3D printing of HeaterMeter enclosures and Fan mount


 

Dave Casazza

TVWBB Fan
As I work through my router issue, I thought it would be cool to show how my buddy is printing (with ABS plastic) the HeaterMeter Case and Fan Mount...

HeaterMeter enclosure below, you can see where the lcd display goes, and the button board mount. The bar on the left is to retain the button board...

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Fan mount, next. It's a partial print, and you can see where the fan mounts on the right side. The left side is partially printed - its actually an enclosure where the fan output from the right side is ducted downward into the mount area (where the holes are) on the left side.

The bottom part of the print is a variable damper to go over the fan input - we noticed while doing a test burn that we needed to dampen the fan input by 70% to bring down the steady state burn temp at 0% fan to about 200 deg from 310 degs.

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My buddy in front of his printer:

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Stay tuned for completed pics!

Dave
 
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That is freakin' awesome. 3D printing is such a cool technology. After my experiences with 2D fabrication over the past couple weeks, I don't even want to attempt a 3D version, where the complexity and stakes are even higher. You're going to need a whole gallery just for all your cool parts.
 
The stakes are really very low... the plastic is fairly cheap, and it's a matter of a couple of hours to print out parts. If you don't like the fit and finish, readjust the cad, and re-print.
 
What's the volume of plastic used in your HeaterMeter case? I know Ponoko does 3D printing but they charge by the cm^3 and I have no friggin clue how much volume I'd need without doing whole CAD design then realizing "Oh crap this is going to cost too much"
 
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This is the proto case. Once we've got a final version we'll give out the .stl and .123d file. I'll have to see then what the volume is in cm^3.
 
We have a 3d printer at work. Big sucker that has not been used in two years. I was looking at it today and thinking about how much fun I could have with it.
 
Is the intention of the heatermeterPi to have the button and LCD mounted on the board, or to the lid of the case with jumper wires/ribbon cables?
 
I think that's next... what's the state of the rPI build - is that board baked and ready for production?
It is (BUT NOT IN GITHUB!), but with reservations. I would prefer the power barrel jack come out the left side of the device instead of the bottom. I rotated it toward the bottom because the USB jacks on the rPi stick out so far that thought maybe the case would extend that way a little to make them not stick out so far, which would make the power jack too far inset. I was hoping to get my prototypes back form Ponoko to be able to check it out, but they're running 2+ week delays right now.
 
Dave, I made a 3d case design for the HMpi setup if you want the stl files to give it a run. I ordered a prototype from shapeways but it is expensive. I figured I had to try it out since I took the time to design it.

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