Production YASFF - Open Source, small(6.4L), basic, low cost. With Source!

cokeeffekt

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Sep 14, 2017
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Looks amazing but cooling seems fairly limited. What are the temps like?

Cases at this size pretty much every thing is hard up again a side panel. The Graphics card draws directly from out side the case and dump hot air out externally via the front panel events and PCI bracket vents, which limits heating up the ambient air in the case. The PSU fan is on the top drawing down and out the rear, I've yet to see the PSU fan turn on in this case. As for the cpu the 80mm fan on the right side panel draws in and pushes air over the cpu cooler to draw down on which also cause a small amount of positive pressure in the case to force air out the rear slots beneath the PSU and any other gaps it can find, this positive pressure a lot prevents hot air coming across from the GPU.

In General temps are all well with in normal range if not lower than you would expect from a case at this size.
 

XeaLouS

Cable-Tie Ninja
Dec 29, 2015
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Looks great!
Thanks for all your hard work!
Three questions:
* Why are the back/base plate 4.5mm? Everything else is 3mm. Is this because you need something stronger to hold the PSU?

* Would plywood work (cheaper + i like the wood aesthetic)? Obviously still need to 3d print the sides but i think there is 3d printable wood now.

* Finally, i realized you are a software engineer, so this would be cool (though quite a bit of effort) - configurable panel thicknesses. This could be done using something that generates the STL files for the corners as well as something that slightly modifies the svg's based on the panel thicknesses. That way people could have all 4.5mm panels or all 3mm panels. You could also implement an easy way to change the fan grills. Of course, all of this is quite a bit of time, and quickly approaches something like LZ7 in terms of customization, so probably not worth. I'd totally do it, but i'd do it for money and then i'd feel pretty scum-bag due to LZ7 coming out first. And also doing something open-source like this (web configurator for design your own case, then it outputs parts to print/cut) would also be spitting in k888d's face unfortunately, since i priced it and the case is way less than $50 aud to produce (assuming free access to a cutter/3d printer)
 
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cokeeffekt

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Sep 14, 2017
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Three questions:
* Why are the back/base plate 4.5mm? Everything else is 3mm. Is this because you need something stronger to hold the PSU?

* Would plywood work (cheaper + i like the wood aesthetic)? Obviously still need to 3d print the sides but i think there is 3d printable wood now.

* Finally, i realized you are a software engineer, so this would be cool (though quite a bit of effort) - configurable panel thicknesses. This could be done using something that generates the STL files for the corners as well as something that slightly modifies the svg's based on the panel thicknesses. That way people could have all 4.5mm panels or all 3mm panels. You could also implement an easy way to change the fan grills. Of course, all of this is quite a bit of time, and quickly approaches something like LZ7 in terms of customization, so probably not worth. I'd totally do it, but i'd do it for money and then i'd feel pretty scum-bag due to LZ7 coming out first. And also doing something open-source like this (web configurator for design your own case, then it outputs parts to print/cut) would also be spitting in k888d's face unfortunately, since i priced it and the case is way less than $50 aud to produce (assuming free access to a cutter/3d printer)

Ply / veneer finish would look amazing, i had a look at sourcing some locally in a reasonable qty and didn't come up with anything id be happy to pay for.

It wouldn't be too hard to add files for a full 4.5mm case, the only down side would be access to materials, 4.5mm acrylic is severely lacking in variety for some reason (couldn't find double sided satin for the life of me). Ebay is great since you can tend to find a4 sheets of acrylic for a good price, and no part is larger than a4 (by design)

Yes the backplate is 4.5 purely because the PSU needs to hang on it, 3m caused some bowing over time, although the uprights add a lot of strength it was more of a case better be sure than sorry. Also in my research i discovered the strength of 4.5 over 3mm is twice as strong even tho its not twice as thick. If there is enough interest in a full 4.5mm design ill find the time to add the files.

I'm still not convinced the LZ7 really has that much of a holding over the design rights to the case, we both followed the corsair design in ways of component positioning. Its actually lucky i didn't find his case first tho, i would have probably just bought it and called it a day. Its the size and form factor i wanted, even tho i did come in a little smaller than his, id dare say his has way more cooling options.

Yes the case is way cheap, i think i totalled mine at $45AUD with Ebay sourced parts, and PLA costs cents was hardly worth doing the math. Way within the $100 i was aiming for... although i did buy a laser cutter along the way :p

Oh the fun that could be had with a custom case builder for this, yeh i've thought about it. Im just not sure the time spent vs reward would be worth it. The fun was in creating and prototyping, mass production would be tears i think.



Not sure if I missed it in any of your posts, but have you done any temperature testing?
Well no, i'm not really sure if there is a common protocol on this. I tested stability of my overclocks when i put the system together, all went well and ive since had 50+ hours of gameplay on it... im yet to see the psu fan turn on :S starting to get worried about that actually. If you link something i can mimic ill do my best to report some data.
 

cokeeffekt

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Sep 14, 2017
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The SLS printed parts I get made cost more than $50 aud for 1 set, and that's with a volume discount!
I guess having a printer on hand offsets that down to about 50c a set, not quite the resolution of SLS but at .2 layer height its more than ok, especially at the price point.

At $50 a set and quantities of ~100 you are getting into the territory of SLS printer money, might be a cool toy to have around :p
 

K888D

SFF Guru
Lazer3D
Feb 23, 2016
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2,970
www.lazer3d.com
I guess having a printer on hand offsets that down to about 50c a set, not quite the resolution of SLS but at .2 layer height its more than ok, especially at the price point.

At $50 a set and quantities of ~100 you are getting into the territory of SLS printer money, might be a cool toy to have around :p
Home 3D printers are nice tools to have access to, but the parts they produce are typically no where near as strong as SLS parts which are consistently strong in every direction, not just in the layer plane which you get with FDM.

Material cost could easily be 50c a set yes, but how much is your time worth that is spent on making 1 set? setting up the machine, loading, unloading, cleaning, maintaining, repairing, packing, shipping? Maybe 15 minutes per set over 100 sets? How much is your time worth as an hourly rate?

Formlabs are due to release their Fuse 1 SLS machine shortly, set to be one of most affordable machines available, but it still costs nearly £20k for the full kit, across 100 cases that's £200 a set plus material cost, plus labour cost, plus running costs. They also take up a lot of space, not just the machine itself but also for the material handling and post processing which is very messy.

If it was as easy as investing in a simple plug and play machine I probably would have gone that route for the LZ7 production, but unfortunately SLS machines are high maintenance and labour intensive machines, which is reflected in their relatively high in comparison part prices.
 

XeaLouS

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Dec 29, 2015
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The SLS printed parts I get made cost more than $50 aud for 1 set, and that's with a volume discount!
I'm not a 3d printing guru - but is SLS expensive due to labour, or the machine?
I'm guessing SLS is the highest possible quality/strength - but with these 4 parts in the YASFF design, i'd wager that you don't need "the best" to make everything hold?
 
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cokeeffekt

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Sep 14, 2017
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Home 3D printers are nice tools to have access to, but the parts they produce are typically no where near as strong as SLS parts which are consistently strong in every direction, not just in the layer plane which you get with FDM.

Material cost could easily be 50c a set yes, but how much is your time worth that is spent on making 1 set? setting up the machine, loading, unloading, cleaning, maintaining, repairing, packing, shipping? Maybe 15 minutes per set over 100 sets? How much is your time worth as an hourly rate?

Formlabs are due to release their Fuse 1 SLS machine shortly, set to be one of most affordable machines available, but it still costs nearly £20k for the full kit, across 100 cases that's £200 a set plus material cost, plus labour cost, plus running costs. They also take up a lot of space, not just the machine itself but also for the material handling and post processing which is very messy.

If it was as easy as investing in a simple plug and play machine I probably would have gone that route for the LZ7 production, but unfortunately SLS machines are high maintenance and labour intensive machines, which is reflected in their relatively high in comparison part prices.

Yup agreed, for mass manufacture my home made 3d printer isn't going to hold up. The uprights in my case were designed to open up as many manufacturing avenues as possible, they could even be extruded, i also got a quote to CNC mill them from alloy ($34 per corner ouch, qty would help). Not that was ever my plan to mass produce, but there are options for anyone that chooses to build the YASFF

Formlabs have an impressive piece of kit, i had the chance to play with one at a maker meet up a while back, you are right, they are very fiddly with the liquid storage, handling, and clean up. At scale best left to someone else.

I had a quick look at the parts in the L27 that you are printing, maybe they are viable for injection moulding, i had a small run of a part a few years back injection moulded (no more complicated than what you have) After tooling of about $300AUD i was able to order 100 qtys at a time for <$10 a piece, colours and textures came at a bit higher price.

I feel like i'm derailing my own thread here, but ill thank you for weighing in on my case :)
 
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cokeeffekt

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Sep 14, 2017
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I'm not a 3d printing guru - but is SLS expensive due to labour, or the machine?
I'm guessing SLS is the highest possible quality/strength - but with these 4 parts in the YASFF design, i'd wager that you don't need "the best" to make everything hold?

SLS is the best means for a perfect finish from a 3d printer, and although the machines are more expensive the labour that comes with them is typically higher.

As i mentioned in previous posts, the 4 upright in the YASFF are very basic are a just an extruded profile, 3d print, CNC Machine, extrude, hell even laser cut the profile a bunch of times and stack them, it will work. Its all dependant of the finish you are after. I'd like to wager you could even make them from timber on a CNC, if the timber veneer finish is the look you are going for.
 
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Matt3D

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Mar 2, 2017
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SLA printers give the best finish, SLS printers give the strongest parts but parts from professional FDM printers are right behind and the cost of parts is roughly 5 times smaller (counting the cost of the printer, material cost and labour).
 

XeaLouS

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Dec 29, 2015
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Rip, the local (free) 3d printing/laser cutting place is closed till march. and i just ordered all the acrylic/wood/screws that i needed to build it!
 
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