Matt Gerega

Tag: Fusion360

  • Prototype 1 – Printed!

    With a little help from the folks at Pittsburgh 3D Prints, my first 3D printed prototype is complete. I am fairly certain this will lead to a new hobby with some useful output.

    But first, the problem

    As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have started to dabble in 3D printing. This desire actually came out of two separate issues that I wanted to address.

    1. I need a case for the Shelly LED Controller.
    2. I need an outdoor mount for our UE Megaboom 3 speakers.

    For my first prototype, I picked the Shelly LED Controller case, since it is more pressing and probably the easier of the two.

    Why a Case?

    I moved my LED controllers to the Shelly LED controllers in June. For containment, the LED strips outside already had waterproof boxes, so putting the Shelly in there was quick and painless.

    However, the kids have LED strips in their room, and that presents a problem. The Mi-Light box is self-contained, and includes a power jack to plug in a 5.5mm barrel plug transformer. The Shelly, well, does not. So I need a solution to contain the Shelly and provide a plug.

    Design Time!

    After replacing the GPU in my laptop, Fusion 360 is running quite nicely. I was able to grab a model of the Shelly LED controller from Grabcad.com. From there, I sketched out a rough bottom shell, leaving enough room on one side for wire connections and on the other for a panel mount barrel jack. I added a small slot for the LED 5 wire flat, as well as retention tabs to keep the Shelly in place. I added two build outs to hold a few M2 threaded inserts.

    Finished Case Body

    For the top, I used the sweep function to create a lip profile that matches the inside of the case body. I added additional retention tabs that match three of the tabs on the bottom, as well as a small cube to hold the Shelly against the case bottom. A few small holes for the M2 screws, and I was ready to print a prototype.

    A little help?

    I do not yet have a 3D printer. I am absolutely interested, but want to make sure it is something that I will use long term, as it is an investment. Luckily, the Pittsburgh3DPrints.com shop is literally 2 miles from my house, and they gladly printed my prototype for a reasonable fee. I exported my components as mesh files and sent them over, and with a day or so, I had a prototype printed in PLA.

    Prototype with Shelly LED Controller
    Case with Lid

    An this is why we prototype. When I drew the lid on the case, I matched the profile exactly to the case body. The lack of any gap or margin is causing the top to bow in the middle, since the PLA is not so rigid that it will press into the case completely.

    I went back into Fusion 360 and added an offset face operation to the lip, pushing it back 0.2mm from the edge of the case body. This should give me sufficient gap to allow the lid to sit flush while still maintaining a tight fit.

    I’m currently waiting on my Amazon order so that I can install the barrel jack and threaded inserts to complete the prototype. While I don’t anticipate any issues, I want to make sure everything fits before I order two more cases in ABS.

    What’s next?

    I have always enjoyed making physical things. So much of my job is to create solutions in a virtual space, it is nice to actually be able to touch and feel something that I have created. 3D printing is an interesting juxtaposition of those two worlds: I spend time modeling virtually something that the printer turns into something physical.

    For now, I am going to attack a few outdoor mounts for our Megaboom speakers. From there, who knows.

  • Jumping in to 3D Design and Printing

    As I’ve been progressing through various projects at home, I have a few 3D printing projects that I would like to tackle. With that, I needed to learn how to design models to print. This has led me down a bit of a long road, and I’m still not done….

    What to use?

    A colleague of mine who does a fair amount of 3D printing suggested the personal use version of Autodesk’s Fusion360. With my home laptop running a pretty fresh version of Windows 11, I figured it would be worth a shot. He pointed me to a set of Youtube tutorials for learning Fusion360 in 30 Days, so I got started.

    I pretty promptly locked up my machine… In doing some simple rendering (no materials, no complex build/print patterns), my machine simply locked up into a lovely pinstripe pattern. This persisted after following all of Autodesk’s recommendations, including a fresh install of Fusion360.

    Downgrading!

    Knowing that some or all of the devices on the laptop may not have appropriate Windows 11 drivers, I made the decision to re-install Windows 10 and stay there. It’s a little painful, as I have gotten somewhat used to the quirks of 11, but I want to be able to draw!

    So I installed Windows 10 fresh, got all the latest updates (including the AMD Pro software), and tried Fusion360 again. I got paste where I locked up in Windows 11, and actually got to Day 8 of the tutorials. And then the lockups came back.

    A small hiccup on my part

    I may have gotten a little impatient, and simultaneously uninstalled the AMD drivers while installing some other drivers, and I pretty much made my machine unbootable… So, I am in the process of re-installing Windows 10 and applying all the latest updates.

    As part of this, however, I am going to take things a TOUCH slower. I had Fusion360 running pretty smoothly up until my Day 8 lesson, but I also installed Windows Subsystem Linux between my Day 7 and Day 8 lessons. And while I truly hope this isn’t the case, I am wondering if something in WSL is causing issues with Fusion360…

    So I’m going to take my machine back to the same state it was in, minus the WSL install, to see if I get the same lockups in Fusion360. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

    Update – 9/18/2023

    I got everything re-installed, including drivers for my GPU, but it is still locking up. However, there is some added information: I got it to lock up outside of Fusion360 in the same way.

    I searched a number of online forums, and the suggestions seem to center around a dying GPU… Doh! So, I have a few options:

    1. Build a new system….
    2. Fix this one.

    I do not like the idea of time/money spent on a new system, especially when the specs on this laptop are more than sufficient for what I need. I found a replacement GPU today for under $100, so it is on its way. I took a peek at the installation video and I am not looking forwards to a full disassemble, but it will allow me to clean out the drives, reset the heat sinks, and hopefully solve the GPU issue.