Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am covering a lot of progress toward a viable Pacman Ghost head for my Raspberry Pi case. Let’s get Started.
Last week, I was stumped with fixing the a mesh representing my Pi camera. I reached out to my fellow TitanCraft members (Patrion MineCraft server of Tango Tek) and one player by the screen name of Rhyno talked me through fixing my mesh. I ended up doing it my own way, but I encountered a recurring motif of the week, having a real person who knows something in the field or program I’m working in is very good way for me to pull the answer to my own problem out of my own head.
I fixed the mesh and got Blender to produce a smaller cut out for the camera. It looked workable, if only I didn’t have to clean out a little bit of gunk blocking the camera from fitting snugly. The potential issue was compounded in my mind because of the awkward angle I’d need to get at it (from the bottom of the case).
I set that aside and turned my attention to the other big problem I wasn’t looking forward to: the ridge to accommodate the Pi’s HDMI, power, and audio jack. I used a cube in Blender to cut off most of the ghost head and I printed the base of it. To my surprise, while it still deformed, it didn’t cave in as badly as I expected, so I was hopeful a small fix could save everything.
I took both problems into a small workshop I recently joined. Both problems were basically resolved, “Tough,” and, “Tough,” but each one came with a “…but here’s why:…” segment. For the first problem, 3D printing is still fairly early on in its history, some cleanup is expected. For the second, I just need to trim away the junk strands and nobody will be looking up and under at exposed infill, and if I paint the whole thing, like I’m planning on doing for the eyes anyway, the paint will cover the hole anyway. While I was at the workshop, the instructor (for lack of a better word) had me plan my next few steps.
I wanted to learn about getting a support structure to work, but my previous attempt months ago didn’t work. The problem then was that I was trying to print an ugly lollipop on its side and the support structure didn’t do anything. This time though, I modeled up a tiny table and it printed correctly, support structure included. The piece was so delicate I busted off two legs when I took it out, but by then, I already learned what I needed for it.
Also a recommendation from the workshop was that I print up the ghost head at a quarter scale. It worked fine without a support structure, but because it was so thin, the printer left a tiny hole in the top.
I expect the full case to be finished next week. But if the Pi needs an ABS case, I guess I know what needs to happen then. I already ran a simple test where I left the Pi to heat up an interrupted print of the base, so I’m hopeful at least.
Final Question: I’m almost done with the hardware part of this project, and it’s taken a while. How long should the software take?