3D Printed HuCard Case Development (NOW AVAILABLE!)

[PCEngineFX]

So. Is this something where we combine this with a upper cd clear case? 

Exactly.  The only thing not included (obviously) will be the spine sticker.

[Medic_wheat]

So. Is this something where we combine this with a upper cd clear case? 

Exactly.  The only thing not included (obviously) will be the spine sticker.

Good thing those bestie already exist

[jelloslug]

Due to a color density issue with new spool of filament that just came in, pricing/bundle details will be delayed.  Can't estimate when this will be resolved at this time.....sorry guys...was hoping to start orders this week

That sucks.  I had a long, overnight print screw up last week and eat half a roll of filament.

[PCEngineFX]

Update 12/12/14:

Well I had hoped to take orders before the holiday but looks like this won't happen for multiple reasons:

- I will be purchasing a 2nd 3D printer in the next few weeks which will not only be at least 2x faster, but will also give me better print quality.
- I will be on vacation starting the 23rd, so nothing will be printed till after the 6th anyway.

Once I get the new 3D printer, I'll evaluate the print of the case, make any tweaks (if needed) and start printing cases en masse, which at that time ordering details will be provided.

[NecroPhile]

Have fun on your vacation. 

[technozombie]

Update 12/12/14:

Well I had hoped to take orders before the holiday but looks like this won't happen for multiple reasons:

- I will be purchasing a 2nd 3D printer in the next few weeks which will not only be at least 2x faster, but will also give me better print quality.
- I will be on vacation starting the 23rd, so nothing will be printed till after the 6th anyway.

Once I get the new 3D printer, I'll evaluate the print of the case, make any tweaks (if needed) and start printing cases en masse, which at that time ordering details will be provided.

I've been thinking about getting a 3D printer to mess around and learn as well as teach my kids. Do you have any recommendations?

[jelloslug]

If you are shopping for printers stay away from the Makerbot Z18.  I have had nothing but trouble out of ours.

[PCEngineFX]

If you are shopping for printers stay away from the Makerbot Z18.  I have had nothing but trouble out of ours.

I've stayed away from Makerbot since the beginning.  They never appealed to me due to being way overpriced compared to everyone else for the build quality you get.

I wanted a no frills, all quality 3D printer for my 2nd time around so it was a tie between the LulzBot TAZ 4 and Makergear M2 (both highly rated and have large build plates).  Decided on the Makergear M2.

If anyone is wondering on what the current best 3D printers out there are, check out the 2015 3D Printer Guide by 3D Hubs which just recently came out: http://www.3dhubs.com/best-3d-printer-guide

[PCEngineFX]

UPDATE 1/7/15: Just waiting for my new 3D printer to arrive...once put together and configured, I'll then be able to re-print the case and do any re-tweaking to the design (if needed) before going into full production.

[Duo_R]

Awesome Aaron, have you considered other PCE related products? Hucard doors for Duo systems or TE battery covers?

[cjameslv]

Awesome Aaron, have you considered other PCE related products? Hucard doors for Duo systems or TE battery covers?

I think jelloslug gots those fine tuned, even turbo everdrive covers....if he ever gets around to selling us any

[PCEngineFX]

Awesome Aaron, have you considered other PCE related products? Hucard doors for Duo systems or TE battery covers?

I think jelloslug gots those fine tuned, even turbo everdrive covers....if he ever gets around to selling us any

Yes, exactly.  He was working on those and I believe has those pretty much done.  I don't have the 3D modeling skills to make those as good as he did but the HuCard case was within my ability and is still what I plan on making available.

[cjameslv]

Awesome Aaron, have you considered other PCE related products? Hucard doors for Duo systems or TE battery covers?

I think jelloslug gots those fine tuned, even turbo everdrive covers....if he ever gets around to selling us any

Yes, exactly.  He was working on those and I believe has those pretty much done.  I don't have the 3D modeling skills to make those as good as he did but the HuCard case was within my ability and is still what I plan on making available.

Well were all waiting to give you our money once these are ready!

[PCEngineFX]

Awesome Aaron, have you considered other PCE related products? Hucard doors for Duo systems or TE battery covers?

I think jelloslug gots those fine tuned, even turbo everdrive covers....if he ever gets around to selling us any

Yes, exactly.  He was working on those and I believe has those pretty much done.  I don't have the 3D modeling skills to make those as good as he did but the HuCard case was within my ability and is still what I plan on making available.

Well were all waiting to give you our money once these are ready!

Thanks cjameslv!  Believe me, I want to make this available ASAP.....just takes a lot of testing/printing/iterations which in turn takes time....

[NecroPhile]

Who has the modeling skills to make a Bonk joystick topper for Mr. Nanto to print? 

[esteban]

Who has the modeling skills to make a Bonk joystick topper for Mr. Nanto to print? 

Hahahahahshashs.

Somebody should link to the advertisement for this.

[Duo_R]

Exactly, we need some more cool stuff to burn money on! How about printing a Shuttle Controller? Someday it might happen! ;-)

[jelloslug]

Exactly, we need some more cool stuff to burn money on! How about printing a Shuttle Controller? Someday it might happen! ;-)

Any part that someone can send me I can model.

[xcrement5x]

Exactly, we need some more cool stuff to burn money on! How about printing a Shuttle Controller? Someday it might happen! ;-)

Any part that someone can send me I can model.

Does it have to be an existing part?  Like the Bonk joystick topper was never made, but someone with good 3D modeling might have a solid idea how to make it.

[Duo_R]

That's awesome actually. A controller unfortunately would be pretty expensive to print tho ya?

Exactly, we need some more cool stuff to burn money on! How about printing a Shuttle Controller? Someday it might happen! ;-)

Any part that someone can send me I can model.

[cr8zykuban0]

i'll definitely be ordering some cases as well once they're ready! cant wait!!!

[monads]

I gotta admit.....being an older gent, 3-D Printing seemed something like science fiction/not possible.  But seeing things like this make me a believer!  Great job!

monads

[PCEngineFX]

UPDATE 1/27/15:  New MakerGear M2 printer has arrived and is still being broken in.  Not getting the surface finish I want yet from the printer so still in the tweaking stage.  No ETA yet until I can get the surface finish that I expect.

[RTQ]

This is awesome!  Will be getting in line for some of these as well.

As a kid, I was not to careful with my cases.  I actually have a lot of cases where just the little plastic strip to hold the card in is broken.  Would it be possible to just sell those separately as well?  Not sure about cost/time and all that jazz.

Thanks for doing this!  Good luck on working everything out.

[PCEngineFX]

UPDATE 2/11/15: Print quality out of my new 3D printer is finally where I want it so one issue down - now I'm back to putting the finishing touches to the model and verifying that it fits correctly with the top case.....

[cjameslv]

UPDATE 2/11/15: Print quality out of my new 3D printer is finally where I want it so one issue down - now I'm back to putting the finishing touches to the model and verifying that it fits correctly with the top case.....

Very nice! You will have to throw us some pics of the new machine at work.

[PCEngineFX]

UPDATE 2/11/15: Print quality out of my new 3D printer is finally where I want it so one issue down - now I'm back to putting the finishing touches to the model and verifying that it fits correctly with the top case.....

Very nice! You will have to throw us some pics of the new machine at work.

[cjameslv]

UPDATE 2/11/15: Print quality out of my new 3D printer is finally where I want it so one issue down - now I'm back to putting the finishing touches to the model and verifying that it fits correctly with the top case.....

Very nice! You will have to throw us some pics of the new machine at work.

Sweet, man that is awesome. I should make the move to 3d printer goodness with this tax return.

[clackattack]

Cant wait to see these come up for order! Mad props PCEFX!

[PCEngineFX]

Real-time video of the HuCard case arm being printed (6m43s):

[esteban]

Real-time video of the HuCard case arm being printed (6m43s):

Ok, I eventually figured out this couldn't be the plastic try, but the plastic tab!

"Is he printing a clear jewel case lid? Why is it a rectangle? What is the scale of this thing?"



For some reason, my favorite part is the very end, where the two "male plugs" are printed.

[NecroPhile]

Watching it print shouldn't be so entertaining, but I couldn't stop watching. 

[Sarumaru]

This is amazeballs. I'll take a case of em. 

[eldritch]

Might order a bunch of these. Very neat work !

[PCEngineFX]

Thanks guys!  Sorry I changed the thumbnail to say that it is the "HuCase Arm" being printed.

The HuCard case itself takes 2h45m to print so probably won't put up a making-of vid of it....

[cjameslv]

Thanks guys!  Sorry I changed the thumbnail to say that it is the "HuCase Arm" being printed.

The HuCard case itself takes 2h45m to print so probably won't put up a making-of vid of it....

What resolution is that at? I mean if there's no major detail, can you run this at .2 or even .3 to save time?

[CPTRAVE]

What the Heck, I mean how, where is the extra plastic coming from. . I see it moving but what is it feeding from to create it. I'm so lost

[PCEngineFX]

What the Heck, I mean how, where is the extra plastic coming from. . I see it moving but what is it feeding from to create it. I'm so lost

Check out my other 3D print video (this is my older 3D printer but you can see where the plastic feeds into the print head

[PCEngineFX]

Thanks guys!  Sorry I changed the thumbnail to say that it is the "HuCase Arm" being printed.

The HuCard case itself takes 2h45m to print so probably won't put up a making-of vid of it....

What resolution is that at? I mean if there's no major detail, can you run this at .2 or even .3 to save time?

I might be able to print at .3 (currently optimized for .2mm).....will try it for fun to see how it turns out.

[cjameslv]

Thanks guys!  Sorry I changed the thumbnail to say that it is the "HuCase Arm" being printed.

The HuCard case itself takes 2h45m to print so probably won't put up a making-of vid of it....

What resolution is that at? I mean if there's no major detail, can you run this at .2 or even .3 to save time?

I might be able to print at .3 (currently optimized for .2mm).....will try it for fun to see how it turns out.

Yeah interested to know how it will turn out and at what speed.

[NintendoTwizer]

Videos look great, I think that's the first time I've seen a 3D printer in action.

[PCEngineFX]

Thanks guys!  Sorry I changed the thumbnail to say that it is the "HuCase Arm" being printed.

The HuCard case itself takes 2h45m to print so probably won't put up a making-of vid of it....

What resolution is that at? I mean if there's no major detail, can you run this at .2 or even .3 to save time?

I might be able to print at .3 (currently optimized for .2mm).....will try it for fun to see how it turns out.

Yeah interested to know how it will turn out and at what speed.

So at 0.3mm, the case took about 1h45mins.....so shaved off an hr from the print.  As I expected, the quality in more detailed areas (such as the holes or short angles) is more rough.  The surface finish is fine, but the smaller details suffer enough that the fit with the top of the case would be iffy.....so, I think I'll keep with 0.2mm quality.

[cjameslv]

Thanks guys!  Sorry I changed the thumbnail to say that it is the "HuCase Arm" being printed.

The HuCard case itself takes 2h45m to print so probably won't put up a making-of vid of it....

What resolution is that at? I mean if there's no major detail, can you run this at .2 or even .3 to save time?

I might be able to print at .3 (currently optimized for .2mm).....will try it for fun to see how it turns out.

Yeah interested to know how it will turn out and at what speed.

So at 0.3mm, the case took about 1h45mins.....so shaved off an hr from the print.  As I expected, the quality in more detailed areas (such as the holes or short angles) is more rough.  The surface finish is fine, but the smaller details suffer enough that the fit with the top of the case would be iffy.....so, I think I'll keep with 0.2mm quality.

Wish the quality didn't suffer so much in short angles, saving an hour on a print is huge.

[PCEngineFX]

Thanks guys!  Sorry I changed the thumbnail to say that it is the "HuCase Arm" being printed.

The HuCard case itself takes 2h45m to print so probably won't put up a making-of vid of it....

What resolution is that at? I mean if there's no major detail, can you run this at .2 or even .3 to save time?

I might be able to print at .3 (currently optimized for .2mm).....will try it for fun to see how it turns out.

Yeah interested to know how it will turn out and at what speed.

So at 0.3mm, the case took about 1h45mins.....so shaved off an hr from the print.  As I expected, the quality in more detailed areas (such as the holes or short angles) is more rough.  The surface finish is fine, but the smaller details suffer enough that the fit with the top of the case would be iffy.....so, I think I'll keep with 0.2mm quality.

Wish the quality didn't suffer so much in short angles, saving an hour on a print is huge.

Oh yeah.........the time saving is great, but just a little bit too much sacrifice in quality.  Think of 0.3mm as "draft" mode and 0.2mm as "normal" print mode (and 0.1mm as "fine").

[PCEngineFX]

2/18/15 UPDATE
Spending some extra time right now to find ways to cut down on print times for the case (takes about 2h45m currently).  I think I can cut this down by 30-45mins without sacrificing the quality of the finish or changing the print resolution but will require a few extra days of testing.  At the same time I'm tweaking the model to tighten up tolerances for when the top case is attached.

[PCEngineFX]

I have decided to include the top clear lid as part of each printed HuCard case - so all you'll need to do is stick your manual and HuCard in the case and you're good to go.

Question for everybody.............would anyone be interested in me offering color HuCard cases?  Like in any of the colors below? (ignore the first color on the left - that is wood filament)

[NecroPhile]

I don't really need any at the moment, but white might be good to blend in with the later huey releases.

[Duo_R]

Turbo Orange!!!!

[DeshDildo]

I like the idea of colored Hu cases for homebrews.  What Aetherbutt did with the blue and later aqua? colored cases was pretty cool.

[NecroPhile]

After googling that wood filament stuff, I gotta say that it'd be perfect for a protocade case.