Building the pseudophysical box digitally

The process started out with a brief discussion about requirements in terms of wants and needs, that quickly turned into a sketching session. Ideas were explored, elaborated and changed until something feasible started taking shape.

Ideations and variations on the little things were fiddled around with, until the idea was ready for CAD. An important decisions was the ikea-style cup hinge, which is relatively cheap and sturdy, and allows us to close the door flush to the frame. Another thing, that will not make it into the CAD model is threaded inserts for the handle, that would have to be hotpressed into the 3D print with the tip of a soldering iron. Two of these for happy days.

A component tray for breadboard and the arduino and a holder for the lock would also be 3D printed in a way so both items slot into the left compartment wall before getting fastened with M4 bolts - nuts and washers inside the maintenance compartment, not on the userside.

Both LCD dispay and the RC522 would be hot glued to the front. Makes retrieval and placement into the lasercut holding rectangles a breeze. Hot glue is love.

The display panel on the left side of the locker will be black acrylic, with the graphics etched into the surface - these will be painted white using an acrylic wash, Mr. Myiagi style: Paint on, wipe off. Should work reasonably well after a few attempts, allowing the paint to settle in the etched areas.

The rest is pretty much just assembling the lasercut jigsaw puzzle, adhering the acrylic front cover with cyanoacrylate - in a jig if feasible. Same method used for lining up the adhesion between the 4mm door cover and the 12mm base. Holes in this base are necessary for the cup part of the cup hinge.

So yeah, some textures in 3ds max to visualize the badboy, and renders ahoy. Stay tuned for a bit of motionblur and underwhelming animation in the final post!