GALLERY | Automated Recorder

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GALLERY

This is the most current design iteration featuring a housing 3D printed in PLA, servos installed and cable management. All printed parts are mechanically assembled with heat-set threaded inserts or self-threading screws.

This angle shows one half of the shell for better visibility. Small rings on top of the recorder offer space for set screws which keep the recorder from spinning which would prevent the servo arms from fully sealing the holes.

Another angle of the servo mounting assembly.

These are my first iteration of the servo arms which are printed in Elegoo water-washable resin. Resin was chosen due to the high fidelity needed for proper contact. They're attached and screwed on to each motor after being given a 1mm layer of silicone on the bottom.

In order to better tidy up cables, I've modeled an altered version of the main housing that features access points for wires to be routed along the sides and down to the bottom as can be seen here. The channel pieces will be screwed into the side of the housing. This version also features some other marginal improvements such as reworked clearances for mechanical parts to reduce post-processing time.

Another view here shows screw holes and cutouts which will allow wires to be routed.

Here you can see one of the servo arms in CAD. Modeled with clearance for the silicone, each arm is different as the recorder features a slight taper along it's length. This means that the base of each pad needs a different contour to be modeled.

After cleaning and curing, here you can see the arms successfully installed onto the servos. Once the silicone sheets arrive I can glue them and begin testing servo movement.

This shows the traces on the PCB I designed using EasyEDA

This shows the traces on the PCB I designed using EasyEDA with the silkscreen in place.

After some painstaking soldering, I managed to get the PCB working. One of my oversights was that I lost access to the USB port on the Arduino. I should have used SMD indicator LEDs, and as a result I just have to upload code using the ICSP pins with another board.

A straight-on view of the assembled PCB.

Some parts hot off the press!

Using a mix of resins, I achieved a colour that I thought was interesting. These feature some guides to keep the cylinders perfectly perpendicular to the pads they're acting on, the pads themselves, and some spacers that allow the pad platforms to slide up and down.

In my first draft of the cylinder holder, I printed the entire thing in resin. I switched to PLA because installing the threaded insert inevitably led to cracking. Look how cute the cylinder is!

After Printing the supports, heat-set 10-32 inserts were installed. For this, I used a rudimentary jig that I designed because it was crucial that they be installed as straight as possible.

The full setup with the exception of the springs and the final pad. The last pad must be designed diferently than the rest because it's much larger and requires a different approach. It's now been modeled but has yet to be printed.

Another view of the parts fully assembled.

Another view of the parts fully assembled.

This is the solenoid valve manifold that I sourced. Each of these can control the flow of air when the relay sends it 5 volts. The manifold allows for one air inlet to be shared between all of the valves as well as gives them one shared exhaust.

I made this breakout board for the other side of the IDC connector. It uses small 2.45mm pitch screw terminals to make assembly as easy as possible.

On the back, you can see how some connections share the same route, with a large pad of solder in the middle for the solenoid ground cables which carry a significant amount of current.

Here's one half of the recorder brace with it's first round of primer.

Once the filler primer dries into the layer lines, a lot of sanding is needed to bring down the high points. Primer and sanding steps are generally repeated a couple of times before painting begins.

Midterm
Update

Final
Update

First
Update

Watch Auto Rec in Action!

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