I finally today had the time to redesign the rear panel of the Roadrunner Comfort. The existing design has worked flawlessly so far, but that darn rear panel kept printing with significant surface distortions. I hate having to decide between wasting material – even if it is compostable under the right conditions – and figuring out how much cosmetic flaw is too much. 3D printing cannot (yet) reproduce the pristine finishes of plastics injection molding. There is always imperfection, if only in the subtle lines between layers. After spending a few days experimenting with potential improvements to how these parts get printed, I divided the rear panel into two parts that snap together. These new parts print with no supports, which means zero waste from normal printing, so all of the parts in the Roadrunner Comfort now print without waste. The plastics are ready to scale up in 3D print until injection molding becomes feasible.
The electronics from JLCPCB have been flawless, as have been the sensors from Meeblue. Software is mature, there are no outstanding bugs. I haven’t yet begun integration of IOT [internet of things] capabilities [learning how to work with Siri, Alexa, remote access, etc]. Right now there seem to be multiple competing standards, and this needs a lot more work. I’d like to make Roadrunner Comfort an open platform if feasible; hardware and software are production-ready.
Gordene and I attended the Albuquerque Home Show last weekend. Attendance was disappointing, but we managed to sell a half dozen units and gave one away to our Giveaway winner. We also got some very encouraging feedback from other engineers, who all applauded both the design’s intention and execution.