Making A Pencil Holder Attachment (iPad Mini 5)

One of the drawbacks of the iPad Mini 5 Cooling Case is it doesn't have a Pencil holder, even though the iPad Mini 5 works with the Apple Pencil (1st gen). I did consider (briefly) designing a version of the cooling case with a Pencil holder, but I wasn't sure if there would be enough people who wanted it. Last year, however, one of our users suggested or (lowkey) requested that I develop a 'hack' to hold their Pencil together with the cooling case.

And towards the end of 2024, that's what I did. After a bit of tinkering and design plus a lot of 3D printing using different materials, I developed these cooling case attachments that will hold the Apple Pencil and allow the user to access it single-handedly.

Making use of the corner 'bumps' on the case

The attachments are designed to snap onto the corners of the cooling case, and depending on whether a user is left-handed or right-handed, they can be mounted either on the left or right sides.

But doesn't the Pencil on the right side block access to the volume buttons?

Yes, it does! There is a workaround to that, though, as one of our users kindly brought up. That is, utilise the AssistiveTouch button to add volume controls to the AssistiveTouch menu.

Here's a quick rundown:

1. in Settings, go to Accessibility > AssistiveTouch, and turn on AssistiveTouch
2. on the same menu page, select 'Customise Top Level Menu'
3.  if you only have 6 icons used, you could add 2 icons and customise them to be 'Volume Up' and 'Volume Down'.

Once that's done, you can control the volume using the AssistiveTouch button/menu.

So will the Pencil holder attachment be available to purchase?

We are currently running some tests with a couple of iPad Mini 5 Cooling Case users. If the feedback is positive, and if there are requests for it, we could make it available to order on our website. So if you have any interests in this attachment, please drop us a note here-> contact us page.

Lastly - do you need a custom solution?

Feel free to reach out (again using the contact us page) if you have a need that can't be fixed with something off-the-shelf or if you want a bespoke solution. We are always up for a challenge to create a custom design (time permitting). Who knows? When we share it, we might find others are also looking for the same fix!