Printing a new battery cage?
#1
I had some thoughts/questions about the battery cage for Tangara:

  1. I'm pretty sure the battery cage is 3D printed.  I had a yellow battery cage (as it was from Batch 1).  Also IIRC from asking around on the Fediverse, I remember it used PETG filament - is this correct?
  2. I dropped my Tangara (indoors, somewhere between tabletop height and knee height, on the floor).  Apparently the battery cage cracked, but I didn't realize until I slightly shook my Tangara later and heard what sounded like little bits of plastic rattling around.  Although probably not too dangerous w.r.t. the electronics inside, I performed a partial disassembly of my Tangara from the back to remove the broken parts of the battery cage.  (I didn't want those bits interfering with the other mechanical parts, such as the lock slider or the SD card slot.)
  3. Due to this, is there a recommendation of what type of 3D printer filament to use when reprinting the battery cage?  IIRC, others on the Fediverse discouraged the use of PLA (which is what I can only print at home), as it'd be too brittle.  I sort of don't want to use PETG again, if another PETG-printed battery cage will break in basically the same way.  A friend recommended ABS, which they can 3D print using their "facilities".

To be clear, the drop was my fault, and I have no reasonable expectation that my Tangara would get no damage.  Other than the battery cage, my Tangara seems pretty durable.

For those who are interested, I do plan on posting a picture for a "postmortem" mechanical failure "analysis".  However, I will have to take that photo later - maybe this could help with future revisions to the battery cage.
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Messages In This Thread
Printing a new battery cage? - by taivlam - 2025-08-26, 01:57 PM
RE: Printing a new battery cage? - by ailurux - 2025-08-27, 12:10 AM
RE: Printing a new battery cage? - by taivlam - 2025-08-27, 03:12 PM

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