James Wolf shared with us his “Smart Garage” Device with 3D Printed Enclosure Built Around Adafruit CC3000:

We are currently working on a “Smart Garage” device that is an IOT (Internet of Things) device that uses a home Wifi connection. The Smart Garage module allows the user to login to the webservice and find out if the door is open or closed as well as operate the door as necessary from anywhere in the world. The webservice uses WebSockets for real-time communication between device and server for both monitoring and control.

The hardware is an Arduino Mega microcontroller with an Adafruit CC3000 Wifi shield. It also has a blue LED to indicate of Wifi access and a red one to indicate the door is open as well as a button to operate the door manually.

I now have an Up Plus 2 3D printer (that I love) that my wonderful wife got me for Xmas. I measured the Arduino and shield carefully with digital calipers (a requirement for 3D printing) and then designed a special enclosure for the project in SketchUp. It needed to be able to contain all the parts with just the USB and Power connectors sticking out as well as have mounts for the indicator LED’s and the button.

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Featured Adafruit Product!

Adafruit CC3000 WiFi Shield with Onboard Ceramic Antenna: The CC3000 hits that sweet spot of usability, price and capability. It uses SPI for communication (not UART!) so you can push data as fast as you want or as slow as you want. It has a proper interrupt system with IRQ pin so you can have asynchronous connections. It supports 802.11b/g, open/WEP/WPA/WPA2 security, TKIP & AES. A built in TCP/IP stack with a “BSD socket” interface. TCP and UDP in both client and server mode, up to 4 concurrent sockets. It does not support “AP” mode, it can connect to an access point but it cannot be an access point. (read more)

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!