Future Watches

[DonSimpson]

CASES: One thing I've noticed about my just-received Makerbot watch
kit is the lack of mounting holes, or places to put mounting holes. I
want to (eventually) put my LED watches into pocket watch cases (I
have several cases of various sizes), so being able to attach the
boards to adapter frames would be good. This is one reason I would
like to have the suggested accelerometer activation feature (and my
own suggested feature, sensing a small, quick back-and-forth rotation
as an additional button alternative); no external buttons need be
brought out through the watch case. And I want a Paul Pounds watch as
part of my collection, if they ever become available:
http://www.eng.yale.edu/pep5/pocket_watch.html

EXTRA FEATURES: I'm fascinated by thoughts of tiny magnetic compass,
temperature, air pressure, etc. chips that could be added, though the
trade-offs in size and battery life would be a major discussion.

[Ante Vukorepa]

Mounting holes take precious board space.

Epoxy works just fine for mounting boards onto/into cases ;)

Re: extra features, Chronoduino has that (in its current revision/configuration).

-- 
Ante Vukorepa
Sent with Sparrow

[Steven Dick]

On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 6:07 PM, Ante Vukorepa <o.or...@gmail.com> wrote:

Mounting holes take precious board space.

Epoxy works just fine for mounting boards onto/into cases ;)

If I were to make a (printed) case for one of these watches, I'd either sandwich the board between an upper and lower lid with a ledge to trap the board, or I'd  have a single lid with a groove so the board could slide into it.

If there were screws, they would be outside the perimeter of the board to hold the upper and lower lids together.

[Ante Vukorepa]

The problem with most of those solutions is, the boards are circular. I.e. rotate easily unless clamped with a significant amount of force.

I've been thinking along the lines of giving the board two notches on the perimeter. Then you can design a case with two parts - lower part, the board sits in, with two equivalent "pimples" to secure the board, and a screwdown or snapdown top part that clamps down on the board (and an acrylic window if you choose to design it in).

----
Ante Vukorepa

On Aug 12, 2011 7:52 AM, "Steven Dick" <kg4...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Steven Dick]

On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 8:21 AM, Ante Vukorepa <o.or...@gmail.com> wrote:

The problem with most of those solutions is, the boards are circular. I.e. rotate easily unless clamped with a significant amount of force.

After looking at your pictures, I can see that there may be some challenges with a slot design.

Another alternative would be to make the case in two semi-circular halves that fit together with the boards
in a pair of slots in each piece.  It would be possible to secure them together either with a zip tie around the circumference, or maybe even by clever attachment of the wrist band and a few locking tabs.

I suppose the board rotating within the case could be annoying.  The best way to prevent that would be to add a small flat edge or maybe a notch or two around the perimeter that could match a tab in the case.

The next best thing (short of modifying the board) would be to add  a piece of rubber (rubber band?) or paint it with liquid electrical tape or something to make the plastic less slippery and reduce the chances of it rotating.

[Martin Bogomolni]

Why not just make two (or three) milled notches around the circumference of the board?  they don't need to be very deep notches (perhaps a mm or two) and would serve as guides to lock the board into a cylindrical case.  It won't mess with routing, since you need to leave that area safe for milling in any case...

-M

[Ante Vukorepa]

Yes, two notches were exactly what i was describing.

I'll give designing a case a go once i'm back home (end of month or so) and have access to SolidWorks.

----
Ante Vukorepa

[Steven Dick]

On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 4:22 PM, Ante Vukorepa <o.or...@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, two notches were exactly what i was describing.

I'll give designing a case a go once i'm back home (end of month or so) and have access to SolidWorks.

If someone throws me some dimensions, I'll throw together a simplistic OpenSCAD case and post it.
Assuming you don't want to wait a month for a prettier part out of solidworks.  :)