Woop! I survived the shitshow that was 2020. Now, what to do?

I know, I’ll extend my home IoT network, add more sensors, relays, LEDs, some well-being monitoring schtuff. Planning to control/monitor with HomeAssistant running on an RPi 4 (MQTT server, and ESPHome server).

For the rest of January I’ll be adding an ESP a day!

First, a simple 12V relay, powered by this cute lil ESP-01s. Relay will power 2 computer case fans, 1 which will pull air through a carbon filter; 1 will cool an RPi cluster.

What? Why?

Found acrylic panel in DIY store, was given a vacuum cleaner free if I did “something cool with it”. I kinda wanted access to a vacuum former, but fuck it, might as well build.

Planning

Found 50*50cm 5mm thick sheets for 20 monies, got two. 2m outer edge, bought 2m of nice thick wood, cubic wood too. Found this amazing drill attachment for making big holes of different sizes, bought it.

Sketching

It’s a box, I didn’t bother.

Getting into it!

• 2 x 50cm * 50cm Acrylic sheets 5mm thick
• A drill with 3mm drilly bit
• TIME
• Wood (for frame)
• Silicone sealant
• Tensioning rods
• Heating element
• Hinges
• Clips
• An assortment of screws
• Permanent markers, fine tipped, 2 colours minimum

First things first. Sheets are 50*50cm, I need to.make a frame of outer size 50*50, and inside, a frame of smaller 6mm square wood to provide additional support. In one of the sides, there needs to be a hole for the vacuum cleaner inlet.

With the frame made, and additional supports installed for the acrylic base, cut to the inner dimensions of the frame; I think this will make for a better way to maintain a seal, and thus partial vacuum.

Now to paint! I don’t want to be regarding wood all the time. I use an acrylic plasticote paint, yellow, on inside and out. Hmmm. I should have sanded this frame inside and out first :/ oh well

Now, to put in the base acrylic layer, this will be screwed to the support, and silicon sealant used above and below!

Screwed in, and sealed, the bottom looks like this:

Sealing gaps on the outside was done, and I moved to the top side.

Before laying the top plate, a zigzaged a metric shittonne of sealant, aligned, lowered the acrylic plate, and pushed hard on edges, and started screwing with 6-8mm legnth screws, 5 each side (because science, lol, na I didn’t have enough screws for more ?). Thanks to my trusy Bosch IXO for making the screwing easy (also, omg, it charges over usb!).

Now, all that is left is to test. I have a spare vacuum cleaner ~1800 watts and a hole in the side of this box that almost fits the business-end tube in, would perfectly fit a plumbung tube, I would do a screw adaptor… (I’ll probably slightly enlarged hole by excessive sanding).

NOTE: Testing comes in next post, I do wonder if I need to drill some more teenie tiny 1 mm holes to the top.

NOTE 2: heatingy bit comes in next buildlog!

Update on progress for EF 22

GAH! I leave for EF tomorrow, so much to do, so little time!

(yes, I have known about this for a year; yes I have procrastinated an obscene amount)

Head:

Modelled a polygonal (LoFi) red panda head from reference images in blender (started from scratch, rather than use a pre-existing, high poly mesh). Pictures of the final used model below:

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This was checked for proportions using a reference head, and proper (metric) metric scaling applied. To check, and tweak the model a number of small test prints were made using a 3d printer (M3D for those interested). Minor adjustments were made to the mesh after printing.

The mesh was then collapsed to a 2D net using the blender plugin “Paper Model” (https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Import-Export/Paper_Model), a couple of refinements to the mesh were made to make for a usable printable size (1:1 scaling, using A4 paper). A papercraft net of the head is available here:

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Example sheet from papercraft net:

<IMAGE OF NET>

Building:

So, with a head and papercraft net, now what? …go crazy cutting perspex! Each of the segments of the net were traced onto 1.5mm thick perspex, and cut to shape using a Dremel or small wire-hand-saw.

Safety first peeps, stay protected! (eye goggles, mask, wear appropriate clothing, remain sober while operating tools, etc)

<IMAGE OF CUTTING>

Individual panels will be held together with 3d printed (PLA) spacers, which follow the edges of the mesh. The perspex panels will be glued to the 3d printed parts (locktite: crystal glue), gaps in the seams filled with silicon bathroom sealant.

The perspex panels are naturally transparent (though do block UV…), and so need frosting (or otherwise being made opaque/semi-opaque). Plastic self adhering window tint/decals will be used to achieve opacity in the panels, although “self stick” this decal will be spray glued (to ensure even distribution of glue) to the perspex. Semi-opacity will allow later addition of RGB LEDs to the inside of the head.

Finished shots to follow… unclear if will be finished in time! GAH! *panics* (if not finished, will not take; can always do a cheeky papercraft anyways XD )

 

 

GAH! EF22 has snuck up on me! (life got a little crazy recently, moved apartments and *stuff*)

Quick update: Project for b3ta stripped back to get finished for EF22; now, a LoFi polygonal fursuit partial will be made!

A longer post to be made this evening, with: inspiration, concept, modelling, and first WIP shots!
Might post: a paper-craft version, and badge updates.

Intro:
I decided to design b3ta to have a range of facial expressions, the goal being having movements in the face which mimic the movements of an animal (ears, nose, whiskers) and human (eyes, lips, mouth, eyelids, eyebrows).

Doing this will require anamatronics, or put otherwise, the planning of:

What needs to move and how
Testing the desired expressions/movements on the 3d model (rigging/animating in blender)
Abstracting these movements to mechanical motions
Prototyping
Building (3d printing, mechano, wire, foam, motors, linear actuators, guy cord, drive belts, steppers, ping pong balls, abs, silicon rubber, fymo, paint, foam, mesh, wire mesh, dye, …)
Wiring
Programming

… It’ll be a lot of work… Each of these points will be expanded on periodically, as completed and written up nicely. This may cause a delay in some parts as I work sporadically on different stages, to maintain variety in jobs and pique interest (also my problem solving and thought procesess are a little …frenetic).

I think I’ll post the work on the ears next. Or prototype head meshing (from last year).