Dongle Hider

@Paul_Braham late response but the one I designed was printed with relatively normal PLA settings with no supports. I found adding supports made the whole thing much more of a pain to clean up. It is printed with the bottom side down as it would look while inside the laptop. There is no lid as I didn’t want to deal with screws and didn’t think it would be necessary sitting in the laptop all the time.

I have been using the one I printed months ago with no issues. Been sitting in my laptop the whole time. Its very convenient to have!

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@Avendor what were your printing settings when you 3D printed the dongle hider?

I’m working on a more permanent/destructive solution, I’ve made a KiCad footprint to match the standard spacing so you are able to just solder the board internally.

@Nathan3 I did use supports and a fine preset with PLA. Could probably print without supports to see how well it works on your printer.

I’ve used the .stl file provided by @Avendor to make this expansion card for two full-sized Logitech unifying receivers.


I had to move the peg in the back a bit further back to make them fit, but it works perfectly. If I had any knowledge on how to work with 3D files, I would make it so that it printed in the proper position to begin with, but removing the peg with pliers and supergluing it into the proper location worked well too.

Additionally, I had to file down the plastic on the receivers so that the card would fit inside the expansion bay, but with those two slight modifications, everything fits and works perfectly.

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Created an adjustable module with 1/4 mm increments using the two braces.

dongle hider.stl (578.8 KB)

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Hey,

i was wondering if there was any desire for a recessed usb type A port, so that when you input a dongle for a wireless mouse (or keyboard or combo) it doesnt stick out.

cheers!

This was already made by several community members!
Although it would be nice if there was an official version as well!

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Wait, does the laptop not have builtin Bluetooth? I was under the impression that the wireless card had support for it.

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It does > well mine does :slight_smile:

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The included Intel AX210 wireless networking card has Bluetooth 5.3.

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This is for Wireless Mouse receivers- not bluetooth mouses!

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Very often wireless cards do both as Wi-Fi 2.4GHz is the same band as bluetooth so an understandable query.

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that’s irrelevant though, they still need entirely separate radio systems.

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I found the same slim usb C to A adaptor mentioned here. I’m glad I had the idea to check the forums. It verified this adaptor would work so thank you!

I have a glorious gaming mouse so slightly different dongle size. So rather than adjusting a 3d print I went the lazy and probably slightly more expensive route.

I emptied an original usb-A card, filed and scraped away some plastic so my dongle fits. Then I simply poured mold silicone into it.

It turned out pretty good and was super quick. The dongle sits firmly inside.

I will probably redo the silicone pour, it was too cold and trapped too many air bubbles. Perhaps this is helpful to someone that does not have a 3d printer readily available.

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Adafruit Industries have the reverse of that adapter in an ultra slim form, perhaps it could be reverse-engineered for an even more slim and finished version

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Something like this could save even more space for headset dongles since you could slide the receiver slightly under and right up against the wall of the expansion card, you would theoretically just need to solder a little blob between them since they are lined up perpendicular to each other

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802553228571.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.23.b4a32c7cctuyev&algo_pvid=28e42454-f4a9-4917-bd84-774ca97bf1e3&aem_p4p_detail=20230305140918307712954881200022021228&algo_exp_id=28e42454-f4a9-4917-bd84-774ca97bf1e3-11&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000023032294666"}&pdp_npi=3%40dis!USD!0.6!0.54!!!!!%40211bf04a16780541580118532d0710!12000023032294666!sea!US!0&curPageLogUid=nitNPVTkjQB3&ad_pvid=20230305140918307712954881200022021228_12&ad_pvid=20230305140918307712954881200022021228_12

Oh yea! I love this kind of thing. I made a dongle hider for my logitech dongle, which conveniently can be re-paired (Pair with mouse), and I’ve had it in my framework for… around 6 or more months. I just took a USBA-C adapter that came hooked onto a SD card dock, and modeled around it. Looks a bit odd, but hey! Its discreet enough that no-one notices, unless I point it out!



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a dongle hider with usbc data passthrough would be really cool

Here is the true dongle hider I made, so no more removing or filing down dongle cases to fit. I made two lengths, so different sized dongles would be flush with the case.

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