Pieter

Accessibility IR-remote

A friend of mine, who works with disabled people, contacted me to make an enclosure for a IR-remote. Het boyfriend had made the arduino sketch and sourced the parts, but they needed something to mount it.

It took 3 iterations to design this thing:

  • IR led had to be pointing exactly the right way
  • The device had to be attached to the radio (the client kept moving it)
  • Power button and volume knob of original radio had to be useable.

I had to add an attachment to the cassette deck, so the remotebox could be secured. It works like a charm. If a version 4 would be needed (currently not – client is happy), I would like to rewrite the arduino sketch and go for more big buttons (power knob, radio preset(s), …), although that slightly reeks like overengineering. 🙂

Pieter

AmAi KeyRING

Back in 2023 I made this on the olde Ender 3 pro, with no less than 3 pieces I had to glue together. I recently (nov 2024) redesigned them to be more durable, and to be multi-color printed on my Bambu Labs P1S. Quite the improvement!

You can buy your own AMAI keyring over at Bar Amai, in Ghent!

If you want me to design & print a keyring for me –> contact me.

Pieter

Amai Award (2023)

In Februari – March 2023 I designed an award for my friends @ Compagnie Amai. It’s an overly complex 3D-printed USB-powered night lamp, with the ability to insert a power bank in the bottom.

The moment they gave the award to the winner in one of the many imrov-comedy disciplines, the host flipped a switch to turn it on. Flip side was… there were too many categories – I had to make 12 of them.

All of these were printed on my trusty old Ender 3 pro – with quite number of mid-print failures.

Pieter

Book Safe (Secret Santa)

I made a book safe for my Secret Santa via Make in Belgium (Facebook group, also known from Koterij with Henk Rijckaert). It’s based on arduino. I did everything myself: programming, creating and printing case. I truly didn’t enjoy cutting in the book. It was a lot more work than anticipated.

Parts list:

  • chinese arduino
  • 2 buttons
  • 1* 4-digit 7-segment display
  • 1 relay board (to shut off after 30 seconds or so)
  • one matrix keyboard
  • 1 servo motor
  • 2 rubber bands
  • 1 book (sacrilege!)

Pieter

Blocking Tool (for knitting)

Apparently, when you knit something, you should “block” it. Meaning: making it wet and stretch/attach it to something to get (or keep?) the right shape. When I have to wash a knitted item I tend to panic. I’m really not into knitting. Someone else was however, and she wanted “something with measurements” to make the blocking easier for the many little pieces she was working on. Might have been blankets for a whole family of mice, I don’t know.

So I made a 20*20 cm thing in Fusion 360, with logo and 1 cm intervals. You can download it here.

Pieter

Settlers of Catan

When having a 3D-printer for the first time, one is obligated to print a lot of useless stuff before making something, ah, less useless. So I printed a whole set of 3D-Catan tiles. I painted e few of them (in the foreground). When they are all painted (by 2030?) it will be cool!

I also bought 500 magnetic balls (Ø3 mm). I will design a matching base, drop in the balls and glue them to the tiles. The tiles will then stick together, or so says the internet.

Pieter

Camper Lock

My parents have a nice and – quite – luxurious Camper. They bought it when it was a few years old but barely used. As usual my Dad started to make improvements immediately, all while complaining about “bad design and worse implementation”.

Quite soon he found out that the locking mechanism wasn’t an exception. When closing a lock there’s some stress on the lock housing, and it cracks after a while. Probably worsened because of a higher brittleness caused by UV or plastic ageing. New locks could be ordered, but for a hefty price tag.

Enter me and my brand new Ender 3 Pro 3D-printer. I made a copy with Fusion360 and many, many iterations later we have a functioning replacement. I tried to use PETG, but layer bonding wasn’t as strong as PLA.

Pieter

Zynthian Build

Zynthian is a nifty raspberry-pi powered open-source synth. Go to https://zynthian.org/ for more info.

I ordered the breakout board + 4 rotary encoders from them, the rest I sourced myself. The case is designed in Fusion360 and printed with my Ender3 pro. I still have some work to do on the back panel and the kickstand. I also have to connect the 4 buttons. It’s not ready for gigging yet.