Mini Rambo Case?

At looking at the photos of the graphic controller on this site, I am wondering if the bottom edge of the controller will miss the dove joint used for the end cap shown in the attached photo. This joint is only about 2.5mm above the bracket and looks like it should be ok. If it is a problem, I could always add a little more height to where the controller mounts to the side bracket or I could shorten the dovetail joint so it does not extend the full width of the bracket.

I was revisiting the dovetail joint connections yesterday. I was initially using .4mm clearance for the joints which is actually .2mm on each side of the joint. That was too loose, so changed it to .3mm (.15mm on each side) which felt good when using silver PLA+. When I changed to Red PLA+, that seemed a little loose. So now, I added 5 different clearance sizes, .15 (.075mm), .2 (.1mm), .25 (.125mm), .3 (.15mm) & .4mm (.2mm). There are actually 3 different size dovetail joints, so I added the option to use a different clearance on any of them since the end caps might want to be a tighter joint than the other 2. The female dovetail joints on the bracket stay the same. I made an option in the openscad file to test print these, so others can print a smaller print to see which size works best for them. I am going to test print them at .25mm clearance later this morning. If I cannot find anything else that bothers me about this design, I will release it later today or tomorrow on thingiverse. Here is a screen capture of the test prints for all the connections on the bracket.

I finally got tired of making changes to it & posted the design on thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2466915

Let me know if it works for you.

 

I was not happy with the end caps not being snug, so I am making the dovetail joints for the end caps the same as the size for the top & back. I am not sure what my reasoning was for making those smaller. At any rate I am printing a new left bracket tonight & will try the newer version of the end cap in the morning. I will update those on thingiverse tomorrow. Seems like I always change at least one thing after uploading to thingiverse.

1 Like

I updated the end caps, brackets & the arduino mount. I made the dovetail joints for the end caps the same size as I was using for the top & back plate & made them extend most of the width of the bracket. They are nice snug fit for me now. I also found a problem with the arduino mount. I had forgot that I was trying to make another mount 180 degrees for the arduino & messed up the design. I need to look at a different approach to rotating that design 180 than I was doing. For now I will leave it alone unless someone really needs that board oriented 180 degrees.

Printed the enclosure for the rambo mini and LCD. Everything fits pretty good. The dove tails are a nice fit. The Prusa just didnt like the angle on the bottom of the front plate. Tried printing with support but they didnt even come up and touch it. Not sure what happened there. The SD card slot works. Only problem is with the SD Card in the end of the card ends up flush with the end plate. Makes it kind of a pain to get back out, but it will come out. Otherwise it all went together pretty well with plenty of room inside.

That’s an easy fix. Just use a piece of tape as a pull tab. Like I did on this 340mb drive.

Google Photos

 

Holy crap! That drive came out in 2001! I know I paid around $200 for it, but thought it was longer ago than that.

1 Like

After playing with the parts with a LCD 2004, I added a half elliptical cutout for that gives more room. I attached a zlip file of the stl file if you want to try it. Should not take long to print it. I have not printed that front plate, but did not have a problem with printing it before & the profile of it is about the same as it was then. I am using the prusa slic3r with a makerfarm Prusa i3v printer.

I am currently updating this design to be a lot more customizable. It should work with both the graphics LCD & the LCD2004 & you can also make it wider or taller. I was also looking at making the front angle variable & think it can be done, but am going to let this design settle some before trying that again. I also am attaching 2 images showing the changes.

Electronics_And_LCD_2004_LeftEndCap_Rev98.zip (27.8 KB)

I updated the openscad & STL files for this design today: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2466915

You can now use this with either the Graphics controller or the LCD2004 controller. I made the brackets so you can attach either type. I am printing all the parts to use with my Folgertech Kossel & the LCD2004. I will probably also print a faceplate for the Graphics controller. If you are familiar with openscad, you can now make the case just about any width or height you want as long as the printable parts will fit on your print bed. The length should probably stay the same because of how the LCD controllers are connected. I also got a little more carried away & allow for changing the angle of the front face. You will probably have adjust the height and width if changing that angle because of the LCD mounts. It seems to calculate it correctly, but getting the assembly correct in openscad is not quite right without fudging some of numbers.

Someone asked for a version of this to also hold the raspberry pi & the HDMI 7" touchscreen on the front instead of the LCD screens. I added the remix: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2518600 for this.

I may finally put this project to rest after making another remix of it. This one lets you add a raspberry pi to the outside back, inside back or the top plate and use the Arduino Mega or Rambo Mini in the bottom & have an LCD2004 or graphics LCD on the front. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2525426. I changed the angle of the front plate from 60 degrees to 75 degrees so I would not have to increase the width of the case. I also added some hex holes to the top plate for passive heat release. You can also open this in thingiverse customizer and change all kinds of variables. I have the front angle adjustable from any acute angle to 90 degrees. I thought about making it so you could use an obtuse angle. I am not sure that would be very practical, but might look cool.