[WIP] 3D printed receiver enclosure for Naga

Hi all,

Just wanted to share a project I'm working on. I bought a Naga Chroma particularly to use with my laptop, but I found that the charging base / wireless receiver was too big for me. So I'm working on some new enclosures that don't sport the charging base functionality (I charge with the wire).

Some photos of the current progress:

Spoiler: Current State

Front.


Side.


Back.


Bottom.


The guts.

Here was the first go, I eyeballed the dimensions so it was off by one millimeter. I ended up making it bigger for V2 just to make sure everything would work.

Spoiler: V1

Here's a photo of the boards for those interested.

Spoiler: PCBs

The size of the enclosure is limited by the larger board of course.

My next step is to shrink the enclosure (since I put in a lot of slack for V2). I also will print a new base for the original charging base so that the two can "dock". This way I can keep its charging functionality for desktop use.

I'll share the model files if there's interest, but it was pretty straightforward that anyone should be able to model. I'll hold off a bit on this though just in case Razer wants to yell at me for this . It should go without saying that opening your hardware is at your own risk. I really hope that the next Naga I buy has a detachable micro receiver on the charging base.

Love this mouse! Just ordered a pouch to protect it. Thanks Razer!

Edit #1:
BTW, my hope is that other people make better designs and can share them (to save me some work ).

Edit #2 (2015-02-23):
Here's the Tinkercad page with the STL model file.

Spoiler: STL Preview

From the preview image:

• The blue components are my models for the two PCBs in the Naga's receiver/charger. Remember I measured this with a crummy caliper! I'd recommended double checking my measurements. I modeled some of the larger components of the PCBs to check for height clearances. There are much more though.
• The purple ring is the ferrite bead (I think?) for the connection wires.
• The rest is the top and bottom parts of the enclosure.

Enjoy!

 

Wow, this is pretty cool!

 

Thanks!

I've been getting some questions about this and 3D printing in general, so here's some more details:

This was my first time at modeling and 3D printing anything. It took some time to even find the right (i.e. easy) software to use. I eventually found tinkercad.com (free!!). It lets you model with very simple shapes, additive and subtractive (so you can make arbitrary holes), and even import existing models that you Google searched for (like a micro usb port ["micro usb stl"], or a case that will fit an iPhone ["iphone 6 stl"]).

I think the easiest way to start is to model your reference object, in this case the PCBs inside the Naga receiver. This could also be your broken radio or a can of soda.

The feature I found most useful for this was the ruler; Tinkercad lets you type in all the dimensions of a shape, and with the ruler you can measure it all from a single point. Check out the screenshot below:

Spoiler: Tinkercad

You can see that the ruler is at the bottom right of the smaller board. The USB port is currently selected, and you can see that it is 5.54mm left and 4.85mm up. It's also 7.96mm by 5.43mm. You can just type in those boxes to move things around instead of doing it by hand. I've circled a tiny arrow in purple, clicking that will measure from the center of the object instead of the corners. So in this example, I measured the distance from the bottom right of the USB to the right edge of the board and input 4.85mm. Just measure everything else from that corner and you're all set.

I would recommend getting a digital caliper (first time with one of these too!) to take measurements of whatever you're modeling for. I've found eyeballs aren't an accurate measurement device for things this small. I bought these for $15, but they have a lot error (around 0.05mm). Might be worth getting a better one if you don't want the measurement issues. This is why the V2 case is so "big".

I'm happy to answer any other questions and give tips to anyone trying to make a better Naga receiver enclosure. There's a lot of good YouTube videos on how to use Tinkercad as well. Though I should point out again that this is my first time doing any of this, I just learned it all from the internet.

 

I've added a link to the Tinkercad project and STL file for the enclosure on the original post.