With every electronic circuit I make, there comes a moment when the project is \u201cfinished\u201d\u2026. almost! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last step is always to find a suitable projectbox and even then it is difficult to provide a (often plastic) projectbox with cutouts of the right size and in the right place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately I have a 3D printer and in theory I can make a projectbox myself, but it always takes a lot of time. For standard processor boards you can find 3D STL files on the internet, but if you have “designed” a printed circuit board yourself, the only way is a “parameter controlled” solution that you can read in Fusion 360 or in openSCAD. Then you can specify the size of the box via parameters and sometimes a little more, but it never really \u201cfits\u201d well or it is so complex that you have to graduate before you can make something useful with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think I’ve found a solution that can provide almost any printed circuit board with a nice projectbox: the YAPP generator<\/em>! <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this post I explain what the principles of this YAPP generator are and how you can use it to 3D print beautiful projectboxes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dec. 4, 2023: Rev 3.0 released Most box generators that you can find on the internet allow you to specify the size of the box. Sometimes you have to give inside measurements and sometimes outside measurements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n YAPP does this differently and starts from the printed circuit board for which you need a projectbox. The most important measurements are therefore the length, width and thickness of the printed circuit board. Then you specify where the holes are with which the printed circuit board should be secured. The holes can be used to secure the PCB with screws or you can clamp the PCB between the standoffs in the bottom and top of the projectbox. Then you can specify for all surfaces (lid, base, front, back, left and right) of the projectbox where rectangular and\/or round cutouts should be placed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, texts can be entered that will be printed at the lid of the projectbox. <\/p>\n\n\n Before going further it is necessary to understand what the orientation of the projectbox is. It should be clear that the projectbox has six \u201cplanes\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The top is called “lid” the bottom is called “base”. The plane closest to the Y-axis is the \u201cback\u201d. \u201cleft\u201d is closest to the X-axis. The plane opposite \u201cback\u201d (which is furthest from the Y-axis) is called \u201cfront\u201d and the plane opposite \u201cleft\u201d is called \u201cright\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201czero point\u201d ([x=0, y=0, z=0]) is always left-back at the top of the PCB.<\/p>\n\n\n For each plane there is an array in which you can specify where the cutouts should be in that plane. These cutouts all have (pcb)[0,0,0] as their starting point. So if at any time it is decided to enlarge the edges around the PCB (padding) or to make the \u201cpcbStandoffs\u201d higher, the cutouts will move neatly with the position of the PCB.<\/p>\n\n\n There are two types of cutouts: \u201crectangles\u201d and \u201ccircles\u201d. Rectangles can be created in two ways, either with the corners at coordinates or with coordinates in the center of the rectangle. For \u201ccircles\u201d the coordinates are always the center point.<\/p>\n\n\n The \u201cpcbStandoffs\u201d defines the distance between the top of the \u201cbase plane\u201d and the bottom of the printed circuit board. Opposite the \u201cstandoffs\u201d are automatically made \u201cpushdowns\u201d on the \u201clid\u201d that are exactly so long that the circuit board is neatly clamped between them.<\/p>\n\n\n The standoffs can be fitted with \u201cpins\u201d so that the printed circuit board is also fixed on the X and Y axes. How many \u201cpcb standoffs\u201d should come and where they should be is specified in the array \u201cpcbStands\u201d. Each pcbStand is specified in one line and the properties of a pcbStand are defined per line. Each line in the array provides one standoff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The third (2) element has the following meaning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The meaning of the fourth (3) element is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the third (2) element is \u201cyappBoth\u201d and the fourth (3) element is specified as \u201cyappPin\u201d then the pin will be printed on the baseHalf and a hole on the lidHalf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is possible to print both below and above a hole by specifying \u201cyappHole\u201d as the fourth (3) element: <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you like this post please consider a small donation
This release breaks with almost all API’s!
Here<\/a> you can find the official documentation.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat you need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A recent version of \u201copenSCAD\u201d can be downloaded here<\/a>. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
You can download this as a \u201c.zip\u201d file from github<\/a>. Extract the \u201cYAPP_Box-main.zip\u201d file into your openSCAD projects folder. You now have a new folder \u201cYAPP_Box-main\u201d containing several sample files. In \u201cYAPP_Box-main\u201d there is also a folder \u201clibrary\u201d that contains the YAPP generator (so don’t throw it away!). It is wise to leave the folder structure as it is and save new box designs in this \u201cYAPP_Box-main\u201d folder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/willem.aandewiel.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/YAPP_map.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nDesign philosophy <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/willem.aandewiel.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/ESPotifyEcho_Design-1.gif\")
basis you can make complex project boxes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nCo\u00f6rdination System <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/willem.aandewiel.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/YAPP_0-0-0.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/willem.aandewiel.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/YAPP_padding.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nCutouts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/willem.aandewiel.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/YAPP_holes.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nStandoffs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/willem.aandewiel.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/YAPP_stands-1024x646.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
This is how you use the pcbStands arrayt: <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/willem.aandewiel.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/YAPP_pcbStands-1024x501.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n yappBoth: place both below a pcbStand and above a pcbStand.\n yappLidOnly: the pcbStand is only printed above (lidHalf)\n yappBaseOnly: the pcbStand will only be printed at the base (baseHalf). <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
yappHole: the pcbStand is provided with a \u201chole\u201d (hole)\n yappPin: the pcbStand is provided with a \u201cpin\u201d <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
[3, 12, yappBoth, yappHole]<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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