3D printed lock for Ford NACS adapter

[bbulkow]

I don't know whether anyone would steal it yet there is a chance they would, maybe for hoped-for profit or just for impulsive curiosity.

In a related Tesla adapter locking thread I mentioned I had been a teenager in my past, and impulsiveness certainly had shown its ugly head in that part of my life. Not to mention some of my friends, who were a bit less savory than I was at that time. I'm sure I am the only such former preteen / teen miscreant on this forum... willing to admit it anyway

"Reasonable people can differ" There might be some differences about local conditions, the thievery I've been exposed to in the last few decades have been rational people making a buck, not random kids and drunks, so my dataset is simply different from yours. My teenage years had some shenanigans, but not malicious behavior in a well lit populated place.

I do think the difficulties of losing an adapter on a road trip would be so significant, at this point of scarcity, that a bit of extra caution is not unreasonable. Although there is also a safety concern that a good Samaritan can't unplug your car if you're not there. Hard to imagine a case where that's a good idea.....

Posting a Fusion360 would allow people to modify for A2Z. I have an A2Z and a high quality printer (I had a slightly different mission earlier in the week and actually loaded up and dried a spool of PETG, and spent a minute updating Fusion and finding my spacemouse). I'm not sure I have enough worry about this problem to engineer the A2Z mods, but I might .

Sponsored

 

[azerik]

And believe that someone knows they can just stop your charge, unplug the adapter and steal it.

If one does get stolen….totally going to be by another EV owner, not some rando.

Eh, no. It can well be a rando who knows they can quickly make $100 ~ $200 as a quick flip on Ebay.

 

[Sikkun]

Eh, no. It can well be a rando who knows they can quickly make $100 ~ $200 as a quick flip on Ebay.

Only rando that would know that is going to be in the EV community.

 

[azerik]

You are very optimistic. Did you know there are people stealing wire out of anything in order to recycle it and make a quick buck? Are they electricians? Not Randos?

Did you know there's groups of people stealing catalytic convertors to recycle and make a quick buck? Are they exhaust techs?

Look at Ebay and offer up lately for anything used of value from the automotive market? If I had to guess more than 1/2 of it is stolen stuff. Huge amounts of LED fog lights, light bars, tire racks, bike racks, roof racks etc. Baja Designs, Ridgid etc. And people have to actually unbolt that stuff. This is 2 clicks and poof I got $100

All it takes is 1 EV rando to mention to a shady friend that 'these can fetch $50 in an instant' and everyone in shady city will know.

But go ahead and trust your gut. It's going to be a harder theft at a busy station, but hey they can sit in a car 10 spots over all night and wait for no one to be around.

(Yes I trust less and less people every day now)

 

[Sikkun]

You are very optimistic. Did you know there are people stealing wire out of anything in order to recycle it and make a quick buck? Are they electricians? Not Randos?

Did you know there's groups of people stealing catalytic convertors to recycle and make a quick buck? Are they exhaust techs?

Look at Ebay and offer up lately for anything used of value from the automotive market? If I had to guess more than 1/2 of it is stolen stuff. Huge amounts of LED fog lights, light bars, tire racks, bike racks, roof racks etc. Baja Designs, Ridgid etc. And people have to actually unbolt that stuff. This is 2 clicks and poof I got $100

All it takes is 1 EV rando to mention to a shady friend that 'these can fetch $50 in an instant' and everyone in shady city will know.

But go ahead and trust your gut. It's going to be a harder theft at a busy station, but hey they can sit in a car 10 spots over all night and wait for no one to be around.

(Yes I trust less and less people every day now)

Yeah…I don’t live in a bubble. May as well never leave the house, someone could steal, literally anything.

I’ll be sure to not charge at the Tesla Supercharger in front of a crack house at 3am.

But I’m not holding my breath for a rush of thefts of EV adapters at a Buckee’s and Sheetz in the middle of the day.

But if we are really on thief’s are that motivated to get the adapter….PETG isn’t stopping anyone.

 

[JustBob]

I concur with others that if you have a Fusion3D file that would be amazing.

I haven't used Fusion 360. I've been using FreeCad. But I can share a step file that you can use. I have a new design in process that I think is better. I'll finish that up and can share.

 

[bbulkow]

I haven't used Fusion 360. I've been using FreeCad. But I can share a step file that you can use. I have a new design in process that I think is better. I'll finish that up and can share.

The reason I mentioned (and use) Fusion360, which is free for non-commercial use but very much not free and open and containes many annoying upsell banners, is their rather excellent parametric modeling system for separating out all the internals of building a model contained in the timeline. This makes a given model very easy to modify after the fact, even if it's a geometry from really early in the design, which I usually have to use because I misdesign things all the time and need to put a few more MM in here or there. It also would make taking a model from supporting one adapter to another a lot easier. I've never tried importing a STEP file and putting together the parameterized timeline, but willing to give it a try! SolidWorks is similar but less available.

Step files are certainly a step up (so to speak) from obj's, but I'd take whatever you got!

 

[JustBob]

See thingiverse for the .stl and .step files.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6690272

 

[jason330i]

See thingiverse for the .stl and .step files.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6690272

Thanks!

 

[JustBob]

I've made a couple other 3D printed locks for the NACS adapter. Both of these can be added after the adapter is installed in the Mach-E's charging port. They go into the gap above the release lever to prevent it from moving.

First one is just a block that wedges into the gap. It fits tightly so it can't be removed by fingers. A printed "key" can be snapped into it to remove the block. Meant to be more of a hidden lock.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6695435

Second one is similar but uses 2 pieces that fit into the gap and lock together with a padlock.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6696185

Still working on refining these, but I've tested both and they work pretty well.

 

[worachj]

See thingiverse for the .stl and .step files.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6690272

Sorry for my ignorance … still learning.

Your https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6690272 link only contains the adapter_lock4d-Ring.stl file.

Do I need the adapter_lock4d-Endplate.stl file and where do I download it?

My local library has an Ultimaker 2+ Connect printer that I can use for free, but they limit printing to a max of 4-hours. I did a Slice of your “adapter_lock4d-Ring.stl” file using UltiMaker Cura software and it shows a printing time of 5 hours and 44 minutes.

Silly question … Is there any way I can shorten printing time to under 4 hours so I can use the libraries free printer?

adapter_lock4d-Endplate.stl
adapter_lock4d-Ring.stl

Thanks
John

 

[geftsnowball]

Sorry for my ignorance … still learning.

Your https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6690272 link only contains the adapter_lock4d-Ring.stl file.

Do I need the adapter_lock4d-Endplate.stl file and where do I download it?

How strange... It looks like the "Download all files" link doesn't actually package all the files...

It looks like you can click on the files and download them individually though.

My local library has an Ultimaker 2+ Connect printer that I can use for free, but they limit printing to a max of 4-hours. I did a Slice of your “adapter_lock4d-Ring.stl” file using UltiMaker Cura software and it shows a printing time of 5 hours and 44 minutes.

Silly question … Is there any way I can shorten printing time to under 4 hours so I can use the libraries free printer?

You should be able to play around with the slicer settings to reduce printing time but, honestly, if you're asking this question you probably shouldn't try and do it yourself (at least not without a good bit of research) because you won't understand what compromises you're making in the output to reduce the time required.

edit: Also, you'll want to double check the printing material you can use. I think a few people mentioned this but PLA isn't going to be great in warmer temperatures.

 

[worachj]

How strange... It looks like the "Download all files" link doesn't actually package all the files...

It looks like you can click on the files and download them individually though.



You should be able to play around with the slicer settings to reduce printing time but, honestly, if you're asking this question you probably shouldn't try and do it yourself (at least not without a good bit of research) because you won't understand what compromises you're making in the output to reduce the time required.

edit: Also, you'll want to double check the printing material you can use. I think a few people mentioned this but PLA isn't going to be great in warmer temperatures.

Thanks!

Downloaded the other STL file. I'm going to talk to the library and see if I can print pass their 4-hour limit.

Edit:
The library limits me to only using PLA ... I've already asked. They say the others types gum up the nozzle and they're not willing to change.

 

[geftsnowball]

For kicks I played around with it. Haven't printed it myself but for any of these I think if anyone really wanted to snag it they could since this is just "plastic" ... with that in mind, I think it would still feel solid and serve it's purpose (i.e., make it just difficult enough to deter casual walk-by theft) by reducing the infill. Keeping in mind that there are a ton of settings that can affect the time (e.g., my current profile may have other settings that happen to reduce time that your slicer isn't configured for), cutting the infill from the suggested 80% to 40% reduces the print time to under 4 hours on the profile I've got loaded.

.28 mm layer height with 80% infill

.28 mm layer height with 40% infill

edit: looks like (if just reducing infill) 32% is the magic number for <4hrs for the endplate.

Also worth noting on both of these that it looks like they are designed to print without supports as long as you slice them in the proper orientation.

 

[worachj]

Keeping in mind that there are a ton of settings that can affect the time (e.g., my current profile may have other settings that happen to reduce time that your slicer isn't configured for), cutting the infill from the suggested 80% to 40% reduces the print time to under 4 hours on the profile I've got loaded.

Thanks for helping. I'll need to talk to the library ... they seemed to be very willing to help and may make the suggested changes using their software.

Sponsored