Case, 3D printing and assembling

Case, 3D printing and assembling

Caution

The magnetic dock connector and cable are custom and cannot be bought online. I may be able to ship you a pair however. To use the PCB without this connector a low profile pin header can be used. Remember to manually modify the bottom case part according to dimensions of the pin header.

• If you find a good low profile pin header let me know and I'll update the documentation and CAD to work with it.

Warning

• Carefully read through and make sure you understand before starting.
• Don't use too much force, but some may be needed. Be smart and apply force on safe locations.
• The screen is the most fragile part, the rest can stand quite a bit.

Note

Those instructions are work in progress and not finished. Please suggest improvements.

All CAD and .STL files can be found here

What's needed

• 4x M2 threaded inserts For example
• 4x M2 screws For example
• Soldering iron
• Tweezer
• Sharp knife (to clean off supports)

3D printing settings

• 4 perimieters
• 0.2 mm layer height
• No supports unless specified below

What to print

1x top_3d_print or top_3d_print_no_support
1x bottom
1x inner_holder_supports
4x button
2x button_inner
2x button_inner_angled

Print orientation

Case variant with supports

Post processing

Note

This part may/should be redesigned to not require post processing.

Right image is the model without supports added, the goal is to remove the supports from the left one after print so it matches the right image.

Remove this small edge manually after printing.

Warning

• Before assembling make sure that the display fits easily in the hole in the top case part. The display shall sink down into the big hole.
• Make sure that the top part and bottom parts fit together.
• Make sure PCB dock connector goes through the hole in the bottom part easily.
• Make sure M2 screws fit through the holes on the bottom part. If not use a 2 mm drill to make the holes slighty larger.

Important

• If some steps above fails, either use a tool to make more room in the 3D print or adjust your printing settings and tolerances.

Preparing the PCB

Note

Start with soldering the dock connector. If you have the magnetic one, be careful which orientation it's soldered on. See this image for the expected orientation when the cable is connected to the dock connector.

Note

Cut the vibration motor wires shorter as in the image. Prepare the wires for soldering by using wire stripper. Finish by soldering on the vibration motor.

Putting together the inner watch parts.

Note

Start with carefully plugging in the display. Then the Battery. And last put the 3D printed inner_holder part.

Note

Next fit in the battery and carefully fold over the display. When done you should have what from now on will be referred to as "The Sandwich" Make sure the sandwich fits tightly together. No gaps above the buttons etc. See last image.

Mounting

Below follows the steps in order to mount ZSWatch.

Note

• Insert the M2 threaded inserts using soldering iron.

Buttons

Either use just the inner part if you prefer, meaning you skip glueing on the outer button part or glue the button parts togther using super glue.
Take note of which side of the case the button_inner and button_innner_angled are at. Note the small cutout at the antenna.

Note

Don't mount PCB yet, below image just for understanding of orientation.

Note

Now you should have something looking like this.

Note

• Make sure the sandwich is sitting tight together.
• Take the antenna side and put the into the case first.
• Make sure display and antenna came down into the case nicely.
• Now take the other side and carefully push it down (keep some slight force towards the antenna side).
• You may need to pull slightly in the buttons in order to get the display to come down.
• Finally pull off the glue protector on the vibration motor and push it down.

Note

• You may need to fiddle a bit until you get the PCB and everything perfectly aligned with the bottom.
• Use a tweezer in case the PCB and buttons come out of the inner_holder part to get it back into it.
• Remember it's important that the PCB really comes down and aligns with the the bottom.
• Once you got it perfectly aligned, always keep a tweezer or similar to keep constant pressure on the PCB, so it won't come up again.

Note

• Now while keeping contant pressure on the PCB put on the bottom part.
• Keep using thr tweezer through the hole in the bottom to keep constant pressure.
• Carefully press down the bottom.
• Once the bottom is in. Keep pressure on it and screw in the 4 screws.