Battery Holder Extender - Redux

thingiverse

After seeing a massive battery extender that was laughably oversized (100 MB with over two million faces -- enough to bring down slicers and Blender on my iBuyPower gaming rig), I took the liberty of offering constructive advice in the comments to improve the design. However, instead of addressing the issues, the designer chose to wait a month, respond to an unrelated comment from 14 months prior (which I found quite insulting), and post four new designs since my initial comment. So I fixed it myself because that's what Thingiverse is all about. Having waited a full year, I'm confident in saying the original design will never be touched again. Moreover, I have sufficient field data to confirm that my adaptation works remarkably well. Unlike the absurdly large original (over 2,100,000 faces and 100 MB), mine weighs in at a mere 164 faces and 8 KB -- Kilobytes, as in 8,284 bytes total, using the larger V3 design which incorporates additional geometry for notches that facilitate non-permanent installs. V1 does not include these notches and thus requires adhesive (in my case superglue) to hold it together. It works quite well for PLA, but I've found that the notches are essential in case of battery jams -- which I frequently experience -- allowing easy disassembly to free batteries and prevent having to shake the entire unit like I do now. You can still glue it should you choose to; just download V1 (no notches). If you don't want to glue, download V3 (with notches). The changelog below outlines design changes. ### Outstanding Issues - I've never liked how the notches allow the design to come apart too easily. A thought is to also adapt the main base to include heatserts where the notches would cover, and have countersunk socket cap M3 bolts inside the notches to secure the parts together. With sufficient clearance, this would enable a removable point of attachment should a jam occur or if height needs to be adjusted while also allowing it to operate as one single unit. ### Changelog **2018-12 - V1** - Initial Design - Requires superglue for assembly - This version is tested and working **2018-12 - V2** - Deprecated, faulty design, not shared due to issues - Added notches to the inside for a flush outside finish - Inside notches impede battery operation so this was scrapped before testing **2018-12 - V3** - Migrated notches to the outside, allowing for a gravity-fit - **UNTESTED** **2019-12-17** - Initial upload of V1 and V3