cube based system for decoration and technical applications

Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago

Next: will move over the gaming dice related stuff to a separate thing.
Latest addition:
3x3 LED schematics circuit (BETA)
3x3 LED pcb (BETA), outlines 38x38mm (40x40mm) image size 60x60mm, 1200 dpi
This is my take on making ( do not read raking in big money) a whole system of parts based on the cubes shape.
Mixing the parts together makes decoration, technical devices, switches, displays with LED,...
Put your pcb's in:
inside top part
before the top part
in the middle of the mid section
before the bottom part
inside the bottom part
Even more? Depends on the layer thicknes of each slice (pcb with parts and solder on the copper) plus some clearance distance between the stacked pcb's.
See below the old scholl pcb stack cube.
All parts are designed for lightwight application.
When you put something heavy on the mount / stand, please upright only.
Now almost all parts have the unified holes distances.
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Have you ever wanted to put as much as possible electronics in a tight space?
Make a stack from pcb's.
See below pointer to Harald Sattlers website.https://cdn.thingiverse.com/assets/de/34/41/d5/2c/featured_preview_stack1.JPG
See the pictures, it gives you the imagination, what is possible.
The pieces of foam (black and white) are 5mm thick).
shown with no batteries inside.
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The inspiration came from the Heliox LED dice.
The way she made it pulled me hairs. No good.
I had it primarily intended for decorating the living room.
Imagine blinking up to 9 dot LED's instead of the 6 LED on the classic dice.
A LED matrix made of 9 rectangular LED (10x10mm) could be made?
Even small animations, kind of running snake, could be made.
See a short video sequence
Rename the "dice red on black.mp4.txt", by removing the .txt extension.
With the 7-segment LED other applications can be had.
Now it has turned to a measuring frontpanel thing too.
Lets think about :
exposure-timer
egg-timer
3 minutes teeth brushing timer for the kids
Thermometer,
Humidity-meter
Volt-meter could check the voltage from power supply, car batterie, etc.
The power plug and the switch at the bottom get connected and secured in place by a separate pcb.
The mobile things can be powered by a cell coin or Super Capacitor.
NEW: Power from 2 pieces Akku AA 2/3 size
On permanent setups powering from external source.
The construction (mechanical):
For esthetical reason initially the dice measured 43x43x40mm.
Some demanding applications could require more space inside.
By printing a taller mid section it could be changed easily.
The dice can be build from 3 parts.
Choose one for the top, one for the bottom and allways the mid bottom.
All printable parts have been drawn from scratch.
All new parts have standoffs.
With the mid section (39.6mm) I have achieved a VERY good fit.
new parts come here sometimes
-battery holder 2AA 2/3 Akku, part goes inside the mid section
-bottom part with switch and holder 2AA 2/3 Akku
solid part for top / bottom, no extras
top / bottom with plug and switch
top with hidden 9 dot LED 5mm diameter
top / front with hidden 7-segment LED
top / front with visable 7-segment LED (hard to print)
top cut out 30.1x30.1mm (slightly wider hole distances)
mount plate with flange 64x64mm8
new bottom part for switch and some other stuff you might put in inside (Beta)
-clearance between pcb and the bottom inside the parts cave 7mm
-the switch goes downward
-standoffs holes distance 31mm
-standoffs 9mm hight, for thin plastic screws
-there is jut enough space for the switch and a holder for a cell coin( CR2032-CR2025),
cell holders are to tall, go topward

new bottom part with switch and 2x 2/3AA batteries (Beta) different hole spacing
The mid section, goes in between the top and bottom part.
If your printer works halfway dimensionally accurat try the part with the smaller inner diameter first.

mid section 39.6x43x43x31mm (raw from editor)
mid section 39.7x43x43x31mm (raw from editor)
mid section 40.0x43x43x31mm (raw from editor)https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3926580
Parts used (electronics):
3* 7-segment LED TFK TDR5160
3.5mm DC Power Jack Socket Female Panel Chassis Mount
shaft diameter 7.4mm
flange diameter 9.8mm
overall length with leads 16,7mm
body length 12mm
the monentary push button switch used
By chance the switch were made by France /USA based C&K, 25 years back in time.https://www.ckswitches.com/products/keyswitch/KS/
shape rectangular: square 9.9-10mm
travel 0,6mm
overall hight with leads: 11.3mm
body hight with cap without the positioning pins: 6.8mm
body without cap withoutpositioning pins: 6mm
Switches, other candidates:
RAFI (Germany) Of course, no CHINEESE CHEESE please
Racon 8 (width 8mm) used for industrial keyboards, automotive applications
The switch can be combined with several long/short pushers, caps.
0.34mm - thats not much travel! But it is doable.
.https://components.rafi.de/DE/DE/media/FOT_PV_RACON8-THT-OS_ING.jpg
Very similar the Racon12 series, little bigger sized
Taster S76M (mechanical switch)
force from 2,3N bis 12 N (automotive application)
Codes:
There are some codes driving the ATTiny13 in question.
some of them require the Arduino IDE other do with Atmel Studio IDE.
Build the ATTiny13 dice on a perfboard, quick and dirty.http://www.weise-bernd.de/?p=691http://www.weise-bernd.de/?p=669http://www.weise-bernd.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AtTiny13_Wuerfel_v1_01-170x300.jpghttp://www.weise-bernd.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IMG_20180311_1854321-e1523802126100-270x300.jpg
See the DL section, the code has the sleep mode.
When not activated the MCU goes to sleep draws a tiny current I could not measure.
Hints:
Check the size inside the parts first before you start designing your pcb layout.
I will try to settle with a guarantied size of 37x37mm for the top and bottom parts.
The areas have rounded corners!
As of writing the areas are a little over 37mm.
To stay safe the pcb size 37mm x 37mm should do fine.
Inside the mid section and the foot mounting plate thing is room for almost 40x40mm.
I beleive a maximum of pcb size 39.5x39.5mm should be ok here.
If you encounter many artifacts on the surface of the printed parts try the raw files instead.
Usually my stl-files have been sent trough Netfab for repair.
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Stack pcb's see Harald Sattlers website-->>http://www.harald-sattler.de/assets/images/TN_WF3_MiniOffenK.JPGhttp://www.harald-sattler.de/Wuerfel2_Diagram.jpg
Easy but no ATTiny, using clock generator made from transistors, 7492 counter, decoder logic made from a bunch of diodes.
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Power the electronics from Super Capacitor
Mr Sattler desribes his conversion of a CR2032 driven DS3231RTC module with Super Condensator (German:Doppelschicht-Kondensator)http://www.harald-sattler.de/html/wordclock.htm#UmbauMiniModulhttp://www.harald-sattler.de/assets/images/autogen/2018-09-20_IMG_4884_resize.jpg
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Replace the mechanical switch
by a capacitive approximation switch, triggered by 50/60 Hz field next to any electrical circuit.
No software requiered, simple hardware only.http://stefan-franke.net/elektronik/kapazitiver-schalter
Translated (trough google service) website as a pdf-file in the DL section