Friday, September 07, 2012

"The Brain": Step 7 - Base, plinth, PCBs, 'spine', etc

Lots of progress on a broad set of fronts. Construction of the black base; ordering and delivery of the main acrylic plinth; producing two more LED controller boards and one 'distribution PCB' for connections in the base; design, laser cutting, and building of a 'spine' type construction inside the plinth; and various other 'bits and pieces'.

A few random captions to give an idea of what has been going on:


 1) The base


 The MDF for the base, cut to size.

Cut-outs for the fan, vent, mains supply and USB.

Glued and screwed

Hinged lid being constructed

Cut outs on the inside to clear the fan, etc

 2) The acrylic plinth

The design drawings for the plinth were sent off and it was manufactured and sent via courier.

It arrived intact. Hard to photograph!

3) More PCBs made


Three printed circuit boards are used to control the 120 LEDs which are included in "The Brain". Each board is based on a similar design, but modified to carry out its specific task. These boards are mounted on an acrylic plate which is supported on a 'spine-like' construction (see below).

Inside the base are a series of connections for power, USB, inerfacing, etc. A small board will simplify these connections.
Photo-developing of the base PCB

Copper tracks

Final board

4) 'The Spine'

A construction similar to this sketch has been built - in the final version, the 11 discs are decreasing in size, the further up the column it gets.


The acrylic discs and top-plate were designed and then laser cut.

Laser template

Each disc has three LEDs mounted in it

LEDs mounted
An acrylic rod was marked up...

...and drilled.

The discs were bonded to the tube:

Note the protective covering on the discs



The LEDs were wired up to the top plate and connected to the controlling PCB


The final result is excellent!


5) Other bits and pieces

Various other components are now ready for fitting. For example the fan, USB interface, power supplies and hard drive shown here:

6) Putting it all together

The final stage is approaching!






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