Treedix USB Cable Tester Case

I wanted something for my tester to just clean off the lines of all the sockets.  My goals were to keep the LED and test-points exposed, but I also wanted the case to be slim rather than the larger clear Perspex one Treedix sell.

My compromise was to encase all sockets, except the large USB2 TypeB one.  This gave about the minimum thickness I wanted.  I wanted the interior blocked off with just the test area, and I didn't want any deep holes on the side of the case to foul with cable plugs.

The screws are 3mm diameter and self-tap.  I used the smallest I had available, 8mm long.

Printing Text

Just for my own interest, I did negative and text parts.  This allows a colour change, and the use of a contrasting colour for labelling.  Depending on your colours and nozzle size you may have a better or worse appearance.  The model without text is included.

The .3mf contains the text, but how does the colour changing actually work in the .gcode?

Well Prusa Slicer is a little limited in this regard, so we have to adapt to the problem.  The .3mf contains two colour changes at the end of a layer; consider these to be returning to the ‘default’ filament colour.

To actually have a text, or ‘ink’ colour we need to actually manually edit the .gcode and insert the M600 filament changes manually.  It's not as bad as it sounds, but it does need some explanation.

1. Open the .3mf file
2. Select the print settings you want (nozzle, filament etc)
3. Slice the model
4. Starting with the first layer by moving the vertical slider
5. Now wind back the horizontal head slider until you get the the start of the text being extruded - note this number
6. Repeat for the second layer, same thing - note this number
7. Save the .gcode to a local file and open in a text editor
8. Go to the larger number, by line (ctl+L usually), insert a line and add a M600 command on that line
9. Go the smaller number, by line and add another M600 command
10. Save the .gcode and print as usual

We do this backwards so that the smallest number doesn't move the line for the larger number before we've found it.

You can see this by searching for M600 in the .gcode I prepared, and looking at the screenshot below.