Eclipse Lamp Devlog #7 - Creating the CAD model for the Top Shell of the Lamp and working on the Mechanical Iris Frame attachment

Today was pretty chill in terms of work as I was focused on making the CAD model for the top shell of the Lamp housing. This housing would hold the iris mechanism and the Lamp module. I first built the large hollow frame after researching the thickness I needed to print my walls at. I’m not sure how strong it is going to be because I set it at 2 walls or 0.8mm. For the wires going from the raspberry pi to camera, the raspberry pi to the servo, and the raspberry pi to the lamp I cut 6 long slots into the bottom of the shell. I also cut a hole for the servo gear(I will use a servo attached to a gear and the gear will attach to the shell because the shaft of the servo is too small) for the pan rotation. I then cut another hole for the Iris mechanism to fit. I needed to place the hole strategically because since the Raspberry pi was in the bottom shell, and the camera is in the top, I would have to keep the distance between them short so the ribbon cable could twist and turn. This wasn’t my proudest moment but to be honest I felt sleep-deprived and didn’t care. It still worked as long as I kept It close enough so I just turned the iris mechanism upside down so the camera was closer and that worked. I created a lid for the lamp later but i might not even use it and let the light shine through. Then I created a frame for the camera to attach behind the iris so it could stay in one piece. I will screw it in or hot glue it physically as it should fit to the back of it and align with its 5 holes(the iris mechanism). The next thing I might do is print the small pieces in here or the bottom shell from Devlog #6, i wanna wait a bit before printing the big lamp shell, not sure how that’ll hold up.