Akso Benchtop Case and 2HP Eurorack Faceplate

[Tim]

As some of you are aware I’ve been working on some Cases for the new Akso board. Now that I have received my board and have been able to test them I’m now comfortable doing a preliminary release of printable files. There might be some slight issues as they get tested on other’s less and more accurate printer so please comment if you have any issues with your print.

Bench Case

This Case has been designed to be a rugged enclosure protecting the Akso from being knocked around on your desk and during transport and gigs. Once you get the backplate on and screw it down the enclosure is very rigid. The built in feet elevate the Akso slightly to help protect it from surface spills.

It prints in 2 parts and I recommended it be printed at 0.2mm layer height in the default orientation with supports in the USBC/SD cutout section (help with support enforcers). All Screws are M2 try to get some with low profile heads.

https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/43672-hard-case-for-akso-synth-board!

Eurorack Faceplate

Designed to be as slim as possible at 2HP wide. The rear of the panel has a number of ribs to provide additional rigidity to the panel and on the edges standoffs to screw the Akso to the panel to better support the USB C connectors.

Single Part Print at 0.2mm in default orientation no supports required. Akso Screws in with 2 M2 bolts and nuts once again try to get a low profile head or it might protrude too much.

https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/43671-eurorack-faceplate-for-akso-synth-board/

Please Post Pics if You Print a case!

[JoshuaACNewman]

[JoshuaACNewman]

Pretty sleek! I’m not at home right now, but I’ll try sliding the Akso in here as soon as I’m home!
I’ve been 3D printing things for all of like three days now but this is incredibly exciting. I want to figure out how to do something like this in SCAD so I can parametrize the faceplate design, in particular because I want to be able to have a built-in pattern of pots that I can turn on and off for different contextual collections and numbers. When we’ve got a CV expansion board, it would be great to have a prebuilt hole for such an expansion!
I want to experiment with labeling the front, too as well as optionally leaving some covered (for instance, whether you want to use the stereo out or the separate L and R channels. Or both, you crazy diamond!)
BUT! Since SCAD is exactly not the way I think about things, I want to do some of this by hand to think it out anyway. I’m messing around with TinkerCad, which is probably fine for this kind of shape. Blender has capabilities that don’t really matter for these purposes and are frankly interfering in my ability to do early, simpler CAD projects so I’ll get back to it only slowly, I think.

[Tim]

I’ve done my model in fusion should there be any expansion board for euro I’ll be sure to do another version of this design.

[Tim]

@JoshuaACNewman How did it go? I hope the dimensions didn’t get out of wack between and different printer setups. And how does it feel in the rack as far and plugging stuff in and removing? I think I can make it a tad more rigid if necessary if people really need to jam on the jacks.

[JoshuaACNewman]

I had to finish the second tutorial video first because I have a control panel bolted over the same hole used by the panel! But that tutorial is now finished (came here to post it) and I’ll do that experiment next!

I don’t have a proper case — I’m just bolting modules into an old cassette caddy that I like the shape of, so I can’t tell you much about precision outside of the board itself!

I’m also trying to expand on it a bit to add an actual control panel to the side but I’m only just learning Fusion 360 and I’m still surprised when I get a hole in the right place.

[Tim]

Ahh fair you’ll have to print the eurorack case I’m working on when I get around to releasing it.

[JoshuaACNewman]

YESSS I would love to see that!

My assessment of the faceplate is:

On my Prusa Mk3S with abused PLA (sitting around in a damp basement for over a year) it’s easily precise enough! Per my cheapass calipers, my Kastle is 128.4mm tall (to fit the Doepfer standard of 128.5mm I guess) while the Akso faceplate measures at 128.2mm. What was your parameter setting there?

It looks like I’m going to need to build a faceplate that holds the board 90° off. It’s going to hit my power wiring otherwise. I’ll build it to use standoffs. I think this would be a great time to encourage someone like @weasel to design up a Eurorack I/O PCB! Do some level shifting for a bunch more CV ports plus rational pinouts for GPIO.

Re: 3DP case, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. A parameterized “extrusion” with cheeks (or hard points to connect one of different materials) and hard points for power rails would be really cool. I’ve also been thinking, as always, about using LEGO connections for cheap and precise modularity, like designing in spots for Technic bricks where case segments connect so you can snap modules of modules together.

[gus74]

Printed!!. The case looks great and fits perfect. Thanks @Tim

Next to the original Axoloti:

[Tim]

Yay fantastic to see people printing them. I was considering doing a stackable version once i have some free time do you think that would be useful?

[JoshuaACNewman]

Make a slot that fits a LEGO plate on each corner and it’ll turn into a super easy modular!

[mark.linton]

Printed the case using PLA on an ender 5 at 0.2 resolution without supports for the USB sdcard area. Got some deformation of the case just below the USB ports, but all slots are still functional. Haven’t put the M2 screws in yet, the bottom is a pretty good fit already. Are they designed to thread into the top part of the case directly? What length should they be?

[Tim]

Yeah they thread into the top part you can use a pretty wide range of them they just have to be long enough to go through the bottom plate(assuming you’ve printed one), pcb, and have some decent bite in the standoffs so maybe 10mm + can’t remember what i used. And yeah defs need supports to get the sd card slot to come out correctly prusa slicer with support enforcers allows you to do that elegantly.