Database Develop

[Q] Whats your ideal case for the NC?

What is the ideal case for your Nook Color?
Is it one that is available or not?
What are some of the features you would like it to have?
Do you want a fold case that covers the screen?
Is the micro usb port in a convenient location?
Looking for some ideas. Working on a shell now for a mold. Not sure if anything will come of it but want to see what you all are looking for in a case. Feel free to post your thoughts. Thanks.

I would like to see a one sided hard cover that can protect the screen when not in use and snap onto the rear when in use. Probably use the typical four corner frame system you see in many cases so nothing is obstructed.
Also, have a stand "system" so that when it is snapped to the rear you can prop up the NC. Maybe something like what you see on back side of keyboards. And like some keyboards I've seen, have different levels of lift. One lift level that slightly raises the NC off the surface, for typing and such. Another lift level that is like the leg stand you see on the EVO 4G or Archos 70, for video/picture viewing and the like.
Heh. First post around here. Been meaning to chime in on a thread and this is the perfect one to start. Only because I've been looking for something I described but there is nothing out there yet.

I'm looking for an inexpensive silicone gel skin, something I'd keep on pretty much all the time. I'm also keeping my eyes open for sturdy travel case.
There seem to be choices out there for both, I'm just waiting a bit for more of them to hit ebay.

I missed your last question about the micro usb port. IMO its not in a good location because its awkward when trying to read while charging, particularly when reclining or lying down. I'm concerned about putting pressure on the usb cable, especially considering its not just a standard cheap cable. Not sure how a case will help this, though.

drp1 said:
I missed your last question about the micro usb port. IMO its not in a good location because its awkward when trying to read while charging, particularly when reclining or lying down. I'm concerned about putting pressure on the usb cable, especially considering its not just a standard cheap cable. Not sure how a case will help this, though.
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ill be trying out a few designs once the mold sets. i can add a ribbon cable in the case to move the USB port to the sides which I might try. trying to keep it thin but actually worth putting on.

techboydino said:
ill be trying out a few designs once the mold sets. i can add a ribbon cable in the case to move the USB port to the sides which I might try. trying to keep it thin but actually worth putting on.
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Are you designing desktop/multimedia cases as well? I would love additional speakers on the NC and also a magnetic swivel X mount stand for desktop use.

My ideal case is not available yet. It is an envelope-like case that will allow me to pull the Nook out and use it naked. Something in nice black leather.

Something similiar to the covers of the TI calculators, with a little more thought about aesthetics obviously.

A 90deg connector or adapter would be nice. Then run the cable through the corner loop thingie.
Cheers,
kev

bugeyed1 said:
A 90deg connector or adapter would be nice. Then run the cable through the corner loop thingie.
Cheers,
kev
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Good Idea, I may try that out.
Im not any sort of professional or anything, but I do have access to some pretty sweet resin's and molding equipment. Carbon fiber is the idea, but the glass mold and how I want to do the front part comes first. Ill keep the thread updated.

ideal nook case
looking for something very close to this case
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0040VNRTG/ref=oss_product
just substituting the swivel belt clip for a kickstand
i like the idea of moving the usb jack to another spot but i think that would add alot of cost and effort to the case build

Rube Goldberg lives; or, is this even possible?
You asked for the ideal, here is mine. Not at all sure it is doable....
1. In the interest of keeping the total package as slim as possible, no back, unless it is necessary to support other features.
2. [Front] cover has a slot for a pad of paper and/or corner slots for index cards.
3. [Front] cover is hinged on the right (I'm right handed and I want to be able to write easily).
4. [Front] cover has a foldover flap to keep the paper or cards from contacting the screen when the cover is closed.
5. The cover can fold 180 degrees so that the cover lies flat against the back of the tablet.
6. The cover can support the Nook as an easel in landscape mode.
7. The cover can support the Nook as an easel in portrait mode - this might involve some sort of short extension legs or other support to raise the lower edge of the Nook an inch or so (and this might help with the need to plug in the USB connector at the bottom).
8. Bonus points for the ability to fold out a handle attached at the lower left corner when in portrait mode, sort of like a hand mirror.
9. And of course it should be strong, light, durable, elegant, and less than $40 US.
I'm ready to order as soon as I see the pictures of the finished product.

Thanks for the ideas everyone. Haven't worked on it in a few due to being out at CES. Unfortunately there were NO cases out there. Working with Speck to find something but tried everything else and could not even find a nice slip cover. Otterbox said they are testing designs so no real info there either.

My ideal case is something like
http://shop.brando.com/samsung-galaxy-tab-case-with-bluetooth-keyboard_p05269c0299d057.html
this.
Bluetooth keyboard case, waiting for bluetooth to work for NOOK!! and I could use it as a netbook and a tablet. IDEAL.

This is my cheap (free) case for my nook color. It’s the zippered case for my trucks instruction manual. The patch covers the ford symbol; if I need to hide it in plain sight I can pull the patch off and leave it in the back seat. It fits perfectly and there is a plastic divider on the inside I can put business cards and a small pad of paper (as others have asked). All I keep in it is a set of skullcandy headphones in an microfiber Oakley sunglass bag for cleaning the screen.
michael
-"I learned a very valuable lesson on my travels, Tucker. No matter how bad things might seem..."
-"They could be worse?"
-"Nope, no matter how bad they seem, they can't be any better, and they can't be any worse, because that's the way things fraking are, and you better get used to it Nancy. Quit yer *****ing."

Perfect case for the Nook Color
Before I bought my Nook, I had a Pandigital Novel that I bought on eBay.
In the same eBay search results page the Novel appeared on was a great case called BookArmor. Although it was $35, I bought it. And I haven't regretted it either.
The BookArmor case comes with a set of velcro-like pads that stick on the back of the tablet and allow it to be fixed to the case. The case itself is laminated steel and plastic covered with textured fabric. It zippers shut and the zipper sides are soft and stay out of the way when the case is opened. You have total access to all side buttons and ports. The inside surface that comes in contact with the screen is covered with a soft foam pad.
When I decided to get the Nook, I found out that the case I had for the Novel is the exact same case for the Nook Color. I really like this case and haven't even considered another one.
For more info go to extremeinkjet.com and click on BookArmor cases in the blue left-hand column. Pick any Delta 6 case ... there is a Nook Color one. Checkout their video at the bottom of the page.
It looks like this case is really popular too ... there aren't any left on eBay and the extremeinkjet site shows all out of stock for the Delta 6 case. Amazon shows one Delta 6 left for the Pandigital (same case) but it doesn't even show up for Nook Color.

I don't know if I'd call it perfect. But, I bought the B&N case with the vertical flap and ribbon with magnet on the end to hold it closed/open. It works well for me.
If they were available in store when I bought my nook, I would have also considered the silicone one. Although, if I went that route, I'd probably prefer the otter box version with the hard resin exterior an rubber liner. I would also have considered the black leather pouch one where you completely remove the nook to use it.
Alas, none of these were available to me when I made my purchase so I'm using what I have.
With either the otter box or the silicone I would gain a thinner form factor. But, I would never be able to completely cover the screen. With the pouch one, I would gain the thin form factor when using and would not add much when transporting. But, it's basically just a branded leather sleeve.
In the end, what drew me to the case that I bought was the vertical flap and ribboned magnet. 1 - with the horizontal flapped ones, the magnet does not flip around to hold the flap to the back of the case so it's open like a book with the flap dangling out the right side. 2 - with the vertical one that I got, you flip the cover over the top, move the magnet to the back to hold the cover in place and you have all your nooky goodness to go to town with!
Just my 2 cents.

jlh8733 said:
Something similiar to the covers of the TI calculators, with a little more thought about aesthetics obviously.
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Wow...love love love this idea.
This would be great..a hard protective slide case.
This would definitely be a $$$ maker.

I bought a "Industriell Cover in Storm" cover and it works perfectly, very simple, protects the screen, and it's small.

I'm stealing your "DON'T PANIC" sticker on the back idea. thanks for reminding me.

Streak + Mogotalk xd bluetooth/case/charger mod

Hi all,
I have recently switched to the Streak from owning all models of the iphone, and have not looked back. Such an awesome device, and android is great. Anyways, I had owned a case for my 3gs and Iphone 4 called the Mogotalk xd. It is a bluetooth/case/charger that keeps an extremely thin and very good bluetooth on the back of your phone. I have missed it very much, especially since the streak is huge and could really benefit from one of these...The product is very smart, and very thin...but this isn't a review, so you can check it out their site, which I can't link yet...just google or youtube it...
I contact ID8 support to ask if they would be making these cases for other devices, and they replied back that they would not. So, I decided to mod mine for my streak, and post it here in case anyone else wants to do the same. It came out very well I think, and was very easy...extremely useful...
I started by removing the felt lining (just peeled out), then, after messing around a bit, decided to just take an exacto knife to the rubber for the sides of the iphone. I cut right along the back of the case, so as to have a close fit. Pics attached ( I also cannot link pictures yet :-C)
I have 2 battery covers, so I then attached it with double sided tape (temporary, as I am looking for some way incorporate a kickstand next). I lined up the top of the case with the top of the battery cover. It still slides on fine. If someone wanted to, they could probably dremel the top of the case to fit perfectly on the battery cover, as the camera hole unfortunately is horizontal...and there are no electronics on the top half (bottom has charging port) The only thing you really lose is a few millimeters of thickness...but this thing is thin (still fits tightly in the car dock from dell) And now I have bluetooth that charges on my phone and is always with me. Really easy to do, and definitely worth it if you like talking on your phone, as this can be difficult with the streak. Let me know if you have any questions...you can pick this up on amazon or other sites for around 40-45 dollars..its worth it..

One thing to be careful of there is the battery compartment door. There's a power switch inside the Streak that's activated by a pin on the door and if the door moves your Streak will power down. This is a known problem with nothing on the door so I don't know how yours will behave with the extra weight/bulk hanging off it. I know good comfortable earpieces are hard to find so maybe you could incorporate the BT holder into another case instead of attaching it directly to the streak?

I thought about that, and it would be very easy for someone who wanted a case...however, I do not...The Case/bluetooth is extremely light, and for some reason, the battery cover now fits much more tightly in place..its not going anywhere...It would be really easy to just cut out out the back of a case, especially a silicone one, to fit...or to cut the top half as I said before and fit it into a hard case...

Cheap Ikea typing stand

I was looking for a cheap typing angle stand for my nook color, and was only finding upright stands. So I headed to Ikea to find some inspiration and found a quick and cheap solution (and you can get 2 for the price even!
It's the Fixa Drill Guide, item 90101778.
I cut mine at the notch using a razor saw and it creates and angle perfect for me to type. The only thing I may do is add some rubber pads like you find on bookends to keep it from clicking as i type (there's a little gap, so it rattles). So for $3-4, I've got two nook color stands with about 5 minutes of work.
Ikea also has the 99 cent easel for upright video watching
The Raket Table Easel, Item 66451309

Thanks for the RAKET idea! I went to Ikea today, picked up 2 (one for home, one for desk at work), and they work great for the Nook.

My Custom NOOKcolor stand

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to post some pics of a stand that I put together. At first I bought one from BoxWave that they had up labeled as a Bamboo NOOKcolor stand.
http://www.boxwave.com/nookcolor-cradles-and-mounts/bamboo-nookcolor-stand/bwpdd/tpt-zfkf
Since I purchased it, they have changed the image on there website, though. Originally it was pretty misleading on the dimensions of the stand. I paid $30 for this thing and really it's only meant for a cellphone. It's absolutely way too small to hold up the NOOKcolor without tipping over.
Anyway, I liked the design of it so I went out and bought a bamboo cutting board from Walmart for $20 and cut it up into a bunch of pieces. I made myself a cardboard template based on that smaller stand I originally bought. I stacked all the pieces and then glued them together. I don't have a band saw so I found this really nice guy who has a shop over at Etsy who agreed to cut it out for me. He really did an awesome job. The link to his shop is here
http://www.etsy.com/people/irishmanswoodworks
in case anyone wants him to make one for you.
After I got it back from being cut out I sanded it up a bit more, put several coats of Tung oil and glued on a piece of felt. I think it came out really nice in the end. I attached some pics, so let me know what you guys think

That looks Amazingly Simple to do.

That is really quite snazzy!

I love it! Great work!

The only wood I'm good at working is ......
LOL tooo easy.
It does look beautiful. Does he use other exotic woods and stains?

I supplied the glued up bamboo board for him to cut, but I'm sure he can make it out of whatever you would want.

What a sweet stand. It looks really nice.

This is exactly what I'm looking for! I use XBMC in my living room and my Nook color is my remote. Thing is it runs out of juice all the time since I keep it on 24/7 and its a pain to charge. I'd like to see you drill a small square hold in the center of the bamboo where it can "dock" and run it out the back USB. Then we can run the usb to the AC outlet/USB Charger and have a Charging Dock!

Thats pretty awsome

Great work!

My semi DIY car mount.

So lately I've been trying to figure out a way to get my tablet mounted at the optimum position for GPS usage without obstructing anything. In my van I have the Arkon seat bolt tablet mount, which is perfect because it keeps the tablet lower in the dash area so it's not blocking my view or baking in the sun, and it's also a solid mount point. I'd have no where else to mount it in the van aside from the window if it wasn't for this mount, and I absolutely don't like window mounting anything bigger than a cell phone. So in that instance, things work out great. Recently I put that Arkon mount in my car, which is a Hyundai Elantra. I thought since the distance from the seat bolt to the mount area would be less, I'd have more (if anything, too much) "neck" to work with. It turned out to be the opposite. My Elantra is stick shift, so when I had the tablet mounted in the most convenient spot that reached, I was all but punching the screen when I went to 3rd/5th gear. The only other alternative was to have it sitting over in the passenger area, which works for me but it adds as a huge inconvenience to any passengers in that seat since their left knee is where the tablet is. As a result I decided to put the Arkon seat bolt mount back in the van and work on something else for the car.
I have an empty space under my head unit for random storage, etc. I began to wonder if I could somehow utilize that space for incorporating a mount there. It would be the perfect height because it's higher up from the gear shift and it would definitely be optimum viewing for GPS usage. Originally I made the perfectly sized wooden block that had a slight slight slope to it so it would wedge itself in place. I then epoxy'd a BluRex Amazon case to it that I wasn't too happy with and was no longer using. This proved to be an awesome 10 minute mount, but it also gave me zero adjustability. I began to think was going to be important since last time we were on a road trip when the road I was on was going to be 3 hours long my wife watched a movie, so I knew I'd want a way to move it around for best viewing in multiple scenarios.
Here's two pictures from that build:
http://i.imgur.com/dsfQx.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/guw86.jpg
I began to give it more thought. I knew that the empty space under my head unit was going to be the mount point, but I just had to figure out how. I searched through multiple mounts, particularly from Arkon. In the end I bought this mount on eBay for about 20 bucks. It came with a suction cup which I knew wouldn't work for my uses. My plan was to cut the arm off, drill a hole into a wooden block, then fill it with epoxy and shove the arm in. The block of wood in question would be a piece that I cut to perfectly fit the open slot under my deck with a slight slant to it, that way as I pushed it in, it wedged itself in place (much like the last mount)
When I got this mount from eBay I began to wonder if I even needed to cut the arm off. Fortunately the height of the suction cup base was ALMOST the height of the opening in my dash. I figured all I had to do was wedge that in place and I wouldn't have to do the whole sha-bang with the wooden block and epoxy. I ended up cutting off the suction cup since it was useless in my case. The bottom of the plastic suction cup area had some flat ridges, so I figured I'd use double sided tape instead of epoxy to adhere it to a flat piece of wood. The flat piece of wood was to bump the thickness up just enough to replace the need for that wooden wedge.
http://i.imgur.com/yHOLR.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/l9mRO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/O4Gin.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KFJad.jpg
In the last picture you can see that I flipped things around. Originally I had the arm facing downward, but when I had the tablet mounted, 5th gear was still a problem as the gear shift would nearly hit the tablet. I knew if I flipped it upside down the arm would be facing upward, giving me some height... so I re-did the tape and put it on the other side. Since I mounted it more to the right (to ensure there was a super low chance of the steering wheel ever obstructing view, even if I was leaning far to the left while driving) I sensed a small amount of uneven stability since there was nothing keeping the left side tight against the roof of the opening. A small wooden wedge later and we were golden.
http://i.imgur.com/t7v4P.jpg
I ended up painting that wooden piece black to blend it in a little bit. I also noticed while driving that some roads had a degree of ripple to them, which would cause the tablet to sway back and forth. It didn't obstruct my view-ability of the screen at all, but if I was in an area where the tablet was casting a glare from the screen it became more obvious. On a hunch I pulled out two quarters and slid them under the arm mount, which is where I thought I was seeing a degree of flexing. Surprisingly it helped quite a bit and that area no longer has any flex. Not bad.
http://i.imgur.com/gzcV0.jpg
Final product:
http://i.imgur.com/LoUZT.jpg
Hopefully those of you out there who are finding some tablet mounts are *almost* perfect but not a home run can utilize some sort of DIY ideas like I did to make it work. I now have a solid mount for both vehicles, so no more worries about where the tablet will sit, etc. No complaints there. :good:

Great mod! I too have a compartment like that when I replaced my factory double din to a single din radio. To compensate, I had to put in a CD holder type opening, much like your area. I just have slots for CD cases. In my case, it wouldn't work out too well because my opening is held by epoxy and because of the texas heat, loses it's adhesiveness big time and alas, too weak for N7.
I have since bought a Kropsson Aero, which can hold both my tablet and Sensation. I do wish someone made a mount that can fit like the Aero can. Oh well, sorry to detract, just wanted to give you some kudos in getting a mount that works for you! :good:

I'm curious on how the epoxy is failing you. Is it not gripping like it should? A little side story - I epoxy'd a cracked side skirt in my first car, and when I got tires one day the hydraulic lift bowed the sides out pretty dramatically. (this wasn't a body kit - just lower siding from the factory. Here's a picture of a car nearly identical to what I had). It took the weight of my car for 30 seconds on that lift before the pressure was enough that it broke the epoxy bond. We may not have Texas heat, but here in Pennsylvania we have some crazy cold winters and some pretty muggy summers... I would think the differentiation wouldn't be good for epoxy when it's outdoors and hitting rain/snow/mud/hot/cold throughout the years.
I'm curious if the surface you epoxy'd wasn't really that optimal for epoxy. I say that based on my own experience recently, as I thought for sure epoxy would bond to anything, and for the most part it does, but take a look back at the first pictures of the BluRex/wooden block mod I did. I epoxy'd those two things together. After I took it out of the car and didn't use it, I wanted to see if I could somehow separate the two. I figured if anything the epoxy would separate from the wood and the epoxy would have just stayed gripping to wood particles from the block. But it was the opposite - the epoxy let go of the semi rubberized BluRex case, pretty cleanly too. It took a good amount of force, don't get me wrong, but once done it was a pretty clean break. I'm basing this entirely on assumption as I don't know what you were bonding together, but I wanted to throw out those FYI's as part of my epoxy experience.
So, that Aero can widen itself enough for a Nexus 7? I Googled around and I keep seeing screenshots of it with iPhones and Galaxy 3's... not tablets. That's wild if it does. Does your's mount based on suction cup? Or did you do some sort of additional mod?

JaSauders said:
I'm curious on how the epoxy is failing you. Is it not gripping like it should? A little side story - I epoxy'd a cracked side skirt in my first car, and when I got tires one day the hydraulic lift bowed the sides out pretty dramatically. (this wasn't a body kit - just lower siding from the factory. Here's a picture of a car nearly identical to what I had). It took the weight of my car for 30 seconds on that lift before the pressure was enough that it broke the epoxy bond. We may not have Texas heat, but here in Pennsylvania we have some crazy cold winters and some pretty muggy summers... I would think the differentiation wouldn't be good for epoxy when it's outdoors and hitting rain/snow/mud/hot/cold throughout the years.
I'm curious if the surface you epoxy'd wasn't really that optimal for epoxy. I say that based on my own experience recently, as I thought for sure epoxy would bond to anything, and for the most part it does, but take a look back at the first pictures of the BluRex/wooden block mod I did. I epoxy'd those two things together. After I took it out of the car and didn't use it, I wanted to see if I could somehow separate the two. I figured if anything the epoxy would separate from the wood and the epoxy would have just stayed gripping to wood particles from the block. But it was the opposite - the epoxy let go of the semi rubberized BluRex case, pretty cleanly too. It took a good amount of force, don't get me wrong, but once done it was a pretty clean break. I'm basing this entirely on assumption as I don't know what you were bonding together, but I wanted to throw out those FYI's as part of my epoxy experience.
So, that Aero can widen itself enough for a Nexus 7? I Googled around and I keep seeing screenshots of it with iPhones and Galaxy 3's... not tablets. That's wild if it does. Does your's mount based on suction cup? Or did you do some sort of additional mod?
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I just got the Aero in actually. It doesn't fit the N7 with my Seidio Case installed. So it's a fail on my end. It fits my Sensation fine, but thats a given lol.
As for the surface areas, I think you are correct that maybe the surface I am trying to apoxy to (on the car) does not play well/adhere with the epoxy I put on. No biggie though. I wanted something off the dash anyways. I may just get the exogear/kropsson mounts eventually...
EDIT: semi DIY modding LOL...
Just getting back, regarding the Kropsson Aero. Because of the Seidio case making the N7 bigger than expected to fit in the Kropsson Aero, I decided to cut down the foam pads on the sides. Now the N7 fits! The said arms are maxed out, but I will try it in the car after work. I took pics, but my work computer is borking at the card reader. But I'll try to upload them at home if I have time ( I have a 4 yr old to contend with lol).

I did almost the same thing, except the empty space is above my stereo instead of below. I just drilled some holes in the top of it and fashioned a plastic mount that bolts in and connects to part of an Arkon mount. If I want to remove the mount, I can just unbolt the Arkon part from the part that's bolted to the double din kit and you barely notice the rest of it.

I did something similar with my GNex car dock so it wasn't on my window. I placed a adapter plate (see link below) so I could use the suction cup on some interior plastic below my stereo. It holds pretty snug, not sure if it would be enough to support a tablet though.
http://www.amazon.com/AP020-Adapter-Circular-Adhesive-Console/dp/B001DAT0XE/ref=pd_sim_cps_10

xxgoosexx said:
I did something similar with my GNex car dock so it wasn't on my window. I placed a adapter plate (see link below) so I could use the suction cup on some interior plastic below my stereo. It holds pretty snug, not sure if it would be enough to support a tablet though.
http://www.amazon.com/AP020-Adapter-Circular-Adhesive-Console/dp/B001DAT0XE/ref=pd_sim_cps_10
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I have that same disk that came with my tomtom gps that I never used. But it works! I have it installed and holds the arkon mount fine without issues.

ydoucare said:
I did almost the same thing, except the empty space is above my stereo instead of below. I just drilled some holes in the top of it and fashioned a plastic mount that bolts in and connects to part of an Arkon mount. If I want to remove the mount, I can just unbolt the Arkon part from the part that's bolted to the double din kit and you barely notice the rest of it.
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Nice! Do you have any pictures of the actual mounting point where the bolts are? I'm super curious how you accomplished this. :good:

JaSauders said:
Nice! Do you have any pictures of the actual mounting point where the bolts are? I'm super curious how you accomplished this. :good:
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I don't, I'll try to grab one and post it here.