The dev kit for the XBee Cellular comes with the module, XBIB dev board, and a couple antennas and cables. I wanted a simple case the dev board and antennas could sit in to make it easier to transport and avoid the antennas just sitting free on my desk.

I'm sure the close proximity of the antennas is not optimal from an RF perspective but I did not notice signal degradation compared to them just sitting freely. I tested it specifically with an XBee Cellular Verizon LTE Cat 1 dev kit I had (XKC-V1T-U, https://www.digikey.com/short/jm2npj), but any kit using the same revision of the XBIB dev board and antennas should work fine.

There are holes in the case that line up with the holes in the antennas so you can insert a small bolt and nut to hold them in place if desired. As long as you're not turning it upside down the antennas will stay in place fine without bolts.

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Wanhao

Printer:

Rafts:

No

Supports:

Resolution:

0.2mm

Infill:

Notes:

I printed with the experimental adaptive layer support in Cura turned on, so the majority of the case is printed with 0.3mm layers and it switched to 0.1mm for the layers with the antenna bolt holes to give them better curvature. I would guess that a 0.3mm fixed layer height would be completely fine as well.rnrnI printed with no supports and I only had a tiny amount of cleanup with the bridge where the USB port is. I had to be slightly careful inserting the dev board to make sure I didn't break the thin vertical sections between the USB port and LEDs, but once in place everything is pretty sturdy. Some caution is needed to remove the dev board vertical to avoid getting it caught on the standoffs in the holes of the board and breaking them off the case.

How I Designed This

I used OpenSCAD to design it. I included the SCAD file in case anyone would like to modify it, but it has grown pretty organically over the course of a couple projects so it is a bit messy.

Category: Electronics