We love hacks that keep gadgets out of the trash heap, and [Brieuc du Maugouër] has us covered with this 3D printable replacement mount he designed for his bike GPS.
One of the most frustrating ways a gadget can fail is when a small, but critical part of the device fails. [du Maugouër] combined a 3D printed back and four M2x6mm screws to make a robust new mount to replace the broken OEM mount on his handlebar-mounted GPS. Slots for zip tie mounting are included in case the replacement mount breaks before yet another replacement can be printed. Apparently [du Maugouër] agrees with Chief O’Brien that “in a crunch, I wouldn’t like to be caught without a second backup.” [Youtube]
It’s exciting that we’re finally in a time when 3D printed replacement parts are living up to their potential. This would be a lot easier if more manufacturers posted 3D printed design files instead of getting them pulled from 3D file platforms, but makers will find a way regardless of OEM approval.
We’ve covered a lot of bike hacks over the years including DIY Bike Computers and GPS Trackers. Do you have a project that keeps something from becoming trash or might save the world another way? There’s still time to enter the Save the World Wildcard round of the Hackaday Prize (closes October 16th).
Hey, don’t knock it. It’s little stuff like this that demonstrates to the tugboat and cube crowd that it’s possible to do something useful with their toy. You never know what this sort of thing can lead to. I won a Prusa I3 printer for the Milwaukee Makerspace by submitting a 3D printed replacement cover for a hatch release button for a Prius.
I have a gripe about the second generation of the pictured gps device, the Wahoo ELEMNT v2. They finally did away with the micro-USB charging port and replaced it with USB-C, but didn’t include the 56k pullup resistor on the device to enable charging over USB-C! They essentially made their charging cable proprietary because when I lost the USB-A to USB-C cable I had to buy another one instead of using one of the dozen of USB-C cables I already have. This seems like an extravagantly bone-headed design choice and I just needed to rant about it.
Get hacking and post it! I’m sure the fix will be more interesting than a 3D printed bracket. Your shining moment awaits!
Very odd. I have the same Elemnt Bolt v2 and any USB-C cable charges it.
Stuff like that is why EU is great by requiring every consumer electronic device sold after 2024 to use USB-C for charge and power. No more abuse from corporate.
To be fair, there are only two standards now, Lightning and USB-C.
No new smartphone uses micro USB or older anymore. Only china gadgets do and they will continue to do so because some gadget producing megacorp in China doesn’t give a damn about EU laws haha.
The funniest thing is that Apple still uses USB 2 speeds with their connectors on most of their top of the line phones…
Title should say “REPAIRING A BIKE GPS *MOUNT* WITH 3D PRINTING”. Ambiguous title leading to clicks and disappointment. If that’s what you’re going for I suppose
Thanks for your feedback. I’ll try to be more careful crafting my titles in the future!
To be honest, I don’t see what’s a hack here?
There are examples like this on Thingiverse:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2537865
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4982339
And on recumbents zip ties for cycling computers are normal, a few years back I’ve made a model very similar to this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3969082
Nothing special, 3D printer is just a tool to make it simpler/better.
I don’t see how this is a hack. There are several models on Thingiverse doing the same for different bike computer vendors, and for different types of bicycles, all using zip ties somewhere on the handlebars.
I would gladly put links, but then the antispam system kicks in.