Newton MP2x00 AA Battery Tray

Update 12/19/2011: My laptop's hard drive crashed, and my application data is not backed up. I used Autodesk Inventor under Windows, however, I have taken it upon myself to do a 'clean start'. I'm going using OS X exclusively now, so it might take some time to continue working on this (I need to install Inventor to another computer, which might be an issue with licensing, I need to check). Every step of designing this model is catalogued in a git repository, which is available here.

When I got my first Newton MessagePad 2000 a few years ago, it didn't come with the AA battery tray necessary to use it on-the-go. Instead, I was tied to using it at my desk with the AC adapter.

Flash forward a couple more years, and I got my second Newton; again, it was a MessagePad 2000 (in terrible condition, I might add) but it came with more accessories than I knew what to do with: the keyboard, canvas case, stylus, battery tray, rechargeable battery, connection cables, software, AC adapters, protective covers, Ethernet, WiFi, modem and storage cards, the whole nine yards!

Flash forward again, to yesterday, when my MP's batteries gave out. Just like the hundreds of other times, I went to replace the batteries with fresh ones. Now, I don't know how this happened, but the two clips on the front AA battery tray, the ones that hold two of the batteries in, were very damaged. One was missing entirely (!), while the other was broken on one side and about to fall off. Yada yada yada, I went online to buy a new one, and the only place that had them priced them at "ONLY $95!"

THAT is absolutely ridiculous, so I loaded up trusty 'ol Inventor and started modeling a new one to be 3D printed (I posted this idea before to NewtonTalk). It's mostly completed, however, the protective dust-cover end remains unfinished so I can verify my dimensions. The end is tricky, and if the main body isn't correctly sized when I start modeling that, a lot of time could be wasted. In the meantime, I've attached a handy pull-tab so the tray can't get stuck in the Newton.

Without further ado, I present the STL file for anyone to print out (and hopefully report back to me so I know what, if anything, needs to be changed for the final design). One should note, however, that this piece can get quite thin in some areas. Let me know if I need to bulk up these areas. If your printer can extrude .2mm layers, you should be fine.

Files: AA Battery Tray (STL), Latest, Battery Contact Dimensions

Newton MP2x00 AA Battery Tray by Davis Remmel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.