Now that the scale and display have been assembled, it's time to create an enclosure to mount them safely while balancing a kettle above the scale. Stage 2 of this project is to prototype, print and fit the electronics into a protective enclosure.
The enclosure needs to:
To cut down on time taken to prototype the enclosure, I "blocked out" sections of the model to be subtracted before exporting the model to the slicer. Non-destructive modifiers like the "boolean" modifier make it easy to prototype changes and variations without needing to undo and revert changes to try new things.
Sizing up the LCD took a few attempts, as I needed to rotate the LCD in to position due to its position near the base of the model. I would have preferred a steeper angle for the LCD, however that would have resulted in needing a larger print area than my 3D printer could support.
The final base shown above has cutouts for the LCD at the front, Micro USB connector at the rear, and an expansion port blocked out on the right-hand side for future connectivity (see Stage 4: handle housing).
The scale top acts as a "tray" to fit the kettle base snugly, and rests all of its weight on the load cell immediately below. Even though the edges of the scale top line up with the enclosure, they don't touch. The scale bottom sits inside the enclosure, providing structural support for the load cell while still leaving space for the wires and ESP32.
To get fast feedback (and save printer filament when prototyping), I cut a diamater-length slice of the scale top to test the kettle base and load-cell top fit.
The ESP32 mount was prototyped and printed separately. This made it easier to account for the space that the ESP32 would need inside the enclosure, and the position of the Micro USB port cutout at the rear of the enclosure.
With the enclosure supporting the kettle and housing the connected components, the connected kettle MVP is now complete. Stage 3 adds a thermistor to the kettle to capture temperature data.
This article is part of the connected kettle set. If you have any feedback or questions related to this article, please reply to my post on Twitter.