HOW?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s a couple of options when it comes to easily manufacturing an enclosure. I\u2019d always had 3D printing in mind for the project (more because I wanted to give it a go rather than anything!), however, laser cutting Perspex is a far simpler (and cheaper) alternative. When chatting with the mechanical workshop, they heavily favoured the laser cutting option with a cost of around \u00a310 compared to \u00a350 3D printing.<\/p>\n
So on those grounds, I went away and designed the laser cut solution. Six sides, one mid-plate, and two buttons. An evening well spent resulted in intricately designed components, with curved edges and etched faces.<\/p>\n
On visiting the mechanical workshop the following day, it\u2019s fair to say they were less impressed. Some of the design features were so complex they\u2019d take hours to cut, while others weren\u2019t possible at all. On top of this, the laser cutting machine had literally just broken. We all agreed that 3D printing was therefore the best option. Result.<\/p>\n
After another night spent reconfiguring the CAD model for 3D printing, we were finally good to go. The design now consisted of a 5-sided \u2018main body\u2019, a mid-plate, back-plate, and two buttons. Despite being only 10cm squared, materials cost for 3D printing equated to \u00a363.60, and took almost 10 hours to print.<\/p>\n
And the result, as you can see, is fairly impressive. Curved edges, mounting holes, and etched sensor symbols behind the faceplate. LEDs mounted behind will (should) illuminate the corresponding sensor symbol resulting in a nice clean finish.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the most perfect quality, however. The ice white finish has turned somewhat tobacco yellow, while the 3D printing process leaves multiple rough edges \/ texture \u2018oddities\u2019. But none the less, it\u2019s not designed to be perfect, it\u2019s designed to form a proof-of-concept, which I believe it does very well!<\/p>\n
WHO?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe only thing I might hear you asking is, WILFRED? The product needed a working title, something relatively catchy and memorable, while ideally personifying the device in the eyes of school children. After many hours of thought, while consulting flatmates, course-mates, people passing on the street, WILFRED was selected.<\/p>\n
Because at the end of the day, who could resist a Wirelessly Integrated Logging For Research & Education Device?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Something I\u2019ve always had in mind as an end goal for the project is to produce a full enclosure, completing a fully presentable prototype of the device. Despite being pushed on time; I was able to sacrifice a couple of nights watching TV to design the CAD enclosure. HOW? There\u2019s a couple of options when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,37,22],"class_list":{"0":"post-170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-student-experience","8":"tag-3rd-year","9":"tag-alec","10":"tag-undergraduate","11":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n
WILFRED - Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WILFRED - Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Something I\u2019ve always had in mind as an end goal for the project is to produce a full enclosure, completing a fully presentable prototype of the device. Despite being pushed on time; I was able to sacrifice a couple of nights watching TV to design the CAD enclosure. HOW? There\u2019s a couple of options when […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-03T08:42:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-13T17:35:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2016\/05\/IMG_1197.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4904\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alec Owens\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alec Owens\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alec Owens\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3fd5c154d12ac26b8d7304672e130b28\"},\"headline\":\"WILFRED\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-03T08:42:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-13T17:35:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":427,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/48\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/IMG_1197.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"3rd year\",\"Alec\",\"undergraduate\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Student experience\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/\",\"name\":\"WILFRED - Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/48\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/IMG_1197.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-03T08:42:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-13T17:35:11+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/48\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/IMG_1197.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/48\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/IMG_1197.jpg\",\"width\":4904,\"height\":1576,\"caption\":\"The three main parts forming the data logger's enclosure.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/03\\\/wilfred\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"WILFRED\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/\",\"name\":\"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog\",\"description\":\"Communicating electrical and electronic engineering at - The University of Manchester\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/48\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/logo-university-of-manchester.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/48\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/logo-university-of-manchester.png\",\"width\":206,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3fd5c154d12ac26b8d7304672e130b28\",\"name\":\"Alec Owens\",\"description\":\"3rd Year Electrical & Electronic Engineer at the University of Manchester.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\\\/eee\\\/author\\\/alexanderowens\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"WILFRED - Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"WILFRED - Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog","og_description":"Something I\u2019ve always had in mind as an end goal for the project is to produce a full enclosure, completing a fully presentable prototype of the device. Despite being pushed on time; I was able to sacrifice a couple of nights watching TV to design the CAD enclosure. HOW? There\u2019s a couple of options when […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/","og_site_name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog","article_published_time":"2016-03-03T08:42:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-13T17:35:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":4904,"height":1576,"url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2016\/05\/IMG_1197.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Alec Owens","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alec Owens","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/"},"author":{"name":"Alec Owens","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#\/schema\/person\/3fd5c154d12ac26b8d7304672e130b28"},"headline":"WILFRED","datePublished":"2016-03-03T08:42:50+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-13T17:35:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/"},"wordCount":427,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2016\/05\/IMG_1197.jpg","keywords":["3rd year","Alec","undergraduate"],"articleSection":["Student experience"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/","name":"WILFRED - Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2016\/05\/IMG_1197.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-03T08:42:50+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-13T17:35:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2016\/05\/IMG_1197.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2016\/05\/IMG_1197.jpg","width":4904,"height":1576,"caption":"The three main parts forming the data logger's enclosure."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/2016\/03\/03\/wilfred\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"WILFRED"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/","name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog","description":"Communicating electrical and electronic engineering at - The University of Manchester","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#organization","name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/12\/logo-university-of-manchester.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2017\/12\/logo-university-of-manchester.png","width":206,"height":86,"caption":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/#\/schema\/person\/3fd5c154d12ac26b8d7304672e130b28","name":"Alec Owens","description":"3rd Year Electrical & Electronic Engineer at the University of Manchester.","url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/author\/alexanderowens\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2016\/05\/IMG_1197.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/eee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}