3D Print MessagePad 2000 Battery Tray

[kb3wmh]

I found this article with CAD files to 3d-print a AA battery tray for the MessagePad 2000. I was wondering if anyone had successfully tried this, as I don't have any battery for my Newton and I'd like to be able to use it as a PDA. 3D printing the piece would be much easier than trying to find a real one, and if it works, I don't care too much about the aesthetics (though I'd probably paint it to make it look somewhat believable...)

[LadyErrant]

I've got the model and I've tried printing it on an FDM printer, and no dice. The curved wall is just too thin. You could send it to shapeways and have it printed on a more exotic printer. I'm working on making one via FDM and then making a silicone mold I can pour a hard resin into.

[maceffects]

@LadyErrant do you still have the CAD file and metal battery coil file?  I was thinking of producing one with injection molding but the links for the files are gone and the person didn't reply to my email.

 

 

 

[LadyErrant]

Here is the battery tray, sorry I don't have anything for the contacts.

aa_battery_tray_057e3b2.stl

[maceffects]

@LadyErrant Thank you!  That is the most important part, the battery contact wouldn't be hard to redesign. 

[PotatoFi]

I'm pretty confident that this is printable. Not the cleanest print... requires some support material, and I would expect the two curved tabs at the top to break off pretty fast. But I think it would work. Depending on how much clearance there is inside, this could probably be refined a bit to make it more printable.

 

 

[maceffects]

On 11/29/2019 at 7:24 PM, PotatoFi said:

I'm pretty confident that this is printable. Not the cleanest print... requires some support material, and I would expect the two curved tabs at the top to break off pretty fast. But I think it would work. Depending on how much clearance there is inside, this could probably be refined a bit to make it more printable.

 

 

I had actually made this using a very expensive machine, sadly it warped.  I think this thing is a lot more difficult than first assumed. 

[PotatoFi]

27 minutes ago, maceffects said:

I had actually made this using a very expensive machine, sadly it warped.  I think this thing is a lot more difficult than first assumed. 

What kind of machine? Injection-molding?

 

Looking at this part, it appears to be designed with injection-molding or just straight-up perfect replication of the original part in mind. That's the biggest mistake I see in the world of 3D printing. As with any manufacturing method, it's important to optimize the part for printing. Same is true for CNC milling.

It would be interesting to see the battery compartment in a MessagePad 2000, and work within those constraints to make a part that is optimized for printing. It's a good thing I don't have a MessagePad 2000... I don't need another modeling project to distract me from what I already have in-progress!

[maceffects]

16 hours ago, PotatoFi said:

What kind of machine? Injection-molding?

 

Looking at this part, it appears to be designed with injection-molding or just straight-up perfect replication of the original part in mind. That's the biggest mistake I see in the world of 3D printing. As with any manufacturing method, it's important to optimize the part for printing. Same is true for CNC milling.

It would be interesting to see the battery compartment in a MessagePad 2000, and work within those constraints to make a part that is optimized for printing. It's a good thing I don't have a MessagePad 2000... I don't need another modeling project to distract me from what I already have in-progress!

It was an SLA machine.  I'm told that the machine that created this was $20,000.  They didn't do polishing on the plastic to make it clear as it wasn't really needed in this case.  I think the real issue is that the tolerance on this battery try is very close.  Even the slightest deviation would cause an issue.