Now that you've finished building SelfieBot, load up the printer with some paper and get to know your new friend:

To turn on:
Flipping the power switch to on will boot the Raspberry Pi. Open the SelfieBot program on the desktop and run the program in IDLE.

SelfieBot reacts to motion, and will react when picked up, tipped side to side, and placed on its back.

To take a selfie:
Press the arcade button to enter selfie mode. Smile at the camera, and press the button again to take and print a photo! 

To turn off:
To exit the SelfieBot program, press escape on the keyboard. Shut down the Raspberry Pi and then flip the power switch to off.

Alternate Methods of Building the Case

You may not want to 3D print the wall sections of SelfieBot, it's tricky to calculate the correct shrinkage factor, and it is also tricky to glue the pieces together after printing. Instead, you may want to laser cut the walls in layers and stack them together.

Below are files for laser cutting the wall sections. "Thin" is the shape we used to cut the walls out of plywood. "Thick" is the shape we used for the cardboard version. There are no holes in the "Thick" files - if you're using the cardboard and zip tie method described below, it's best to poke the holes with an awl after cutting to keep the holes small. 

Original SelfieBot had laser cut plywood walls that were laminated together with wood glue. We used a combination of 6mm and 3mm baltic birch plywood to make the wall sections. The front wall section is 24mm high, and the back wall section is 33mm high.

You could also build the walls out of laser cut cardboard. That's how we built the prototype for SelfieBot. We cut 4 wall layers for the front section and 5 for the back section. Instead of screws to hold the case together, we used zip ties. This is a much cheaper, easier, and lighter solution!

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Our cardboard SelfieBot prototype with an early version of the face.

To close the case with zip ties instead of screws, feed one zip tie straight through all the layers from front to back. Feed the clasp of another zip tie onto the back of the first zip tie and cinch it tight against the back of SelfieBot. Clip both ties short, and you're done!

This guide was first published on Dec 10, 2017. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Fun With SelfieBot) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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