✨🎀🧸MY INPUT DEVICE🎀🧸✨

Hey there sis, welcome to this week's assignment where we're gonna learn how to make an input device meeting an output device also. Omg I know it sounds soooo challenging but I swear it´s not that hard let´s go!

So for this assignment I decided to 3D print a tiny bird that could sing everytime you plant was super moist or super dry, I had this idea since 2 years ago but didn´t knew how to pul it off so here´s the deal.

First picture this: You're strolling through your lush green garden, and suddenly, you hear the melodious chirping of birds. Nice uh? okay so in your house these birds aren't your ordinary feathered friends; they're your garden's very own guardians, equipped with gorgeous technology that will make your plants happy.

This got me chirping girl, but what does output and input device mean? OMG i´m totally lost

Alright sis, buckle up for a super fast course in tech language!

So, let's start with the input device. Think of it as the gateway for your gadgets to gather info from the outside world. It's like having super-sensitive antennas that pick up signals and translate them into a language your device can understand. Take our humidity sensor, for example. It's like a little detective sniffing out clues about how moist or dry the soil is. It measures the humidity levels and then shoots that data over to your device. SO YES. BEING SENSITIVE IT´S NOT A BAD THING LOL.

Now, the output device, this is where the fun happens! It's like the megaphone of the tech world, taking all that juicy info from the input device and shouting it out loud, or, you know, displaying it in some way. Our speaker is a prime example. It takes the signals from our humidity sensor and blasts them out as sound waves. So, when your garden's feeling thirsty or drowning, the speaker belts out a tune to let you know. SO YES. BEING LOUD IS NICE.

Okay now that you rock the tech language, let's break it down. We've got our input device, the humidity sensor, and our output device, the speaker, ready to rock and roll. But what exactly do they do? Well, imagine the humidity sensor as the garden's personal weather reporter. It constantly monitors the moisture levels in the soil, keeping the info on whether your plants are feeling parched or drowning in too much water. And when it senses a change in the weather, it sends a signal to our speaker, our garden's very own songbird.

For a better knowledge, feel free to check the Electronic Design week below

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Puebla´s Fab academy class of week 4

All about the 3D bird design

Excellent darling, now let's get into the steps for crafting this adorable birdy buddy buzzer. I decided to design this in the super powerfull Catia software and this is how I did it (feel free to dive into your creative process and use the software you feel more comfortable with).

First off, we're gonna unleash the power of the spline tool to sketch out the shape of our bird's body. Think of it as sculpting a super fat mountain.

Next up, we're gonna kick it into high gear with the shaft tool, also known as revolve. This bad boy takes our sketch and spins it around, giving our bird a 3D form. Now, let's not forget about the tail! We'll draw it out from the center and use the pad tool to give it some thickness, around 10mm to be precise.

To smooth out those rough edges and give our bird a sleek finish, we'll sprinkle in some edge fillets. This is the secret for making every design you make look fierce.

Now, let's give our bird some personality with those little eyes! We'll hop on the central plane, draw out a line perpendicular to it, making sure our bird's gaze is looking upwards at a cute 45-degree angle. Then, we'll whip up a new plane (you know, just to keep things in a 3d parallel design) and drill in two 3mm holes for the eyes. A little pocket action, and wooohoo, it´s done!

Time to sculpt that beak! We'll switch gears to the central plane (ssoooo sorry old plane, you've served us well), sketch out that beak shape, and add in some edge fillets for that perfect pout. A total of 2mm should do the trick. And don't forget the magic touch - the mirror extent tool! We'll mirror our creations to ensure our birdy buddy is perfectly symmetrical from all angles.

And that´s it! now it´s time to paint!

MY CUTE painting carousel

My pretty table of components

SOPHIE´S ESP 8266	Where to buy?	Amount	Price	Total price
Proto Board FR1	Digikey	1/4 board	$24.80 MXN/unit	$24.80 MXN
AMS1117 3.3V	Digikey	1	$12.80 MXN/unit	$12.80 MXN
1uF capacitor 50V	Digikey	1	$7.30 MXN/unit	$7.30 MXN
ESP-12-F	Mercado Libre	1	$90.00 MXN/unit	$90 MXN
Switch 1206	Ckswitches	1	$0.80 MXN/unit	$0.80 MXN
SMD capacitor 1206	Yageo	1	$37.00 MXN/unit	$37.00 MXN
10kΩ resistor	Digikey	6	$3.40 MXN/unit	$20.40 MXN
LED	Digikey	1	$6.60 MXN/unit	$6.60 MXN
0kΩ resistor	Mercado Libre	14	$19.00 MXN/unit	$266.00 MXN
Male 2 row vertical header	Digikey	33	$4.00 MXN/unit	$62.00 MXN
			Total cost	$527.70 MXN

Look my pretty 3D perfect model

PLUS my fab files

NOOOW... let´s convert the 🎀files🎀 into Gcode (setting that toolpath)

Okay so for the correct reading of my file in the gorgeous ROLAND SRM-20 machine I had to generate my GCode in the Mods CE server. Let me break down the steps for you because even tough it looks a little bit difficult, it will be easier than you think.

First things first, I visited the server and got ready to dive in (okay I was very nervous). Once I was in, I opened the program and selected the Roland SRM-20 PCB option.

Next up, I chose the PNG file I wanted to carve. It's all about picking the right design but for this assignment our FabLab Puebla friends gave me everything I needed for an amazing carving experience. I learned that there are servers like ------- and ----- that will help you design your PCB. Then, I left the defaults as they were (because hey, if it ain't broke, why fix it?).

For the cut image I had to hit the invert button so the Roland could carve just where I wanted it

After that, I headed straight to the Mill Raster 2D option. Here's where the magic of the wizzard happens! I gave it a 2 offset number—just a little tweak to make sure everything turns out perfectly.

Now the next step: setting the x, y, z values to zero. It's like telling the machine, "This is your origin" Getting those coordinates right is key to getting the perfect carve (among other things of course).

And finally, the moment of truth: I hit download! The file saved with a .rml ending, like a digital signature saying, "I'm ready to carve, sooo hungry for the copper plate guuuuuurl!"

This were my beautiful parameters:

My sacrificial bedding ⚰️💀

For this week's assignment, we had to cut a sacrificial bed in MDF to fit the Roland machine's measurements so we wouldn't mess up the aluminum panel underneath. Our teachers hooked us up with a DXF cutting file, so I went ahead and cut and engraved it using the laser cutter.

This were the parameters that worked out for me and my graving and cutting situation

Max power: 37%

Min power: 30%

Vpanel instructions but CUTE🌷 (setting that toolpath part 2)

Okay so imma tell you what you need to know to about the Vpanel program to get the ROLAND SRM-20 machine to do its thing on your pretty copper plate, here's the deal: First, I calibrated in x, then in y, and then the z-axis is where we mark our starting point. So, I swapped out the engraving tool for this super cool V-angle one. After I finshed, I did another calibration, but this time just in z, so I could pop in my 0.8 mm diameter cutting tool. Oh, and remember, when you're putting your tools in the holder, make sure it's not too tight! Gotta leave it loose so we can do that last bit of calibration by hand and make sure it's all perfect. Don't wanna break the tool when it goes down in z, you know girl...?

For this week´s assignment my board was a fail because idk why my file exported with a problem in the board´s size, it´s originally a 10cm board and it ended up being a 5cm one...