Sniff

This is the new internal structure. For every prototype I build the solutions becomes more and more stable, building on the experiences with earlier prototypes. Now I use neopren as a protective material for the cables and the swan neck, and mount this steadily to the plastic sandwich in the body and in the head. Sniffs neck should now be much more resistent to stress from user tests. We want as much sound as possible, and I choose to try out a quite big speaker this time (a spare part from an old computer, actually). It turns out later that you really can’t hear much difference between this and one that is about 10% of the size, but this is marked with 8 ohm, which is an important detail IF i need to maximize the volume by soldering another amplifier on top of the Wave shield (this I have learned from the Adafruit homepage). It weighs more than earlier speakers I’ve used though, and with all the screws in this version, the prototype turns out to be quite heavy.. I know that weight can give an impression of quality, but I think I will go for smaller speakers next time if the sound quality is the same anyway.

Components that should be fitted in the body shell still gets protection between sandwiched acrylic sheets, just two this time since the Wave shield can be mounted on top of the Arduino. The Arduino board is fastened to the acrylic with screws, and underneath the sandwich I make a battery soultion that I fasten on a neopren piece for isolation and some flexibility.

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With all electronics in one solid piece the head and body shells can just be snapped on and taped together. The speaker is so big I have to make slots in the plastic to fit it into the head. The last picture shows modification plans to fasten the switch that controls the ID-20’s Rx connection in the head shell.