January 13, 2026
Description
When first using the MetroY Pro it was clear for me that I wanted to create some kind of extension cable for connecting to the battery pack of the scanner. Some of you man already know how the scanner works but I will explain it nevertheless:
The scanner itself has a built in WiFi hot-spot to which you connect the PC. While using this mode you must use the supplied battery grip to power the scanner with 12V. Here comes the awesome thing I discovered: The battery grip is basically a power bank with 12V PD capabilities and the adapter cable has USB-C on both ends but behaves like one of the 12V adapter cables with a barrel jack on the other side.
So you could just chop the barrel jack off such a cable and solder an USB-port to it. Et voila: you can lay the battery on the workbench while wielding the scanner in a more compact form-factor.
Scanning
First I wanted to replicate the original plug of the scanner and use the internals of a male plug. For this I simply scanned the original plug in laser mode with the MetroY Pro.
Reverse Engineering of the Plug
Using Quicksurface Pro I recreated the plug and included space for the USB-C internals. The design is toleranced to 0.1mm and can simply be 3d printed, but I recommend using a 0.2mm nozzle. I simply printed it from PETG on my Bambulab A1 Mini. Even the latch works with the print!
Problems with the Plug
I simply couldn't convince the interals to stay within the plug and not pull out of the scanner. Glueing theoretically works but superglue wicks up the contact pins of the plug and makes it unusable. Since I didn't want to endanger my scanner and its plug I scratched this design and focused on a more traditional style extension cable with a spare USB-cable I found for the scanner side.
The final Extension Cable
I simply soldered the chopped PD trigger cable to the chopped spare USB-C cable making sure to isolate the conductors properly. As a strain relief and security measure I designed the white block to glue around the joint of the cables. The "12V" writing on the cable is important since this is basically a USB-C cable of death for most other devices since it raw dogges 12V to the connected device without any power delivery negotiation...
I simply printed the block from white PETG and super glued it around the cable. To ensure proper fitment of the plug in the scanner, I added a few layers of tape to create a snug fit.
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial
9