Charging dock for 3DS with swappable plates

Description

I wanted a charging dock for my New 3DS and as I happen to have a 3D printer, it seemed like a perfect choice.

I had two design goals in mind; no special tools or components and everything should be printable without having to use supports. I achieved both goals as you only need a bit of wire and spring that you can take from any old pen. Everything is 100% printable without any supports at all.

It also comes with swappable plates that you can print in multiple colors. Best of all, this works with most printers as it uses a often-ignored technique of changing the filament (plastic) during printing. There's also a blank plate for anyone interested in making their own designs.

Details

For more details and the design process, you can watch my build video:

If you're interested in designing your own plates or want to learn more about the process behind it, check out my second video:

Files

dock.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 3.00 MB - 01/29/2019 at 10:47

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charger.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 3.12 MB - 01/29/2019 at 10:47

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cover.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 141.50 kB - 01/29/2019 at 10:47

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3DS_dock.f3d

Fusion360 project.

fusion - 1.17 MB - 01/29/2019 at 10:47

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plate_yoshi.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 693.93 kB - 01/29/2019 at 10:47

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Components

1 × Solid core wire, 22 AWG / 0.3mm2

1 × USB cable You'll have to cut one end.

1 × Spring The ones found in most pens work the best.

Build Instructions

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1

3D print all the parts

Charger
The charger is the most difficult part to print as it contains small holes with tight tolerances. I suggest you try and print this first before anything else. Use the best print quality on your printer, which are usually 0.10 or 0.05mm layer heights.
Dock, cover
You can print both at 0.2mm layer height.
Supports
No supports are needed for any of the parts. The interior of the dock is already designed with sloping support.
2

Prepare the wires

The holes are for standard jumper wires that you can find with any breadboard or Arduino kit, but they have to be solid. Look for 22 AWG / 0.3mm2 size if you're buying new.
If you don't have any wires like that, you can improvise by cutting away an LED or a resistor.
3

Prepare the spring

As for the spring, find an old pen and take one from there. The slot has a slope so that springs of different sizes can all fit inside.

View all 10 instructions

Discussions

Ali wrote 03/11/2019 at 12:51

Great videos and those swappable plates are gorgeous!

Are you sure? yes | no

Selina Zawacki wrote 01/28/2019 at 18:48

Love how accessible this design is with its simple components and multi-colors using the filament change technique. Great step-by-step documentation too!

Are you sure? yes | no

Hobby Hoarder wrote 01/28/2019 at 21:02

Thank you! It certainly took a lot of tinkering as I didn't want to simply use something that you have to buy or other lazy solutions.

Are you sure? yes | no

Charging dock for 3DS with swappable plates

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Description

Details

Files

dock.stl

charger.stl

cover.stl

3DS_dock.f3d

plate_yoshi.stl

Components

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Build Instructions

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