Author Topic: Enclosure for mcGateway  (Read 764 times)

eldaria

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Enclosure for mcGateway
« on: September 30, 2016, 05:34:02 am »
Hello Everyone.

I wanted an enclosure for the mcGateway, so I made one in Tinkercad for my 3D printer.
It is quite tight fit, and my printer was not able to do it so very nice, so I might modify it one day, but for now it was good enough for me.

Here is a link in case anyone else want to give it a go.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1798888

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mr_mcthing

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2016, 02:01:56 am »
Nice! I have one printed today. Lets see if it fits :) Did you also make an enclosure for the mc-modules? I would be interested in those files too. If I have my enclosure printed I will upload an image here.
I ordered one through https://www.3dhubs.com lets see how that works out :)

eldaria

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2016, 02:27:59 am »
No I did not make one for the mcModule, I'm waiting for the one mcThings were going to send, not sure what has happened with the though.
Let me know how your fit is, mine was as I said a bit tight but it works. :-)

ajohnson

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2016, 02:53:23 pm »
There's a post about a printable enclose here: http://mcthings.createaforum.com/misc/re-post-enclosures/

mr_mcthing

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2016, 02:24:29 am »
Thanks I knew I'd seen them but could not find it any more :)

kbrooking

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2016, 11:12:11 pm »
Nice. How much would you guess it costs you to print one of those? How fast can the printer print one out?

mr_mcthing

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2016, 03:04:28 pm »
I went to 3dhubs.com and selected one of the 3d printing services nearby :) Collecting it myself cost me approx 7 Euro for the mcGateway and two modules. The mcGateway enclosure is, as already mentioned by "It is quite tight fit". But since I'm not a 3d-designer I use it as it is now. The enclosures for the modules are fine (not waterproof though).
so if any-one else is willing to design some state of the art enclosures (for all the hardware, including the dongle and if possible waterproof) than that would be interesting to see. And sharing the 3d print files to use would even better :)

Of course we are also still waiting to receive the enclosures form mcThings (Kickstarter)!

ajohnson

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2016, 05:09:23 pm »
The cost for me is hard to estimate.  My wife bought me the printer (a wanhao duplicator i3 clone) for my birthday so I suppose that can't really be factored in, but at some point it might be a consideration.  The 1kg spool of PLA material it's using to "print" the enclosures was $23.  ABS and PETG prices are similar.

A single mcModule enclosure with lid from the files linked above on "fast" takes this printer 45 minutes and it says it requires 6 grams of material, but I decided to put 3 of them down at once, which for some reason took 2 hours and 19 grams.  I had no trouble with those...

... but I'm trying to print the gateway and lid now, a much larger set of objects, and it says it will take 5.5 hours with 39 grams of material, but I've failed 3 times now and aborted after about 3 hours each time, so that's material wasted.  I probably need to clean the bed better, or maybe try just printing the lid and base separately.

eldaria

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2016, 04:33:07 am »
Hi Everyeon,

If you do print the McGateway Enclusure, please add pictures to the "Made" Section, I'm curious on how it turns out on other printers.

I'm trying to print the gateway and lid now, a much larger set of objects, and it says it will take 5.5 hours with 39 grams of material, but I've failed 3 times now and aborted after about 3 hours each time, so that's material wasted.  I probably need to clean the bed better, or maybe try just printing the lid and base separately.

It is usually not a good idea to print two seprate things at the same time, some printers can do it, but I usually can't.
Also depending on your printer the lid can be tricky due to warping, and is problem I also have with very flat objects.
What I do is add a skirt to hold down the print. It sometimes helps, otherwise it is more expensive printers with heated beds that does it better.

possible waterproof

3D printed stuff are really difficult to make water-proof, the plastic itself usually contains microfractures so it will leak all over. Possibly with some after treatment to seal the plastic could work.

ajohnson

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2016, 05:38:37 pm »
After several attempts, I have a set (box & lid) I'm ok with.  Photos are on your thingverse section.  For some reason all my lids (3) came out a tad short in length, even when I printed them 90 degrees rotated.  Not overly so though.

Now I can get back to software development :)

eldaria

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2016, 05:47:25 pm »
After several attempts, I have a set (box & lid) I'm ok with.  Photos are on your thingverse section.  For some reason all my lids (3) came out a tad short in length, even when I printed them 90 degrees rotated.  Not overly so though.

Now I can get back to software development :)

Looks nice, your print is much more detailed. On mine it is not possible to read the text for the buttons it's just a bunch of dots.
Not sure why your lid came out short, It is supposed to be a bit smaller than the box so that it kind of sinks into the box and is flat, but there should not be any "gaps".
But I can see that I probably should work on the design and maybe make it a bit taler, since your also looks very tight. ;-)


ajohnson

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Re: Enclosure for mcGateway
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2016, 11:51:17 am »
Quote
On mine it is not possible to read the text for the buttons it's just a bunch of dots

Heh.  I printed one like that at 100mm/s.  I assumed I should go higher res.  The print went from 5.5 hours to 11.  I didn't realize the lid was supposed to fit inside, although the higher res one definitely shows the seating it should go in.  I may have to trim it in a few spots if I take it apart again.  I just used some screws that I had lying about so I may not mess with it until I find some better ones.