week4-critical making 3D

In Jolliffe's article there were mentioned eight missing projects and we had to pick one of them and create an object for it. The goal was to learn how to draw in 3D programme - Fussion 360. Beside that what was important, to develop an object which is actually going to express the intention of the project and also to learn about fitting the hardware pieces in it.

THE MAKER CONSUMPTION METER

I chose this object because it seemed very interesting due to its intention and relevance nowadays, when the energy and costs are most concerning part of the development of the product. It also consisted only out of three components so I thought would be a good starting point to get to know working with hardware and 3D printing.

PROCESS OF MAKING THE 3D OBJECT

On Monday after we have received the assignment we were talking with Duy-Linh and Wouter about the plan how to proceed. Since there was no real plans or directions created I started to research the maker consumptions meters but I didn't find many of the examples or inspirational structures. Instead I was trying to search for inspiring textures which I could achieve by 3D printing it.

measuring the components

-before we started to develop our own 3D objects, we had to take apart the electronic objects in order to see how they are built, which parts they consist of and how the hardware is placed inside of them
-I got to work with Duy-Linh and Wouter who has a lot of knowledge about electronics and that is why he helped us understand the construction of the electronic radio/speaker
-first we took apart the flash light with integrated radio and generator (picture 1)
-next object which we took apart was a LED light (picture 2)

In order to be able to fit the components into the object, first step is to measure all the hardware, with the smallest details. The most important element is to be as precise as possible.
Since the numbers are so small, there is a chance with measuring it twice you will get different results but that is because of the pressure you apply to the material since it is quite fragile. In that case I took the bigger measurement.

learning about the programme

getting inside into the electronic objects

To learn about critical making of the objects and get the knowledge about 3D printing.

On Tuesday nobody was at school so I got the advantage of Kaj explaining me everything about the Fusion 360 programme. I was so lucky because I didn't have any previous experiences with it, so all the informations were at the end very helpful. He explained me about the basic functions first, sketches, objects, how to make curved lines, how to change perspective of an object, how to create holes, extrude forms etc.

I started with talking to Kaj about all the possible solutions how to disassemble the object, so that you can easily change the components or batteries for example. The easiest option was to include the screws which would connect two parts. Other solution could be as well making a box with a turning screw but that would require a bit more knowledge about Fusion 360 so I decided to go with the first one to disassemble it with screws.

I've printed the object with the support. First time I have send it to print on Friday, Kaj has noticed that one of the technicians didn't set up the support for both of the objects, so the second object would collapse.
We noticed it at the right time so we choose other settings and printed it again with support on both of the objects.
Important part was to turn the object on the side which is less visible, otherwise while removing the support it would have had bad finishings.

inductor-it filters out high frequency components

FM(frequency modulation)/AM(amplitude modulation) receiver: modulation technique

motor (blue one), generator and DC motor, depending on the type of usage

Instructions:
If you are like most Makers, your imagination for the possibilities of technology and the fun it entails means you have a hard time keeping up with the costs of your Maker practice. The Maker Consumption Meter solves this in a jiffy! It keeps an ongoing record of the materials, energy, and cash expended on Maker projects, and sends an hourly, daily or weekly tally of your consumption to your choice of Twitter, Facebook or a plain old HTML web page.

Components:
-arduino
-button
-display

My priority this week was to learn how to use Fusion 360 so with that in mind I decided to make an object a bit more simple with still few detailed finishings, on which I could focus and experiment with it a bit more.

1st: made a rectangular solid, reshaped/curved the edges
2nd: negatively extruded the object
3rd:covered the rectangular solid again and placed the cylinders for the screws, extruded them negatively
4th: made a rectangular hole for the LED display
5th: split the object in two parts
6th: made a hole for the button
7th: added a texture on top
8th: added the corners around the holes for the screws to fit nicely

The LED display and button fitted into the box but Arduino board didn't because I miss measured the width of the Arduino board and consequently placed the cylinders too close together.