Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

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Artcfox
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by Artcfox »

Looks good Danboid!

I had mine printed at Shapeways, which uses SLS (selective laser sintering), so the tolerances of the holes ended up being different than those coming from an FDM printer.

Now that I have my own Prusa, maybe one day I will try printing my own case. Some improvements I would like to see are stems that go from the underside of the top half, all the way down to the PCB for support. Right now the top is flexible enough that if I pick up my Uzebox to move it, just the tiniest flex on the top is enough to push the reset button down. I also would like to try making the buttons one-piece the way the X button is on the Prusa i3 LCD panel. And although I don't have an MMU, I've been experimenting with multiple colors on the first few layers with manual filament swaps. Here is an example of what I'm talking about with the multiple colors. I think we could do some cool stuff with the Uzebox logo, and multi-color built-in buttons. The only thing is it would be designed to print with the top surface down on the build plate.
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uze6666
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by uze6666 »

Wow, amazing multi-color print for a single extruder! :P
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by Artcfox »

uze6666 wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 5:57 am Wow, amazing multi-color print for a single extruder! :P
Thanks!

I remember you said that you printed the top part of the enclosure in its finished orientation so you could get nice curves on the edges, but what are your thoughts on printing it upside down in order to get multi-colors like that on the top surface, and so the buttons aren't separate pieces, but built in and springy? We could still probably do the 45 degree angles that Prusa uses for the front of their LCD enclosure.
built-in-button-pusher.png
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I was thinking the buttons section could be a different color from the case, with the text inside the button a different color, and we could still do the Uzebox logo, and center section in more colors, but it would be all one piece, no glue required. If you use a textured bed, then it will all have a nice matching texture on top. I might have to mock something up with OpenSCAD.
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by uze6666 »

Indeed using that method for FDM could give a nice result without having to resorting to kind of other esoteric methods (silkscreen, etc). For the Uzebox enclosure, the bevels would indeed need to be replaced by chamfers (if your printer have a 2nd extruder for dissolvable support). Otherwise, in my experience, those bevels tends to sag at some point and don't not looking good. For the portable I experimented with this approach to print text on the face panel since it was printed face down. But I was not really satisfied with the resolution and results given out with my .4mm nozzle. Since then I replaced my printer's hotend that can go down to a .25mm nozzle. Here's some examples I made some time ago. Those keys are a bit less that 1/2". The text is pretty small and sharp. Very happy with the results! :mrgreen:
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by Artcfox »

Wow! Those keycaps look amazing! I still need to put my second MK3 together, been putting that off. I ordered a 0.25 mm nozzle for it, so maybe I can get good results like that.

This is my best with a 0.4 mm nozzle, though maybe now with the Arachne perimeter generator it could be improved more. By selecting which order the colors printed in, I could get a finer width than what my extruder could do by having it extrude between two previously placed lines (the blue center part). I think I slowed it down to 10% speed, raised the bed temperature a bit and made sure to use a bit of acetone on the bed to get the smallest details to stick well.
P_20230207_193132.jpg
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The worst part is not knowing how good it got the details until you take the print off the bed, and for something as big as the Uzebox top case, printing it would probably take all day when slowed down to 10% speed for the first 3 or 4 layers, but I think it would be worth a try once the mechanical design has been proven.
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by uze6666 »

I reckon it looks pretty good for 0.4. My key caps were printed before Arachne was added to Cura so I must try again those on 0.25. That text could be even smaller. And as you mentioned big prints are problematic because it takes forever both because of print speed and smaller nozzle. Perhaps the enclosure could be redesigned to somehow just have a flat face plate to print with the text which would snap or sit on the rest of the shell. I'm getting used to design around the limitations of current 3d printing technology (well, affordable ones that is).
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by danboid »

Today I printed the top half of my second Uzebox case and I also printed some buttons. When testing these buttons out on my Uzebox, I was reminded that the official 3D printed buttons don't fit in the official case. I used a grinder to make the buttons fit but thats a bit messy and tricky to get right so it'd be better if we could get some fitting button stl files uploaded to Thingiverse and YouMagine to replace the current ones.

https://github.com/Uzebox/uzebox/issues/120

Has anyone already done this to save me the effort? I should be able to edit the STL files in blender apparently although I've not tried editing STLs in blender yet. I've opened a gh ticket especially for this as its the only thing stopping this case being the best.

I printed the buttons in silver today and they look fantastic! Shame I can't use them without filing them down.

Here's my first Uzebox with the case ajar, faulty buttons abalancing.
Uzebox-silver-buttons.jpg
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Next time I print a Uzebox case I'll have to try printing it the right way up by using (then tearing out) supports. That should result in smoother edges I'd hope.
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by danboid »

I have fixed the all-in-one (caps+shafts) buttons.

I had to print these with Prusa slicer. Cura prints supports in the gap on the bottom of the shaft which I was unable to remove without also removing the ridges at the end of the shafts.

Uzebox-buttons.zip
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https://github.com/Uzebox/uzebox/issues/120
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by danboid »

I've been meaning to do it for months now but today I finally got around to printing a new, higher quality case for my Uzebox. I was hoping to have this done in time for the Blackpool Play videogames expo last month but sadly I didn't get it done in time for that and I ended up not going at all in the end.

For my first attempt at a Uzebox case, I printed it upside down to avoid having to rip out the supports. That's NOT how you print these cases, if you want it to look half decent. This time I printed it the right way up (with supports) on a Prusa 4 printer instead of an Ultimaker 5.


Dans-new-Uzebox-case.jpg
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I've created a new wiki page for the official case:

https://uzebox.org/wiki/3D_printed_case

I mainly created it as somewhere to put a link to Artcfox's tweaked Uzebox logo files which I was struggling to find earlier but I'm sure someone will think of more stuff to add to that page, like alternate cases, printing tips etc.

The name for the upcoming SCART friendly Uzebox came to me this morning. I've told Thorsten (Bluescreen) what I think it shoud be called but I'm waiting to hear if he's thought of something better first before I announce that.
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Re: Uzebox 3D printed enclosure!

Post by danboid »

I've opened a minor github issue for the 3D printing files, this time for Cover.stl.

https://github.com/Uzebox/uzebox/issues/121

"...I'd also like to see the cover get slightly tweaked. I have highlighted 2 small gaps between the cover and the top shell. It cannot be much more than a mm but because the rest of the cover is flush with the case it is more pronounced to my eye."
Gap-in-Uzebox-cover.jpg
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