Steam Deck POWERpACK 18650

The SteamDeck POWERpACK DOUBLES! your Playtime with 50WH of energy.

BALANCE THE 18650 CELLS!!!! ( EVERY CELL NEEDS TO HAVE THE EXACT SAME VOLTAGE before connecting them in parallel!!)

Measure and mark every 18650 cells + and - side with a marker! I am not responsible for any accident caused by making this Powerpack. Inform yourself upfront how to handle Lithium ion cells the correctly!! they are not comparable to regular AA or AAA batteries!!!

UPDATE 01.05.2022

With the locking nubs gone I changed the design of the fan clamp to grip into the air channels with two small flaps, locking the Powerpack in place preventing it from sliding off to the side.

UPDATE 29.04.2022

Today I finally got my own Steam deck, thats when I realized that the nubs I added to rest in the screwholes on the back of the Deck are way smaller then on the official CAD file I printed to be able to design and test the Powerpack at all. I removed them and updated the base. If you already printed the version with the two nubs, just take them flat off with a side cutter or knife ;)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UPDATE 24.04.2022

So I just got the numbers In from the Redditor I sent a prototype :

Test game Cyberpunk with screen brightness turned all the way up and no audio ( automatic brightness adjustment turned off )

First test with NO Powerbank:

- Battery depleted in 1 hour 23 minutes 57 seconds - Backplate temperature 31.8 Celsius - discharging rate 26+ watts but never touched 27. Second test with the Powerpack:

- Battery depleted in 2 hours 49 minutes 15 seconds - backplate temperature 34.4 Celsius - Charging rate constant 14.4watts starting from 90% to 0%, before that the battery depleted with no charge and the Powerpack was delivering 14.4w to the system - deck went 5 minutes with 0 battery In the end. - No Material deformation of the Powerpack caused by heat. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE 24.04.2022

So the Powerpack made it to the Redditor and he could finally started testing. As excpected the Deck throws the info about slow charging from the powerpack, so Battery will still drain when playing. Question is how long does it extend Gametime, soon we will know. Other then that the Redditor of course put it on his steam deck and luckily it was a perfect fit, almost to good xD It was hard to get the pack off again without force so I changed the Design having a Flap on the bottom side so you can bend down the lower Part a bit to get it out easily. Still printing that one, but in theory it should work.

If you already made yours you can halp yourself by filing the sharp corner the clips in to a bit of a rounder shape.

UPDATE 22.04.2022

A Powerpack is on its way to a tester. so soon we should know if its any good xD

Meanwhile I tried to get my hand on a Deck but got professionally scammed for 740€ OUCH! Thanks to IVAN Stoyka you little degenerate scammer hope you will get what you deserve at some point.

UPDATE 20.04.2022

I finally was able to find someone to send a test example, so in a few days we should finally know how the POWERpACK performs. I also have no clue if Thingiverse statistics are correct but quite a lot of people do download this, but I have like no feedback at all which is very sad :(

UPDATE 18.04.2022

After building 5 Powerpacks It should be good to go getting out of the WIP mode. Evenso it totatally should work with the deck I cannot guarantee it 100% as I am still waiting for my order mail for the deck :( ( Q2)

Its a Power bank, but made for the Deck to attach directly. ( using 4x 3500mAH 18650 cells delivering 50Wh of power)

Easy to clip on.

light up button shows Quick charging is active.

4digit led battery status indicator

Features a kickstand. (90° and 45° angle stand) The kickstand locks in place with a little magnet when unused.

support PD 3.0 up to 18Watts ( up to 22.5Watts on paper) quick charging

fully vented case against heat buildup.

As the air outlet warms up to 50° C normal PLA wont do for the job. You can either go with a more heat resistant filament like ABS or use Heat resistant PLA ( I have to have a look into that part myself)

I am also going to try to make the base 2 parts. where the top fan exhaust can be printed in a different filament thats heat resistant like for example ABS, because its only a small part shrinkage should be manageable.

Things you need:

2x Neodymium magnets 8x1mm Heat glue gun Soldering iron screws small heat sinks if you have some at hand ( not a must but definitely helps the charging chip putting off some thermal load)

NTC probe: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32812361274.html ?

4x 18650 Cells ( as the all 4 cells are connected in parallel every single one of them has to have the exact SAME VOLTAGE! ( balanced) this is vital as Lithium Ion batteries other then regular led batteries do NOT level themselves out!! Check each cell for its voltage and make sure they as close to each other as possible!!)

Powerbank curcuit board:

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/33039428180.html ?

The design was made so the print does not need supports, you will still have a bit of stringing at the top , but its not bad and wont be visible from the outside anyways.

PRINT in the orientation like in the 3D Previews!