Nibbler - The Smallest Meshtastic powered Node (probably)

hey everyone welcome to zero Fox 3D my name is Chris sorry about the noise in here it's always noisy because of these things um but today I've got something new to show you um now all of this didn't exist two months ago uh it only exists because an awful lot of you bought this uh this is Bender Bender you might recognize uh it's my 3D printed case for the htech V3 uh which is a mesh tastic powered radio node uh what's mesh tastic uh it's an off-grid decentralized encrypted communication network uh yeah what's that um I'll put a link in the description to another video by Lewis at ringway Manchester he does a much better job of explaining what it is than me um but Bender was never designed to leave my desk it was just a way for me to conveniently play with mesh tastic and just look up at me if you like um it wasn't designed to go outside it wasn't designed to be carried um and it was always my intention to make another case uh a case that was small a case that had good battery life uh and that you could just carry around with you all day um but the question is how how small could you make it uh well the answer is you can make it so small it actually fits in your hand and no one would really notice um this is Nibbler pocket Nibbler pocket has an internal ant antenna that helps make it so small um also has a 2,000 milliamp flat lipo cell uh that is good for around 20 hours of battery life um this isn't the only version of Nibbler though there's actually another one and again I've been sneakily hiding it on me and this this is Nibbler plus and nibble plus as you can see has a full-sized SMA connector so you can stick as bigger are as you like on it um also has a optional belt clip same 2,000 Milah battery same battery life um and what I'm going to do now is I'll sit down I'll um show you more uh of its features how it's constructed how it's put together uh and how you can get hold of one so before we go over exactly how you assemble uh both Nibbler pocket and Nibbler plus uh I thought we'd just go over um kind of the basic construction of it and some of its features so the main components break down to the front cover uh the main body itself the niblet uh which goes on the end uh and has a variety uh of functions that I'll explain in a minute uh it was named niblet by Mr Andy Kirby I will also point out um we have a back cover uh which is used on Nibbler plus um and used on Nibbler pocket when you don't have the optional belt clip uh we have the battery which is an eem lp10 3454 really rolls off the tong but this is widely available uh I'll provide links to Amazon UK and Amazon us it's under 10 $10 so it's pretty cheap [Music] um then we have the uh vertical belt clip which is used with uh nibl plus we have the horizontal belt clip with integrated back cover which is used with Nibbler pocket this is the antenna for Nibbler pocket which is a ctail YF 0022 it's a wide spectrum antenna uh covers both um frequency bands used in the US and Europe so 9915 and 868 uh we then have have two sets of stainless steel uh hex bolts uh the 10 mm are used with nibble pocket uh the 12 mm are used with neb plus um the good old SMA hexnut tool let carry over from bander the SMA connector itself which is uh comes with Nibbler plus um and then we have this key component um this is an adapter cable that adapts the tiny connector on the htech for use with the larger connector on these common larger Batteries Now the issue is this is not available anywhere no one makes this not that I've been able to find so I had to have it mass produced and when I mean ma when I say mass produced I mean mass produced I've had loads of them made um so that's basically all oh of course we've forgotten the lanyard which is optional as well which is available with it um so that's all of the components um I'll now go over uh kind of the the basic construction and some of the clever little um features of it and of course I forgot again uh the most important component you get an allen key um I didn't want our friends in America having to go fumbling around looking for a 2.5 mm hex key when you guys are all C Imperial so there there you go that comes with it as well so the key concept of how nibblet is constructed is it locks together um Bender being a desktop node um it was never really going to get dropped so it didn't have to survive being dropped whereas Nibbler is going to go out into the world and you know things get dropped out in the world and you don't want to drop your Nibbler and have the front cover pop off and the back cover pop off and the the battery go flying and your hell te go flying so that that is one of the key Concepts and how it basically works is it's it's all down to these two hex bolts um they essentially lock both the front cover and the back cover in place um so the the back cover um slides into position it's basically dovetailed so slides in the front cover Clips on bit like uh in a similar way to Bender so uh you basically you put the front the top uh in first get that in position and then that just pops on now the key thing is that the front cover unlike Bender has these two prongs and these two prongs have holes in and what basically happens is uh when you attach that front cover those prongs line up with the holes in the nibblet so when you put your nibblet on and you drive your hex bolts through they attach the niblet to the body but then the hex bolts go through captive stainless steel square nuts inside the um inside the body which you can just see if it focuses on the inside there see those shiny nuts and those hex bolts pass through those shiny nuts out the plastic and into the plastic of the front cover into those those two prongs that stick out those two uh those two holes so they essentially stop it from coming apart uh and the Nibbler also um the Nibbler overlaps the back cover so once this Nibbler is attached with these hex uh hex bolts that front cover is not coming off and the back cover is not sliding out so that that's kind of the key concept uh of its construction right assembly so these are all of the possible components uh with a Nibbler pocket um assembly is simple but it is fiddly uh simply because you are packing um a lot into a very small space so um have some patience is what I would say um so first off um it's a little bit backwards in a way I suppose because first first step is drop it um um and then battery now the battery actually goes in with the label face down with the wire to the top right hand corner and it simply sits in and goes to the flush against this end and then this cable um you might be able to see tucks over the top of a little pillar It generally I'll show you generally use the old Spud to Spud it in and if you look carefully if it focuses I might not be able to get it to focus um can I get it to focus yeah it tucks in just over the top of this small pillar in here you might not be a to see in video but you'll see it when you when you try you then want either your back cover um or the optional clip if you've uh if you've purchased that and then that just slides in over the top of the battery you'll push that cable through I should have said like so and same is true with the but clip that also slides in over the top so the next step is connect your adapter cable for the battery and then you want to tuck this connector into the space at the end of the battery leaving the cable uh sticking up for the htech next you want to get your htech and connect your antenna and we love an ipex connector don't we fiddly little things I like to just line it up and then put some downward pressure on it with something a bit hard like a hex connector that pops on nice and easily now we can connect the battery connector to the hch I've got to remember which way around this goes always do this with the antenna connected first it should be noted that just pushes in and now it will power up um alignment of getting the um the htech in is very similar to to Bender you put the USB in first it will basically almost slot into the little into the into the hole and then this end will just slot down in you can see it took no pressure whatsoever to get it in right now we have to get our antenna into position now I think it has a sticky pad now you can peel this off um I'm not going to for this uh for this demonstration but the antenna basically just slides in to this top area and then you basically just have to tuck your cable and again this is uh this is the fiddly pass I think you want to tuck your cable down into this recess in here again fiddly but it is doable right so that should do it uh next off you want to get your front cover and it's simply case if you want to put the top Edge in first get that top Edge aligned and popped in so you'll see so you end up with top Edge in bottom Edge else top Edge in bottom Edge else and then all you've got to do is apply a bit of pressure on that bottom Edge and it'll pop in so that's the main body assembled now it's just a case of adding our nibblet and what I generally find is it's uh it's a good idea to use the um use the hex bolts to kind of cut the thread into the plastic first so you can wind them a little with your fingers and then get your Allen key and just wind wind them in and that just that just cuts that initial bit of plastic it makes it a little bit easier to uh to insert them now you want to take your nibblet get your hex's just finger wound into there say and then you just line them up and screw in and you will drop the Allen key it's inevitable now don't um don't tighten them all the way fully just yet I generally get them 90% of the way in on both sides you'll feel them you'll feel them bite a little bit into the um into the captive nuts cuz they have to find the thread once you get past that they then go in quite smoothly see I told you several times it's inevitable and then wind them in until they're basically flush with the surface of the nlet they they'll just go a little bit a little bit past flush like so and that there is your completed nibblet pocket right the Assembly of nibler plus is very similar to nibler pocket um it differs really only in the um in the niblet itself because the niblet contains the SMA connector um and that is probably where I'd suggest starting uh with the Cons with the assembly so you take your take your uh nibblet take your SMA connector put the SMA connector into the nibblet um it can sometimes need a little push to uh to get it fully seated in then you want to take your knuts and washers you want the spring washer first and the serrated washer followed by the nut and you wind that down with the included hex tool give it a little tighten this is the new and improved hexel which is much smaller uses much less plastic and does not break as often um right and now it's a question of did you buy the um the optional vertical clip if you didn't buy the vertical clip there is this little part here called the nibblet filler I call it and that basically slides over here and fills the Gap basically where the clip would normally uh would normally go now I will show it being assembled with the clip so what we want to do is instead of that we take the clip and that pops into here now you want to push it in and you want to make sure it is completely flush with this surface of the niblet if it isn't flush take it out and well I told you toleran is are tight um take it out and just check this surface uh of the niblet inside cuz there can sometimes be a little bit of support material stuck here that you might have to scrape off if I've missed it sorry um but this one was fine so this one goes on fine it's nice and flush with that surface and let's see next then we want to well it's it's like the Nibbler pocket we want to be doing our battery next so to install the battery it is label side downwards flush into the left side and then again the cable tucks over the top of this little pillar here at the top and which this top corner you then want to push the cable through you then want to get your back cover slide your back cover into position and then turn over at this point I generally always connect the adapter cable I always need to go the right way around like so and then took the connector into the end where you have a little bit of space at the end of the battery like so the next step is a little fiddly I'm not going to lie to you because we need to um add our SMA connector now passing this through what you want to do is you want to Loop it over like so so that the ipex connector comes back out of the front because we're going to be connecting that to the htech in a second now what the best thing is to then do is to get your hex bolts [Music] and wind them partly in and we won't go all the way we'll just go enough to to hold the niblet in position so the hex bolts are just in enough to hold the niblet to the body they've not gone all the way through you can see they're not they've not come out the other side uh of the uh captive nut shcks we don't want them to come out um now it's a case of well we need to add an antenna really which I didn't have ready so we screw our antenna on because we don't want to be connecting the hell Tech without an antenna now it's a case of adding our uh I we need our ipex connector connected so fiddly as hell like normal can I do it with my fingers probably not so get my little spuder and just clip it on made that look easy and then you want to twist it round and again it's um ah battery connector come on Chris come on connect up the battery connector and then it's just a case of sea in the htech just like with Bender USB ended first with this end just slotting into position you can check that it's all aligned by just looking at the USB connector and making sure that's in the hole properly and that's basically it so now we want to take our front and it is get the top in first nice and lined up leave the bottom Edge so that it's proud it's not actually in yet so you get your top Edge in first and then all you've got to do is just press down on that bottom Edge and it'll pop it and now we can tighten our hex screws all the way in and you want to tighten them so they're just past flush with the surface of the niblet you'll feel them bite down and there should be very very little in the way of Gap in between the niblet and the body it'll basically be flush and that is your niblet Plus Nibbler plus rather assembled finally we have the optional lanyard uh which basically has a small Loop and this basically passes through the hole here comes out the back and then you just pass your main body yard through and we're attached um so that is Nibbler pocket and Nibbler plus um these will be available uh to purchase from our website zerofox 3d.com um should be by the time you're watching this video um they are £21.99 um in the base configuration if you want to add the clip on the lanyard uh they're 22 each um they'll be available in in weekly batches um with shipping starting from around the 1st of May um there will also be the 3D print files available tonight as well if you'd like to download it and print it yourself and I will be making Hardware kits available um that include the the hex bolts the antenna for pocket the SMA connector um and the battery adapter cable so no thanks for watching if you got this far well done um and thank you for all the support with Bender um it's it's been utterly humbling um and I'm looking forward to making cases for all the other devices going forwards thanks very much cheers

Channel: zerofox3D

Views: 7,156

Keywords: meshtastic, heltecv3, lora, radio, offgridcomms, 3dprinting

Id: 5gkyMhxCbGU

Length: 22min 43sec (1363 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 20 2024