I’m in the process of prototyping several IoT devices as part of evaluating a startup idea, and since the devices are going to go in people’s homes design matters – even for initial units for evaluating the idea. Actually, I think design is especially important for evaluation units because I am trying to find out if people want to bring technology like this into their homes.
One of the things that make me love 3D printers is that they make the black project boxes a thing of the past. Once I finished prototyping the electronics, firmware, and cloud side code – I was able to sketch up a few case designs on paper. Then pick the one I liked the best for initial testing.
At this point I should probably point out that I am not an industrial designer. When I showed my design to the designer I want to work with on the project, he said it reminded him of one of those bubble gum tape dispensers from when we were kids. (Ouch!) Still, I think my design is a hell of an improvement over testing with black project boxes, and it’s a pretty decent match for the design I liked best of the 15 or so I sketched through. Here is what it looks like sitting on the windowsill in my reading room.
I have the design split across three boards. A sensor board inside the dome, the eps8266 board with sensor breakout, and a DC/DC converter to power everything off of a AAA battery. The boards I made at home are super ugly, and hacked on, but functional. Enough that I am ready to put in an order for an initial run of boards to build a dozen or so test units.
