The wio terminal comes in a nice grey case. And the wio battery terminal connects on the back with a compatible enclosure. But what kind of enclosure can house my 4 x sensors?
I have:
Grove Precision RTC
Grove temp, humi, pressure, gas sensor BME680
Grove Dust Sensor HM3301
Grove GPS.
HM3301 is a large size 70mmx40mm board, also the GPS. The BME680 and RTC are tiny size.
Do seeed provide an enclosure that looks the same as Terminal and Terminal Battery, but is big enough to mount those sensors ? Do you plan to release an empty WIO case customers can add their own sensors that looks the same as WIO terminal case. Its good for aesthetics.
The hm3301 dust sensor and BME 680 need air flow. So, air holes are needed and maybe a small fan.
Could I somehow add any of the (tiny size) devices inside the WIO cases?
Its frustrating that you do not publish a photo inside the WIO terminal battery case, so I cannot see if my stuff will fit.
Hi @Bryn_Parrott
yeah, We are planning to release an empty Wio Terminal chassis case for markers to customize (with a PCBA connected to Wio Terminal’s RPi-compatible pins). But it is still difficult to match so many different sizes requirements，Now it seems that acrylic is a flexible solution.
BTW, here is the inside view of the battery chassis,
Its hard to tell the dimensions from photo but I am guessing the empty box will look much the same as Wio Terminal Battery inside, without the battery and external connectors. If that’s the case looks like it will accept a 70x40 mm board and might squeeze in a few smaller boards too. Any ideas on a release date ?
I do not have a 3D printer. They are expensive, my need is only small, therefore not justified to own one.
I have no experience creating/modifying 3D design files and unfamiliar with the tools. This is why I buy the ready made items.
If someone decides its worthwhile to use your file to make one, please let me know. Otherwise I will just wait for yours to be ready. I wish that yours will be taller than the other two boxes, with some hardware to allow boards of various sizes to be mounted inside stacked on top of each other or alongside.
I am in no rush, my project already works in 3rd party generic enclosure. Its not pretty. :))
OK, I’ll bite.
Perhaps I can use the Seeed Fusion service to make one for me.
Please let me know when the 3D design is available.
Also please tell me which (free) 3D modelling software should be used.
After some Googling, I found several including Tinkercad, Sketchup and others, many of which seem to concentrate their marketing to architectural type of designs. Best would be free software that allows import of your STL file, allowing it to be modified.
The modifications I need would allow me to modify the height and interior layout to provide mounting of specific grove sensors.
OK, I have taken some measurements of the things I need to put into the empty WIO box.
The internal height dimension of the Wio Cases is not mentioned anywhere I can find, but the case is 76 mm x 57 mm footprint. And it looks like they might be 15 mm high internally.
Firstly, I have the Grove PM2.5 Dust sensor HM3301. The dimensions of the board are 80 mm (L) x 40 mm (W) x 20mm (H) In addition I have the 2 smaller devices being Grove – High Precision RTC (40 mm L x 20 mm W x 17mm H) and Grove - Temperature, Humidity, Pressure and Gas Sensor for Arduino - BME680 (40mm L x 20mm W x 7mm H). The RTC is higher because of the grove connector 90 degrees and it also has the small coin battery.
It is unclear whether the two small boards can mount inside either the Wio Terminal or Wio Battery cases, but the Dust sensor certainly will not.
We must also consider the need for I2C connectors. I need 3 or 4 in total. Maybe I need the Grove I2C Hub, which is 40mm x 20mm x15mm. I do not need any connectors leading outside of the case, all internal.
Then there is a requirement for air flow through the box. Both HM3301 and BME680 are environmental sensors and to do their job they need access to a flow of outside air.
Think of holes at each end of the empty box and a fan to encourage airflow.
For my own project box, I got the smallest fan I could find, 30mm L x 30mm W x 12 mm (H), needing a DC supply of 5 V 110 mA and I added a diode 1N4004 mounted across the wires using vero board, to prevent voltage spikes damaging the circuits. I get the DC supply via one of the Grove connectors. The fan still works at 3.3 V (!).
So, for the empty Wio case to be useful to me it needs to accommodate these items. It will no longer match the Wio Terminal and Wio Battery cases.
The internal usable dimensions need to be: 85mm (L) x 40mm (W) x 35mm (H)
OR, it could all be solved if the standard WIO Terminal case was bigger, then I would not need the extra case.
I am not alone with this need, other customers must have it too. Please outline the strategy Seeed have evolved to deal with issues like this.
