史莱姆VR充电坞3D模型设计

Summary

Warning: Designed for official / official clones trackers, Custom trackers might not fit!

If using different straps than the default ones, you'll have to measure to know if it fits. There is 38mm of depth available for each tracker including their strap. If only one needs more space than that, you can put it on the last connector.

I designed a charging dock for official trackers so their charging/storage is cleaner. Its modular design allows you to customize it for the number of trackers you have, even on a small print bed. However, if you have more than 10 trackers, I'd recommend making two docks, it isn't sized to handle higher currents. There is a little bit of margin in the parts design, so even if your printer isn't perfectly calibrated it should work, but try to have it working as good as you can, it's still somewhat tight fits. The switch present in some picture has been removed as it really wasn't made to handle such currents. As no bigger switch could fit, the design has been changed to have no switch, so you'll need to unplug the connector to turn it off. Building this dock should take you under 4 hours and cost under 20€ if you already own the stuff for soldering and a multimeter. The dock has a width of 37.4mm, an height of 23.2mm, and a length of 56.5mm for the power part + 38mm per tracker

What's needed?

• 80 to 150g of filament, depending on your amount of trackers and print settings. Any filament works, I used PLA.
• USB C male connectors, as much connectors as you have trackers. But get some margin in case you break some pads. It's specifically designed for these ones (4 pads version). Prices fluctuate, so you may find identical ones for cheaper.
• 18 AWG wire, total length of 60 to 100cm depending on the amount of trackers. I got mine there.
• A female 2.1x5.5 barrel jack connector. I used these but like USB, you may find identical ones for cheaper.
• M3.5x20 wood screws with flat head. Quantity needed: 1 per top/bottom set of parts. Screws a bit shorter should work as well. They are usually much cheaper in a local store, but you can get some here.
• A 5V power adapter with a 2.1x5.5 barrel jack. I measured that trackers can use over 0.6A when charging even if the sticker says 0.5A, so I would advise getting an adapter capable of 0.7 (or more) x the number of trackers to charge at full speed. 4A for 5 trackers, 5A for 7 trackers, 7A for 10 trackers. You can go with a smaller power adapter if you're ok with a slower charging, your trackers should throttle down the charge speed (tested and confirmed to work with my power adapter, but the one I got is no longer available).
• Electrical tape/Kapton tape. Used to prevent short circuits with the USB connectors. There is a ground thing very close to the VCC pad, and it's very easy to create a short circuit. I would recommend Kapton tape since electrical tape melts if you're heating your solder for too long.
• A soldering iron and some tin to assemble everything together.
• A multimeter to check for short circuits.
• A USB C female connector for testing (optional but safer), these work.
• Optionally, if you want an LED turned on when the dock receive power, you'll need a standard 3 or 5mm led, for my red LED I used a 470Ω resistor, that'll vary with the color of your LED, some thin wire around 30 AWG, and a bit of hot glue.

What parts to print?

All parts work by top/bottom sets. If you print a bottom part, you'll also need to print the corresponding top one. Each part is labeled with either "power", "middle", or "end". The power parts are necessary and are the bottom one is the same for everyone. For the top one, if not using an LED, pick the one without "led" in the name. If using an LED, choose the right size one. After that, there is a "S" standing for "segment", and you need a segment per tracker. In my case, for 7 trackers, I need 7 segments, and for that I used an S3 and an S4 part. For 5 trackers, you could use an S5 part or S2 and S3 parts. If you have a single tracker part, print the end version. If you have more than one, print one end version and middle ones for the others. In my case I printed the middle_S4 and the end_S3. When printing, use the default orientation with supports for the junction things and the extention wire hole (the amount of plastic needed for the supports is very low). Even in PLA with 10% infill in gyroid, the parts are sufficiently strong, there is no need to increase it.

How to build it?

You will need your top pieces before the top ones, so print them first if you want to build the dock while it's printing. Begin by preparing your USB connectors. Cut small pieces of electrical/Kapton tape to cover the ground thing on the VCC side and another piece on the two data pads. To make cutting easier, stick a piece of tape on a flat, dust-free surface (a failed print will do the trick). Then, use a razor blade/cutter/knife to cut the pieces to the size needed, then use precision tweezers to place it where it's needed (your fingers will do it if you don't have that). Once the tape is placed (should ressemble USB_tape.jpg), you can start putting a bit of solder on the VCC and GND pads. You can finally place them in their slots in the right orientation (in the top parts). It's a tight fit so you'll need to align them well to go in.

Merge the top parts together (place things under to prevent the connectors from being pushed out). You can screw the top parts together temporarily to help. Now, prepare your wires. Cut two wires of the needed length (needs to go from the power connector up to the last USB connector), two different colors can prevent mistakes later even if not mandatory. Mark the wires where the pads of the USB connectors are and use a razor blade or cutter to cut away the material around the wires at those spots. Once done, put solder in the wires where you've cut. (should end up looking like Wires.jpg) Ensure that your USB connectors are well placed deep in the holes with connectors perpendicular to the other side. Proceed to solder the wires, starting by the furthest from the power connector, and if you used electrical tape, try not to heat for too long. After soldering a connector, use a multimeter to check for any short circuits between the GND and VCC wires. This is preferable to discovering a short circuit later on, when it may be unclear which connector is causing the issue. Continue until they are all soldered.

For the power input connector, to have a reliable connection when screwing the connector, If you have a crimping tool, use it on the end of the wires, otherwise put solder on them. You can then wire it with the screws heads pointing in the same direction as the USB connectors. Make sure to plug the wire that goes to VCC in the + and the wire that goes to GND in the - ! Mixing them up will feed your trackers -5v and that will fry them, they have no reverse polarity protection (which is fair since you can't normally plug a USB C connector wrong). While the TP4056 and the CH340N chips are inexpensive, it's much easier to check your wiring twice than to wait for the shipping and replace them. As the symbols may not be very visible, you can double check with your multimeter, there should be continuity between your VCC wire and the center pin of the connector, and between your GND wire and the outer ring of the connector (also make sure that your power adapter have the + in the center, it should be written on its sticker, sometimes the standard may not be followed). Move everything onto the merged bottom parts. If they don't assemble correctly, there may be an excess of solder at some places, try to remove it.

To test the connectors (with the power adapter plugged in), I'd advise to print the USB_remover.stl (printed in default orientation with no support), place it on a USB C connector, plug the female connector over it, and check with your multimeter in voltage mode between the VCC and GND (the small plastic thing is to let you remove the female connector, they are hard to remove without anything). When pulling out the connector, hold well the top part on the bottom one or you'll be pulling on the top part at the same time. You can repeat for all the USB connectors. In case you have nothing to test the connectors, if you made sure that your wires are properly connected (+ and -) and there is no short circuit, you should be able to check safely with a tracker if their charging LED turns on. Check all of the connectors to make sure that they all work as intended. If some aren't, open the dock and resolder the ones not working, you can then check again that there is no short circuit and test the connector you resoldered.

If you're not using a power LED, you can skip this paragraph. Cut two wires of about 7/8cm, strip the ends, put some solder on the ends. Solder a wire to the shortest pin of the LED (if they are the same length, check for a flat edge on the ring at the bottom, that'll be the pin on that side). You can then shorten the pins of the resistor, and solder the other wire to one side (there is no polarity). You can then solder the other side to the other pin of the LED at a 90° angle. Remove the two wires that are screwed into the power connector, and connect the other side of the wire with the resistor to the wire that goes into the +. Solder the wire with no resistor to the - wire. You can then put back your two wires into the connector and screw them back. Check once again there is no continuity between the central pin and the outer ring of the connector. You can now plug the power adapter and make sure the LED turns on. Once done, put the top part over it, place the LED in the hole, and glue it with an hot glue gun (some good classic glue could work). You can also add some hot glue on the LED pins to secure the connections.

Screw the top to the bottom, but make sure not over-tighten the screws, this could damage the plastic inside the holes, the screws should be at the same level as the top plastic. Once assembled, make a last test by checking there is no continuity between the central pin and the outer ring of the connector.

By now, all your trackers should charge at their max speed. Enjoy the convenience of charging without the clutter of many wires and the space saved!

If you have questions or suggestions, you can send me a message on discord @6nairod, you should be able to send me a DM if you're on the SlimeVR Discord server as well (make clear first that it's about the SlimeVR charging dock). If you have a custom tracker with a design not so far, I'm also open to try making an adapted version.