Yesterday I took delivery of the first draft 3D printed case that I'd designed, thanks to our colleagues down at Central Library and their Ultimaker 3D printer. Many thanks to Paul Bennett for offering it up and to Rory Cooper for printing it for us.

3D printed case

This 'base' took around 14 hours to print and has columns to hold the internal circuitry that Andras Revesz is working on and a place to keep a square 9V battery held snug (the type you used to stick on your tongue when you were a kid). Sitting above those on the ledge will be the eInk screen (like in a Kindle) that shows room booking information.

3D printed lid

The lid, which simply snaps on and off, fits perfectly and locks the eInk screen in place. The idea is that will make it easy for FM staff to quickly move the lid and screen out of the way to replace batteries - which incidentally should last between 3-4 months we think. Having said that, we just found a battery that we think might last for 5 years!!

You can see the whole thing together here, with the screen in and get a feel for how it might look attached to the glass outside meeting rooms.

Screen in the case

I expect the final version will be black rather than red and ignore the logo... someone (cough Aidan) thought it would be funny to put that on our test screen!

Dan, Dan the website man that can worked up the actual design for how the screens might look when they're completed. The idea is that they'll show details of the current activity in the room, the one that's coming next.

Screen layout mockup

Put that all together and you get this, kindly modelled by said Aidan Minton for us all to enjoy.

Aidan modelling our screens

I'd love to know what you think.