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Mac Portable battery charger tray
Posted by: moldy on 2023-08-14 12:30:34
I happen to own three Macintosh Portables and I was looking for a way to charge their batteries every now and then, without unpacking the computers from their safe storage. In short, I needed an external charger for Mac Portable batteries.

Today, I would like to share my design of a 3d-printed tray that can hold the battery and uses pogo pins to make reliable contact with the battery contacts. The design more or less resembles the original Apple charger that sometimes shows up online for pretty high prices.

MacPortableCharger v38 small.png

On my website (click here), you can find the STL file to print the tray + the reference for the pogo pins, which can be ordered from Aliexpress (I haven’t found a Digikey/Mouser cross-reference for similar ones).

IMG_1478 small.png

To keep the charging process safe and automated, I’m using an RC battery charger that can handle a 3-cell lead battery. Works great!


charging.png

I hope this might came useful to someone looking for a way to conveniently charge and store Portable batteries 🙂
Posted by: mg.man on 2023-08-20 04:31:48
Ooo... NEAT!!
Tagged for future investigation! 👍
Posted by: jlindsay26 on 2023-10-06 04:30:30
This is cool, makes me wish I had a 3d printer. I'm just not sure if I'd get enough use out of one to justify the purchase. Plus I really don't know much about them so not sure which one to get.
Posted by: desertrout on 2023-10-06 06:12:18
This is cool, makes me wish I had a 3d printer. I'm just not sure if I'd get enough use out of one to justify the purchase. Plus I really don't know much about them so not sure which one to get.
You don't necessarily need to own one... you may have a makerspace near you that will provide access to a printer, or in some areas there are printer shops... or on online outfit like JLCPCB offers printing services. Lots of options
Posted by: Joopmac on 2023-10-17 05:56:19
Awesome
I’m saving up on STLs to print when my printer arrives
This is so cool

I think it’s a bit scary to charge the battery inside the portable
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