v0.7 - Mechanics

This is mostly a minor mechanical update, with a handful of small but useful improvements, but there are some breaking dimensional changes to be aware of if you are planning to extend an existing v0.6 display (see below). A huge thanks to @dmadison for all the excellent contributions!

Breaking Changes

Thickness fix and tolerances

The design has been modified to match the 3.0mm nominal material thickness available at Ponoko and elsewhere, rather than using a value of 3.2mm which was based on incorrect material information Ponoko had previously published.

Since thickness is a key variable across the entire design, this results in breaking (though small) dimensional changes compared to previous versions; if you have previously built modules using v0.6, you should continue to use v0.6 when building additional modules instead of updating to v0.7.

Highlighting a few key dimensional changes:

Dimension	v0.6	v0.7
enclosure_height	148.786	147.786
enclosure_width	82.2	82.6
front_window_width	55.5	55.9

As part of this change (#93), additional tolerances were added to ensure pieces fit well together in practice instead of relying on laser kerf (i.e. an under-sized kerf_width compensation value) to make up for the zero-tolerance fits.

New Features

Sensor spacing jig

This laser-cut jig (part of the main laser-cut design) sets the proper spacing between the hall effect sensor and PCB when assembling the sensor boards.

You can find it inside the motor cutout in the laser-cut file (highlighted in red in the image to the right).

From #101

Spool home position indicators

An engraved indicator on the spool helps you insert flaps in the right positions.

The top half of the "home" character (by default, this would be the top flap of the blank/space) should be inserted into the spool holes indicated for proper alignment of the home position relative to the magnet/home-position sensor.

From #102

Assembly alignment indicators

New engraved indicators help with assembling the enclosure.

The front face has an "up" arrow (since it's easy to accidentally insert it upside-down/inside-out), and there are circle and triangle indicators to help make sure you insert the sides correctly too!

From #111

Zip tie cable management

Slots for zip ties to to keep the motor and sensor cables under control!

Designed for small (e.g. 2.5mm width) zip ties.

From #109

Optional inter-module alignment bar

Since there is some slop in the inter-module connectors when linking multiple modules together, you can now add an optional 1/4" dowel (shown in red) along the base of the modules to keep them in a straight line.

From #142