I wanted something a bit more durable than cardboard, so I elected to use corrugated plastic sign board, the type of thing used for political yard signs, etc. It looked like I was going to be using a piece advertising a garage sale, but I did manage to find a blank piece at my local Lowe’s home improvement store. To trim the edges I got some plastic trim made for tile board. I wanted to line the inside with flocking paper to help soak up stray light, much like I once did for a large reflector telescope. All I could find on Amazon was reported in the reviews to be “shiny” as opposed to matte finished so I wound up buying sheets of adhesive-backed black felt instead. Hopefully it will serve.
I wanted to custom fit the tablet I use the majority of the time for flying, a 7” LG tablet, slightly under 7.5” x 4.5”. I decided to make a 5 sided box which would fold out flat with an attachment point on the back to fit the standard Evo controller mount. I expect I will want to make a cutout on the bottom to allow easier access to the touchscreen, but I am still mentally engineering the best way of accomplishing this feat while still excluding light.
I started out laying the design out on some oversized graph paper, then transferred the design to the plastic sheet and cut it out. The folds along the grain of the corrugations weren’t that difficult, but across the grain, I clamped down a piece of angle iron to sandwich the sheet between it and the plywood I had been cutting on and made my folds that way. Some super duty industrial grade Velcro and the box was basically complete. I had to work carefully with the trim pieces to fit them into place, as they were designed to fit panels a bit thinner than the corrugated plastic, but I managed to get them on with a bit of patience.
Next, I plan to make the bottom cutout, spray paint it matte black, and apply the felt to the interior. For an attachment point to the controller, I found an extension ring for an electrical junction box, which should fit nicely. I’ll probably just hot glue it into place.
I wanted to custom fit the tablet I use the majority of the time for flying, a 7” LG tablet, slightly under 7.5” x 4.5”. I decided to make a 5 sided box which would fold out flat with an attachment point on the back to fit the standard Evo controller mount. I expect I will want to make a cutout on the bottom to allow easier access to the touchscreen, but I am still mentally engineering the best way of accomplishing this feat while still excluding light.
I started out laying the design out on some oversized graph paper, then transferred the design to the plastic sheet and cut it out. The folds along the grain of the corrugations weren’t that difficult, but across the grain, I clamped down a piece of angle iron to sandwich the sheet between it and the plywood I had been cutting on and made my folds that way. Some super duty industrial grade Velcro and the box was basically complete. I had to work carefully with the trim pieces to fit them into place, as they were designed to fit panels a bit thinner than the corrugated plastic, but I managed to get them on with a bit of patience.
Next, I plan to make the bottom cutout, spray paint it matte black, and apply the felt to the interior. For an attachment point to the controller, I found an extension ring for an electrical junction box, which should fit nicely. I’ll probably just hot glue it into place.
