Couch Potato

Life is made of a series of minor inconveniences that may not seem to affect life, but over time can frustrate and wear a person down. The Couch Potato is aimed at alleviating one of these minor inconveniences that can lead to tedious efforts to be able to watch T.V. on your phone and relax hands free and away from an outlet. I made it due to not having a cable long enough to comfortably reach my bed and having a lack of something proper to prop up my phone with. The Couch Potato is made as an isosceles triangular prism with two pegs sticking out to hold a mobile device and a slot made for a portable power bank with slots cut out to prevent overheating and allow the charger to be tucked away to prevent cords laying around. This allowed me to be able watch comfortably while lying down anywhere and not having to worry about my phone dying.

• Computer or laptop with a graphic card that supports WebGL
• Tinker CAD software — design is fairly simplistic to recreate, but
• Polar Cloud: 3D Printing Cloud Software
• INIU Portable Charger: 22.5 W 2000mAh (other power banks are also usable, but your design must take the dimensions into account)
• Any charging cord compatible with the power bank of your choice
• Flash Forge Adventurer 5M Pro 3D Printer (or other compatible printer)
• 3D printing filament compatible with the printer of your choice
• Soldering kit
• Extractor Fan

Utilize the premade isosceles triangular prism and adjust it to the dimensions of your liking that align with the power bank you have selected. Create an empty space in the center bottom of your design for your power bank, create small space above the space for the power bank to store the cord you are using. Create a venting system for the power bank so there is no overheating. Finally, create the two pegs used to hold your device — extend them as needed depending on the thickness of your device.

Export your Tinker CAD design to Polar Cloud 3D. From there make sure it is properly oriented and correctly sized before sending it to the printer. After you send it to the printer you will have quite a wait likely around 16-24 hours depending on your printer. If after printing you realize that you had improper dimensions you may have to reprint as dimensions are vital for this project.

After the printing is finished there will be lots of excess filament hanging in the power bank compartment preventing the power bank from entering. To combat this you will want to use a soldering iron to compress the excess filament in the compartment. You should have an extractor fan running while you are soldering to prevent yourself from inhaling the fumes. (If you want to have a little fun you can also write something into your Couch Potato — I wrote my name)

Now you can place your power bank into your Couch Potato, but you also will need to store the excess charging cord. This may take a minute or two as you will slowly push the excess cord into the space above the compartment. Once this done your Couch Potato is ready to go!