Tony
Staff member
I'm sure y'all have noticed that I'm trying to get back into the hobby a little more and have made some purchases and started playing with some things that I have not played with in a very long time (shutup, no marriage jokes!!!! 
).
The first thing I did was realize that I'm going to need a charger. I do have some of the smaller chargers, and they will work, but I want one that if I want to charge 9 batteries at once, I can do that without worry, so I purchased the iCharger S6.
From there, I started playing with the 3D printer a little more. This printer has been on the shelf for a very long time and the last thing it printed was some vortex generators for my aquarium. So yea, very long time.
On the Ender 3 Pro, I purchased a new glass bed and lets just say I had some issues with things sticking to the bed on the first layer. I mean, NOTHING was sticking. And then once I figured out that issue, I had some connection issues. You can read more about the 3D Printer setup by clicking THIS LINK.
Now, I have the printer ready to make some cool stuff and I am now on the design phase of the charge case build. This will go into my old charge case which I do have a video on, but it was at the old house and the room was quite dark. This case has acrylic to allow the power supplies under it to have a nice little section with a dedicated cross flow case fan so the fans on the PSU's don't ramp up as they are quite loud (server PSU's)
But this is the part of the design process that I don't like much. The "take nothing and make it something" process. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE tinkering and designing, but at the very start, especially when you already have something that was started and you need to start over, it's like a deer in the headlights. You have a million different directions you can go, but which one is the direction you should try first. I say "try" because your first iteration is likely not even close to the final product. This is where I am now.
I have a case that is about 17.25" x 12.5" x 3.5" for the bottom section (base) and 17.25" x 12.5" x 1.5" for the top (lid). The lid space is wide open, and I just need to find a way to use this area. The bottom section has a useable area of 17.25" x 7" x 3.5" due to the PSU's in the back. However, there is a caveat.... There is a slight bit of room above the PSU's that I may be able to utilize for balance boards of various types. From Deans to XT's to the boards that I have for the 150x and even for the mCP-X battery charge board (no balance on mCP-X as it is single cell).
My idea is to take the iCharger S6 and mount it into the lid, but have the entire lid filled in flush. The issue with this is the S6 and other chargers like it have a dial (temporary movement and push) that is used to control the charger. So it would need a finger hole so you can still access it. This finger hole is the main reason I do not want to put the charger in the base as things can fall in the hole as it needs to be about 1" x 1" or even a 1/4" larger so you can control the charger. Once profiles are setup, this becomes less of an issue controlling the charger, but in the beginning, it would be nice to have room. So I definitely want the charger in the lid.
So for this, I will need more 10GA wire to run from the PSU in the base up to the charger in the lid, and then I would need 10GA wire (maybe I should go with 6 or 8 gauge....) going from the charger in the lid down into a distribution block for all of the balance boards to run into to receive power.
In the case of the EP Buddy ParaBoard V2, it has outputs that can be used for passthrough, but things like the 150x charge board will require not only power and does not have passthrough, but also it has a balance plug. Oh yea, I will need a balance plug extender as well, likely a meter long (like how I just used metric in this imperial post ) and a distribution block for that as well.
I will also need storage for all of the different cables, plugs, adapters and so on.
Okay, so you see my idea that I have in my head, and you see what I have to work with. Let me know if you struggle with this yourself. Again, I love designing, but the very beginning is enough to give you a headache. Post up your thoughts.
). The first thing I did was realize that I'm going to need a charger. I do have some of the smaller chargers, and they will work, but I want one that if I want to charge 9 batteries at once, I can do that without worry, so I purchased the iCharger S6.
From there, I started playing with the 3D printer a little more. This printer has been on the shelf for a very long time and the last thing it printed was some vortex generators for my aquarium. So yea, very long time.
On the Ender 3 Pro, I purchased a new glass bed and lets just say I had some issues with things sticking to the bed on the first layer. I mean, NOTHING was sticking. And then once I figured out that issue, I had some connection issues. You can read more about the 3D Printer setup by clicking THIS LINK.
Now, I have the printer ready to make some cool stuff and I am now on the design phase of the charge case build. This will go into my old charge case which I do have a video on, but it was at the old house and the room was quite dark. This case has acrylic to allow the power supplies under it to have a nice little section with a dedicated cross flow case fan so the fans on the PSU's don't ramp up as they are quite loud (server PSU's)
But this is the part of the design process that I don't like much. The "take nothing and make it something" process. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE tinkering and designing, but at the very start, especially when you already have something that was started and you need to start over, it's like a deer in the headlights. You have a million different directions you can go, but which one is the direction you should try first. I say "try" because your first iteration is likely not even close to the final product. This is where I am now.
I have a case that is about 17.25" x 12.5" x 3.5" for the bottom section (base) and 17.25" x 12.5" x 1.5" for the top (lid). The lid space is wide open, and I just need to find a way to use this area. The bottom section has a useable area of 17.25" x 7" x 3.5" due to the PSU's in the back. However, there is a caveat.... There is a slight bit of room above the PSU's that I may be able to utilize for balance boards of various types. From Deans to XT's to the boards that I have for the 150x and even for the mCP-X battery charge board (no balance on mCP-X as it is single cell).
My idea is to take the iCharger S6 and mount it into the lid, but have the entire lid filled in flush. The issue with this is the S6 and other chargers like it have a dial (temporary movement and push) that is used to control the charger. So it would need a finger hole so you can still access it. This finger hole is the main reason I do not want to put the charger in the base as things can fall in the hole as it needs to be about 1" x 1" or even a 1/4" larger so you can control the charger. Once profiles are setup, this becomes less of an issue controlling the charger, but in the beginning, it would be nice to have room. So I definitely want the charger in the lid.
So for this, I will need more 10GA wire to run from the PSU in the base up to the charger in the lid, and then I would need 10GA wire (maybe I should go with 6 or 8 gauge....) going from the charger in the lid down into a distribution block for all of the balance boards to run into to receive power.
In the case of the EP Buddy ParaBoard V2, it has outputs that can be used for passthrough, but things like the 150x charge board will require not only power and does not have passthrough, but also it has a balance plug. Oh yea, I will need a balance plug extender as well, likely a meter long (like how I just used metric in this imperial post
) and a distribution block for that as well. I will also need storage for all of the different cables, plugs, adapters and so on.
Okay, so you see my idea that I have in my head, and you see what I have to work with. Let me know if you struggle with this yourself. Again, I love designing, but the very beginning is enough to give you a headache. Post up your thoughts.
... your getting back into the hobby slowly huh 
Glad to here it and 
back and here's your sign lol 
.
