Design Your Own

For Beginners

The easiest part of the Space Shark to customise is the pointer. The main specification is that the pointer must be shorter than the height of the shaft above the dome. Ideally, it will also have an easy way to see which direction it is pointing. Simply print any object of your choice (spaceship, jellyfish, arrow, flower etc) that meets the listed specification and attach it to your servo. We recommend using our design for beginners.

Thingiverse is a great place to get CAD models from.

Advanced

Listed here are the critical measurements of the components and a guide to designing your own casing. We encourage you to customise your own SpaceShark however there are some critical measurements which will need to be preserved to ensure that your customisation will be compatible with the current components.

Shaft and Stepper Motor Interface

The 29BYJ-48 stepper motor used in the SpaceShark has very specific motor shaft dimension. To create a good friction fit we recommend using a hole with a radius of 2.8mm and 4.12mm flat sides as seen below:

Shaft and Opto-Interrupter Arm

Depending on the distance between the photo-interrupter mounting position and the shaft, the length and width of the homing arm which triggers sensor may be altered. However, the thickness of the homing arm will need to be less than the width of the sensor gap. The photo interrupter used in the current SpaceShark is the ZD-1901 opto-interrupter which contains a 3mm gap as seen below. This component requires the thickness to be less than 3mm as seen below.

Table Stepper Motor Slot and Mounting Holes

To create a stepper motor slot with mounting holes which fit snugly it is essential that the following dimensions are used. The dimensions for the stepper motor cut out is shown below(left). It is important that the radius of the stepper motor outline does not exceed a radius of 15mm. The 15mm radius ensures that the stepper motor can slot into the table while leaving adequate room for mounting holes of 4mm to be places on either side. The distance between the center of the mounting hole and the center of the stepper motor cut out should be exactly 17.5mm as shown below(right).

Opto-Interrupter Holder

The ZD-1901 opto-interrupter is fixed into place using a friction fit to the opto-holder part pictured below. When modifying the opto-interrupter holder please ensure that the inner dimensions of 6.6mm x 3.65mm is preserved to ensure that a good friction fit can be achieved with the sensor.

Dome and Table

The dome contains sloping sides for aesthetic reasons. We recommend that the height of the dome is selected with consideration to the shape and clearance of the enclosure you wish to design. The default design has a specially designed table legs to allow for the correct amount of clearance so that the enclosure can fit as intended.