To design a strong case that will be simple to construct I need to do some research on joining acrylic, hinges and other components Glues: Solvent Cement: As I have used in the past I could use a solvent cement to join the acrylic components. This glue works via capillary action so the edges to […]

Aahhhhhh! it’s stopped working! After painstakingly putting the kit together and testing it, my contrary PIC chip has decided to stop working. Today I plugged it in to find that only some of the keypad keys are working, the LED won’t flash and the buzzer is making a constant low level bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (very annoying when […]

After trawling many companies I ended back on the Tech supplies website, their own solenoid had been out of stock for weeks but no more! I have ordered and received a miniature, PCB mountable ‘pull’ solenoid. First thing to do is to test it connected to my board… and it works! (I seem to be […]

The first test has been somewhat of a disaster, after completing the 2D design drawings of the door, setting up the laser cutter (H+S info here) and cutting my first pieces I found that the settings were off as it failed to cut cleanly and all the way through the acrylic. As a result the […]

Well, as I’ve designed a door to hold all the electronics of this project I need to make sure it will open, I want the box on the back of the door to fit as snugly as possible into the inner box. This will look neat and also reduce the stroke length of the solenoid […]

I’ve finished tweaking my design and have produced an (hopefully) accurate isometric drawing, the dotted lines represent the view of the inner pieces through the clear acrylic:

These are my final design files for the outer case, inner case and the door: I’ve included holes to allow me to attach the PCB, buzzer, keypad and the LEDs as well as ports in the door panels to allow me to access the stereo PICAXE connector, for the battery cable and for the solenoid […]

To give a contrast to the acrylic case I decided to make a support structue out of aluminium, it would keep the inner case in place and also provide strength and stability to the outer case. As I would need multiples of the same items I decided to use the CNC lathe (H+S info here) […]

As the basic programme stands the safe lock resets after 5 seconds, this is not useful if you are taking anything out as you would have to re-enter the code to pull back the bolt to close the door. I need to be able to control the lock timing. I’d like to do this by […]

Now that I have all my pieces cut and temporarily fixed together (thank you masking tape) I need to return my attention to my wiring. The flying leads I used when first putting the keypad together are far too long and are made from single core wire making them very stiff and prone to breaking […]