Lidar - 1st pass, and improvements

The print came out great, for such a complicated shape. Part of this exercise is to push the limits of the printer, and the other part of this exercise is to design it better for printing based on what is discovered in the process.

Problem spots which were noted at time of beginning to print:

1. The mask for the encoder emitter detector sensor makes printing this structure with the modern support structures almost impossible because of the density of small features in the model. The durability of the mask is compromised by the proximity to support material.
2. The manufacturability of this object is much lower than it could be. The issue is that the assembly is not that modular for repairing the unavoidable wear and tear on a spinning part.

Ways to improve design:

• Create large printable planes and minimize support material needed to improve structural integrity of part. The easiest way to to this is raise the interior of the top of the encoder wheel.

• Separating the gear component into its own part will ease repair of the component by adding accessibility. Likely, I will take this idea further and replace the the plastic pins with bores for some pins. And these pins will be threaded from either side of the pulley bores by a threaded inset. The pins will sandwich the pulley and the encoder between the laser mount bracket and the slipring.

Lessons learned should never be passed over too quickly:

From experience, while working on robots from the field for a few years... The repair of the robot is unavoidable, just as your car will not run forever without maintenance. Making that repair process easier or more difficult - is up to the designer and the manufacturer.

Note, I needed to add some relief into the bottom of the encoder sensor cover. This also looks much easier to assemble. The previous concern was for upward light into the detector, but the new shelf adds the needed emitter/detector isolation.

Future improvements:

• threaded pins inserts 
• bore holes through pulley with threaded inset mates for pins 
• add cable management into the base and encoder cap