3D PRINTING FEATHER / FEATHER BOARDS BREAKOUT BOARDS / FONA

Assemble

by Ruiz Brothers

Clean up

Use a hobby knife to clean any filament around the slots for each component.

Make sure to check the tolerence for each part before trimming away too much material.

Speaker Cover

Fit the speaker cover from the back of the top case. It should have a tight tolerence so it can stay place.

Speaker

The speaker press fits inside the speaker slot as shown. Make sure to trim away any filament if it's too tight.

SIM Card

A SIM card is required for making phone calls. The Ting SIM card can snap apart into standard, mini, micro and nano SIM sizes. Insert the SIM into the Fona with the SIM pins facing down.

Measure wires

Lay the two cases side by side as shown and measrue each wire from the Fona to the mounting slots of each component. Leave a little extra slack to adjust wire sizes if needed.

Speaker wire

Replace the speaker wires with silicone wires so they can reach the pins on the Fona.

Mic ring

Remove the rubber ring around the mic to allow it to fit inside the mic slot.

Mic Slot

Pass the wires through the mic slot and carefully wedge the mic into place until it's flush with the sqaure mic grill indent.

	Ground Splitters Use a flex PCB to create the extra grounds for the buttons, LEDs and motor. Cut two pieces from the ground railing, one piece with 7 holes and one with 3 holes as shown. Tin Flexy PCBs Use tweezers to hold the flex PCB pieces while tinning.
	Solder ground Splitters Solder the shorter ground splitter to the Fona ground pin. Lay it on top of the ground pin and apply heat to solder in place. The two additional grounds will connect the motor and the larger second ground splitter. The larger 7 hole splitter will connect the LEDs and buttons.

Button pins

To mount the buttons to the panel, we'll need to bend the pins stright out so they sit flush on the mounting plate.

Mounting LED to buttons

LEDs can be mounted on top of the button actuator with a small amount of glue or mounting tac. Be careful not to get any glue inside the button.

Solder buttons

Tin the button pins and wires before soldering them to each ground wire.

Buttons and LEDs Mounting Plate

Align the buttons with the square grooves on the mounting plate.

Use tac to mount the LEDs to the plate.

Translucent Buttons

Slide the three color buttons through the top slot with the red button in the middle. The two black buttons mount in the bottom row.

Mouting plate

Align the standoffs on the mounting plate to the standoffs on the case. Use #2-56 screws to attach the button plate to the case.

LED Placement

Make sure the LEDs are aligned and can equally diffuse each printed button. You can nudge them into place with a twezzer.

Vibration Motor

The motor requires a resistor, diode and transistor to work, follow the circuit as shown.

Measure wires, solder the parts together and then mount the motor in the circular slot on the case.

Slide switch

You will want the slide switch on the battery, not the ENABLE pin. Shorten and solder a JST extension cable to the slide switch as shown.

Mounting the Battery

Position the battery so the wires are close to the slide switch. Affix the battery to the case using double stick tape or mounting tac.

Circuit Complete

Mount the slide switch into slot and attach the uFL antenna to the Fona. Use tac to mount the vibration circuit next to the motor. You can apply tac to the transistor to keep it in place.

Cable Management

Bundle the button and LED wires with shrink tube or tape.

Snap case together

The two parts of the case snap fit together without any screws. Join one edge of the case and then apply a small amount of force to snap the opposite side together.

Attaching the Cover

The cover hinge utilizes a piece of 1.75mm filament. Measure and cut a piece the length of the case.

Press the cover onto the case and then fit the filament through the holes in the case and the cover.

Trim filament

Use flush cutters to trim off the ends of the filament.

You can push the filament out with another piece of filament if you ever need to remove the cover.

Mic Grill

Use a piece of tape to attach the microphone grill to the button cover. Cut a small piece and stick it to backside of the button cover.

Button Cover

Align the two buttons through the cover and slide the button cover in at an angle. Apply a small amount of force to snap fit the cover to the case.

Complete

Your real working communicator is now complete! Flip on the slide switch and make a test call.

Live long and prosper :)

This guide was first published on May 18, 2016. It was last updated on May 18, 2016. This page (Assemble) was last updated on Apr 17, 2019.