my HM case is deforming ...


 
J

Johannes S

TVWBB Member
got a HM case 3d printed from a nice contact here. very happy with it. only one issue: it's black, and when lying in the sun it deforms a lot. i have no experience with different 3d printing material. so is there a good and a bad stuff to use?
the box gets really soft. and it seems that even the heat generated by the rpi is enough to make it flex under light pressure.
what's your experience? i wanted to install the HM near my WSM. most probably using a little hook or something to keep it near the smoker (some cm, or an in away from it), because wires are quite short, and i don't want to lay the HM on the ground.
 
That's odd. Any idea what material you had it printed with? Also, try to find out from the printer what the infill percentage is. I live in western Australia, and I've had black cases out in direct sun with 100+F (35C) temps with no warping or deformation at all. I print almost everything in ABS.
 
I agree. ABS is generally more durable than PLA. Lots of people print PLA because of the wider variety of colors and ease of printing.
 
Mine is kind of doing the same thing but not enough that I'm super concerned with it yet. It's more flexibly bent near the screw holes and LCD opening (4-line version). I think I had mine printed from Tom here.
 
Wow I am actually quite surprised. I have some black PLA case parts that were in the trash because the filament ran out during printing so I put them outside in the Florida sun and strapped a thermocouple and HeaterMeter to them.

Ambient Temp: 81F in the shade
Temperature peak: 128F on the back of the PLA
Results:

PPyaNcV.jpg


That's pretty shocking deformation for such a low temperature. It is a shame too because I've started doing a lot more PLA printing because my new printer doesn't have an enclosure so I get some warping and ABS fumes aren't good for us.
 
A little more experimentation, this time with multiple colors and FLIR. Everything was left in direct sun for 2 hours.

These 3 pieces are eSun Black PLA. The top 2 are just the scrap pieces from above, the bottom one is a full black case. The scraps get a little hotter but the black case is only a couple of degrees less. The pieces were somewhat pliable, but the case seemed to be holding integrity. I pushed on it with my thumb in a couple of places and it seemed to hold shape, I guess the infill works! Still, this is pretty close to calling Kenny Loggins (because they're in the DANGER ZONE)
L7uw4Xg.jpg


The top two pieces here are two I specially printed to test with. One is same construction as cases are (wall thickness, layer counts), but roughly 1/4 size. The other is with extra thick walls and a double thickness bottom. However, they are both printed in "Sage" PLA (which is more like a desert tan assault rifle color). Both of these I really pushed on hard to see if they'd bend and they do not give at all. The are warm to the touch but feel a lot cooler than the black.
kzeC1r1.jpg


The bottom one here is another PLA case, this time in "Amber Translucent". This case doesn't even feel warm.
ZdcVyzK.jpg
 
Steve_M said:
LANAAAAAA!
Click to expand...
:-D

Continuing testing, I had a case that didn't print so well and put a HeaterMeter in it and put it in the sun. It didn't deform itself but I could easily smoosh the plastic. You can see the outline of the microsd card holder on the Pi here. Only the side that was face up got hot enough to bend, but I tried both sides and each had the same result. It is interesting to note that this is a new roll of eSun Black PLA, different than the FLIR test's roll.
DKoSCCa.jpg


Print settings might make a difference (0.6mm nozzle):
  • 0.24mm first layer, 0.78mm width
  • 0.30mm layers 0.72 width
  • 2 solid bottom layers, 3 solid top

I may try another print with 3 solid bottom layers to see if that makes it more solid.
 
thanks for doing all the testing which confirms my findings. :(
i guess my case is still under waranty. i'll ask for a new one *lol*
i can live with the deformation, but it's not nice to look at and doesn't look very professional. i guess i will ask for a new case amber colored and ABS.
 
I've stopped carrying the Black PLA cases in the HeaterMeter store because they seem to ride the line if left in direct sunlight.

I've switched over to eSUN ABS+ which is supposed to have lower shrinkage and help prevent warping. I don't know what's in it to give it the + but it definitely has a lower glass transition temperature than traditional ABS. With the old I could run the heatbed at 110C and a large printed square of 0.70mm thickness would be transitioning to melty. At 105C with the ABS+ I am fully past Tg in that you can pick it up and it can't maintain its shape. It shows similar properties to the pure ABS somewhere just above 100C. eSUN claims 0.4% shrinkage although they don't state between what two temperatures (I assume 220C -> 30C) and they compare that to 8% for ABS. However, I believe that's just a typo because it should be closer to 0.8% for ABS shrinkage.

I ran a test on a case printed with the ABS+ in full sunlight (ambient 31C, UV index 11, solar radiation 835watts/m2) and the case heated to 60C (139F) and it still solid as a rock. I'd estimate it would have to get closer to 90C to get to the same place the PLA got in terms of starting to lose its composure.

EDIT: Looks like eSUN has published data on their filaments. They list a "Distortion Temp" of 56C for PLA and we can definitely hit that. ABS is 78C and ABS+ is 73C. Not as high as I expected so actually it looks like black cases of any material have a chance of distorting under some pretty extreme circumstances. If you're BBQing in central Australia in the middle of summer with 45 degree temperatures, you may want to shade your black HeaterMeter case!
 
Last edited:
Bryan Mayland said:
I've stopped carrying the Black PLA cases in the HeaterMeter store because they seem to ride the line if left in direct sunlight.

I've switched over to eSUN ABS+ which is supposed to have lower shrinkage and help prevent warping. I don't know what's in it to give it the + but it definitely has a lower glass transition temperature than traditional ABS. With the old I could run the heatbed at 110C and a large printed square of 0.70mm thickness would be transitioning to melty. At 105C with the ABS+ I am fully past Tg in that you can pick it up and it can't maintain its shape. It shows similar properties to the pure ABS somewhere just above 100C. eSUN claims 0.4% shrinkage although they don't state between what two temperatures (I assume 220C -> 30C) and they compare that to 8% for ABS. However, I believe that's just a typo because it should be closer to 0.8% for ABS shrinkage.

I ran a test on a case printed with the ABS+ in full sunlight (ambient 31C, UV index 11, solar radiation 835watts/m2) and the case heated to 60C (139F) and it still solid as a rock. I'd estimate it would have to get closer to 90C to get to the same place the PLA got in terms of starting to lose its composure.

EDIT: Looks like eSUN has published data on their filaments. They list a "Distortion Temp" of 56C for PLA and we can definitely hit that. ABS is 78C and ABS+ is 73C. Not as high as I expected so actually it looks like black cases of any material have a chance of distorting under some pretty extreme circumstances. If you're BBQing in central Australia in the middle of summer with 45 degree temperatures, you may want to shade your black HeaterMeter case!
Click to expand...

Yes I have printed a case using PLA and it warped so bad it damaged the SD card slot on the PI board. I bent the pins back, and got it working but I have long switched to ABS, my PLA printer is collecting dust. ABS seems to be the way to go on parts that get hotter than 110 degrees f. In hellzona its common to get to that temperature without the sun beating down on things. I have used the e-Sun abs and it's pretty good. I use a 0.05 shrinkage on my Simplify3d settings. Now simplify3d and, my Flash forge Dreamer spit out pretty good results with abs.
 
Just as a case in point (no pun intended) I have printed MANY cases in black, and any unit I sell now is in black. I live (soon to change) in Western Australia, and the summers can get quite hot. Temps of 113 aren't out of the norm for a hot summer. I have had no issues with black ABS. It may be my print settings. I print all my cases at 0.2 mm and 50% infill. I have yet to have a case deform.

I saw this thread a few months ago,and as a test, I left a case out in the heat for a few days. Granted, it was just about our season change from Fall to Winter, but still saw temps of 90+ and the ever so crunching Aussie Sun. No deformation.

Maybe it's kudos to my filament supplier?I don't know.
 
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