Tips/Techniques A 3D printed solution

[jcdammeyer]

I was trying to figure out how to cut a nice clean rectangular hole in a plastic box for an AC Adapter connector. Now I know they come round but back in 1993 when I spent some time in Hong Kong I bought a bag of 100 of these

So paying a few dollars for a panel version just didn't make sense.
First thing I did, partly for practice and there was nothing interesting on the TV to watch while sitting with SWMBO in the evening, was draw a model.

A friend suggested instead of trying to make a rectangular hole just 3D print a mount for it with the hole. Hmmm....

A bit more CAD and then 3D printing...

Now all that's left to do is solder on the wires, hot melt glue pushed in around it while it sits flat on the cold table-saw top and I have a panel mountable holder.

And there it is, mounted with the AC adaptor plugged into it.

 

[jcdammeyer]

The hole point of this was to try and run these lights off a smaller 24V only supply and not have them networked and not use a huge connector. One of the units I've modified is going to sit under one of the trees in the yard as a Christmas light.

Some might recall my discussion about path lights and how to mount them. I made this video in September 2018 and as yet have not gone further. So getting to the point where I've pulled a few out and modified one to work off a 24V AC adapter is a big step. Not only that I can modify the boards to just run on 12V as totally stand alone. Then they wouldn't have network capability but maybe I can make that work too.

In either case, having the bigger 3D printer and being able to print a larger mounting ring has been awesome. Thanks to my friend Joe M. for doing the Fusion stuff which my Alibre Version 26 cannot do. (Apparently Version 27 will but I don't have $659 US to spare). My Alibre can put text along a straight line but not along a curve.

The lamp mounts onto that ring which has the printing and raised it up enough so the power connector doesn't sit on the table.

Oh and this lamp was originally at the YVR rings in this position (Red Dot).


In real life the rings were 5 stories high.