Modular Phone Holder

Overview
This is a phone holder that uses a ratcheting mechanism to lock onto almost any phone securely and has different attachments that you attach to the main body of the phone holder to use it as a normal phone stand, attach it to your wall, hang it from a shelf, attach it to the back of a car's headrest, hook it over anything with a lip,( a chair, the top of a door, a computer monitor, a rod, a car's sun visor), or even hang it from a string(If you need that). This will hold almost any phone with dimensions of up to 176 mm high, 100 mm wide, and 14 to 16 mm thick(Depending on if the edge curves in at the top). Another thing to note is that this will only hold a phone in landscape mode(horizontally), which is ideal for watching shows, but not scrolling social media. As this is a rather large model it will take a buildplate of 212mm by 175 mm, so this will not fit on a smaller printer's buildplate, but it will fit fine on an Ender 3 and similar printers. My goal was to create a phone holder you can trust with your phone's life in a variety of situations, and I believe I have done a solid job of that.

A Nintendo Switch can also be used in the phone holder just like a phone, that is why the width is so long, but it is important to note that this is without the joycons. Only the console itself fits in, so a Nintendo Switch Lite will not fit. However, an OLED switch can fit.

This phone holder has 16 modules at the moment, most of which you probably don't need. You can print just the body and then the one module you may need, or you could print them all! If you have any questions or ideas feel free to post them in the comments!

                                                       HOW TO USE

Using the sliding part

When you first take your Modular Phone Holder off the build plate and examine it, you will notice the piece in the middle looks like it can slide up and down, and it can! To move this sliding piece up, you will have to take one hand and pinch the two pieces on either side of the center sliding rail and squeeze them together, this will disengage the ratchet enabling you to move it upwards. Then, you place your phone in the holder and lower the sliding piece on it, using a medium amount of force to ensure that the ratchet is down as far as it will go. To move it down, you simply push it down, no need to pinch the two side pieces for moving it down. At first, when taking it off of the build plate, the sliding piece may be stuck in place, and the best fix is to twist it gently from side to side, be careful not to flex it too far, and keep trying to move it up and down, applying some force to get it moving. At first, the sliding rail can catch and be somewhat rough, but repeatedly moving the sliding piece up and down the rail will smooth that out over time.

attaching and detaching a module

At the end of your modular phone holder you will notice a rail that is open on one end, simply take any module and slide it into that rail all the way so that it is all the way in. The module will be able to rotate freely in the rail after being inserted. (Unless you are using the phonestand modules, those don't rotate) You will then notice that the module is stuck in there and will not slide out, this is because of a small locking piece at the opening to the rail. In order to remove your module, you have to push down this small locking tab with the end of your finger while sliding out the module. After the end of the module is out over the locking piece, keeping it pressed down, you no longer need to hold it down and can slide out the module.

https://youtu.be/kBuIak9uanw?si=28jw7GpILdDKn_W7

                                                               PRINT SETTINGS

Nothing in this design needs support.

All the files are already oriented in the printing direction.

I used PLA for everything, but you should be able to use whatever material you want. (Besides tpu, obviously)

The main module is completely print in place.

Main base settings: Even the low end of settings is extremely strong and will hold up fine to being used quite roughly, so it is not necessary to use any more than the low-end settings.

Low end: two wall lines, 10 percent infill, around 54 grams used

high end: three wall lines, 30 percent infill, around 70 grams used

Module settings: I have never actually printed any of the modules with more than the low-end settings, but they are also the most fragile part of the design and can break if dropped depending on the module, but during normal use, low-end settings would work just fine, they are still fairly sturdy. However, if you want to print them with more than those settings, that is fine as well.

Low end: 2 wall lines, 20 percent infill, 8 to 27 grams used depending on the module printed

                                   A Look at Each of the Modules 

MPH smallclip
MPH mediumclip
MPH largeclip
MPH extralargeclip

These four modules are all hooks designed to go over just about anything the hooks can hook over. they come in a variety of sizes, for all your phone hooking needs. These could go over anything from the edge of a box to a car's sun visor to the back of a chair! If you have any object that you might want to hang your phone off of that the hooks could go over, then these are the modules for you. The hooks come in various sizes for your various needs but keep in mind that while a bigger hook can fit a smaller object, a smaller hook cannot fit a bigger object. The hook distances that they fit are 17mm(+-5mm) for the small one, 28mm(+-5mm) for the medium one, the large one fits 45mm(+-5mm), and 65mm(+-5mm) for the extralarge one. Remember, it's better to be a size too big than a size too small. One use of these modules is for in your car, in the front seat you can hook the mediumclip over the top of your sunvisor, giving you a convenient movie-watching experience.

MPH shirtclip

This is like the four other clips, but it is much smaller and has rounded edges. The main purpose of this clip is to hook over the collar of your shirt for a hands-free chest-level phone mount, kind of like a much more bulky Gopro that uses your phone. Then you can record hands-free video just with your phone and the phone holder! The holder actually stays on really well, so you could run and move around and bend over without any fear of the phone holder coming off. when you bend over, the pivot point in the module makes sure the phone stays level, and the footage can actually be quite smooth. This module also has the additional use of being the thinnest clip, so if you want to clip over something less than 5 mm thick, this would also be the module for that. One thing to be aware of though is that the bed adhesion on this module is not as good as the others as the corners are rounded for comfort, so if you have problems with that you may want to use a brim.

MPH carheadrest hook

This is the module to use for the backseat of your car, the module hooks over one of the rods of the front seat headrest to hang the phone holder just below the headrest level. If the headrest for the backseat is raised up at all, there are two metal rods that can be seen between the headrest and the seat, and this module hooks over one of them. The phone holder hangs just below the headrest, and it will be off-center a bit in a direction, depending on which rod you hook it on. It fits all car headrest bars, from 10mm to 14 mm.

MPH carheadrest frictionfit (down)
MPH carheadrest frictionfit (up)

This is an alternative module for the backseat of your car but unlike MPH carheadrest hook, this one requires you to have the front headrest all the way down, as it squeezes in between the headrest and the headrest's seat, using the hooks to keep it in. If the headrest for the front seat is all the way down and you want a phone holder for the backseat, then these modules squeeze in between the headrest and the body of the seat, securely staying in due to the hooks. The version marked down is to have the phone holder hanging below the headrest, while the version marked up is so you can flip the phone holder upside down and have the phone be higher up. The two modules are interchangeable, but each one works best for its intended direction.

MPH phonestand (low)
MPH phonestand (medium)
MPH phonestand (high)

You may have noticed that the modular phone holder cannot actually prop a phone up on a flat surface, and in this way, it is worse than 99% of phone holders out there, but that's what this module is here to solve! There are three different variants of the phonestand, the low, medium, and high. These all have different lengths in order to angle the phone holder at a steeper or less steep angle. These modules are unique in that they don't rotate like all the other modules, this was necessary for it to work. The low angle phonestand holds the phone at a 45-degree angle from the ground, while the medium has it at a 57-degree angle from being flat, while the steepest and longest leaves it at a 72-degree angle. The one advantage of using this over the numerous other phone stands out there is that if you are moving the phonestand around a lot, it can all be picked up and moved as one without the phone falling out. (for example, if you are watching your phone in bed and shifting around a lot but you just keep knocking your phone off of a boring simple phone stand and repeatedly have to put it back on, so you use this instead)

MPH shelfhanger (20mm)
MPH shelfhanger (40mm)

This module is to hang your modular phone holder on any protruding lip that has space underneath for the phone holder. Do you have a shelf or a protruding lip with over 175 mm of space underneath it where a phone holder could hang? That's what these modules are for! The 20 mm version and the 40 mm version refer to the size of the shelf they can hook over because if a shelf is thicker than that for the module printed, it won't fit. If a shelf is smaller than the distance printed, there will just be a gap between the shelf and the phone holder, so if you want to fit both thin and thick shelves just print the thicker 40mm version. Hang these from a shelf on a bookshelf, or any lip where there is room for them.

MPH wallmount (tape)
MPH wallmount (screws)(5mm)

These modules are permanently mounted to a flat and vertical surface, also known as a “wall”. Anywhere on a wall you might want to have your phone, you can install one of the two wallmount modules, which your phone holder can hang below. And in your phone holder, goes your phone. The modules are permanently mounted to your wall with either double-sided tape or two screws, depending on the module chosen. The phone holder can be difficult to remove from these modules however, as the wall prevents the locking piece from getting out of the way, and it can take some struggling to get it to detach from the module, so that is something to keep in mind. The tape module has a 49 mm wide by 60 mm tall area to fasten double-sided tape to, and the screw module has two 5 mm holes for whatever screws fit. (In the picture I have not mounted the screw module, so it is just an example, which is why it is loosely held up by tape.)

MPH stringhanger

Do you want to suspend your phone from somewhere, just having it hanging in the air? That's what the stringhanger is for! The stringhanger is a module with three 8 mm wide holes in it, two on the sides and one higher up in the middle. The module is designed for you to loop string/paracord/rope through those holes to suspend the phone holder in the air. You could use the two on the side or just the one in the middle, it depends on exactly how you want to hang it. Attach the rope to the ceiling or to a hook, you decide where you want to hang your phone holder! only the module needs to stay there, you could detach the main phone holder when not in use.

                                                                      Flaws with the holder:

The ratcheting mechanism can be quite loud, especially if moved down fast. FIX: If loud noise is a problem, pinch in the two locking pieces when moving the sliding part down to clamp on your phone. this will keep the ratcheting teeth from skipping down the notches. You can also just go slow when moving it down, this also reduces noise.

The locking tab you push in to release a module can be hard to push down, especially if you have big fingers. FIX: get smaller fingers? Push it down with something thin that can reach it? There's no good solution to this.

The sliding piece keeps catching and is unpleasant to use. FIX: Move the slider up and down a bunch, keeping the ratchet teeth disengaged. Tilt the sliding piece at a slight angle while doing this to smooth out the rough parts. It catches primarily when the piece is at a slight angle when being moved, keep it straight and it won't catch.

                               How to make your own module for the phone holder

If you know how to use 3d designing software here are the dimensions to make your very own module for the Modular Phone Holder! All the modules use a very basic system: to start, the main rotating part is a circle with a 10 mm diameter. This circle and the rest of the module are exactly 49 mm tall. At the top of this circle in the dead center is a hole in it that is exactly 5 mm deep with a diameter of 5 mm. Make sure that you have the hole on the correct side of the module for it to work! All the modules print on their side. Out of the circle comes a 3 mm thick line, and what you do on this line is up to you.

The main holder was designed in openscad, but I made all of the modules for it in Fusion 360. If you want any of the original files, just ask and I can upload them. By the way, the description has pictures and makes more sense on printables, I just roughly ported it over to Thingiverse as best I could. Printables link: https://www.printables.com/model/598364-modular-phone-holder