Physical design¶
Concept¶
The idea of the physical product¶
The psycial product is not only there to offer a case to the sensors, but has also multiple output form to inform the user about the weather. So, for example, the user can see if the temperature and the humidity percentage are good or not. In order for the sensor to measure good values, it is important that it is placed in a good place. If the sensor is in a stylish case, it is nice for the user to place it on, for example, a cupboard. This also makes it easier for the sensor to measure correct values.
User¶
There is no specific user or user group for the weather station. Anyone who wants to gain insight into the current weather outside and inside in a fun way can use this weather station.
Goals of the weatherstation¶
The purpose of the weather station is to gain a better understanding of the current weather, both indoors and outdoors. This way the user can see whether the temperature and humidity are at an optimal value. If this is the case, and the values are optimal, it has a positive influence on the well-being of the user.
About the shape and behavior¶
The shape of the product is a little cloud. This is ofcourse because when you think about a weatherstation and the weather in general, you mostly think about a cloud. This is also a cute design for a weatherstation, so the user don’t mind to display it on a shelf. This way it is nog only a functional product, but also a decoration for your home.
Sketch of the desired physical product¶
Version 1¶
This is how I think the product is going to look:
Version 2¶
I made a second skecth for my physical design, because I changed one of the output types. I wanted to use the LCD display, but because of the limited time, I decided to make it a little bit easier for myself and use a extra LED light as second output type. For my final product I would like to actually use the LCD display in my product.
Version 3¶
For the weather station I liked making the product in the shape of a cloud, but now that the product is specifically for plants I chose to make the product in a plant theme. I was thinking of making a plant pot, but thought that was rather boring. So I ended up with the following idea, where there is not only a plant pot, but also a plant.
Digital manufacturing materials and methods¶
As you can see from my design, it contains quite a lot of round and organic shapes. This is quite difficult to make, but the most logical choice for this would be the 3D printer since it allows you to make all shapes. So I considered this, but chose to look for another option.
I myself am a big fan of laser cutting on wood. It is very easy to use, since you can load any 2d shape from your computer to the printer. It’s also fairly fast, which makes it easy to re-cut something if it just didn’t go quite right.
So laser cutting is a very good option, only I’m stuck with the fact that I don’t just want to make a 2d shape, but it has to be 3d. With a box, for example, it is quite doable, since all sides are flat. With my plant-in-pot idea this is a lot harder. The front and back may be 2d, but the sides consist of bumpy and rounded shapes. So to solve this problem, I cut my design into literal slices, giving me several 2d layers. All these layers I want to cut out separately and then glue on top of each other, giving it depth. However, there must of course be room for the hardware. To solve this, I chose to cut out surfaces in the pot from each layer. This will form a hollow when all the layers are glued together, and so the hardware can be there. Of course, the two outer layers will not be hollow, but completely sealed so that it has a nice finish.
To see al the slices I talked about, see Design
So for the case I want to laser cut, and I decided to do this with mdf boards. The most simple reason for this is the price, as it is a lot lower than other materials. Also, it would be nice to paint the plates so that it is clear what is the plant and what part is the pot. For this, this material is also good to use.
The mdf boards come in several thicknesses, but my preference is 0.5mm. This is because I will work with layers, and otherwise you need a lot of layers to create a little depth.
For speed, I plan to open my design on a computer in the Makerslab, then select the material and thickness and then follow the recommended speed.
Design¶
Dimensions¶
Determining the size of the product was still quite a thing for me. Fortunately, I had made a paper prototype for the weather station, which I was able to learn a thing or two from. This prototype had the dimensions HxWxD = 12cmx16cmx3cm. This was measured at the widest parts of the prototype, so it’s not entirely relevant. Anyway, what I learned from the prototype is that it was fairly crammed with hardware, so I decided to make the new product deeper, 4 centimeters deep to be exact.
As for the rest of the dimensions, it was a bit of a guess. In the old design, the hardware was completely inside the cloud, but in the new design it will only be inside the plant pot, so the plant itself is decoration. So I chose to roughly stick to the dimensions of the prototype for the plant pot. When I laser cut the product, I am going to start with one layer so that I can see if the size is right or if it needs to be adjusted.
Illustrator design¶
For my product I want to cut mdf wood with the laser cutter. For this I created a design that I want to load onto a printer in the maker lab. I have chosen to make my design in adobe illustrator. This is because I have worked with this program several times already, so I know largely how it works. Also, I have already used this once to create a design for laser cutting so I know it will work well.
So I first created a design in illustrator with the final shape in mind, and then divided it into several slices. Then I started taking out all the parts, for example, for the LCD screen, the button, etc. I also took into account a channel for the cable, so that the wemos can be connected to a power source.
Below you can see what all those loose slices look like:
Prototype¶
To see if the productdesign will work out the way I imagine, I made a prototype. I made this prototype with cardboard and a glue gun. I started by sketching the cloud shape on cardboard and cut out the sides. I glued the cardboard pieces together and put all the hardware inside. This is how the prototype turned out:
With lights¶
Front¶
Top¶
Side¶
Back¶
Do’s and don’ts¶
While making this prototype, I learned a few things that I want to do differently when I start making the real product. These are the points I can improve:
- The case needs to be a bit deeper, it was a bit of cram now to get all the hardware in. The width and height of the product are perfect.
- A solution for the back has yet to be found. I solved it now with flaps, but with 3d printing that is quite difficult to make.
- The hardware is now a bit loose in the case, this allows everything to shift easily. There needs to be a solution that keeps all the components neatly in place.
- I need to check if the sensor can still measure the correct data this way.
Create¶
With the do’s and don’ts of the prototype in mind and my new design for the plant at hand, I went to the maker lab. My expectation was to have this made with two hours, but in reality I spent two days (seven hours) working on it.
Material¶
I was hoping I could buy material at the makerslab, but unfortunately they only had 0.3mm wood, which would mean that for my idea I would need a lot of layers to give it some thickness. Fortunately, I came across some perfect material among the piles of leftover wood. It’s a little fuzzy wood, and the teachers in the makers lab couldn’t tell me exactly what kind of wood it was either, but I just went for it. The wood has a thickness of 0.8mm, so I only needed a few layers, so it was perfect!
Testing¶
I started with a trial version, cutting only 1 part to see if all the measurements were correct. It was a good thing I had done this, because it turned out much smaller than I had thought. I had exported the illustrator file in which I had made my design as a dxf file, but later I was told that this would adjust the dimensions. I then loaded it as an illustrator file into the lasercut program, and fortunately that went well.
Settings¶
I had to test which settings to use since my material was not in the library. I then went and tried a few settings, and finally found something that worked well. I used these settings: Speed: 16.0 Laser1: 75.0%–75.0%
Process¶
As you could read earlier, I started making a test layer. This was to see what settings would work best and how to get along with the laser cutter. Once this was done and I had the laser cutting a bit more under control, I moved on to the rest of the layers. Again, I started laser cutting it in sections, rather than all the layers at once. This is because it still allows me to fix possible mistakes quickly, and also because otherwise it simply wouldn’t have fit in the laser cutter.
I started with the middle layers. This is because then I can immediately see how high the end result will be, since this is the highest part of the product. These two middle layers went very smoothly, so I could immediately continue with the next layers. Second, I chose to make the detail layers, that is, the 2 layers that go around the middle layers, to make it look like a real plant. This did not go at all as smoothly as the middle layers, but here you can read how that went exactly.
Finally, I had to make the plant pot layers. This involved a bit more thinking, since there also had to be a cable duct and space for the sensor. I had already measured and figured this out in my digital design, and fortunately this came out of the laser cutter exactly how I thought it would. The front layer was the trickiest, as that had to have cutouts in the exact dimensions of the LED strip, LCD display and button. This certainly didn’t go right in one go either, more on that here.
Once all the layers were cut, I proceeded to actually assemble the product at home. Using a glue gun, I started carefully gluing all the layers together.
That afternoon I went to the hardware store in the village, to get small hinges, small nails and screws. I used the screws to attach the LCD display to the front layer.
I needed the nails to attach the hinges to both the back and the cut-out piece of wood, which made a working flap to view the product’s contents.
Conclusion¶
I am very proud of the final result and I am glad that I chose to have the shape of my product coordinate with the subject matter, which in my opinion allowed me to create something very unique. Of this whole project, I had the most fun while making the physical product. I obviously enjoy doing the technical part as well, but while making this product with the laser cutter it is much simpler to figure out and fix certain mistakes. This allows you to get a little further each time while with coding you can also have huge setbacks. I was also able to put a lot of my creativity into this, which I really enjoyed. I did really expect to finish it faster, especially since I have used the laser cutter once before during the elective course in tinkering. Turns out this was really next-level to make anyway, but I definitely learned a lot from it!
Failures¶
Failure
I had exported my design as a dxf file. As a result, the dimensions were no longer correct. I then loaded this file into the laser cutter program and started cutting. Because of the change in dimensions, the design turned out much smaller than I had thought of, which also made it a lot more fragile and breakable. So in the future I should just load an illustrator file instead of a dxf file, and check the dimensions again before sending it to the laser cutter.
Failure
The first layers with the laser cutter went perfectly, until I got to the more detailed layer. Because the laser had to cut a lot close together at high speed and force, it got too hot in places and the wood started to burn. I didn’t realize it right away, but saw later that this had happened in 2 spots. I then called in someone from the makers lab and started using a plant sprayer with water to extinguish the wood. I then learned that when this wood is a little damp, it has no ability to burn. So I did continue cutting the layers, but kept a close eye on whether it was doing well now. For the layers I started cutting later, I sprayed the wood wet with water each time first, to prevent this from happening.
Failure
The front layer was the hardest to make. Not only because of the size of the notches, but also because of the material thickness. I had deliberately chosen to use as thick a material as possible so that I did not need many layers. Once I had made the front layer, I found out that because of that thickness, it didn’t look nice at all with the LEDs and LCD screen as they were very much lost in the material. The button was actually the worst, as the thickness of the material made it impossible to press the button. Fortunately, I was able to use thinner material, 3mm, from a classmate.
Failure
So, as I explained above, I use a different material 3mm thick for the front plate. I had measured everything and let the laser cutter do its job. Once it was done, I found out that I had made a measurement error on the button, so the hole was too big and the button fell through. I did it again after this and made the hole 1mm narrower.
