Worklog Raspberry Pi Fusion.

[TodorSauce]

Guess I may as well start a worklog for this.

Been noodling away in Fusion 360 and learning a bunch about how to do things and how not to at the same time. Hence the "fusion" monkier carrying over from the GameCube glory days. I felt like it was still appropriate

Here's a little teaser of what I have sketched up so far:

Spoiler: Fusion Case Alpha Designs

I'm especially proud of the solution I came up with for the shoulder buttons on my second design after the first failed horribly:

Spoiler: Shoulder Buttons

Aaaaand a very rough first alpha fit for the front face components:

Spoiler: Case Front

And here's some other miscelania that I have prepped and ready for when I get some more design/testing time:

Spoiler: Other Junk

As long as I can maintain the battle for time to work on it. I think this project will go pretty quick. The unit is planned to have 4 18650 cells at 7.4v for hopefully what will amount to a few hours of playtime. Going to drop down to 5v with one PTR08100. Kicking it oldschool with the audio amp which was for an old iPhone model. I've got a bunch of these still from the glory days so I'm going to use them up. Also, daftmikes low battery circuit. Hells yes. Waiting on some small fans and other junk to come in the mail.

Thats it for now! Feels good to get back into things. Been away too long...

Also, there is no (Worklog) tag in this forum. Why Mods!? Why? ; ;

 

[Gman]

Also, there is no (Worklog) tag in this forum. Why Mods!? Why? ; ;

Because raspberry pi is not legitimate console to portablize.

Anyway the cad model is looking great so far!

 

[Noah]

Also, there is no (Worklog) tag in this forum. Why Mods!? Why? ; ;

Fixed.

Looks great so far! Can't wait to see where it goes!

 

[Shank]

 

[Arceus]

Because raspberry pi is not legitimate console to portablize

 

[TodorSauce]

So I'm thinking maybe a 11.1v pack is more practical for this now that I've though about it. I need to do some testing to see what kind of playtime I'm going to get. Looks like things are working out so far. This little $25 screen has a nice picture too!

 

[Arceus]

So I'm thinking maybe a 11.1v pack is more practical for this now that I've though about it.

Have you thought about using the 3.7V 5A li-po batteries? With two of these you could have a pretty good playing time, not to mention the space that you could save yourself thanks to the thinness of the li-po batteries.

https://www.batteryspace.com/polyme...18-5wh-10-0a-rate-----un38-3-passed-ndgr.aspx

 

[DeoNaught]

^^ have you thought about just using 3.7V and upping it up to 5v? You'd have more battery life like that I think.

and if you do that, you can use micro usb, or usb-C(you'll need something to negotiate the voltages though)

 

[TodorSauce]

I will almost certainly never use li-po’s in a portable. The risk of puncture is just not something I want to ever take. :/

Unless things have changed in the past few years that I’ve been out of the game, then stepping voltage up is always way less efficient and its harder on your batteries. With a 11.1v pack I’m basically at the peak efficiency range for my regulator if you look at the datasheet.

Plus, I already have all this crap here. I’d like to use what I have if I can.

 

[GingerOfOz]

There are more efficient ways nowadays to step up battery voltage to 5v, but honestly it would be overkill for this sort of application. It's handy if you're designing a full on battery management/voltage regulation system like the PMS Line in the store, but there's no point in designing a custom circuit if what you've got right now is working great, so just roll with it.

 

[TodorSauce]

Things are coming along nicely with the case design. The base/bottom/back of the case is pretty much done and aside from figuring out some way to retain the screen in the front of the case things are pretty much wrapped up.

Spoiler: Case Design

Its been an interesting thing designing this way and learning fusion along the way for sure. But I've ended up with something I'm mostly happy with.

Also did some test print/fitting of a cutoff section of the case to see how things would fit together. I was able to shave off about 3mm from the front section of the case since these photo's were taken with some design changes to how the batteries sit in the case. So thankfully I wont have to rename this portable to FatBoy. Also, my printer does text embedded on the case pretty well, alot better than I thought it would. The textured finish that my removable printer bed provides is shmexy. Going to see if there is some way I can smooth out the edges/sides of the case and not have to paint. Sand smooth then sandblast maybe? I dunno.

Spoiler: Test Prints

I also did some battery life testing over the past few days. I ran my test running Ocarina of Time running in Mupen 64 with some mild overclocks on the CPU and GPU to make things run smooth. I'm hoping this is kind of the worst case scenario I could create as far as pushing the Pi to its limits to run a game. Clocked in at just under 4 hours before the batteries died. Not too shabby I'd say.

Also, here is proof that Raspberry Pi can identify as a real console. ;P

Spoiler: NESPi

 

[Arceus]

How difficult was learning Fusion 360 from scratch? From the screw holes to the design in general?

Also, it is doing very well.

Also, here is proof that Raspberry Pi can identify as a real console. ;P

Legit.

 

[TodorSauce]

I have some prior experience with autocad from another life a long long time ago in a galaxy far away. There are alot of similarities between the two. So that eased the learning curve a bit for me. I’m sure there is still a ton of stuff I’m doing wrong. But it works for me so far.

This guy:


Has some fantastic beginner tutorials for Fusion. I’d recommend diving into his channel/tutorials if you want to learn.

 

[DeoNaught]

Did you sand that case? and is that from an Ender 3? o_0
That looks like a hella nice 3d print

 

[TodorSauce]

Nope, no sanding was done in those pictures. The finish on the front/back faces of the case are from the print bed and yes, printed on and Ender 3 Pro.

 

[Noah]

Damn, this is looking killer so far. I've always wanted to make a Pi portable but never really got around to it. Maybe now that the 4 is out I'll finally have to check things out and see what I've been missing out on.

Going to see if there is some way I can smooth out the edges/sides of the case and not have to paint. Sand smooth then sandblast maybe? I dunno

So as of late whenever I print a case in a solid color, I've found that wet sanding it produces a really nice finish. Shank and Gman both turned me onto this method after using it on the WiiVision and to be completely honest it makes me never want to paint a case again. Normally I start with either 180 or 230 grit depending on the features of the case (if there are a lot of sharper corners and very visible layer lines 180 might not be a bad place to begin) and then work my way up to 400, then 600, then 1000, 1500, 2000 and finally 2500. Normally I only move onto 400 and above once the layering on the sides can't be felt/seen anymore. 2000 and 2500 might be a bit much in some instances though, as they produce a really heavy shine and mirror finish that can be easily scratched but it totally depends on the filament color. When I was working on a portable and had it on my workbench, the back got a few heavy scratches on it from just being moved around and I assume dragging on some solder flakes or what have you.

I usually use a bucket of water and just dunk the case every couple of minutes or when the water on the case starts to get cloudy, but you can do it in a sink or wherever is convenient.

and voila!

Spoiler: Finished Product

Certain colors will make it more difficult to hide the layer lines on the front, but since you have a textured bed I think it should be fairly easy to get a completely smooth finish on the front/back faces. Darker colors are probably going to be a bit more difficult to hide the lines, but IIRC you were always more of a white case kind of guy anyways, so depending on what you end up going with for the final print that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[TodorSauce]

Yea man, that finish looks sexy as hell. I hope to never have to paint a case again. Out of the whole process its my least favorite part, I'd rather spend the day sanding. I did try a little bit of wet sanding before you posted and got some nice results even just with 400 grit. I can imagine how much nicer it gets the higher you go. I need to order me some super high grit stuff so I have it here.

On another note. I've started printing out my final designs and getting things wired up. Not much progress, because of time issues lately. But I got my power management board wired up as far as I can unitl its mounted in the case.

Spoiler: Power Board

On another, nother, kind of unrelated note. Have I ever mentioned I work as a engineering tech in a facility that does injection molding? We have some prototype molds here in our facility that are 3D printed at our corporate headquarters and shipped to us to do design run offs. We have prototyping frames called "mud frames" that these 3D printed inserts can be easily installed into and run. I've thought many times about how this application could benefit our little community.

The pictures below show a steel prototype mold in one of these "mud frames". But you can get the idea how easy it is to swap out these "molds" from the pictures. The first photo has the insert for the back half of the mold installed and the 2nd and 3rd pictures the back half insert has been removed from the mold frame.

Of course, I'd have to get permission from our plant manager and probably our corporate office to do anything for my own personal use. That'd be the real trick. One can dream though.

Spoiler: Injection molding

 

[Downing]

God damn I miss seeing the old methods in use! But when mixed 3DP it get's me all tingly! Miss ya man, glad to see you're back at it!

 

[TodorSauce]

Downing! I’m an old school kinda guy. What can I say. I’m glad to see so many familiar people are still around after my long hiatus. I’m glad to be back at it. Really cant wait to dip my toes into that Wii scene. I do have some other more OG stuff planned though. I see you guys are still doing get-togethers too. So awesome, I’m kinda jelly.

also, back half of case is printed. Started sanding the sides. I think the back turned out nice enough that I’ll keep the matte finish. I hit it with a lighter/torch to clean it up a bit and its close to perfect.

Spoiler: Case Back

 

[Downing]

That's looking sweet man. Those textured beds go a long ways with the finish quality on large flat surfaces. Very clean all the way around.

Yeah, we do meet-ups from time to time. Decent sized one in Texas in the next week or so, but the big one is the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee in April. Was there in 2018, missed this year's because of my brother's wedding, but gonna do 2020. The vision is clear, you should be there too!