New project - MSFS C++ USB interface

[Ioannis]

Well, you do not have to tell them what you are doing. And after all, having a plastic thing printed there, what really means to them? They cannot figure what you are doing, right?

The $87.45 is for one piece?

Ioannis

[Demon]

...The $87.45 is for one piece?

Ioannis

Yup. I didn't even bother checking for quantities.

My enclosures consist of 3 parts; it's not like they will assemble it, the wrap and ship (they probably offer the service, but I'm not interested in taking them apart again once they get here.

I remember how JLCPCB likes taking humongous boxes, and that's what I expect from the 3D print service; each part wrapped separately. It's not like you can pile them up one inside the other either, I don't have a slope on the case. Shipping is gonna cost a fortune cause the final box is going to be huge.

[Demon]

Now this is a lot more reasonable than the Ender.




5 hours 35 minutes for what was gonna take nearly 2 days. This is the normal profile in Cura (from Anycubic web site), with:

• slow first layers
  0.15mm layer height
  0.4mm walls
  10% infill
  200mm/s print speed
  lightning infill pattern (90 minutes faster than default grid)

Too bad it doesn't have 2 extruders. I could print my white text directly into the black casing.

[Ioannis]

10% infill means that the compact pieces are not really compact inside?

Sorry, but I am at zero, regarding 3D printers.

Ioannis

[Demon]

Yup. You can chose from many infill patterns at varying degrees of fill.

I start at the lightest just to test fitment, then move up until it's as strong as I want.

[Ioannis]

And I guess the higher infill the slowest process. Added to the more plastic usage, right?

Ioannis

[Demon]

Exactly. It's really fast to print an empty shell, but don't sneeze on it.

The hard part is finding that right balance. I don't have stress testing equipment, so I have to use my better judgement.

I can't afford to destroy a LCD and controller card, but I can throw an empty enclosure onto the street and inspecting it for damages; looking for weak spots.

I'm the last house on a dead-end street, so I can easily stand out there and play soccer with my case.

[Demon]

Well, you do not have to tell them what you are doing. ...

Yup. I googled "jlcpcb steals design" to see if there's a history of incidents, and fell on this thread right away:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufa...-risk-of-copy/


Read « Reply #19 on: July 22, 2023, 07:30:50 pm » specifically. The best thing I've learned was "don't put your company or product name on the PCB".

And I JUST finished generating all my PCBs.

I'll go through them tomorrow and take out my company name.

[Ioannis]

What I read from that thread is that you do not have to worry about stealing your idea from pcb perspective.

And I never cared about that. Maybe because I use most of the cases, MCU on board and no one knows which one or what firmware does it have.

As noted others on the thread you can just print the names and NOT the values of components on the board.

In any case who does care for my 10, 50 or even 100 pcs? And if someone manages to do what I do cheaper, then I will resale theirs and have more profit!

Ioannis

[Demon]

Just got my first order of 14 circuits, these look good:




Until you see the other end:




Oh well, live and learn. I had checked too many times, and was only seeing what I wanted to see.

[Ioannis]

Fortunately PCBs have two sides! Use the other now!

Ioannis

[Demon]

At first I went "Aaaaah crap".

Then I went "YAY! I can use the other side for my tests".

And then I found out the support pins are staggered and not reversible, "Aaaaah crap".

[Ioannis]

Well, you are not alone! Happened to all!

Ioannis