VEX Battery holder

Understand and define

How might I store the VEX robotics battery packs in an organised and simple way?

The holder needs to be able to store all 12 battery packs, though it doesn't necessarily need to be printed together, or even all in one row. It should be numbered, and it should be designed so that it can go flat against a wall, while also providing enough room to easily plug in the batteries. The batteries shouldn't touch, or significantly move around.

It will be used by the robotics team to store the VEX battery packs, and it will make them much easier to organise.

I should also consider the space in the robot room for it, as that's were it'll be stored (were the battery packs are being charged and stored).

Ideate:

Core features:

Wall-mounted

Clamps to hold the batteries

Vertical or horizontal

Triangular (I.E in-between horizontal and vertical)

Goes on the vex robot

Sub-Features:

Connecting via a Jigsaw puzzle-like extrusion(s) and intrusions(s).

Designed to have the plug for the batteries in a slot, witch you then simply slide the battery onto.

Portable (for the competitions and stuff)

Designed to go somewhere on the robot-cart.

Overhanging restraints to hold the batteries in on the vertical axis.

Stackable

The jigsaw bits could be artistic

doubling as something else, like a note holder.

Designed to go on a bike

Designed to go somewhere in a car.

Idea screening:

Core feature:

Horizontal, easiest to implement, and most reliable.

Sub-Features:

Artistic jigsaw connecting bits

Overhanging restraints

Attempt stackability

Prototype

The feedback i got included:

Make it stackable

Give it a door that you could open and close (not easy with 3D printers but still a good idea)

Lots of "looks good"

Miss FitzZaland also pointed out that A. stackability is important with limited space and B. that doing it in 2's might be a good idea, due to a lack of printer and table space.

After much Design work and reworking, here is the 3D model:

and a drawing of several angles.

test

After having it printed and putting the VEX battery into the holder, I can conclude 3 things:

1.It needs to be shorter, and less long. The battery goes to far in to be easily taken out, and there's a significant amount of room in between the battery, and the roof.

2.It needs to have some kind of wall at the end. Right now, if you push too much, or too hard down on the battery, it'll just go out the end.

3. I should try to reduce the amount of scaffolding. There was an enormous amount of scaffolding. Which, while it can be removed, it wastes a significant amount of time, and filament.

here are some pictures:

As you can see in this picture, the lip at the end of the battery holder is pretty ineffective.

make

Its finally done! After a couple modifications,its done! Here are some pictures:

Share:

The changes I made from the original design are as follows:

-Changed the style of end-blocker from a lip to a half-wall. This was because the lip was completely ineffective at actually stopping the battery from going out the other end.

-Reduced the height, width, and length of the holder. This was because at the size it was at, the battery jiggled around way to much for the holder to be considered actually "holding" the battery

-I added my signature, because I worked hard on it dang it, I deserve credit.

-I also reduced how far the text "GISS Cyber Scorpions" went, since it was partially going through the wall it was on.

As always, the feedback given from this stage continues to make me say "Why didn't i think of that!"

For feedback I got the usual "looks good, just as long as it actually works.", but when i showed it to Sebastian, he suggested that the batteries be slotted in upright, which would easily triple the battery holders capacity, probably more.

If I were to further refine it, I would remake it to hold batteries upright. I would also make the pegs that jut out of the walls smaller (assuming that the remade design would even have such pegs) because the amount of scaffolding it generated was allot to deal with.

I would call this project a success. It holds the batteries, and looks pretty alright doing it. It does however, use a lot of filament for how much it stores. 2 days wait for a holder that can only store 2 batteries. I would only bring this to market (or to production for the robotics team) after I remade it to hold upright.

While I am handing this in quite late, I don't think that's because of how productive, or rather unproductive, I am. I think that I worked quite well, however numerous things beyond my control happened that delayed being able to finish it until now. The printers weren't working or were unavailable, I couldn't get signed off because Miss FitzZaland was busy with other kids, my mexico vacation aligned perfectly with the 2 weeks of this project. After all this waiting and wasted time, i'm glad to finally get it done.

VEX battery holder 2 electric boogaloo

Feels good to be able to name a section whatever you want.

I've updated the design based on the feedback given, mostly from Sebastian. It now holds batteries vertically, rather than horizontally. This allows it to hold X4 the batteries. And that means it has exactly enough spots to hold all 8 of our batteries, while actually using a bit less filament. Now, this design isn't perfect, just from putting the battery into it i can see that it doesn't fit perfectly. If you put it in button-side up, then it leans one way or the other a little bit, and if it goes in button-side down then it leans slightly to the right (with the side with the red VEX text being the front side).

I also found that it sat parallel with the wall, pretty well.

For feedback i got several "looks good!", and one "it might wobble when you take it out"

So, in the next design (if i make a next design) i would include a proper lip at one end, so that it actually can sit flat properly. I would also make the walls about a 1.5 millimeters shorter on each side, so that it can snugly fit in button side up.

here are some pictures: