3D Printed Sound Lure - Version 2.0

Above: The sound chip and the first stage of box protection

Challenge: To produce a box to allow a sound lure to be deployed outside - the box needs to be water proofed to reduce the chance that water can damage the electronics contained within the box.
Background: This is a significant project for the students in our classroom utilizing the 3D Printers to produce custom made boxes for sound lures that we are producing to work in conjunction with traditional traps for pests.   These pests are significant in New Zealand - as introduced initially to control rabbits they subsequently turned their attention to preying on native New Zealand bird species.   As a result of our work with local agencies we have looked at using technology to make these traps more effective - by using electronics to lure the predators towards traditional traps.   These sound lures require basic or medium level electronics that need to be deployed outside in the elements - we already know from repeated testing that the 3D Print filament will not be weathered the issue is whether or not the students can successfully soundproof the box while also allowing the sound from

The middle of the design to project the sound chip

the box to be heard to allow predators to hear it.   This is involving all students in the classroom, who are ten or eleven years old, to design boxes to hold the electronics.   This is not as straightforward as it seems as we have not completed the electronics project part yet - so the designs need to be flexible so that they can be adaptable for different sized chips.   In this design shown the chip is a greeting card sized chip that would produce a sound similar to a one watt speaker.   The balance between water proofing and adding the ability to disperse sound is providing challenging and once the electronics are confirmed the challenge will need to be adaptable to be completed successfully.  This is an ongoing project that our student will continue to be working on for a considerable length of time (the project
itself it is not anticipated that will be completed before the end of the 2019 Calendar Year.   The designs at present represent the students understanding of 'waterproofing' and need to be reflective of moisture as opposed to rain, as we have a 'roof' design shown in this process which does not overlap the base.

Middle Design - Showing the holes: are these two large

Level of Difficulty: High - this concept while it appears straightforward has a number of factors involved in it the most difficult is the balance between allowing the sound to be emitted from the box but not to allow water or moisture in particular to enter the box and have an affect on the electronics.   Traditionally designing the holes in 3D Printing design programs may ultimately not work and we suspect at this point that we may have to look at drilling into a solid box base with a drill with a small width to have the best results (this will be tested in the field later in the year to confirm).
Size: This print was completed in three main component pieces which are shown in the three main pictures with this post.   The base of the design which contains the part where the chip is located is a simple box design.   It is 80mm long 50mm wide and 10mm high.   The width of the sides of the box is 5mm.   The middle stage of the box, as shown in the second pictures has similar dimensions as listed above with the expectation of it being a solid block (with of course the five holes that are thought it).    The third component part is the roof.   This design was devised on the basis of a traditional sloping roof, with a basic triangular shape and four columns that were for the roof to be placed on the middle section.  The roof is 30mm high at its top point and the columns are 20mm high.   The dimensions of the roof are designed to work with the base.
Time Frame: The print, in its three component pieces were printed as a single job which took six hours.   There could have been a little additional attention paid to its dimensions (see below).
What we would do differently/next steps for the students: The roof does not extend over the base of the design - so the practical attention to detail would be if this was effective (obviously as we know that rain does not fall straight down, but when wind is included can come in from the angle, this provides limited protection).   The five holes that were introduced to allow the sound to come out from the microchip were not co-ordinated with the columns to hold the roof up - some of the holes underneath were covered completely by the support for the roof.   Sound testing will lead to this being considerable redesigned.