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Gadgetcat heart :)

We love gadgets. And cats. So for Valentine’s day we combined them. Thanks to the facilities at Sunshine Labs (our new business home!) we custom-designed and made a heart with the Gadget Cat in the middle.

Gadgetcat 3D Heart AutoAwesome

  1. First it started with a post-it note drawing.
  2. Then the design was made in Autodesk, the vector for the Cat logo was imported from a vector Adobe Illustrator file. When done, file was saved as an .STL file
  3. The .STL file was imported into MakerWare, which computed the slices for the 3D printer. MakerWare generated the gcode.
  4. The gcode was saved onto an SD card, and put into the MakerBot 2x dual extruder and printed it.
  5. When it was completed, we inserted a battery-powered RGB LED flasher that we made in less than a minute.  Instructions for that are below.

To make the tiny RGB LED flasher,

  1. We used two flashing RGB leds 
  2. We coiled the ends of the LEDs to pinch a CR1220 battery. We chose the CR1220 because it is a 3V battery which has small enough current that it is safe to connect directly to LEDs. No additional resistors or components needed.  
  3. Then the LEDs and battery were placed inside the hidden compartment.

Voila! a flashing red and white heart for lovers of Gadgets, Cats, and Gadgetcat alike!

 

Gadgetcat Valentine Sketch

 

 

 

Gadgetcat Valentine 3D Print

 

Gadgetcat 3D Support Removal

 

Gadgetcat 3D Heart Sketch

 

Gadgetcat LEDs

 

Gadgetcat Two Color Heart