3D Printing Component Parts for Electronic Project

The major project for our classroom students that has run for the past year and this coming year is a scientific project involving using sound lures to assist with pest trapping in New Zealand.   You can view details of the project on this blog here.

Part of the project involves the students producing electronic circuits.   The circuits (shown left) have been produced by students and adults and houses in IP rated boxes to protect them from the elements.  As can be seen from the photograph there is a need to develop additional inserts to be placed inside the boxes to minimise any movement that occurs when the units are transported or moved.   The 3D Printer has proven ideal to do this and also it has proved an excellent introduction to the students who are part of the classroom in 2021 and are 3D Printing for the first time.

Challenge: To produce customised pieces to protect or hold an electronic project in place to minimise movement.

Design Difficulty: Low - these pieces are inserted into exisiting electroincs project and into exisitng boxing as a consequence the design needs to suit purpose, as such these prints are not limited by how they look instead dictated by functionality.  In the example shown on the left the battery for the project can be seen in its 3D Printed design case.   This is able to be super-glued onto the base of the box, which then is able to anchor the bread board and hold the battery in place.  In the unlkely event of any moisture entering the box the battery and the breadboard are now raised off the bottom of the box to add a further element of protection.  Moving forward we may look at using a laser cutter to produce a MDF/Wood variation which would allow the possibility of adding a further level of moisture protection to the unit, which is being deployed in Winter in New Zealand.

As shown left with the battery holder element of the 3D Printing inserted.  As a result the breadboard is now raised from its initial position and held in position by the battery box.   As we are working on individualised units and refining and developing them constantly the felxibility of using a 3D Printer at this point makes it ideal to produce unique pieces to suit the unit.

Size: The battery lipo battery dictated the size of the battery holder.  The unit measured 60mm by 40mm and was 20mm high.   The pins and wires that can be seen in the photograph are reflective of the units being individually created so we would look at bringing the length of the wires into the design to consider the box.

We have various battery sizes that we have been using in the project and again the flexibility of the 3D Printer in this case allows us to modify those depending on the size that we want to trial and use.

Timeframe: One hour for the battery holder.

What we would do differently: We need a second unit to be printed to house the breadboard.  The student have been trying to identify the best fit for the unit to allow the breadboard to be housed, to be securely based around the component pieces and also removed as required if additional changes to the unit need to be made.   None of these prints shown left would be considered major designs all have been about an hour in print length and are roughly the same dimensions to fit into the box 60mm by 80mm.    This project will continue and we will also use the 3D Prints to develop a prototype for a potential laser cut out of MDF wood to help the project with the absorbing of moisture that could enter the unit.   We will continue to update this on our page.