DIY Power Bank Wire Organizing Cover

During the pandemic and lockdown, I was always at home, and so I wouldn't have to worry about keeping my phone fully charged because I was always near a charger or could go to one. Now, going back to school, that is not the case. Especially with being at school for 8 to 10 hours a day, my phone can lose a lot of battery and my only reliable solution was a power bank, except that I only have a cable that is a bit too long and keeps dangling or getting tangled. If I use a shorter wire, it can become a problem if I need a longer wire, and carrying two wires is messier and more likely to be tangled. That said, I still do want to be able to take the wire when necessary without too much hassle and want to have my design be reusable with any wire in case I need to replace it in the future.

The solution? A neater wrap-around that is suited for my power bank. This will keep the wires neatly in my bag and easier to pull out when needed, as an all-around solution that is applicable to traveling purposes as well and can easily be redesigned to fit other sized power banks as well.

Materials for this project:

• a power bank (that I would make the case for)
• a measuring tool, I used a ruler, but a caliper can be easier to work with
• my computer (design the 3D model of it)
• Fusion 360 (but you could use other cad files like sketch up, Onshape, Autodesk inventor, tinkercad, etc
• 3D printer (if you want to print the product)

This design is not a universal one-size (or shape) fits all, and so I need specific measurements of my power bank to ensure a decent fit.

I've measured the base of my power bank to be about 43 mm by 23 mm. The height of my power bank is around 95 mm, but for my design, I don't want to obstruct the power button or power level indicator so I'm constraining myself to the bottom 70 mm of it.

Based on my measurements, I create a rectangle of the base of my product, but I make sure it is slightly bigger than my measurements to allow a little bit of wiggle room, but not too much, so I use roughly around 45 mm by 25 mm.

I then fillet the edges by 4 mm, this will cut into the wiggle room I left a little bit, but that is ok since the wiggle room was left as an extra. I then offset it by 2.5 mm so that it will be sturdy and ready to extrude.

As discussed earlier, my product will be 70 mm tall so I can extrude it up here.

To keep the wires from escaping, we will need to add an edge to both the top and the bottom.

Create a new sketch on the top edge and offset the outer edge by 5mm, this should be a bit longer than the wires while still being slim.

Then extrude it down for 5 mm.

To make the bottom side, simply create a plane in between the top and the bottom (at 35 mm in my example) and then use that to mirror the feature we made earlier in this step

Make sure to select "features" under mirror type to make selecting it easier, then set the mirror plane as the one we just created.

To keep the main wire in place when in use, I'm going to cut a slot that lets me fit the wire in between snugly.

I start this step by starting a new sketch on the topmost edge.

Going 2 mm in, I make a circle of 5 mm in diameter.

Then extrude cut it. I choose to cut all the way, through the edge on the bottom as well since that will allow me to have a slot for my charging end as well.

Here, we are done, feel free to choose your colors when printing, you can try to go with something that matches your power bank's aesthetic, or if you have multiple banks of the same size, you can use a color that works with all of them, because the neat thing about this bank design, is that you can take the wires off the bank and equip them to another bank of the same size (or taller but not wider) without having to unwind and rewind the cord. Additionally, you can try to match the aesthetic of your cord or oppose it making it easier to see the cord. Either way, this step is up to you.

Here, we can also add ridges to allow the wire to sit more stably, a slot over the main area to prevent any unwinding or even a casing to cover the wires altogether. The options are endless, and everyone has different requirements. Considering my requirements, this design is simple and effective.

Tip: If after printing, you feel that the power bank is a bit too small and slips right through, you can add some felt like this to the inside of the model as needed to make the bank fit more snuggly, additionally, you can trim for smaller pieces to secure it. What matters is that it's secured, not how much you used to secure it. Since felt isn't as abrasive as plastic can be, a felt lining won't damage your power bank as much as perfectly fitting it with the plastic could scrape it.