3D shells for Brain, Battery and Motors

#1

Like most of you, we are making the transition from the Cortex/393 world to V5

As a design / build aid, I’m looking for shells that are the same size as the V5 brain, battery and motor that I can “frankenmount” a Cortex, 7.2 V battery and 393 motors inside of. The idea is that while some of our old gear is in transit, the design and build could go on. The shells would help with placement since the new hardware is much bigger. This would help for placement so there isn’t a “wow, that doesn’t fit” moments later on this fall.

I’m looking for parts that I can print that older parts will sit inside of (hot glue is my friend) to help with spacing. I know that live testing is using the old parts, but we’ve already had a collision of the 393 motor fits in the space, but the V5 won’t.

Thanks!

#2

Of course I choose to do this when I have 2 tests tomorrow and no homework finished on a sunday
I’m not quite sure if this fits your problem, so I only finished a motor shell. If you’d like to take a look at it, I would need to know what file you would like it to be exported as.
Also, I’ve done designing but (shamefully) never have done any 3d printing. I’m probably going to be an idiot when it comes to the exporting process (last time I tried 3d printing something, something that was 4cm in the design became 4 inches, and i never tried again)
I’m taking a wild guess that you probably will take whatever comes out of the printer, cut it in half so the motor can fit in, and then glue it back together?

EDIT: It can’t be seen in the screenshots, but there is a hole for the 393 motor wire.
shot 1.PNG.jpg
shot 2.PNG.jpg

#3

I think the best thing to do would be to cut that part in half before printing it, so you have two separate sides that can lock together easily. Also consider that the V5 motor pegs may fit in places that a box like that could not. I don’t know what the format of the CAD parts that Vex gives are, but I use solidworks and would recommend creating an outward shell of an old motor and an inward shell of a new motor, then combining the two to create one shell that easily holds the old motor and has the shape of the new one.

#4

For the brain and battery you could probably use a to scale cardboard model rather than a 3D printed one, it would probably be a lot quicker and cheaper to make it that way.

#5

While I am totally in favor of using cheaper parts, judges would probably love your “cases” you printed. Might even win you an award alone or something.

Okay, it probably won’t, but it’ll help.

#6

@Wiredcat Robotics – Thanks for the effort!!

In their response, @AlexM_4478X has a point, just the box around the entire motor isn’t going to work, it needs to be just around the motor body. I can visualize what they are saying about the two halves that clamp around the motor. I’d think that ribs that are on the inside of the big motor shell to touch/hold against the little motor case would work.

We can use a .stl file on our 3D printers.

Thanks!