The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Cylindrical Cell Adapter: 18650 to 3xAAA

    Anker LC40 flashlights can use either one lithium 18650 cell or an adapter holding three AAA cells. I now prefer 18650 cells, but they’re nigh onto 4 mm smaller than the flashlight ID and rattle around something awful.

    I can fix that:

    Anker LC40 with 18650 cell adapter
    Anker LC40 with 18650 cell adapter

    Three new entries appear in the cell dimension table of my OpenSCAD inter-series battery adapter program:

    NAME = 0;
    ID = 0;       // for non-cell cylinders
    OD = 1;
    LENGTH = 2;
    
    Cells = [
      ["AAAA",8.3,42.5],
      ["AAA",10.5,44.5],
      ["AA",14.5,50.5],
      ["C",26.2,50],
      ["D",34.2,61.5],
      ["A23",10.3,28.5],
      ["CR123A",17.0,34.5],
      ["18650",18.8,65.2],
      ["3xAAA",21.2,56.0],
      ["AnkerLC40",23.0,55.0]           // Flashlight tube loose-fit for 3xAAA adapter
    ];
    

    I took the opportunity of adding OpenSCAD Customizer comments, which means this now works:

    OpenSCAD Customizer - dropdown selections
    OpenSCAD Customizer – dropdown selections

    The model looks about the same as before, although with a few more sides just for pretty:

    AnkerLC40 vs. 18650 Sleeve - Slic3r
    AnkerLC40 vs. 18650 Sleeve – Slic3r

    That was easy …