Devlog #4: Some setbacks, and solving them!

Today I had one main goal: To finalize the casing for my MarPad.

I wanted to ensure that:

1. The PCB would fit in the case (Important!!)
2. The holes for each component are correctly placed
3. The design was well reminiscent of Apollo era NASA mission control desks.

So what happened?

• it turns out, my measurements inside KiCad were slightly off, which led to my measurements in Fusion360 to also have been off.
• I felt the design was slightly empty, to fix: I added two main changes. The first was a panel on the top left (as seen in old photos) with the name of the Ford company in charge of aerospace. The second was a panel with screw heads.

About that problem:

I downloaded the PCB from KiCad as a STEP file, and then imported into the CAD software for my case. Once I lined up the PCB with the case, I realized that the position of the pins on the Rotary Encoder weren’t aligned with the holes in the PCB. I didn’t worry, and moved the PCB accordingly, before realizing now it was out of place within the case.

I caught on before making many changes, and realized I had to fix the positions of the entirety of the top half of the casing, the plate.

And so, I did: I went to the sketches and moved the holes in the plate accordingly, making minute adjustments (Some even fractions of a mm) which fixed the issue. It took me a while (Most of which seems to not be synced to Stardance) but I got it working and I’m really proud.

All in all, I’ve made good progress and worked towards a unique design I love.