Nokia is no stranger to open community engagement. Despite its current focus on Windows Phones, the company has contributed significantly to the Linux code base and fostered the emergence of once-thriving coding communities for the Maemo and then MeeGo Linux-based operating systems.
But there’s another community-fueled phenomenon taking the world by storm these days, and that’s 3D Printing (or Additive Manufacturing). I’ve shared my background and interest on the subject here before, and as our local Maker community has grown, that interest has risen at least proportionally. I’ve also been involved with Windows Phone developer communities, and when the Lumia 820 was announced, I realized its removable cover presented an opportunity.
So, one day I directed a little tweet at the Finnish cell phone maker:
I’m starting a new campaign & need LOTS of retweets. The mission: get @nokia to publish Lumia 820 cover design specs, for one #3DPrinting
— Randall G Arnold (@texrat) September 28, 2012
Now, I’m not certain if that proposal came before internal discussion or not, but not long after that little request gained momentum with many retweets, I received a communication from US community manager John Kneeland kindly asking me to ease off on the pleas.
Turns out he had proposed this as an internal project, and my public pushing could get in the way of its possible success. So I bit my tweeting tongue for months, and behind the scenes acted as a consultant on the project… watching it slowly wind its way through Nokia’s organization in one-step-forward-two-steps-sideways fashion. No matter what hurdle he hit, though, John persevered.
And the tech blogosphere erupted enthusiastically when the project was made public. Wired, Forbes, the BBC and others have all been eager to cover this cool advent.
But I’m not sure if everyone recognizes what a big, bold step this actually is. Sure, there is an agreement to accept before you download the available model files from the official source (1, 2, 3– Nokia account required), but for the most part Nokia is sweeping aside common legal sand traps and red tape to freely provide enterprising individuals with the ability to customize their own components for a commercial item. Nokia has been kind enough to provide sample photos, as published by Clinton Jeff at Unleash the Phones.
There are caveats. Materials must be restricted due to the nature of the product; ceramics could shatter, metals could impact functionality. Even some plastics and processes may not be usable. Personally I would suggest Stereolithography or powdered sintering, utilizing nylon or similar. Online 3D Print-on-Demand providers like Ponoko, Shapeways and iMaterialise can help you select the right approach if you’re interested.
But I don’t want to discourage the do-it-yourselfers. Those with the right experience and equipment of their own may well succeed in cranking out usable home-brew covers. There’s a good chance many results will require some postprocessing to get a proper fit, but if I know Makers then most won’t mind.
You’ll of course need a solid modeling application to take advantage of this. The image above represents the STEP model file imported quickly and easily into SolidWorks 2001. I also like Alibre Design and will play with the cover in that low-cost solution as well. I highly recommend a parametric design approach in general, but even a Boolean design tool like the innovative, online Tinkercad can do the trick.
Some skeptics have remarked that this is not such a big deal, that anyone could already reverse-engineer the parts without Nokia’s involvement. But releasing original models takes out a great deal of the usual trial-and-error which means reduced time, effort and scrap. I’m hoping Nokia could also see their way to releasing detailed engineering drawings, for those of us wanting to create our own covers from scratch with the benefit of actual dimensions.
One of my own next steps will be to help develop examples and best practices for the Maker community. Fred Patton has been kind enough to start a wiki on Nokia’s developer site to get that going. I’ll also be sharing this new opportunity at local Maker events, and based on the preliminary response I expect Nokia’s new move to be a huge success. Who knows where else it may go?
Disclaimer: author is a part-time employee of Nokia involved in developer community outreach
