They have made a number of sets of back plates for me as I have tweaked the specs or done them in different colors. There seems to be enough variation in the depth of the countersinking that I suspect they’re done by hand. There are a few areas where the screw heads are not PERFECTLY flush, but as they say, “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
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I’d love to see photos of all the different colors if you care to share!
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The first two were just anodized black like others have had done. On the first set I had chamfered the screw holes too deep and had the plates milled, so the screws were a little recessed and the edges of the plates stuck out just a teeny bit too much. The second set used their stock sheet metal and fit the chassis much better.
The third set was a complete replacement of the chassis and plates using natural aluminum.
Here are some photos:
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@jbmorley tysm for providing the step files! Ordered from jlcnc and am happy with the results, thermals and wifi stability got better and the milled new top plate looks pretty great
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FYI for anyone who wants to have chassis parts made, the bottom enclosure screw threads technical drawing as it is in the repository is missing a couple markers indicating which holes should be threaded. This affects the battery brackets and one of the attachments for the bottom plate:
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So beautiful. Thank you for sharing!
I ordered @jbmorley’s heatsink/cover from JLCNC, in boring black, fit perfectly, and WOW, external cover temperature went from hot to the touch with the i.m8mwhatever processor, to mere slight warm with the A311D. I waited to do both at once; I didn’t check logs or measure, since at this point its well documented.
A copper logo sticker would be great!
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We now released the stp file of the backplate and the dxf of the laser engraved logo that we used to order at JLCPCB / JLCCNC.
https://github.com/FesixGermany/mnt_pocket_reform_backplate
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Is there a short term solution I could try while I wait for the group buy? I’m in America. [redacted by moderator]
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For posterity’s sake, I ordered a PCB from PCBWay and had it shipped to an APO address, which is considered within US customs, and there were no issues, or price increases.
Thanks! One idea I had was that it would be cool if we had a back plate with the official MNT dog, Tina. She helps to keep spirits high at MNT and is a crucial member of the team. 
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May be just me, but may I make a humble request to avoid politics here?
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I have successfully installed my custom engraved backplate. I had it manufactured by JLCCNC as a one-off for about $30USD or so shipped.
Well, the part has been on source.mnt.re for a while now, but I figured I’d post it here for those who are interested. The engraving is of a pentacle (pentagram). I will not be posting my chamfered plain backplate as I noticed I missed chamfering one of the screwholes, and that needed to be fixed in the engraved version.
Very basic design, I may try my hand at other designs, but I did confirm the test fit of my design, and it’s been working wonders over the past couple months. If someone wants to iterate, I did notice that on the engraving, some of the thinner bits on the star were, eh, a bit too thin. I’m hoping to stain/enamel the engraving in a different color, as it doesn’t stand out much in the matte black. Maybe silver would be nice?
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Note: I’ve redacted 2 posts to keep things un-heated.
That said, I do sympathize with worries about global tariffs etc. That’s one reason why it’s important to me to get as broad as possible inventory to Mouser as a non-EU backup source.
Regarding the actual topic: after the problem with the full copper in the top back plate was discovered, we immediately paused ongoing production and resumed it ~a week later with a new, fixed top back plate that has the copper removed in the antenna areas. If you have a Pocket Reform, we can add a free replacement plate into any open MNT shop order that you might have to save on shipping. Just write a line to support@mntre.com including your order number and your original MNT Pocket Reform order number (CS or MNT), subject “Please include a Pocket Reform back plate in my order”.
We’ll also add the new plate as a non-profit replacement part in the shop ASAP, I just wanted to get a bit more field testing from a few people who have already got one. So far there’s good feedback here: Rock solid wifi (RK3588)
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I’d be interested in testing the new backplate vs the custom Aluminum one I had made to compare and contrast as I know some people will be asking when I make content on it. Just been holding off because the wifi was so unstable and didn’t want to give a bad review if it’s such an easy fix.
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Thank you for the update! Also thanks for redacting my post in order to keep things un-heated.
So I put the new Aluminum PCB lid on and it fixed the heat issues, but not the wifi dropping, and I was noticing some dropped packets. Any ideas? I was thinking either it’s the SBC, or the antenna positioning and replacing it with a new antenna that would be placed under the Bezel
I ordered a replacement lid from pcbway a while ago using the files from @jbmorley, and have been too busy to give it a go until now. The new lid is installed and everything seems to work amazingly well. Been upgrading packages and charging for an hour and thermals are below 40 C on all sensors. No wifi issues that I have noticed.
Some notes:
- The lid fit perfectly for me, absolutely no issues there.
- I have the RK3588 module and a 2.5mm thermal pad was way too thick. I reused the thermal pad from the original lid and it seems to work fine.
- Color turned out amazing, it looks great.
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I took a very similar approach. How do you keep the Pocket’s keyboard base from flipping up when you put the screen at an extreme angle?
I put some tire weights under the keyboard plate, kind of up near the trackball area. Also Stuck some in the battery compartment. Works great but its a heavy lil brick now.
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