I used the front wheel of the light cycle as the main source of inspiration for my speaker housing unit. This design was continuously used as my constraint in shape, how ever the design evolved through sketching and CAD to create the final piece.
The image below was my first initial sketch idea. As you can see there are no sizes and all of the component parts are currently theoretical. Once I was happy with the type of design I wanted to create I was armed with sketch book, pencil, ruler and amplifier circuit to try and make this product work. I started off by a simple technical sketch to scale and from this I began the development of my product. Both my design development and Pro/ENGINEER pages run along side each other as a collaborative piece to create my final project. This developing a realistic product from a 2D drawing.
Here is the first of my sketches in my sketch book. It is this piece that was the key to the whole of the amplifier design. It was a cross section that I used to help my development at each stage. First of all I accurately drew out the speaker from the existing speaker rather than use the Pro/ENGINEER model because it wasn't the exact size of the existing one which may have meant the design didn't work in reality. Once developing the speaker cone into 3 parts, I then moved on to develop parts 4, 5 and 6 mainly using CAD, but using my sketch to get the measurements and the shape right.
Below the image shows how I began to look at the parts as a symmetrical object that could relate back to the light cycle. At this point I measured the whole cross section to get an exact scale of the model and to ensure that it would be able to be manufactured on the machines.
I then simplified my sketch to look at the shape the model was creating naturally from the left side where the speaker cone sat. This lent itself naturally to form the curve that is shown at the edge of the light cycle. I then used this curve on both sides to create a perceived symmetrical object from the outside. This is where part 6 was developed to create a finishing piece that would mimic the other side and help me model in 3D.
The external housing unit was then developed to create three new pieces that would work together to hold the interior architecture in place rather than acting as support. This is why these walls are so thin but still effective.
Part 8:
Part 7 and 8: The shapes were split up into coloured sections of where they were going to sit on the design to make it easier to spray and give each part its own unique role in the design.
The sketch below shows the splitting up of the two exterior shells better as it begins to explain how they will fit together as a whole product.
The final sketch shows what I was trying to achieve from the external shell. This part is the protective shell that has been designed to protect the internal parts against impact if the amplifier unit were to fall. It also shows how the parts slot together and where you will see the blue parts of the internal speaker.
By using a combination of technical sketches and Pro/ENGINEER I managed to create a refined product that worked; although more test work could have been done to see how materials manufacture on the 3D printer work as a collaborative piece and would have reduced the amount of sanding needed on the internal and external piece. This could also be applied to the spraying of the pieces, I could have done test colours to see how many layers of spray were needed and how they fit together as a result of these layers. Overall as an unfinished sprayed piece the design worked very well and looked like the Tron image I was trying to create.
Compared to the original sketch you can see that the finished product and reality is much different from my initial ideas of the project.
