Caspar's Useless Box

This is my useless box.

1. 1x DPDT Switch-100DP1T6B11M1QEH E-Switch | Switches | DigiKey
2. 1x Limit Switch-D3V-162M-1C25-K Omron Electronics Inc-EMC Div | Switches | DigiKey Marketplace
3. 1x 2AA Battery Pack-2 X AA Battery Holder With Fly Leads | eBay Australia
4. 1x Gear Motor With Reducer-aliexpress.com/item/32837297056.html
5. Any craft wood for the box

Connect with wires

How to connect the circuit:

Follow wiring diagram exactly as shown, be especially careful with placement of the wires on the DPDT switch. Before soldering a wire, twist the exposed metal ending, and tin with solder (apply a small amount of solder to the wire), and apply some solder on the surface you are connecting the wire to. Then, simply heat up the solder on the connecting surface and hold the wire in place for a couple of seconds after removing the iron to cool it down and solidify the connection.

In this step, I have connected the gear motor with the DPDT switch. It does not matter which side you connect each wire to right now.

Here, I have almost completed connecting the battery pack (I still need to solder the positive voltage wire in place), and you can see how I connected the ground on the battery pack to the two appropriate wires, by twisting them all together and soldering them into place. I found that it was easier to leave these ones untinned before soldering, so that I could firmly twist the three wires together, but other methods are just as effective.

This is the kind of limit switch that I used, but there are many different ones, so always connect C/COM (common connection) to pin 5 on the DPDT switch, and NC (Normally Closed) to ground.

This step is for making sure that all of the hardware inside the box can function properly. In Tinkercad, you need to make a design to mount the motor and the limit switch so that they are both a little bit off of the ground. There is no exact right measurements for this, since your equipment will be a bit different to mine, but you will have to measure the diameter of the holes in your switch and motor that we will use to prop it up with the mount (which we will secure with screws). Once again, there is no right or wrong, but I do suggest making the design just a tiny fraction bigger than you measured, as the plastic in the 3d printer will shrink a little bit when cooling.

This is where you can get creative with how you want the arm that will be turning the switch off to look. You need to first measure how big it needs to be in order to reach and turn off the switch without hitting the side walls or getting stuck anywhere. Other than that, there is no right or wrong in this step either. Also make sure that you make the holes in the base of the arm the appropriate size to fit onto your motor. The photo above is a simple version of an arm, and I have the STL for the design attached below.

The photo above is a great example of what the box should look like. However, you can alter the dimensions a little bit, as long as you leave room for all the components inside. There should be a split in the roof around halfway across, and one of those halves is attached on a hinge so that the arm can push it up and out of the way, and retreat back into the box without leaving a trace. I would also recommend not using screws, and instead just use some hot glue or superglue. There needs to be a small hole on the side of the box that doesn't lift up, for the DPDT switch to fit in. Make sure it's close enough that the arm will be able to reach it from inside.

BEFORE YOU START ASSEMBLY:

Make sure you test thoroughly that all of your electronics work smoothly, and that your arm is able to move with the motor.

Now that all of the components are complete, you are ready to start assembly! The important thing is to think carefully about placement of the components before you secure them in, so that you don't make an irreversible mistake. How you secure the components in place is up to you, whether you use screws or glue. To make this step easy, don't put on of the side walls on until after you're done assembling the box. Only secure it after testing that everything inside works.

You're done!