In previous posts, I “fixed” my UV5R which had a bad battery by soldering on a connection by soldering on a power connector for a standard 9 volt battery. In those photos, you could see that I just taped the battery to the back of the case and used the belt clip to fasten it in place.
I felt like I could do a little better than that, so I printed a 3D case to hold the battery.
I want to be really clear, I remixed a model from here: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4779643
And used that to create my own model, which you can download here: https://www.printables.com/model/286950-baofeng-uv5r-9-volt-battery-holder
Essentially, I took the original author’s battery cover for using two cylindrical batteries, and I used blender to make a flat spot in the center for my 9 volt battery. It took me longer to load their model then to edit it for my own use. I used the standard cut modifier and “cut” a rectangle shaped block from the case, then deleted the rectangle.
I ran the exported STL file through Slic3r, with my settings for my Colido 3D DIY printer that I have previously posted on this site. After that I spent hours dusting off and re-aligning my 3D printer (which was left neglected for over a year), and printed the model, twice.
The first print actually messed up and was split in half. Looks like the belt slipped after it built the lower half, and then it continued to build the upper half out of place, creating it slightly off to the side. Whatever the problem was, the second print came out just fine.
It does require that you solder in some battery posts at the top and a 9 volt connector inside the case, but that’s pretty easy to do and I had it worked out in a few minutes. I did get mine a little too hot, and started melting the PLA, causing the pads to “droop”, but they still make a solid connection.
If you also have a Baofeng UV5R with a bad battery back, you might try printing this instead of buying a new battery. It’s pretty handy, although the performance is a bit poorer overall on the 9 volt than having the actual battery pack.
Linux – keep it simple.