Simple Sun-shade

Krusty Geeza · Mar 10, 2019

I bought some black corflute (corrugated plastic) sheet yesterday & this morning before taking my 9 month old Mastiff pup off to obedience training I made a very simple sun-shade for my iPad (9.7"). Here's a few photo's of it in operation, its only downfall is that I can only fold one side in over the centre section, as the centre is not as wide as the outer parts. A bit of an oversight there, so take note if you try this sort of thing yourself.

I have the Dirty J Anafi Large Tablet Adapter with kicker & the power block, so had to design something that could work around them whilst having some structural integrity to it, so after some experimenting with corrugated cardboard initially I settled on this really simple design with no tape or velcro needed.

So, here is my simple effort, with the iPad in place. It's basically just a long rectangle cut through on one side at two points for folding into a U shape & has two tight fitting slits cut in the bottom of the two outer sections that the iPad slides through.

Here you can see one corner of the iPad placed in one of the lower slits.

With the iPad removed from it now.

Now with the iPad removed from the Dirty J Anafi Large Tablet Holder.

This is the sun-shade laid out on the table, so you can see that only the slits for the iPad are cut all the way through. The two cuts for the folds are just through one side only. If you did accidentally cut right through I guess you could always tape it together, but I don't think it would then have the same structural integrity to it.

Here is a close up of the slit for the iPad to slide into. My iPad is 5mm thick, so I cut the slit about 4.5mm, so it's a nice snug fit.

Next up, I'll make one for my iPhone 8 Plus, but I'll see if there's a way I can get it to be able to fold down on itself properly, instead of just one of the outer sections only being able to fold into the centre.

AllenP · Mar 10, 2019

Great idea Krusty. You can try this for a folding option - Completely cut the pieces off and tape them, on both sides (inside/outside) with black duct tape. Fold it like a 'Z', but tape the outside folds while it is folded so that it will have enough space to lie flat. Guess I'm going to Michaels today ??

Mar · Mar 10, 2019

Sweet! Thanks for sharing this, will be making one for both my tablet and phone. I also have the Dirty J holder but had to modify it to my tablet so it wouldn't press the buttons on the side of it.

highanddry · Mar 10, 2019

Good idea!
I modified my old foldable Typhoon H (St16 controller) lens hood for a Samsung Galaxy A5 phone with sawing and gluing.

Krusty Geeza · Mar 10, 2019

AllenP said:
Great idea Krusty. You can try this for a folding option - Completely cut the pieces off and tape them, on both sides (inside/outside) with black duct tape. Fold it like a 'Z', but tape the outside folds while it is folded so that it will have enough space to lie flat. Guess I'm going to Michaels today ??

Thanks Allen. I needed a certain amount of outside of the slit surface to keep the integrity of the board intact, that was the limiting factor with this not being able to fold in on itself. I tried with cardboard, taping the sections together, but it lost integrity as a result. I can now see why some people have created theirs with overlaps & velcro to hold it together.

Mar said:
Sweet! Thanks for sharing this, will be making one for both my tablet and phone. I also have the Dirty J holder but had to modify it to my tablet so it wouldn't press the buttons on the side of it.

You're welcome @Mar . I'm going to create a slightly more complex one based on this one made by Ray Leung over the next few days.

highanddry said:
Good idea!
I modified my old foldable Typhoon H (St16 controller) lens hood for a Samsung Galaxy A5 phone with sawing and gluing.
View attachment 1500

That's worked a treat for you! It looks very solid.

Flipper said:
Amazon has a lot of inexpensive options:
Amazon.com: tablet sun shade

The piece of plastic corrugated sheet cost me $8 (Australian) & will do 4 of this larger sized hoods, that's $2 each & I didn't have to wait weeks for it to arive!

Dronographer · Mar 11, 2019

That is awesome! Does the wind catch it much? Have you experimented on optimal height of the wall?

Krusty Geeza · Mar 11, 2019

Dronographer said:
That is awesome! Does the wind catch it much? Have you experimented on optimal height of the wall?

I did make it so that it is about 30mm higher than need be to keep the highest sun in the peak of Summer off of this particular device. You would need to research the highest elevation of the sun for your location to achieve this. Don't forget to take into account the lean of it when you use it, which I presume will be ever so slightly different for us all as we have variance of holding techniques, comfort when holding, etc...

Regarding wind, it held up well in 35 kph winds yesterday, being barely noticeable that it was there, apart from the benefit of it shading the screen. I'll report back when I get to test it at the beach in full gusts. ?