I upgraded from imx8mq to a311d and as a result, my 3D printed parts would not fit anymore:
- since wifi is now on the SoM, the laird antenna cables are not long enough anymore and the antenna has to be repositioned
- since the antenna is now positioned where the SD-card slot is and since the heatsink is a bit larger, the umts modem and its 3d printed carrier boards will not fit anymore
- since there is now a fuse next to the internal usb headers, the 3d printed antenna and usb hub holder cannot fit anymore
This sounds like a lot of downsides, but there are also upsides:
- since the a311d includes bluetooth, no usb bluetooth adapter is needed anymore
- since the SSD moved from the M.2 slot to the PCI slot and since the a311d includes wifi and pcie wifi card is needed, there is now a bit more space in the case
- since no usb bluetooth adapter is needed, there is now space around the trackball to add two pocket reform speakers
On above image you see:
- at the top center: two pocket reform speakers
- on the left there is the transparent acrylic that comes with the a311d and holds the laird wifi antenna
- below that are three cables soldered to the headphone jack and that cable leads to…
- the right-hand side where i have a second headphone jack next to the usb ports
- in yellow PLA there is the new carrier for the UMTS modem which fits precisely between heatsink and SSD without any wiggle room. I created a 3D shape in openscad which fits into the M.2 connector and can be fixed to the motherboard with the usual screw on the opposite end
- in pink PLA is the carrier board of the USB hub to which UMTS modem and keyboard are attached
Here a screenshot of openscad with the two new 3D models you can see in the photo:
There is a Debian logo on the USB hub carrier because there was some free space that I could not come up with what else I should do with it. This also nicely fits the pink filament.
Here are the openscad sources for the above: MNT Reform with A311D UMTS modem and USB hub carrier boards ($5) · Snippets · GitLab