clockspring3D

RPi High Quality Camera Housing!

Hey there, wonderful people!

I think I spent longer turning this camera around in my hands and staring at it than I did actually implementing the housing.  There was a lot of frowning and visualising how things might go together, which is how a lot of these things start.

The approach I'd taken with the other Raspberry Pi cameras simply wasn't going to work for this one, because I wanted the housing to fit around the board without requiring the lens to be removed, and the lens...

I Like My Icosahedra Truncated!

I can't stay away from geometric shapes!  

You may recall the cube, dodecahedron, and others that went together with interior brackets and exterior bolts.  Well, those weren't big enough!  This polyhedron uses the same hexagonal and pentagonal pieces bolted together to make a truncated icosahedron, which is probably most familiar as the classic soccer ball design.

So, let's...

New Camera Housings for the Sentinel Pi Case!

Who knew there were so many cameras for the Raspberry Pi!  The Sentinel case included a mount for the classic RPi camera, but there are a few more that are worthy of supporting.  

First up, the common IR camera, pictured above.  This one is probably the most fun from a pure aesthetics point of view, since it undeniably looks like a robot :D

You'll notice that the enclosure ...

Knurled Branch Tube! (and longer segments!)

Hey there wonderful people!

By popular demand, the branch tube is now available in a different outer texture!  This time it's a knurled finish, and being a relatively fine pattern it won't be obvious if the patterns don't precisely sync up between parts.  Also, the texture feels nice :)

There are a couple of longer individual segments too, both in the original and knurled versions - the files are labelled with their lengths, and they're just longer versions of the standa...

Jupiter Box - Print in place screw-bolt closure!

Hey there, wonderful people!

The Jupiter Box was inspired in a way by the Operator Box in that I really like the way the screw closure locks it securely.  The screw part on that container is a separately printed part, though, and I wondered if I could come up with a similarly-secure mechanism that was completely print-in-place.  Since you're reading this, it was a success! 

Sentinel Pi Case (Pi3B and Pi4B)

Howdy, amazing people!  This is a long post! :D

The way ideas and designs develop is something that really intrigues me, even when I'm in the middle of it!  Yep, it's another Raspberry Pi case, and while this one is somewhat more ambitious than the other recent ones it couldn't have come about without them paving the way (and providing a few design elements).

I had a couple of particular design goals here:

1) A Pi camera mount had to be involved.

2) Cooling f...

Branch Tube!

Howdy, wonderful people!

I can't deny it, I love assembling things!  It's the reason we have designs such as the bolted polyhedra and the epicyclic kaleidocycle - I really like putting stuff together.  And this storage tube/caddy/thing very much comes from the same place.  These are big, substantial elements, though, no little bolts here!

Initially, I was just planning to make a tube with a base and a lid, but somehow the idea of splitting the tube into two directio...

Recaps and Rejects!

Hey there, wonderful people!

Another month zooms by!  And in between the things that got posted, some other stuff veered off in other directions, evolved into other forms, or went crashing off into the undergrowth.  Join me on this salvage expedition...

Connecting Drawers: So Close, but Not Quite There

This was one that aaalmost made it.  It works, and it has some design features that I'm somewhat proud of (the interior guides and stops at the...

Verticality Box - Stackable Edition!

"Why doesn't the Verticality Box stack? It looks like it would stack!"

And now it does!

I have to agree, that inset lid looks very nice and stable, and it seemed a shame that the box wouldn't just stack in there.  But, that lid... I like that lid!  As usual, I'm driven by shape and proportions, and I just really like the way that lid fits into the top of the box, so I didn't want to change any of it.  So I changed the base instead!

The base now mimics the top,...

Breezy Pi Case Update: Hex and Pi3B Versions

Howdy, always-wonderful people!

By popular demand, here's a version of the Pi4B with a hexagonal pattern!  And, by popular demand, I mean someone suggested it and hexagons are the best, so there you go.  Note that there's no camera cable slot in the hex version - best to stick with the regular Breezy case if you need that feature!

By actual popular demand, though, both versions of the Breezy case now also have a Pi3B (and compatible boards) model!  

<...

Go Tall! Compressor Box Embiggened!

Hey there, wonderful people!

The compressor box is just the right size for game cards, and it seems like people have a lot of those, so here's a taller version! 

This taller version is almost twice as tall (80mm vs 152mm externally, if I recall correctly), but the internal capacity will be more than double once we consider the overhead of the lid itself within the box.  So, it'll hold quite a lot more!

2020-06-27 16:00:52 +0000 UTC View Post

Pi4B Breezy Case!

Hi, wonderful people!

Apparently Pi4Bs are a popular thing right now!  And one significant difference between it and the previous generations is that a cooling fan is no longer really optional.  So, I had a bunch of requests asking for a spot to mount a 30mm fan.  Usually, you'd just add a spot to take some bolts, but where's the fun in that!  

I started by experimenting with friction-fit clips, but the variability between printers means it's tough to get somet...

Patreon keeps bugging me to write about Sales Tax!

Howdy, my favourite people in the world!

I have some actual printing stuff to post, but before we get to that, let's talk about taxes!

Sales tax!  I'm not sure there's a more dry topic than that.  However, Patreon is quite insistent that I write something about it, so here we are!  You've probably already had emails about it like I have, but the upshot is that Patreon was not collecting sales taxes (i.e. VAT, GST, whatever) in all countries that it should, and they'...

Compressor [Card] Box!

A box with variable volume!  This idea had been on my mind for ages, but I'd invariably ended up going in some other direction when sketching it out - but no longer!  The concept was relatively simple - a lid with a screw mechanism to lower and secure it at any arbitrary point.

Funnily enough, the box body itself remained almost completely unchanged through the design process, despite my rubbish bin filling with discarded lid prototypes.  Some ideas caused too much fricti...

Tessellator Tray!

Hey there, wonderful people!

3D printing never ceases to get me enthused.  There really is an endless sea of possibilities out there to explore.  This started off with thoughts of chainmail.  Well, kind of.  Lets call it linked, repeating parts.  NASA did some awesome chainmail-ish stuff a while back, and I started with that in the back of my mind, designing a fairly convoluted linkage structure that sat on the back of an array of squares.  

I printed...

The Operator Box

Howdy, wonderful people!
I was clearly channelling my favourite science fiction design tropes while I put this one together!  It's all fins, slabs and mesh with oversized moving parts for a super-industrial style.  Think spaceship access panels and service ducts, supply crates and emergency escape kits...

The box prints front-down, with the lid and body already assembled via that big hin...

Mailbag! Pi4B case, nozzle tray and more!

Hey there wonderful people!  

I get a ton of great feedback on designs, especially along the lines of "hey, it would be really cool if..."  And that's what the models in this post are all about.  Some things had a heap of requests (Pi4B case, I'm looking at you!), and some much less so but seemed like a fun idea... let's have a look!

Hinged Pi4B Case

That's right, it's much like the Pi3B hinged case, but with the port layout of the Pi4B!  ...

Radiator Box!

The vertical slots just somehow said "radiator" to me, so Radiator Box it is.

Howdy, wonderful people!  Somehow, there are still more approaches to hinged lids out there - like this one!  So, what's so different here?

First, the obvious part: on this box the shape of the lid is almost completely arbitrary - it's curved on both top and bottom, no flat bits - the part that sits against the bed is essentially part of an extended hinge at the back.

2020-06-08 14:01:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Mission SD Card Box!

Hey there, wonderful people!  

The pile of SD cards sitting under my monitor almost resembled some kind of order, in as much as the cards were at least in one place.  But at some point it occurred to me that life could be better.  And now it is!  So let's have a look at this design.

The most obvious thing is that this is an assembly.  The base is made up of two parts, an inner and an outer, and they can be printed in different colours for extra fanciness. ...

Live by the Pliers, Die by the Pliers (a May recap!)

Howdy, wonderful people!  Yep, pliers, tremendously useful when developing designs, especially ones with moving parts.  Test prints take time, so when I wonder "hey, what if I only had two cogs there, rather than three?" out come the pliers, and hopefully I get some insights without waiting for yet another print to finish.  

The pliers certainly had a workout this month...

Tearing up the locking cogs...

The example above of course was taken di...

A Small Box and a Pi Zero Case

Hey there wonderful people!

It's probably not a surprise that I made a hinged case for a Raspberry Pi Zero, but this was completely unplanned.  The thing is, I had a Pi Zero W arrive that I'd ordered aaaaages ago and had largely forgotten was on the way, so I sat down and made an enclosure for it.  I have of course made enclosures in the past, but those didn't have hinges, so where's the fun in that!

But yes, unplanned, and in fact this was something I was poking around ...

Machine Box!

Howdy, wonderful people!  

I think this might be my new favourite box, at least for a little while :)  So fidgety!

As is fairly apparent, this is a variation on the Machine Canister, except (a) it's rectangular, and (b) it has only one latching pin.  And, it's a bit smaller than its rather large sibling!

Much as I love hexagonal boxes, they do present complexities whe...

Hinged Pi Case Variations!

Hey there, wonderful people!  By popular demand, I've made a few variations to the Hinged Pi3B case to suit a few more use cases.  The SD card access slot is also bigger now, too, including on the original case, which now has a new version.

So, we now have the following:

1) Original case.

2) Case with camera cable slot.

3) Case with GPIO pins accessible and camera ca...

Hinged Pi3B (and others) Case!

Hey there wonderful people!

I had a question recently as to whether my Pi Zero cases could be adjusted to fit a larger sized board, and that made me wonder why I'd never made such a thing anyway.  I looked at the sadly neglected Pi sitting just nearby and got to work.

Now, there are a million cases out there, but I had two particular design goals:

1) I wanted a hinged case, rather than two distinct pieces.  This means a more robust closure, and increased interestin...

Taller Machine Canister!

Single!  Double!  Triple!  

Hello, hello, wonderful people!  Well, a lot of people said yes to taller two-piece machine canisters, so taller canisters we have!

While the height of these things is fairly arbitrary, I did want to try to tie together the different heights so that they'd look relatively sensible against each other.  So, we have the original single height, a new double height and a new triple height!  Though, the dimensions aren't precisel...

2P Machine Canister! That is, separate lid and body :)

Hey there wonderful people!  I stopped twirling cogs on the Machine Canister long enough to do up this two-piece version.  And it does actually have some interesting design considerations that differ from the original, hinged version.

At first glance, I figured hey, I'll just remove the hinges and tidy things up, and all will be easy.  And, that would have been true if the box body remained printed upside-down, but that seemed a bit pointless.  Printing box bodies up...

Machine Canister!

Hey there, wonderful people!  Welcome back to the land of gears!  

Here we have a large hexagonal container, with a hinged lid latched closed by a trio of cogs driven by one central handle.  As usual, it's all print-in-place and requires no supports!  

Funnily enough, this all came out of the little gear contraption I posted in the end-of-month wrap-up! &nbs...

Mini Facade Crates - complex colour schemes from simple filament swaps!

Hey there, wonderful people!

I really like designs that invite filament switching mid-print for interesting colour effects, but generally speaking those tend to just result in a layered look.  That's not a bad thing, but sometimes you want something more complicated.  Generally, this results in designing assemblies, but I wondered if there could be a middle ground.

The concept here was pretty simple - could we have connected parts that print on one plane, and then move t...

April Evolutions and a Potion Flask

Howdy, wonderful people!  

As always, scrolling back to the start of the month feels like looking back to a long time ago.  The side-drive geared box was April?  Crazy!  It feels like so much longer ago!

The Lost Flask!

Now, there were a few "flask" models posted this month, but there was one that I didn't end up publishing because it didn't really fit in with the style of the others.  That's it in the picture above - the Potion Flas...

Saloon Box!

Hey there wonderful people!  The end of April already - crazy!  Now, this isn't actually my end-of-month retrospective, it's a model!  That said, the retrospective post will talk through the evolution of this design, with photos of several other versions that preceded this one!

But first, let's talk about what we have here!

Well, clearly it's a hinged box (though it wasn't ...