Cell Phone Windshield Mount

I had an old in vehicle GPS system that needed to be retired and at this point my phone is a better GPS receiver any way.  I decided to design and print an enclosure for it that could use my old GPS mount to secure it to the windshield.

        

 The design goals for the enclosure include: 

• It holds the phone securely and rattle free while still allowing the phone to be removed easily. 

• It should not cause an unnecessary obstruction of the view of the road or the screen on the phone.   
• It should be mostly 3D printable while any printed parts should be easy to fabricate or buy locally.  
• It should use as little materials as possible without sacrificing strength, durability, or other previously mentioned criteria.  
• It must interface with my existing mount for my GPS.
  

                I took careful measurements of my phone’s exterior dimensions, screen dimensions, and USB port location using standard digital calipers and used those dimensions to create an enclosure for it in Pro/Engineer.  The end result is an enclosure that holds the phone securely but still slides in and out easily without difficulty.  I had considered adding some sort of latching system to secure the phone in the enclosure but instead chose to simply use a USB cable to prevent the phone from sliding out since the phone will always be hooked up to a charger when using it for navigation.  Removing the cable allows the phone to slide out the right side of the enclosure.

                The design had to be printed in two parts and glued together due to the limitations of the 3D printing process. I included holes in the 4 corners of both pieces into which stainless steel pins were inserted to both locate the two pieces and provide added shear strength to the joint. These pins were the only non-printed parts.