Outside finish

We ended up at the craft shops looking at options. As stated earlier post, the outside need some sort of finish, this foam sheet craft material makes it really tidy.

Also note that the display has moved down, We have an idea now for turning this uninteresting box into something more theatrical. I always think maker projects need a bit of theatre to them. So the display has been moved down from its original position, for reason one, that I felt it was too high for the younger audience. Three year olds are not tall. The other reason is so that it can form a “nose” – something that will become clear in later posts as the idea grows.

In this photo you will also see that I ordered some daylight led tape. This allows a high lumen level for the digital camera. Digital cameras work best with lots of light, this also means I can put a lid on the box now.

However it has introduced a new issue. The LED’s when in this number do give off some heat, makerfaire can get pretty hot will so many people, with the foam padding on the box, and taking into account that further insulation will be added, I need to introduce a fan to keep the box cool inside. I don’t want the RPi getting roasted, as it will be in use from 9am to 6pm. Plenty of time to build up too much heat.

I attempted adding the MOSFET shown in the picture below, this allows the RPi to control the LED lighting inside the box. Thus I experimented with turning the LEDs that light up the art work, only when the drawer closed. There was problem that the camera actually too a long time to adjust to the shift in light levels. Far too long, so that the experience felt bad. I tried adding fancy display animations to make the wait easier but the fifteen seconds needed for the camera to stabilize was too long. So I changed the illumination to come on once the Pi was booted and the application was running.

Luckily I can get PC micro fans from work for under £1, so I’ll use one of those to vent the box, it does not need much airflow to keep it cool. The picture below shows the new foam coating and the internal illumination before the fan was fitted.