PiBox

While there may be spirited debate on the best pie we can all agree that the best way to eat pie is with friends and family. Sharing a pie means having a way to transport this precious cargo. Thankfully long ago we invented the box. An invention that predates the wheel but doesn't get enough credit for the transformation of society. My PiBox is designed in Fusion 360 made from Ash Hardwood and features a vacuum-formed plastic pie holder, ws2812 led strip, stereo speakers, and one metric ton of glitter. When opened you are greeted with the pie of your choosing along with lights and music. It's ridiculous and so much fun.

Your going to need some wood and your local makerspace. I went to a local hardwood supplier, Kettle Moraine Hardwoods, and picked up some walnut. If you want to add blinky lights and sound your also going to need a WS2812 strip, ESP8266-01, LED Control Board, speakers, and a dfplayer mini.

dfplayer mini:

https://www.amazon.com/Anmbest-YX5200-DFPlayer-Supporting-Arduino/dp/B07JGWMPTF/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=dfplayer+mini&qid=1647828409&sprefix=dfplayer%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-2

WS2812 led strip:

https://www.amazon.com/ALITOVE-Individual-Addressable-Programmable-Non-Waterproof/dp/B01MG49QKD/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=ws2812b+led+strip&qid=1647828464&sprefix=ws28%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-6

ESP8266-01:

https://www.amazon.com/ESP8266-Wireless-Transceiver-DC3-0-3-6V-Arduino/dp/B0872XG31W/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1AXN6RQX01VOQ&keywords=esp8266-01&qid=1647828631&sprefix=esp8266-01%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-2

Control Board:

https://www.amazon.com/AITRIP-ESP8266-ESP-01S-Controller-Programming/dp/B08L9WTKH6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14OM2HHD3SUCH&keywords=ws2812+esp8266&qid=1647828575&sprefix=ws2812+esp8266%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1

Side note: I made my PiBox our of Ash but did not do a great job taking pictures of the build process so I decided to make a second box so I could include images with this instructable.

I start all my project in Fusion 360 so lets start there. I teach a class at the Milwaukee Makerspace and made this one of my classes. Link to the video below for instructions on designing your box.

Designing your box link

Once you have your drawings printed up the next step is cutting out your pieces. I got 4/4 boards so I started by jointing and planning my board. Then I took those boards to the bandsaw to re-saw them in half. Once they we cut to a better thickness I just had to run them though the planer once more to clean up the band saw marks.

Gluing and clamping a box is pretty easy but my pro tip is to glue the top right on your box and then cut it apart with a table saw after its dry. This way you get pattern matched grain sides with out the headache. You can see in the last photo I used just the right number of clamps, all or maybe 42 I did not count.

Attached is the stl file to print the vacu forming buck. I will spare you the hour long Fusion 360 class in designing the part. Keep in mind that the vacu-forming process is high temperature when selecting a printer material. If you make a buck out of PLA it will work but you will not get a lot of pulls from in. Each time you use the buck it will deform a little. Not a big deal for me as I only need one but I it took a few tries to get a good pull. Every material is different so you will need to do some experimenting. If you have a vacu-former I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how to use it.

Your going to need a pie... I guess you could go to the store and buy one. But we are makers, forget that! Below is the recipe I choose but you are all fully capable of googling or calling your mothers to get one for your selves. In fact you should defiantly call your mother, she would love to here from you.

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/apple-pie-walnut-crumb-topping

You could just have a nice wood box and perfectly hold a pie and call it done. But if you want to take it way over the top while the pie is in the oven we have time to get nerdy and covered in glitter. Attached is a wiring diagram and Arduino Sketch. The sketch is pulled right from the FastLED library examples, called TwinkleFox. I really like the randomness of the colors for this application. The dfplayer mini is working in the "standalone" configuration. Once it has power it will just play an mp3 file from the microSD card once the button is pressed. I have my button rigged to be pressed when the box is opened.