Welcome to the CircuitPython Show. I'm your host, Paul Cutler. This episode, I welcome
Noe Ruiz, who is a designer engineer with Adafruit Industries and the co-host of 3D
Hangouts, which you can catch every Wednesday on the Adafruit YouTube channel.
Noé, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
How did you first get started with computers and electronics?
Sure. We'll start with the computer first and then electronics. So back in the 90s,
like around '94, '95, my brother Pedro, he saw an advert or an infomercial on local television
about using a Macintosh to like do your book reports and edit video and do graphic, you
know, publishing.
Like, so, he was like really enamored in that and it really got him into like, "Let's get
a Mac" because we didn't have a computer yet and you know, it was the 90s and folks were
trying to get computers and that was I think a really good investment.
It wasn't cheap but man, did we just invest all our times and learning how to use that
thing like using Super Power Goo and like all these like creative Mac paint, you know,
kind of style apps that really got me on like the track to doing like creative design work.
And then for the electronics, I got a Makey Makey, I think around December of 2012 or
2013.
We saw their Kickstarter video, me and Pedro did.
We thought this would be a really cool like kind of gadget that we can, you know, play
with and maybe make some projects around.
So the Makey Makey was like our first like entry into electronics.
How did you get into design?
- Design, like I've always been enamored with design.
For high school, I took a commercial arts class
and there I learned the principle of design,
color theory, typography, and it was a good mix
of doing the traditional stuff, like printing things out,
making things for stationery, but also designing things
in Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Illustrator.
So that's where I really got to get my training in.
And design for me has always been like a thing.
Before I had a computer, it was always drawing.
So it was always like creative in that realm,
like just drawing and loving special effects from movies
like Jurassic Park and watching,
I think it was called Movie Magic on Discovery Channel.
Like that's like the sort of stuff
that we were like really into.
So I think that's kind of how I got into design.
- How did you first get into design for 3D printing?
- Yeah, so really it started off
when Pedro decided to get a MakerBot Replicator
near the end of 2012, he saw that it was a really big thing
that happened.
I guess it was like CES.
He saw that the MakerBot Replicator was something
that you can now purchase.
You don't have to put it together.
It's ready to go out of the box.
It was really focused around creative designers.
So he just went ahead and bought that.
He already had 3D modeling experience.
I had barely any 3D modeling experience.
But I saw him 3D print one of his models that he made.
At that time, we were working on a iPhone game
that was centered around the Tron light cycle type of game
mechanic.
And he 3D printed his Tron cycle model.
And I was like, this is so freaking cool.
I got to learn how to do this.
I don't know how I stumbled upon this TinkerCAD.
Back in those days, it was a very scrappy, small team.
But it was a web-based 3D modeling app
that was like you just dropped in primitive shapes, you smashed them together and you
can make something really cool.
So, I thought I'd make - I think it was either a pencil holder that eventually turned into
like a planter because Pedro actually was - he had a collection of carnivorous plants.
These are like pitcher plants, the penthes plants.
And I thought it'd be really cool to make like a planter that was like a face and the
picture plant and the leaves were kind of like its hair.
So I spent my time working on that and I came up with this kind of cool thing.
You can actually still find my Tinkercad designs from 2012, 2013 and I thought that was like
the coolest thing ever.
So I just kept at it, making more and more planters.
Eventually, I got into you know, making things around the house like light fixtures, little
signs that were all you know, based around typography and stuff.
that's kind of how I got into design. I was like, the printer was there and I wanted to
do something. I saw a page would do something, I was like, I gotta do something to you.
A lot of your designs use snap fit enclosures. How and why did you start designing this way?
Yeah, so snap fit enclosures was something that like, I think the way I remember is like,
I remember doing the Pie Girl project for Adafruit back in like 2013 or 2014. And all
My projects from that era was all screw driven standoffs,
like you have screws for everything.
But as you know, with Adafruit Learn Guides,
we have to document assembly
and screwing things over and over again
for years and years and years became kind of a nuisance.
And I remember getting the idea
by looking at the enclosure for my dental floss, right?
Or maybe even it was a shampoo bottle,
But all these things have these little snap fit, like tops that have this tiny
little ridge and a tiny little like indentation.
And I was looking at it when they brushed my teeth.
I was like, what if I could, I could design this into the enclosure.
So I no longer need to like invest my time into screwing
things and taking it apart.
So it took me quite a few times to really nail like the right layer height and the
right size and geometry for the snap fits.
So I think around the Pie Girl Zero, which was like maybe the third or fourth Pie Girl,
because we've done so many of them, that's when I finally figured out, okay, I can, this
is like the right kind of recipe to make snap fit enclosures.
And then from then on, I just started adding it to everything.
So I think that's kind of the origin story.
Dental floss.
That is a great story.
I would have never guessed that that was the origin and the inspiration for snap fit enclosures.
Yeah.
person came up with that and it's just like you see it everywhere. You know, all the shampoo
models and like as a dental floss, they all use this snap fit kind of thing, which is
like super clever.
You've been doing 3D hangouts with Pedro for over 500 episodes in 11 years. What are some
of your favorite memories?
Yeah, so I had to look back because like we've - it's been a while, right? So, I think the
The most memorable one was doing it live in New York at the Adafruit headquarters and
we did an episode where we had like five guests.
We had Philip Burgess, we had Scott Shawcroft, we had a bunch of people on it.
Like I forget, like we had a bunch of people on that.
It was a really fun show and it warrants another re-watch because it was just fun to see how
many folks in Adafruit we could stuff into the camera there, in the camera shot.
So that was a really memorable one.
Off to see if I can track that one down and add it to the show notes.
Yeah, please do.
Any other memories come to mind that you've enjoyed over the years?
The other memorable moment was just the first one. It was the first episode.
It was really nerve-wracking and re-watching it for just a couple minutes.
You know, I feel a little cringe because hearing my own voice doesn't sound that great,
but it's nice that it was like our beginning journey of like,
Like how do you structure a show?
What kind of segments?
Yeah, it felt more structured back then.
Like we had more 3D news was a part of the beginning of the show.
And we had another co-host actually.
We had Matt Griffin, who was Adafruit community lead.
And he helped us out really doing the first episode.
He eventually went on to work with Ultimaker.
But it was really cool to have like three people doing this where he would cover the
And then we would do a little bit of layer by layer.
And then I think we ended it with our learn guides.
But yeah, episode one, that's got to be a nice milestone
to do the first one.
You maintain a GitHub repository of CAD files
for Adafruit parts.
What goes into creating each part?
Yeah, so Lamar, you still use this Eagle CAD, which
has now been folded into Autodesk Fusion.
And they have this nifty feature where
open an Autodesk--
I mean, you can open an Eagle CAD file in Fusion
and generate it into a 3D model.
So from there, you can choose how thick you want your PCB.
You can choose what color of solder mask, silkscreen.
You can map different 3D models to all the different footprints
for the components.
So what I end up doing is I just click that Generate button.
And then from there, I clean up some of the solder mask stuff
because there's some extra labels and stuff.
But from there, I really like DigiKeys.
Searching through DigiKeys catalog,
you can find a lot of 3D models of all sorts of components--
jelly bean components, of course,
but also a lot of the temperature pressure sensors
are all out there.
All the CAD models are out there for those various types
of sensors.
So it's really nice to get those and then just map them
to the 3D model.
I think a few years ago, I had to draw
them out by--
not by hand, but you would get the data sheet,
and you would sketch it out and make the part by hand.
But nowadays, I rarely have to do that,
because it's amazing just how many 3D models
of various sensors and components there are.
So it's really nice.
And DigiKey also brings in 3D models
from other places like EasyEDE, and I
think there's a few other ones.
But they aggregate all the different data
sheets plus CAD models.
And another cool thing about DigiKey is you can--
when I'm searching for a part, there
is a filter where you can say, show me the 3D model.
And that way, I can only see the 3D model for the thing, which
is nice because there's a lot of repeating components,
like buttons, for example.
There's so many buttons on DigiKey.
So it's nice if one manufacturer doesn't have it,
another one does.
And it's pretty much the same shape.
Another thing, I kept doing it so much
that I needed to make a learn guide and a labor alert
tutorial on how I do it.
So there are resources out there now.
So it's definitely documented.
But getting the word out is still
one of those things I struggle with.
So maybe we can get the word out here now.
But I need to talk about it more.
People can request parts via issues on the GitHub repo, too.
Do you get an opportunity to get to some of those requests
from time to time?
Yeah, I try to do one a week.
This week, I actually did two or maybe three.
Yeah, I encourage folks to go out there
and add your part request.
Normally, I try to just do Adafruit circuit boards,
not components that we stock from other places,
like a connector or something like that.
Those are a little bit trickier to do because I have
to find a data sheet and draw it from scratch.
But doing Adafruit PCBs is like--
I got the workflow pretty much locked down.
So I encourage folks to add their part request.
And going forward, we are starting
to, as the new product gets released,
as a part of the Learn Guide for that product,
we're starting to get that generated.
So we're trying to get those more
part of the release of the Learn Guide or the product Learn
Guide.
BRIAN DORSEY: Very cool.
You mentioned Layer by Layer earlier,
which is a playlist you have on YouTube
through how to design various things using a CAD program like Fusion 360.
What motivated you to start Layer by Layer?
Yeah, so me and making tutorials has, it goes way back to like my early web
design days where I just wanted like a way to kind of teach my co-workers like
how I could do things, certain things, maybe be more efficient or here's a
a cool tip on how I design this thing.
So I've always been doing that for all the different careers,
I guess you could say, from web design
to UX design for mobile devices.
So as I started learning more and more about CAD,
going from Tinkercad to 123D and then to Fusion,
I just thought it was an interesting thing to do.
And I always felt that once you teach something or try
to do like a tutorial, then you really start to understand like the workflow or the technique.
So I think it was instilled in me from an early age that that's a really good way to
kind of learn is to is to like try to teach it.
If anyone wants to learn more about you and your work, where should they go?
Yeah, you can follow me on Instagram.
That's normally where I post my stuff.
My handle is @Eckin.
Last question I ask each guest, you're starting a new project or prototype, which board do
you reach for?
That's a good question.
I probably would reach for these days, probably a CutiePie ESP32 type board, mainly because
it's so small and it has the STEMIQT connector so I can connect all sorts of sensors and
things to it.
Yeah, that the CutiePie seems to be like my go to now.
Noi, thanks so much for coming on the show.
No problem.
Thank you for listening to the CircuitPython Show.
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Until next time, stay positive!