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A project log for 2022 HDP 4 - Climate Resilient Communities

Air quality sensor systems for urban bodies of water, so that the population can avoid potentially dangerous exposure

giovanniGiovanni 06/21/2022 at 00:140 Comments

The project started as an standalone, individual concept, so there were not a lot of restrictions. Things changed when the decision was made to make 35 of these units, and they were going to be assembled by people who were not familiar with the concept. Now that's a challenge! 

Now the units had a few new interesting requirements:

  1. Had to stay aligned with the original goals
  2. Easy to assemble
  3. Electronic components easily accessible 
  4. Must have many open-close cycles
  5. Total investment for 35 (as opposed to 2) has to be calculated more carefully 
  6. 3D printing must be optimized

Some examples of the changes:

Originally, I had the board attached to the back cover, and when the unit opened, you would have to disconnect the cable. To avoid the potential risk where people remove the cover haphazardly and break the cables, I moved the PCBs to the board, and left the Back Cover clean.

The decision with the most impact would probably be number 6. Initially I just thought of making the enclosure in a way that "worked" and call it a day. Long print times or removing a lot of support structure is not a problem if you are making 3 units.  But, we are making 35 :)  . So, I had to slice open the enclosure so to speak, in a way that 3D printing would work as efficiently as possible. 

Yes, iterations were printed. 

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