Patiently waiting for my Uconsole to ship and I’m staring at some batteries sitting on my desk and it got me thinking. Is there any extra room inside the back plate cavity to mod this with some bigger batteries? I have plenty of 18650s but I also have a bunch of 21700s which are not physically that much bigger if there is a little wiggle room to add a bigger battery holder. anyone think there is roughly 3mm x 5mm extra space…? Might be preemptive and place an order for the double battery holder before I get the uconsole.
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I would say yes there’s room, but without knowing how thick the bottom of the tray you get and stuff. i don’t know. the low cost of them trays i’d just pick one up and measure it out and see.
Sweet, as long as I know there is a chance, I’m down to order some. Thanks, Boss.
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Rex, you know if the 18650 tray is series or parallel?
no problem bro. parallel… but each battery has its own connector on the board to the main board.
Awesome, thanks brother. Ordered up the most minimal one I could find. We’ll see what we can come up with.
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I have seen someone on bilibili.com swapping the 18650 for a li-ion battery.
But he is not specific about how it is done so… But it shows that it can be done
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I haven’t received mine yet but I modelled a back that will hopefully remedy 2 of the flaws I want to have changes for. The poor WiFi connection because of being in a aluminium case and using 21700 batteries (or a larger lipo) and having them accessible without breaking apart the case. I can’t really test this back until mine console arrives. But since I had so much time waiting the months (years?) for delivery I have been toying with the idea.
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That looks amazing. Can’t wait to see how it turns out. I received my 21700 battery holder and I think I locked out because it is mega slim. Obviously I also haven’t received my Uconsole yet but judging by pictures I really do think it’s going to fit without much hassle.
Would you sell one of those? I would definitely pick one up to see how it works. Did you get a black one? From what I’m seeing those are the ones that are taking forever. I’m hoping my silver one gets here soon.
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I got silver too. I live in Australia, according to where you live shipping might be the expensive part to one of those backs. I wouldn’t charge much for the back but I sent a half kilo package to my mate in the us and it was $50. If you have a 3D printer I’d definitely send you the Stl file.
Uconsole is set to land Tuesday. I’m going to get it and take some measurements and see how my 21700 battery holder fits. If I do not have any luck, I will definitely pay for shipping from Australia.
Right now I’m a little torn. I love the Aluminum back because I have some ideas for heat sinking the CM4 but then I have the issue of the bigger batteries fitting and the poor wireless performance.
Best case scenario, my heatsink idea can be implemented as I have it in my head and the 21700 battery harness fits and then I have to do some external antenna mods.
Worst case scenario, 3D printer back with bigger battery Compartment and I will have to do my best with heat management with the plastic back.
Shayne, I wonder if your design could be slightly modified to where the cavity over the CM4 could also be like battery Compartment in the sense that it is a separate lid with 4 screws then a plate could be put over it made of eaithe Aluminum or even copper so the CM4 can be heatainked to it 
Sure it could. I’d probably want to print it in ABS or at least PETG to provide extra heat resistance. I’ll have my uconsole Monday, 9 September GMT +8 so I can have a look at how it would interface as I plan to use the 3D printed back. I’d probably want to print it again with that section of the case missing to be able to take measurements from the surface of the case to design it. I envision spring tension holding the conductive metal plate to the processor with a conductive paste used. But this is all just conjecture as I haven’t had a uconsole in hand and have only worked off of drawings.
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I’m doing the same as you, making plans based off pictures. But mine is scheduled to arrive Tuesday so I can’t wait to start working on this thing.
It finally landed (I shouldn’t say it like that because a lot of you waited a heck of a lot longer than I did).
Good news is, the length and width of the 21700s are not an issue. I have a pretty minimal/low profile 21700 holder but it is just slightly larger than the 18650 holder.
Buuut, the thickness is an issue. Looks like the back case sits pretty darn close to the 18650s.
So anyone else looking at this mod to slap into the stock back plate, it’s going to be a no go.
Sorry to (sort of) hijack the thread, but I have a related question…
When I assembled my CM4, there was a noticeable gap on one side. Originally I thought it was the incredibly thick heat sink material, but after smoothing it out, it seems like the clearance there is ok. It looks like the battery compartment might be the issue, on one side. I’m using regular (new) 18650s, and they aren’t swollen or deformed in any way. I also tried some new Samsung 18650s and the same issue occurs. The uConsole works fine, charges, and runs well on battery alone or plugged in. I know there have been other issues mentioned on the forum related to not seating the battery compartment properly when assembling, but mine seems to be flush and fully connected.
And yet, there’s this gap. 
While I haven’t pressed too hard, for fear of breaking something, I can press and hold it together at the gap and shrink the gap a little. But I can’t get it to completely disappear. All four screws are fully in.
I figured I’d just live with it, as it might be some kind of manufacturing defect that others have but just haven’t mentioned. I don’t like the idea of dust or something getting in there though, and it’s such a nice device, aside from this gap.
Anyone else have this problem? Or ideas on what might be causing it? I haven’t contacted Alex/support, but maybe I should?
The middle chassis on yours definitely looks like it was milled wrong.
I have a lot more material between my USB-A port and the back.
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Oh wow! I’m glad I posted the photos, and you posted yours. Thank you! I thought the area under the USB port looked a bit odd, but again, I just assumed it was some kind of expected imperfection. (I was also disappointed since my DevTerm looked and fit together perfectly.)
I’ll contact support. It’s going to be tricky since I bought this from a user on the forum, but I’m hoping if their purchase is still under warranty (which it should be) and they are willing to work with me, I can get it sorted out.
Is the thermal patch too thick?
Good question, but if anything, I think mine is now thinner than most people’s, and it was necessary to get the case to close at all! I’ve had an email thread going with Alex, and he’s taking care of me and sending a replacement part. It seems like Rex was correct above, and the main body of mine was somehow milled improperly. The most obvious difference when comparing was how incredibly thin the metal was below the USB port on mine.
Back panel with the thermal patch spread out. It looks bad because I actually removed some from the side that has the gap, hoping to close it. I then added that extra back to the chip area since I had thinned it a bit too much.
Side view of just the back panel, showing how much of the thermal pad is sticking up above the edge.
Side view of the main body without back cover where the case fits properly, showing the CM4 a little above it.
Side view of the main body without back cover where the case has the gap, showing how much the CM4 and antenna are raised above the edge.
And my battery compartment is seated properly.
