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[2024 - Jan 13]
This project started in an attempt to be a no-frills mount for a set of #Tetrinsic's [gd0041] which soon pivoted to conceptualize a cuboid-shaped input device.
See https://hackaday.io/project/184181-tetent-gd0090/log/211821-t-tetent-testcut-and-project-worries, but essentially, this is the Proof Of Concept, Minimum Viable Product Tetent.
It's just Tetrinsic's in a 3D printed case with a USB wire coming out.
Notable Tetent projects, sorted by project log count:
I'm moving the Minimum Viable Product status to the newly renamed TwySize.
https://hackaday.io/project/184228-tetent-twysize-gd0040/log/216746-at-rename-and-ergonomics
[03:15]Me In The Past... I've done it. This is no alternate dimension. This new Tetrinsic design might actually have "all the benefits and none of the drawbacks", price and build time nonwithstanding. I've just had to increase the square to 92mm and move Thumb1 up 4mm.
I think the top face is the most "modern chizelled" design yet. The cutout is because I intend to use the inside ball-chain side for the thumbs, meaning that the tip of the thumb needs space. Since this is the main face I see, this is a very good position to be in. I'm also experimenting with different colours:
I think a grey would look the most calming without potentially clashing with a custom coloured Tetrinsic. I could get more exotic with the surface though, such as using an 8x8 LED matrix or a sparkly vinyl (see below). The OLED used in TimerSpy doesn't fit though. I also wonder if I should have both cutouts use the same material as it could improve consistency.
Oh and I just got this idea for the cutout which I think looks better:
[03:40] I just darkened the galvanised steel texture and I think it looks very nice applied to all cutouts:
[05:45] I had to make the cutouts lighter. It just looked too dark and not calm-mindset inducing.
kelvinA
The whole bottom of the cutout is on the same plane.
Oh yeahhhhh... that's the professional concept render vibe right there. Now I just need to wait for the print to finish to find out if an ergonomic solution exists.
Solution mining... ends, in 18 days.
I printed this concept where Thumb1 Tetrinsics are pointing straight up. Well not exactly straight up. There's an 18 degree slope difference between the normal of the top face and the top surface of the Tetrinsics. This is so that both of them could fit next to each other.
I think there's potential for this idea, but the active areas will need to be rotated; as you might be able to imagine, the thumbs push the TestCut forwards. The Tetrinsics also should be moved >10mm down and, from an aesthetic perspective, down enough so that the top face could be flat again.
I think the current proposed Tetrinsic Gen 3X1 should be able to obtain Tetent solutions, and I've learned about the possible mounting strategies and intersection possibilities through generating these TestCut. Thus, I think I can pause solution mining for TestCut until I've got an actual Tetrinsic to use. After all, I like to avoid using seemingly unobtainium parts unless I can obtain them.
Solution mining... ends, in 22 days.
I've moved everything right to the edge. Speaking of the edge, 3.3mm is barely enough space around the fingers and I've increased it to 4.5mm.
Somewhat suprisingly, I don't like the aerofoil motor cap design so I've reverted back to the cone.
I think that the reason why this Finger2 issue keeps reappearing is because my finger stops as soon as it barely touches it, making me feel like "I just need to move it back a tad". I tried the earlier prints and the motor bump is much more pronounced than when I first tried it.
Unfortunately, if this concept tweak doesn't pass, the cuboid solution of TestCut will fail; I've squeezed out every last millimetre. I have a feeling it's going to fail anyway because Finger5's active area is a good 10mm out from the edge.
Wait...
If that's the case, I might as well save 3 hours of printing and 75g of filament and just call it a solution fail here. The problem actually seems to stem from Thumb1! Wow!! And I've been scrutinising Finger2 and 5 this entire time! If I use the joints midway up the thumb instead of the tips, the current solution that I printed... passes (ish; could still use that cutout space increase).
A new solution... will have to be verified.
Solution mining... ends, in 23 days.
Great news! The 2 degree angle fails. I actually turned it the right way the first time, but I guess 4 degrees was too much. 0 was mostly fine though, so I'm just going to use that.
NOUH FUSION!! Why do you only select visible components???
The bad news is that Finger2 still collides with the motor. Hopefully now that I've moved the motor down (see last log), this problem should finally end.
With the shorter protrusion, I'm thinking of having a different top cover design (on left).
The main reason was to use it for the fingers, but it doesn't seem like my idea panned out as well as I'd hoped. Seems more like a design for the thumbs...
From the angle I actually see though, I think I've got something here:
I had to see what it would have been like if TestCut wasn't a (not-so-temporary) temporary Tetent and I bothered to hand-solder the screen wire so that I could mount the motors on the bottom side of the load cell. The render is as essence, modern and simplistic as I imagined.
In other news, the latest concept just finished printing at 2 degrees is very noticable, visually.
I also found out this time-saving Fusion 360 feature called "Select By Name":
But man that render makes me want to go into Tetrinsic and figure out a way to hide the motor or at least push it further into the main surface.
I've got the print and 90mm is a nice size alright, but as it turns out, I rotated the Tetrinsics in the opposite direction to what I needed because of Team Aesthetic. Oh and Finger2 still collides with the motor, so that has to be forcefully moved. The original cutout design wasn't going to work, and since Finger3 has the most travel (thus tolerance for movement), I moved it so that the Tetrinsics were colinear.
The sad thing is... imagine if the stars aligned and out of pure coincidence did everything line up:
First up, I want to say that the doorstop Tetrinsic shape unexpectedly helped out in this design. Thumb1 would've instersected Finger2 and Fingers2-4 would've intersected the same fingers on the other side if not for this design:
The most notable change is that I've brought Finger2-4 closer to the East/West corner by 10mm, I've increased the height and that I've increased the distance between the edge of the Tetrinsic and the edge of the cutout by 3.3mm:
It's just a shame those simple and basic tweaks took an hour to go from poping off the concept print to sending the next one right now. I was hoping I could have the next one sent in 10 minutes.
actually actually it's not too bad...
yeah yeah I can accept that art-deco like look
yeaaaa the circles have more of an engine look, but it does look lighter.
For the fingers tho, it starts to feel disorienting with multiple different straight line angles. I'll keep with the circles.
I'll also get rid of the fillets closest to the motors (original on left, adjusted on right) because it looks more continuous.
I think this is aesthetically acceptable. It's not as ice-cool as the "advanced looking metasurface chiselled into a solid block" of the non-motor render, but it does get appreciably close.
😭This cutout looks so beautiful and simplistic, unlike the cutout I did for Tetrinsic 1st Generation.
Wait a second. that 20mm dimension doesn't go all the way to the top. What is this extra block here for then?
Even accounting for the gap between the board and the magnet, there's plenty of space in 20mm! Ok I'll start fixing this.
but ergonomics said:
This is 4 degrees, but I'm feeling the concept-print-before-the-previous one and maybe it's even less than that. The solution is close to 0 degrees but isn't 0.
2 degrees might not be too noticable. And it's not like keyboards or controllers are visually aligned either, nor will I see this side when actually typing. A counter point though is that an increased angle increases the likelyhood of a Finger2->motor collision.
I've also increased the main angle from 10 to 12 degrees and decreased the main square from 100 to 95mm. I think all those changes make the design look sleeker.Solution mining... ends, in 24 days.
[8th Jan, 00:10] I just printed it and the Tetrinsics kind of feel like the angle is off and it might be why Finger2 is colliding with the motor bump. Other than that, it's all good!
Another cool thing I noticed is that, since both chain columns are exposed, there's essentially 2 different hand angles usable.
[02:00] Top square is now 90mm and I think that's a good size so I'll stop miniaturising there. I've set the angle of Fingers2-5 to be half of the angle between the top and bottom edge of the face, thus it's 4.25 degrees. I've also slightly shortened Tetrinsic so that everything fit without conflicts.
I've brought in the Tetrinsic Gen 3X1 concept into TestCut. It's probably because of the green, but man this looks like some kind of alien tech, such as Sonic Frontiers' main bosses when they go into their second stage:
The cuboid is also larger now; it's a 100mm square prism.
Yeah... maybe it's just too green.
Looks more uniform.
Black bars between Tetrinsics looks more uniform, but I'd be OK with either:
Thanks, though I wasn't expecting this relative surge of interest just because I changed the hover description to "A cuboid input device." I just thought that I shouldn't expect prior knowledge on my other projects, and so made it shorter and to-the-point.