Building the prototype for demo

For obvious reason, we can't put our system on a real door during demonstration. So, we need a smaller, nice looking way of showing that our system can work.

The Kevo's demonstration uses a small box made of wood, which is actually looks nice and serve the purpose (shows how the system works) nicely. You can watch it from the video:

However, due to lack of time and resources, we have opted to build our prototype for demo by using 3D printing service. With some serious lack of creativity, I tried designing using the same idea, just to see how we can arrange our system components inside the box. This is, by no mean, the final design.

As you can see, there are pretty big empty spaces inside the box which can fitted with other components if needed (a battery, perhaps?). After asking around on 3D printing service available, I found out that the maximum of the printable size is 20cm x 20cm x 20cm volume. That is one big concern, our lock itself is already 199mm (19.9cm) in length. Trouble!

Well, not entirely true. We have the option to print part by part and gluing them together, but I'm not sure how strong can it be. The material provided are mostly ABS or PLA. ABS is stronger, the kind of material that the car's bumper are made of, but the maximum printable size is about 10cm x 10cm x 10cm due to the warping problem. We still need to design correctly (if you notice, I haven't plug in the Bluetooth dongle into the Rpi yet) and we still need to seek answers!

Here's a little conversation of me and one of the 3D printing service providers:


Hi

I'm gathering info about 3D printing service, which I need for my fyp. I was given your contact...I hope you don't mind, I'd like to ask a few questions:

1. Can I know the price rate for the service? How it depends on the size, weight of material used, complexity...any other applicable etc

2. What is the maximum printable size?

3. Which materials do you guys provide?

4. How to make order? Expected delivery period?

Thanks

The reply:

Hello

1. For 3D printing targeted towards the consumer market, the prices can range from RM5 all the way to RM1,000. For our company, Makerzone, we charge based on weight and time taken (Rm30 per hour) to print an object. The more complex the object is, the longer time it takes to print it so higher cost too. However, we do have substantial discount for students.

2. For our printers currently, our maximum printable size is 20cm x 20cm x 20cm volume. ABS is limited to 10cm x 10cm x 10cm to prevent warping.

3. We provide both ABS and PLA filaments. Honestly after selling products the past few months, the type of filaments that we use do not matter much to our consumers. We also provide post-processing for customers if they want such as polishing the printed object which will make it looks smooth and shiny, painting and chroming.

4. Customers can make orders through our online platform where we host our marketplace of products. We own three websites currently but they are all still under development and not fully functional yet. Please feel free to check them out too.

www.makerzone.net    www.makerzone.com.my    www.makerzone.sto.my 

Please do like our page below too! 
https://www.facebook.com/makerzone

It is good that you have a sketch of your design, it makes it so much easier for us to provide a quotation for you. Therefore, you could drop an email to mak@makerzone.net together with your sketchup design for him to provide validation and quotation. Expected delivery period is within 5 working days.