2014-12-06 (Sa) Color/Touch Sensory Panel

When 3D printers started becoming available at consumer prices I wasn't very excited because all the stuff I saw people printing were trinkets, baubles, and desk ornaments. Only big expensive printers and big expensive companies were printing anything that could be put to work. At the IOT Hack Day one team member finally showed me first hand that a 3D printer is a powerful tool.

Today I applied my drafting and programming skills to make a light hood for the Color/Touch. I realize that 3D printing isn't available to everyone so I have no plans to make every project here on a 3D printer. Plus, plastic filament for the printer is expensive. For this project I plan to make half of the light hoods on the 3D printer and the other half will be made using standard tools.

Enough background.
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The 2D drawing of the light hood was the basis for creating a 3D model. Measurements were taken on the wooden frame to determine the size of the base for each light hood. The distance from the cross-member to a parallel wall was more than 120mm so each hood, which will be 1/2 that distance, was made to be 60mm. While visualizing the placement of the light hoods it became apparent that a second cross-member may be necessary for mounting the hoods. This second cross-member would not have to be load-bearing. A NeoPixel was measured and found to be 10mm in diameter. A #10 screw is slightly less than 5mm in diameter.

With the measurements, a 3D model was made in OpenSCAD after sketching an order of operations. The list of operations greatly helped to streamline the process since 3D drafting is still unfamiliar and OpenSCAD is not a graphical drafting program but uses coding techniques. A light hood was printed at standard resolution and a second was printed at high resolution for comparison.

OpenSCAD Model

Standard resolution print on left, high resolution print on right

Code written in OpenSCAD:
sphereRad = 120;
baseHeight = 5;
difference(){
     translate([0,0,0.5*baseHeight])cube([60,60,baseHeight], center=true); // Make a big rectangular base
     translate([0,0,(sphereRad+1)])sphere(sphereRad, $fs=0.01, center = true); // Dig out a dish shaped portion
     translate([0,0,1])cylinder(1, 2.5, 2.5, $fs = 0.1); // Put a socket in the bottom for a NeoPixel
     translate([0,-2.5,0])cylinder(3, .5, .5, $fs = 0.1); // Make first wire hole
     translate([0,2.5,0])cylinder(3, .5, .5, $fs = 0.1); // Make second wire hole
}
difference(){
     translate([27, 10, baseHeight])cube([3, 8, 10], center = false); // Wing for screw hole
     translate([28.5, 14, baseHeight+6])rotate(90, [0,1,0])cylinder(4, 2.5, 2.5, center = true); // Hole for screw
}
difference(){
     translate([27, -30, baseHeight])cube([3, 8, 10], center = false); // Wing for screw hole
     translate([28.5, -26, baseHeight+6])rotate(90, [0,1,0])cylinder(4, 2.5, 2.5, center = true); // Hole for screw
}
difference(){
     translate([10, 27, baseHeight])cube([8, 3, 10], center = false); // Wing for screw hole
     translate([14, 28.5, baseHeight+6])rotate(90, [1,0,0])cylinder(4, 2.5, 2.5, center = true); // Hole for screw
}
difference(){
     translate([-30, 27, baseHeight])cube([8, 3, 10], center = false); // Wing for screw hole
     translate([-26, 28.5, baseHeight+6])rotate(90, [1,0,0])cylinder(4, 2.5, 2.5, center = true); // Hole for screw
}

To do:
  1. Build/print all light hoods
  2. Build electronics
  3. Program Arduino
  4. Cut polycarbonate sheets
  5. Install switches
  6. Install light hoods
  7. Install electronics
  8. Install polycarbonate

Journal Page

The rest of the posts for this project have been arranged by date.

A list showing of all the final posts of COMPLETED projects.


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