Today I spent some time designing a housing for the official Steam Deck Dock.

Because it's so small, I decided to design the housing such that it will fit on the side of the keyboard, and as an added bonus, let me use the negative space as a handle!

The permanently affixed Steam Deck Dock USB-C cable will wrap back into the chassis, where the extra wiring is stashed in the 'negative space' cut-out, intended to hold the Steam Deck. It connects to the USB-C port mount.

Here's a look at the under-side. you can see that the bottom side gives us access to (what I assume) is a convenient carry-handle. Unfortunately, to add the USB-C port mount, it adds an extra 40mm to the module, and it sticks out a bit. It's actually flush with the long dock module, but I don't know what kind of insanity would inspire someone to connect two docking stations to one keyboard.

The Steam Deck Dock slides into a shaped slot inside the module, and the cover houses the USB-C port, and affixes itself flush with the primary chassis. All the seam lines are on the bottom, back, and side, which would make for a clean look, if I hadn't scrapped the design before the end of the day.

Then I decided to see how it would look mounted to the back of the keyboard!

There it is! The exact same model. Certainly not the result of an added three hours of tinkering. That would be ridiculous for a model that I didn't intend to use!

Here it is with the end cap off. You can see that I am using the 'negative space' as a cable channel, and and that there is a small gap to the right of the hub, so any USB cables for permanently affixed devices can be routed back into the housing. I'm also experimenting with a smaller USB-C panel mount. All-in-all, I am not satisfied, because it requires just as much space on the 'Z' axis to account for the cable housing. Also, it has a 12" cable attached to it, so it ultimately takes up far more volume. Also Also, making it stick up at 45 degree angle just off-center of the keyboard looks dumb.

Oh well. It is through our failures that we learn the most <3.