Adjustable MSP430F5529 Launchpad enclosure

[Fred 453]

I'm working on a project that should end up with a nice etched F5529 board, but for now it's going to just have a Launchpad stuck in there, I needed a quick enclosure for it so knocked up an adjustable one in OpenSCAD. I know a few people have (or are thinking about) a 3D printer so thought I'd share. It allows you to adjust the space on any side of the LaunchPad for anything else you want to include. It could do with some improvements - e.g the little locating pins are easy to snap off. Feel free to amend if the SCAD file if the available adjustments don't suit you.

 

 

Here's a photo of it, with the partly-finished project in the background and the printer busy printing the lid...

[cubeberg 540]

Cool!  Do you have an stl or obj file I can try out?

[Fred 453]

F5529LaunchPad case.scad.txt

I thought I'd attached the SCAD file (as text) but will try again. 

[Fred 453]

F5529LaunchPad case lower 43oh.stl.txtF5529LaunchPad case upper 43oh.stl.txt

... and STL files (with .txt extension that needs to be removed.)

[GeekDoc 226]

I need to learn more Open Scad, and this looks like a good starting point.  Thanks.

[Fred 453]

I really need to get more familiar with traditional CAD tools. OpenSCAD is a nice complement to these and ideal for generating things dynamically. This project was ideal for it - I had an app that was dynamically creating OpenSCAD script that could then render the object I wanted.

 

By the way, it turns out the clips on this enclosure are a little fragile for repeated openings. The benefit of OpenSCAD is that increasing the clipThickness variable in the scad file should be all that's needed to fix the problem.

 

I will probably update and improve at some point - an maybe add an option for screws instead of clips too.

[D^2 24]

Have you thought about extending the enclosure to cover a BoosterPack as well? As an example, together with a wireless/Wi-Fi BoosterPack, you can turn this into a wireless sensor box for secure deployment, well protected against harsh conditions such as curious kids, touchy visitors, or random crawling critters. 

[Fred 453]

You can. That's what the "adjustable" bit is all about. Add whatever space you need to the variables extraAbove, extraBelow, etc. and the generated STL file is enlarged to make room for other components.

[cubeberg 540]

I might have to get into this CAD stuff.  I've been playing with tinkercad so far,  but I'm a programmer - this doesn't look too hard.  

Any ideas on reducing the amount of filament needed?  It's almost 40 feet of filament just for the bottom.  I thinned out the bottom in TinkerCad and got it down to 25 feet.  I'll play with settings a bit too (bottom layers, etc.)

[Fred 453]

I put most of the things you might want to adjust in variables - all in millimetres. Thickness is probably what you want. I didn't allow for different thickness for the base and sides, but you can probably work it out.

 

The easiest way to see what's going on with OpenSCAD is to comment out some of the components to see what's left when rendered.