8.1 The hub
Mount option E had two problems as drawn. It fused the plate and the shell into one part that could not print without supports, and the PC covered all four VESA screws. The v3 hub splits it into two flat prints.
Carrier
Printed flat, front face down. It bolts to the monitor's VESA inserts with the same 4 × M4 × 10 countersunk screws as before. The PC hangs on its back on two shoulder screws in keyhole slots, as in stand v2, so it lifts off with no tools.
At the carrier's bottom centre sits the docking collar: a pocket that the stand's fin slides up into. The stand's load goes straight into the plate, right beside the lower VESA screws, not through the shell.
The PC moved sideways on the plate (its centre at X = −23 mm, front towards the controls edge). Now only one VESA screw, upper controls side, sits under it. In option E all four did.
Shell
Printed back down on the textured plate, so the visible back takes the plate's texture. It is cosmetic and carries no load: a rounded tray over the PC, 1.8 mm walls (four perimeters), with:
- grilles over the PC's side vents and over the cable bay,
- a notch for the PC's front panel, so the power button, USB and jack stay reachable,
- a cable bay past the rear ports, 50 mm wide, with an exit downwards and a side exit for the monitor's own cables (8.4),
- a notch round the collar,
- a 5 mm 45° bevel round the back edge, on the bed.
Three countersunk M3 screws hold it to three pillars on the carrier. The pillars carry heat-set inserts with their axes vertical in the print. They are placed clear of the PC, the VESA heads and the cables. The PC has 4.1 mm of air to the shell all round.
The dock
One interface serves every stand: a 14 mm tongue on the fin slides up into the collar.
- The pocket is 14.4 × 40.4 mm and 30 mm deep, open at the bottom, so the tongue has 0.2 mm each side.
- The fin's neck is deeper than the pocket, so its top is a shoulder that bears on the collar's bottom face. The tongue stops 0.4 mm short of the pocket's roof.
- An M3 cross pin through the collar and the tongue locks it. It carries no weight. It sits 3.9 mm below the screen's bottom edge and below the shell, so it goes in with the shell on.
- Without the pin, gravity alone holds the hub on the stand: lift the screen and it comes off.
The collar hangs 11 mm below the screen's bottom edge. It is the only part of the hub you see from the front.
| Part | Size on the A1 | Time | PLA (2 walls, 15%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrier | Flat, front down | 162 × 168 × 51 mm | 2 h 21 min | 95 g |
| Shell | Back down | 162 × 155 × 47 mm | 2 h 43 min | 88 g |
One interface, one hub. Every stand in 8.2 docks into the same collar.