[taivlam]

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.

[ailurux]

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.

My concern with ABS is that it's not as flexible as PETG, and the battery cage is meant to be able to flex in some parts to act as a spring to hold the battery cage in place, so it might snap or break during installation, or might not hold up to shock as well. Would be interested to see how it broke to keep in mind for future revisions. Glad your Tangara didn't sustain any damage aside from the 3D printable cage though!

[taivlam]

This is where the break occurred in the battery cage:




Currently my battery cage is in two pieces:




Not that I have the "detective vision" from Batman: Arkham Knight to recreate the impact, but here are the broken bits and pieces:

---

My friend is currently printing a Batch 1 battery cage, both in PETG & ABS.  We'll see how this goes.

Also, I wasn't sure at first which battery cage to use, so I defaulted to the newer sounding Batch 1 cage, as opposed to Batch 0, from here:
https://codeberg.org/cool-tech-zone/tang.../main/case