ago all day long with max digital volume and with the volume on the amp turned up to about 80% (didn't want to blow up my headphones). The DC DC converter proved to be far hotter to the touch than any part on the Tone Board which was warm but not alarmingly so nor even to a point to warrant the massive ventilation that some people are engineering into their cases.

I truly wonder what/where the uncommon variable(s) is happening here?

Respects.

 

[dsissitka]

On the off chance someone happens to be using an Atom with a Tone Board I threw this together:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3824172

https://imgur.com/a/92fSsog

https://imgur.com/a/UkZM1o4

There are a couple of issues (the corner radius is a little off and the hole for the USB port could be tightened up a bit) but I think it's a little more polished than the other Atom/Tone Board design that's floating around out there.

Hope it helps!

 

[drewfIr]

On the off chance someone happens to be using an Atom with a Tone Board I threw this together:

There are a couple of issues (the corner radius is a little off and the hole for the USB port could be tightened up a bit) but I think it's a little more polished than the other Atom/Tone Board design that's floating around out there.

Hope it helps!

Looks good, if already did not have a case for the Khadas
Tone Board. Would surely have this case design made. Good
Job and Thank You for sharing. And welcome.

 

[dsissitka]

I contacted JDS to see if they would confirm my measurements and they actually sent me a CAD file... Good people.

It should be pretty much identical to the Atom now:

https://imgur.com/vRm8aH6

I decided against tightening up the hole for the USB port because things get uncomfortably thin:

https://imgur.com/s7aJZSO

 

[dsissitka]

Test print came back. Everything looks good:

https://imgur.com/a/Ekq6IQZ

I've also added the source file to the Thingiverse in case anyone would like to make their own modifications.

 

[Danoob]

Test print came back. Everything looks good:

https://imgur.com/a/Ekq6IQZ

I've also added the source file to the Thingiverse in case anyone would like to make their own modifications.

Thanks for the file man! Just created an account to tell you this.

Very excited to get into the 3D printing world, didn't expect this DAC to do this for me!

Anyway, back to the case, I will try to experiment with this, I feel like the front is a little too empty, maybe a small gap at the front would help ventilation plus the LED would look DIM but cool in my opinion.

I also plan to drill some small holes at the bottom.

 

[Danoob]

Test print came back. Everything looks good:

https://imgur.com/a/Ekq6IQZ

I've also added the source file to the Thingiverse in case anyone would like to make their own modifications.

Hi again! I took your very useful file and used it to learn how to use the software.

How do you close it? I didn't see any lid to print.

 

[dsissitka]

There isn't one. I didn't feel like it was necessary for my use case (almost never moved, stacked with an Atom) so I didn't add one.

 

[Danoob]

There isn't one. I didn't feel like it was necessary for my use case (almost never moved, stacked with an Atom) so I didn't add one.

In the end I made a small lid for it, also just some small adjustment so that it didn't look completely empty at the front.

This is how it looks:

https://imgur.com/a/LGljMcp

 

[Veri]

In the end I made a small lid for it, also just some small adjustment so that it didn't look completely empty at the front.

This is how it looks:

https://imgur.com/a/LGljMcp

That looks hella sexy

 

[Krdo]

Thanks @Frost your case works perfectly!!

 

[owsla]

As most of the 3D printable cases out there are intended for the generic edition of the tone board, I designed one, which should fit both the generic and the VIMs edition. (btw, the Audiophonics case doesn't fit the VIMs edition too). You can download the model here:

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/6O1gEjqziSW

Excellent design, thanks for posting the .stl file!

I really wanted it to have a light on it so I melted a hole in the front panel in line with the LED on the tone board. I used yoda's lightsaber blade from a lego minifig to carry the light to the hole in the case. Works super nicely! Just the right amount of light comes through to see in direct sunlight but not be blinding in a dark room.

First two pics are with no power connected, the last pic has the lid on and the board powered up

 

[systemshock]

@owsla Thank you for sharing your build. The idea with the light saber is great

 

[JayR]

My custom case:

View attachment 29933View attachment 29934

This is a really nice case! Could you please tell me if it will fit a tone board vim version without vim board how do I get one?