Parallax Housing

This project was done with the intent of having practical experience with the complete design and production cycle. The problem was simple: the parallax home board is a delicate piece of hardware which needs a protective casing. Here’s the critical parts of the project:

• measuring

• design

• print

• post-processing

Measuring

The first step is to get measurements from the real world to determine parameters of design. Examination of the board tells me a few things: overall dimensions, connections or pre-casings, and obstructions.

Getting overall dimensions is simple: measuring tape or a ruler. Note that the design software specifies in millimeters, so gathering numbers in that way prevents conversion frustration later.

This board does have a pre-casing feature, in the form of a hole through the board in each of the four corners. I can use these to specify how it’s best for the board to sit in the design.

Obstruction off the board is the USB-B port on the top edge of the board. A notch or cutaway of some kind in the casing that allows us to plug in will be needed.

With these constraints in mind, we dive into Autodesk’s Fusion360 design software.

Design

The preliminary structure is simple: a base to hold the board in place for programming. This doesn’t need to be the full protective case yet; that will be developed as we understand the placement during programming. But we do want something to safely hold the board above potential spills while it sits on the workbench for coding and testing.

More design to come as I actually build the shell, not just the work board. The next part of the project, though, is the printing.

Printing

The print job on this project actually turned out very well. I ran through the normal pre-print sequence:

Clean the print bed and re-apply adhesive to print area. Check the nozzle and remove/clean if needed. Check the material spool and remove any knots or tangles. Fasten, clean, and prepp print bed to the bed heater unit. Verify bed level and re-level if needed. Verify dimensions and temperatures.

This is one of the last prints I’ll run on the standard print bed which comes with the Creality Ender 3 Printer. A glass bed will provide stability and cohesion. Coming soon…