We're currently writing the code to test data sampling from 7 different inertial measurement unit (IMU) chips, and we'll have a write-up on that progress soon.

For now, there's a fun, little trick in Fusion 360 to show.

We need a much better way to organize our MicroSD cards and our custom boards with the IMU's.  Enter Fusion 360.

First, we need to store the Raspberry Pi hard drives (ie: the MicroSD cards and their larger card holders).  And with rapid prototyping comes rapid mistakes in sizing.  Did we give enough wiggle room?  Too much?  In order to combat this issue, we're going to work with variables in Fusion 360 --- and only variables, no absolute dimensions.

To build our MicroSD card holder, here...

... we're going to input some custom dimensions by going to Modify > Change Parameters > User Parameters.

Now we can print our design, see if we like it physically, and make small tweaks without having to redesign it.  All we need to do when drawing is type our User Parameters instead of physical lengths.  We can also use equations such as "containerOuterWidth - 2 mm" or "shell/2 mm".

This becomes especially useful when working with multiple parts, as we did when building a little enclosure for our more-than-one-dozen custom boards.

If there's an interest in the original files, let us know, and we'll post them with a how-to guide for building them from scratch!

Thanks,

Ryan

links to the files:

4-drawer Container, Fusion 360 files

4-drawer Container, STL print files

MicroSD Card Holder