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  • Author Author: amgalbu
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ACE - Blog #7 - Improving the device construction

amgalbu

In this post, I will provide some details about the case I built for the ACE wearable device

 

Building the case

Compared to the first version I made, I created a new case from a plastic bottle. The resulting case has many qualities

  • it's free
  • it's made of recycled materials
  • it's light and surprisingly rigid
  • it's easy to build (event if it needs some practice to get good results)

All in all, this technique it's a good solution to make parts with simple shapes quickly and at no cost

 

Bill of materials

The bill of materials for this build is

  • a board of plywood cut at the same width of the better. Length is not important
  • two round bars of aluminum. Again, length is not important here
  • a 66 centiliter plastic bottle
  • tape

Required tools are

  • scissors
  • cutter
  • hot air gun

 

image

 

Forming the case

Use same adhesive tape to keep the round bars close the the plywood board

Cut the top and the bottom of the plastic bottle place the plywood board with the aluminum bars inside the bottle

 

image

With the hot air gun, heat the plastic bottle until it shrink and takes the shape of the plywood board. I need some more practice here, because the temperature at which the thermoplastic material can be modeled is very closed to the temperature where the material becomes liquid. Of course, the material should not be melted down, or the final result will not be so good to look

 

image

This is the final result. As I said, I need more practice for a perfect result...

image

Remove the aluminum bars and then the plywood board. With the scissors and the cutter, finish the edges

imageimage

 

The batteries and the boards fits perfectly in the case. I wrapped batteries with some tape to be absolutely sure they will not slide out

 

imageimage

 

Finally, I added two clips made of harmonic steel to join the two halves and make a sort of clothespin you can pin to your trousers

 

image

And this is the final result

 

image

 

Update

After some practice results are getting better

image

The trick is to use to be patient and move the hot air flow away for a couple of seconds when the plastic starts shrinking

 

 

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ACE - Blog #6 - Adding simplicityhttps://github.com/ambrogio-galbusera/ace2.gitACE - Blog #8 - Offloading computation to LSM6DS3
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