larsie 121 Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 So every cool platform needs a laser cut acrylic box (apparently). I CorB, reagle, cubeberg and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rockets4kids 204 Posted August 6, 2012 Share Posted August 6, 2012 What is holding the LaunchPad in place? Do I see thumbscrews providing a friction fit? It's really a shame TI didn't work proper mounting holes into the board, and more of a shame that they didn't do this before adding the C2000 and Stellaris boards. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
larsie 121 Posted August 7, 2012 Author Share Posted August 7, 2012 The screws on the side are holding the board, but it also fits snuggly into the box. Agree on the mounting holes though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nytblade 24 Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 I never heard of a laser cutter before. This is pretty cool. Out of my price range for now but nice to know it exists What software do you use to do this? Do you just draw the cutout in drawing program and then print it? I looked for software on the FSLaser website but it appears to just be a printer driver? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
larsie 121 Posted August 8, 2012 Author Share Posted August 8, 2012 Yes, it's just like a printer driver. You can print from Word or some other program. I use InkScape, which is a free opensource drawing program. Then inside the printerdriver (a separate program), you choose either raster mode, which takes the picture and burns it into the material, or vector-mode which cuts through the plate. You can choose which colours should be which power/speed levels, so some colours can burn right through and some can just 'draw' lines. There are online services where you can order designs. For example Ponoko.com or even Seeedstudio. I might also try to make some stuff that I sell, to try to recover some of the cost of the machine... which is at you say rather expensive, but still cheaper than the professional versions. Nytblade 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nytblade 24 Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I think you could sell some as part of a boosterpack (like you have pictured). Especially good for a boosterpack that is going to be put somewhere in the house where you don't want people putting their hands on the board or getting dust on it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
larsie 121 Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 I tested the acrylic with capacitative touch, and it worked right through the plastic, so bundling with a boosterpack could be quite cool. CorB 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I tested the acrylic with capacitative touch, and it worked right through the plastic, so bundling with a boosterpack could be quite cool. Really? wow.. I didn't think it would. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GeekDoc 226 Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 I tested the acrylic with capacitative touch, and it worked right through the plastic, so bundling with a boosterpack could be quite cool. Really? wow.. I didn't think it would. How thick was the acrylic, and how accurate was the sensing (i.e. could it sense the difference between adjacent pads?). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
larsie 121 Posted August 12, 2012 Author Share Posted August 12, 2012 I honestly still need to test properly. I made an application which show the raw values on the display. I can see the difference even with 6 mm acrylic, but I need to test more before its conclusive. Problem is the display and other components build height between the box and the pcb mm in total. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
larsie 121 Posted August 19, 2012 Author Share Posted August 19, 2012 Here bluehash 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
larsie 121 Posted August 20, 2012 Author Share Posted August 20, 2012 OK, sorry to repeat myself, but I made another iteration of the box design. This one looks better. The top is now glued on, and the side-walls are thin and fit outside the top. Inspired by iPhone. I guess they could sue me :-) Well, it is best described by a picture. The design is on thingiverse here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:28913 bluehash and CorB 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GeekDoc 226 Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Looks like you went for tactile buttons instead of the capacitive sensors. A little less sexy, but way more reliable. Looks nice. Would be cool to have access to both a 3-D printer AND a laser cutter! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Neatness! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
larsie 121 Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share Posted August 21, 2012 Looks like you went for tactile buttons instead of the capacitive sensors. A little less sexy, but way more reliable. Looks nice. Would be cool to have access to both a 3-D printer AND a laser cutter! I sort of like both the tactile and the capacitive, and they both seem to work ok (with various pros and cons, mainly what you're mentioning). But for the sexy-enclosure, captouch is definitely preferable. In this case , it ended up as a tactile one. 3D-printers are becoming more available and getting lower cost, such as the printrbot. Laser cutters are still expensive, but this case could also be done with a CNC. I have a CNC that I've built myself and cost me less than a couple of hundred dollars to build. Not that this is an insignificant sum, but it's much less than a laser cutter. With the stepper board someone else is building here on the forum, one can even control it from a Launchpad Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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