YACE - Yet Another Cam Enclosure

thingiverse

This is a custom enclosure for a raspberry pi camera with an LED ring mounted on top. It was designed to fit into the Rear Column vertical 2020 extrusion, but can also be adapted to sit at the x-axis or front. The enclosure has multiple parts, starting from the bottom where the piCam breakout board is attached, followed by a gap filler to even out the surface, then the ring holder. These four layers are secured with two M2x10 screws. The LED ring is then placed on top of the ring holder and rotated until the three input wires point straight south. The top of the case has an opening for these wires, which are secured by three M2x14 screws. The enclosure also features a handle that fits onto a bracket from Codemonkey's Thingiverse page (www.thingiverse.com/thing:3294512) or its derivatives using an M3 screw. There are two versions of clips available, one for a 2020 extrusion based on another design from Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1052397), and short arms with crossed or straight handles. The LED ring used in this design has eight LEDs in close formation, with an outer diameter of 27mm and an opening of 12mm. While choosing an eight-LED ring may result in a different size, the one used is from AliExpress (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32963910770.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dITplEY). The FreeCAD source code is included to allow for easy adaptation of the design to individual needs. As it stands, the LEDs are driven by an ESP8266 MCU, but it's assumed that a raspberry pi can also handle this task. However, the necessary libraries have not been installed yet. Update: It has been confirmed that a raspberry pi can drive neopixels, but it's not as efficient as using an ESP8266. Running LED-related code as root is required on a raspberry pi, whereas the nodemcu has enough GPIO and CPU cycles available for extensions. The necessary sketch for controlling the LED ring with an ESP8266 (plus two additional single-color LED strips at the extrusions and printhead) can be found on GitHub (https://github.com/planetar/tokoLights-led), along with a Python script that runs as a daemon to read MQTT messages from OctoPrint and send control codes to the ESP for synchronization with OctoPrint states (https://github.com/planetar/tokoLights-daemon). Regarding the case, the critical issue is the connection between the cam and its breakout board. This connection tends to disconnect easily. The "gapFiller" layer was an attempt to reduce pressure on this connection, but unfortunately, the problem persists. The assembly process was monitored via a live stream, making it easier to spot the issue once it occurred.