I made a simple 3d printed enclosure for Adafruit’s PowerBoost 1000C and a 1200mAh or smaller LiPo battery. This post contains all the files you need for the print, a list of components, and assembly instructions. My design uses three simple parts with tight tolerances. They are held together with two M3 screws and two…
Category: Projects
This category contains all projects.
Bottle Opener for Elderly People or with Disabilities
Older people often have troubles opening plastic bottles. Also, people with gout or other disabilities lack the required strength to turn the small caps independently. The reason is the small diameter of the caps, which requires a strong grip with just two fingers. There exist a variety of helper tools, assisting this task by increasing…
Split Storage Boxes Update
I got many requests to add split storage boxes to my system. Reasons were to print huge boxes and printing boxes on small printer beds. In the past few days, I released an update to my storage boxes system, introducing the first split boxes. If you bought the storage boxes set from my shop, you…
Comparing Five Turntable Platform Revisions
To solve the problem with light inference, I tested five different revisions of the turntable platform. For each revision, I recorded the sensor values and compared them to find the best solution. Visual Comparison Revision A is the original with the light inference problem. In the text, I describe only the differences to this original…
Let’s Print a Cat/Pet Feeding Device (Part 7)
The seventh part of this series is all about the sensor board. It hosts the position sensor and four fill sensors. Speaking of sensors sounds complex, but these are just pairs of IR-LEDs and phototransistors. All design files for the board are in the GitHub repository and if you missed one of the previous parts,…
Unexpected Fill Sensor Problems
While testing the sensor panel, I ran into unexpected problems, requiring a small redesign. First, let me explain the simple working principle of the fill sensor circuit and what I tested so far. The Circuit The circuit for the fill sensors is straight forward. There are four input lines and one analogue output line. If…
Project Update: New Stepper Motor Driver
In this short update, I will talk about the improved stepper driver for the pet-feeder device. While working on the sensor board, to see if the fill sensors work as expected, it also involved using the stepper motor. Here, I realised, the combination of stepper motor and driver I worked with is way too noisy…
Pet Feeder – Position Sensor Tests
I worked on testing the sensor board. The first tests I did were about the position sensor. Recap Let me recap the design of the position sensor in the device: The turntable has five position slots, marked red in the following illustration. Behind this slots, there is a small excavation, reflecting the light from the…
Decorative, Massive, Modular Box
This design is not for everyone. 😅 A decorative and modular, but quite massive box. Built from 3d-printed parts, 5mm plywood panels and plenty 3x10mm wood screws. The instructions in this post show a basic box with the inner dimensions 240×360×84mm, but in the download, you find all files required to build larger boxes in…
Let’s Print a Cat/Pet Feeding Device (Part 6)
The sixth part of this series is all about the input panel. We will talk about the layout of the front panel, the rotary encoder as the main component and I will explain my example circuit and board. As usual, you will find all required files as a free download from the GIT repository. If…