Nintendo New 3DS Charging Cradle (Normal AND XL)

This is a charger dock/cradle for the Nintendo New 3DS, both regular and the XL/LL. This project started to solve some problems I had with this really cool dock from Hackaday, and I ended up totally redesigning it.

Here's a list of this dock's major features:

• It makes contact using pogo pins, which are simple to install and reliable.
• The wiring is covered by a door secured by a standard M3 machine screw and hex nut, making it easy to assemble/disassemble.
• High walls keep the 3DS secured in place, but it still fits loosely enough to easily slide in and out.
• Splits in the walls over the sliders and an indent around the cable port make it easy to hide seams.
• The notification light is visible through a small window.

To make this dock, you will need:

• 2x 1mm diameter pogo pins (I used these)
• 1x 8mm M3 machine screw
• 1x M3 hex nut
• 1x USB cable
• A soldering iron (and solder)
• Glue of some sort

I'm really happy with how this turned out, I hope you like it too!

Printing

I had to use a brim to keep it from warping with PLA, your mileage may vary.

Supports are necessary for the wiring chamber and the door's screw well overhang.

If your slicer allows you to control seam placement (the newest version of PrusaSlicer does), you can force all the seams in the upper section to be on the inside of the cradle and you can force all seams on the lower part to be in the indent around the cable hole. This makes the exterior look totally seamless!

Assembly

Strip the end of your USB cable so you have the red and black (positive and negative) power wires, and feed it through the cable channel in the dock (you do this now because you probably won't be able to after soldering on the pogo pins).

With the cable coming through the channel, solder pogo pins to each of the two wires.

Stick the pogo pins through the holes. The positive (red) pin goes nearest the cable channel -make sure your 3DS will charge before you glue anything!

Once you have them in place, glue them in. I just used hot glue, the only trick is to make sure the pins stay straight as the glue sets. I also recommend gluing the cable sheath to the channel to avoid putting stress on the more delicate power wires.

Put the door on and screw it in. It may be helpful to use a longer M3 screw to get the hex nut into its hole first.

Then just plug it in and use it!

EDIT (3-14-2021) (Pi Day!): Corrected STL orientation.

EDIT (11-7-2021): Got my hands on an N3DSXL, figured I'd make an XL version of the dock. Part of this process involved recreating it in CADQuery, the script for which I've provided. It's a little different from the Inventor version, mostly just with respect to the fillets at the bottom of the volume/3d slider slots, but it should be exactly the same in terms of fitment and functionality. Let me know if there are any problems. O3DS version coming sooner or later.

EDIT (11-21-2021): Finalized the 3DSXL design (slightly wider with larger radius fillets inside the slot), changed all meshes to the new CADQuery version, added an MMU SNES-themed model!

EDIT (11-22-2021): Updated the CADQuery script to let you move the pins along both X and Y, export STLs and STEPs automatically, plus a few readability improvements.

EDIT (2-28-2022): Finally brought this listing up do date with the Thingiverse one, gonna be migrating everything else and using PrusaPrinters as my primary platform going forward.