_stage 6

Connections & wiring integration

BOX DESIGN

To protect the pcbs from corrosion and possible water coming inside the house, and to keep the wires in place and far from the temptation of my cat claws, I designed a box to contain the mcu, the bluetooth module, the battery (which I didn't use in the end), and a second container that protects this box so when my cat steps inside the house she won't step on the wires.
For the design, I was inspired by the beautiful integration my colleague Nick did for his final project for his pcb.

I used Adobe Illustrator and Rhinoceros as I was drawing mostly vectors not 3D shapes, as for the material.
First I started doing some initial prototypes to see how to assemble all together and what was the best structure to use integrating it to the design and spirit of the house.

I used kerf bending technique as I wanted to have a rounded edge on the box and because I really wanted to experiment a bit more using this technique.

First assembly and test of the parts:

The idea was to keep the battery inside the box to hide it and integrate it with all the system avoiding extra cables, but becuase of the issues I had and the time remaining I had I used an AC/DC cable adaptor and eventually an FTDI cable.

Only the necessary slots to connect the cables to the pin headers were left.

I then improved the lid cover as some holes where not matching the pin headers positioning and because I wanted to use another color of acrylic, some neon funky color.

I then did another cover to cover the first box. I used acrylic and I used a heat gun to bend the corners:

I used my new favorite material to cover and keep tidy the wires "spiral wap" whis is normally made of polyethylene, is felxible and is easy to use.

IMPROVEMENTS

_1 Improve the outer second box (the one that contains the hole system).
_2 Integrate better the power adaptor cable.
_3 Make an easier lateral opening to connect and disconnect the power adaptor from the PCB.

TASKS COMPLETED

_2D DESIGN ✔
_SUBTRACTIVE MANUFACTURING ✔
_SYSTEM INTEGRATION AND PACKAGING ✔
_Chàbùduō WIRING (very chinese term used to say more or less) ✔

_DOWNLOAD FILES

_EXTERNAL BOX-barrier
_INTERNAL BOX
_PCB support