seemingly this new way of doing things limits options now. i like shapeways because of the multitude of materials i can print in. for instance if i really like this design i could get it printed in aluminum sure the price would be through the roof and the tolerances off but it still was possible. currently i can only print in black or white and out of one material. ultimately its your project and you can do whatever you want.
Hi, keep in mind every material has its specific design limitations (you can read through the specs at the shapeways site). I tried to enable all options which should print without issues. Colors were only enabled on the separated front/back, but I have now added it also to the combined version (small cost saving of the handling fee) and the buttons.
By the way
- The case from Thingiverse can still be used with the buttons from shapeways! It has thicker walls in some areas, but the overall dimensions are the same. Because of the thicker walls it may also be compatible with more materials.
- The button-sets are all connected by a sprue which is supposed to be cut away later. This saves 1.50 (white) or 2.50 (black and others) per button in handling fee for strong and flexible plastic material.
- For buttons made from acrylic the sprue is not compatible and also not necessary. But acrylic also fails the automated checks because of the small details of the symbols on the buttons, even though I think it should be fine. I will try to provide a set of buttons without sprue for acrylic.
- I can upload a custom front panel with a different text (embossed or engraved) if anybody likes one. The text canāt be much smaller than shown in the picture above to work with the material limitations.
Shapeways has rejected my button models for colored printing after manual inspection even though it passed the automated checks. I have again updated all button models to allow colored prints.
The buttons with symbols are now also available for download on Thingiverse, the details will require a good printer though.
And here is a rendering how a complete set will hopefully look like - I will post picture of the real thing when my shapeways order arrives:
A few more renderings until my package arrives:
And with closed back-plate:
Mmmm dem rendering are sexy! Im about to purchase another po-12!!! MOAR CASES!!! thanks again for doing all this!
Shapeways package arrived today, looks promising so far. I will make some proper pictures and maybe a video later.
ā¦maybe we should start some kind of a big bank pot were we spent monthly 5 bucks to grow the experimental approach.
some kind of a mailing list like a club and @krism is doing the bank job! would be like our own kickstarter thing. ā¦please let this happenā¦
@crashedbug - just ādoubletapped to likeā your case there! They look really nice. What does the material feel like? I received a bender and crank printed by shape ways (in anticipation for my op1!) And they feel really odd, not exactly rough, but āMattā.
@steveoath - thanks. The case is printed in ārawā finish, like you describe it feels kind of coarse. The purple buttons have the āpolishedā finish and are more smooth. I was concerned that the polished finish will affect the dimensions too much, but after having the parts in my hands I donāt think this would be the case.
Here are the first impressions and pictures of the complete build:
- The light guides work really nice, good visibility even without polishing the transparent material any further
- The front plate is a tight fit on my own prints, but with the shapeways print it is a bit too loose. Itās still usable though and very easy to fix in the 3d-model.
- The engraved symbols come out great on the colored buttons but on the white buttons they are a bit harder to see. I would recommend the colored/polished materials for the buttons.
I have made a video with commentary on the unpacking and assembly of the case. It is still rendering, I will post a link later.
looking sexy!. i look forward to your improvements to the design and then i will order one. thanks for being your own beta tester!
Maybe the white buttons engraving could be painted with acrylic paint and the excess cleaned with a tissue before it dries?
^ i was planning on doing exactly that on mine!
Good idea, filling the engraved symbols with paint would look nice for sure.
Here is the video I mentioned with me commenting about the design and prototypes, and showing how I assemble the shapeways order. It may be a bit boring if you are not interested in the technical details - just skip to the last 2 minutes for the completed case and demonstration ;).
Also, I had a quick look today at improving the fit of the back/front plate - it will take some more time than I expected to get this done in a clean way. I wonāt be able to work on this until end of the week - I will probably post an update next weekend.
Great work @crashdebug! I have a couple questions:
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Have you noticed any change in the speaker sound when using the case? Does it create some resonant effect like in a speaker box?
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Have you considered adding battery door or a fully closed back plate? Would that increase the case depth? I guess that could require adding some holes at the front for the sound to propagate, unless the display fitting is not very tight.
wow those light guides seem amazing! i wonder how the buttons being so close to the surface of the case effect playability. short buttons might make it easier to play long buttons might aswell im not sure. on my PO12 and some of the synth POās i often am just playing it like a normal instrument instead of sequencing.
Great job! Looks fantastic.
Thanks for the encouraging words. Iām back after a short vacation and have just finished modifying the models. Even though the current version is absolutely usable I tried to implement all improvements I could identify based on the first print:
- Tighter fit of the PCB in the front-plate
- Stiffer side walls of the front-plate
- More clearance between light guides and buttons
- Back-plate modified for tighter fit, easier bending, better locking
- Added stubs to the ends of the light guides for easier assembly
- Button diameter and guide width modified for less wiggling
- Deeper retention slots to be less dependent on material/printing accuracy
What is still left to do is creating all the sprues again, engraving all the buttons, export everything in the different variants etc. A lot of tedious work which still requires some concentration to not put in any mistakes - I hope I can finish this tomorrow. Iām also thinking about creating buttons engraved with numbers 1-16 - these would make most sense for models which donāt have easily distinguishable symbols.
Iām not 100% sure about the resonant/speaker box effect - maybe very slightly, the difference is marginal.
About the closed back-plate - there is a rendering of the closed version a few posts above. The bump on the back is about 4 mm thick. Event with the closed back-plate the case is by no means air-tight. There is a small gap between the display and the case (to prevent pressure on the display when the case is deformed) and the holes for the audio connector on either side are 9 mm in diameter. The volume may be reduced slightly I suppose, but not by much.
Updating stuff in the shapeways shop is so glitchy and slow, but I think I have replaced all models with their new version. I will double check tomorrow when all the background processing has finished.
Here is a picture of the new ānumbered buttonsā:
those numbers are sexy! looking forward to printing out the new case with shapeways!