Badge case doesn't fit after attaching battery connector

[hpdang]

Once the battery connector (ZX-XH2.54-2PLT) is attached to the LED badge, the existing case no longer fits properly.

[froscon2024]

@mariobehling @hpdang @kienvo
The connector that got installed on there is a complete misunderstanding and that is why it does not fit like written in this issue. Also the huge connector is missing the essential pads left and right for stability on the PCB. The first time the user would have connected or disconnected the battery, the pads would have been ripped off the PCB.

The history of the battery connector for the badge is here: #19

I wrote there:

Typical connectors hardware hackers and hackerspaces have around are the ones from the CR2032 batteries used in thinkpads. The connector is small, should fit inside the badge without problems and hardware hackers can already have some of them around.

Short after the text i wrote it got closed as completed and i expected to have helped with the hardware design to solve the battery disconnect and reconnect issue for flashing and crashed badges. Also for making it possible to replace the battery for a bigger one on the fly, or just easy replace a battery that is worn out after for example 10 years.
A soldered in battery is also bad for repair score at https://www.ifixit.com/ and just bad in general. That is why every good device these days is using a connector to connect a battery and not solder.

When i was sitting at froscon2025 next to @mariobehling holding the prototype PCB in my hand i was fully surprised to see a completely different connector on there that obviously does not fit like shown in the first post here.
I opened yewtu.be while sitting next to @mariobehling and showred one of the many videos you can find that show the connector i described. Some example videos:
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=CJtH5S7RURo&t=3m11s
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=VDBTvgQPmls&t=2m28s
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=mV4HNVSFeqg&t=3m15s

The connector is really common. For example also used on this LoRA board for battery connection: https://lilygo.cc/products/lora3

Its the classical connector hardware hackers have around from old/broken notebooks for many, many years.

I soldered out one of those from a broken notebook to completely make sure i do not get misunderstood again:

I was really not expecting to be misunderstood that bad. So let me write more about how to design that part:
I know that having more layers is costly. That is where the connector also benefits. Because the metal left and right next to the connector does not have any electrical connection (like for example the housing of a usb-c SMD connector).
That is why you could for example just leave two holes in the coating and then the connector would be soldered its left and right stability marts on to two led pins. Yes, the voltage from those two LED pins would also be on the left and right side of the battery connector, but that should not matter, because from the electrical point of view those are isolated.
You can also move the connector around in the PCB design. The connector does not have to be in the middle where the battery was soldered before. Because thanks to connecting the battery with a short wire, the placing of the connector is flexible now.
But do not forget the pads left and right that protects the connector from getting ripped from the PCB when connecting and disconnecting the battery. Those are the pads that hold the battery connector in place. Not the two electric relevant pads on the back that connect the battery.
I am telling this especially because those two pads left and right next to the connector was also required for the huge wrong connector but is also missing on there.

From DIY-perspective the correct connector you can see on the last picture have been glued down to not pull/push on the pins on the back and because the essential pads was missing.
You can see in the picture where both, the wrong huge and the correct small are upside down next to each other with white background. Both connectors have those isolated stability pads left and right next to them.

In the last picture you can see the correct connector compared next to the USB-C connector and it should fit without issues in the case.