Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Unlike my old ICOM IC-Z1A, the Wouxun KG-UV3D radio has mic and speaker jacks recessed into the case, so that a custom plug plate can absorb all the stress from forces applied to the cables without wiggling the plugs. Even better, there’s a removable cover with a mounting screw that can hold the new plate in place!
Wouxun plug mounting plate – overview
The first pass at the mount required a bit of filing, as the deepest part of the recess turns out to be not exactly rectangular. That’s (probably) fixed in the source code:
Wouxun plug plate – detail
The solid model looks about like you’d expect, with terribly thin side walls between the plugs and the not-quite-rectangular section. The whole affair is asymmetrical around the long axis; the not-quite-rectangular block and hole really are offset:
Plug Mount Plate – Solid Model
When printed, the thin sections come out one 0.66 mm plastic thread wide:
Wouxun plug mounting plate – build
I spent quite some time iterating through OpenSCAD, RepG, and SkeinLayer to make sure that came out right. This is from a later version with larger recesses around the plugs:
Plug Mount Plate – skeinlayer
Some epoxy eased down along the plugs will lock them into the plastic, with an epoxy putty turd over the top to stabilize the cables and terminal connections. That’s a T6 Torx bit to mate with the 2 mm screw (with a captive washer!) pulled from the Small Drawer o’ Salvaged Metric Screws:
Wouxun plug plate – trial fit
The OpenSCAD source code is part of the huge block of code at the bottom of that post, but here’s the relevant section: