肯·皮洛内尔, the modder extraordinaire who开发了世界上第一个USB-C iPhone，现在已经设计并打印了一个USB-C AirPods充电盒。最好的部分？这是开源。
Until now, all ofApple’shardware products have featured the company’s proprietary Lightning port for charging, unlike other manufacturers who simply integrate the standard USB-C. This means that anyone that succumbs to Apple’s expertly crafted marketing has to deal with a pesky extra charger – not ideal. This has since been addressed with the recent EU ruling but won’t apply in the firm’s largest market, the US.
Ken’s 3D printing project also combats the notorious irreparability of the AirPods by providing access to the internal battery for the first time.
Pillonell explains, “After the success of my previous project, the world’s first USB-C iPhone, I decided to focus on trying to mitigate the AirPods disaster through an engineering project. The goal was to find a solution that gives a second life to the unopenable cases, which all face an inevitable end of life because of their built-in battery.”
The Apple ethos
You don’t become the world’s first trillion-dollar company by investing in sustainable practices. Few know this better than Apple, who’s designed virtually all of its products to be unserviceable by third parties.
AirPod的构建方式使得无法访问任何内部硬件组件而不会损坏设备本身。在外壳内部，您会发现一组单向的快照齿和一些确保这一点的胶水。我修复它在这方面，电子维修服务提供商给第一代和第二代AirPods的得分为0/10。
Since the battery inside can’t be accessed or replaced, the AirPods were quite simply designed to be disposed of at the end of their service life. With hundreds of millions of units sold to date, this makes for an unimaginable amount of electronic waste headed for landfill.
A 3D printed AirPods case
肯（Ken）解决问题的解决方案是设计一个3D可打印的替换套管，以及他自己的雷置充电端口的替换部分，该端口具有USB-C连接器。这两个组件已免费在线提供。
In this way, the original AirPods case can be deliberately cut open to disassemble it, the battery can be replaced as needed, the charging port can be swapped out, and the 3D printed shell can be slid back on with ease.
To 3D print the case, Ken used a desktopAny Cubic Photon Mono X系统，但是任何基于低成本树脂的3D打印机都可以做到。
Interested in 3D printing your own USB-C AirPods case?Head over to Ken’s GitHub repository where you’ll find all of the 3D models and PCB files necessary.
开源社区无疑是创新的源泉，以低成本提供新颖的3D打印应用程序。风险，一个业余爱好者玩具制造者，最近开发了一种创新的新的键开关机制用于PC键盘。该设计被称为“空隙开关”，是完全开源的，可以在家中使用任何经常运行的FFF 3D打印机制造。该机制的新颖性在于它使用磁铁，这使其基于悬浮且完全无接触。
在其他地方，YouTuberAkaki Kuumeri创建一个PS5 DualSense控制器的3D打印适配器这使用户可以单手玩游戏。该附加组件可以非毁灭性地应用于游戏控制器，以便允许非标准的手位置，并使身体残障人士更容易使用视频游戏。
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特色图片显示了3D打印的USB-C AirPods盒。通过Ken Pillonel的照片。
