The original intent was to utilize commonly adopted Braille dots code on the side of the ring relying on your fingertips sense of texture. Quick swipe in the certain direction (from the nut end), or a flick with the fingernail, and you can recognize the sharp dots pattern not looking.
But after meticulous tight fit adjusting of the print, the ring came out holding the strut so well that I have incorporated the additional ring distance coding into it, which works best if you IDing poles and installing them in the increasing sequence right away one after another. Here is how I could describe it in all details:
- Strut #0 is very special as it has the power/data cable in it with connectors (you can see the unoccupied hole in it above. It's installed first as it's immediately obvious in the bunch, so it does not marked with the ring, which is the ID of its own if you don't have cables in struts.
- Strut #1 has the single dot to skin/nail-sense for the Braille number 1. In addition, the ring is sitting tight on the very end of the strut pole. Thus when looking at it or holding the end in the palm of your hand you can notice the zero gap between the ring and the pole end.
- Strut #2 gives the sense of the 2 dots "gate" on the ring circle path, which represents the number 2 in Braille code. The sensible gap or distance from the pole end to the ring is small 1/4 inch (or 5-6mm) but already obvious nonzero (vs #1), and still less than half of an inch (1cm+) spaced #3 or above.
- Strut #3 is sensed as two bumps Braille code along the ring circle path standing for number 3. Its distance from the strut end is clearly identified as 1/2 inch or 1 cm+. So it's obviously larger than the pole #2 with the minimal 1/4 inch or 5mm gap you have just installed / found, but not a cleanly 1 inch or 2 cm+ spaced #4
- Strut #4 has 3 Braille dots, in "chair" or "J" pattern, but that's not crucial to remember, just "3 tactile dots" is enough to ID it. The distance must be "perfect" 1 inch, which is not super familiar for metric people, but it's still easy to recognize as the gap is obviously wider than 1 cm+ of #3 and smaller than the much wider 4cm #5 (also that would be the last one to compare directly if in doubt).
- Strut #5 naturally the final one left in the box, but also sporting the ring with the diagonal patterned Braille number 5 also spaced much farther than 1 inch, a 4 cm gap would be well recognizable for a metric brain and is significantly longer than 1" of #4.
I often bring a small low table to my observing site. It's also possible to "pre-sort" struts simply arranging them on such a table by rings distance as pictured, as they are catching on each other naturally and arranging almost automatically when you shuffle them around.
The distance coding works very well without Braille dots, so if you have no 3D printer these rings can be forged from some weather/UV resistant tape. Just follow the above coding for the application distance for each number.
3D Printing tips
I would not post STLs for this trivial design. Because it's highly custom tailored to your particular struts dimensions, material (thermal expansion matters too), and strut connectors design. But I would advise to use rounded tips for dots cones to allow sensing techniques "by skin" and "by fingernail", as pictured:
The 0.1mm layer might work better for smoother tactile "dots" definition.
That's if you wish to have the Braille option as well (e.g. rings might move with use, OTOH, my struts have their numbers also stock-printed).To answer frequently asked question: No, I don't print these in a darkness-glowing filament because it's too bright for too long, thus might be affecting the darkness adaptation. I prefer white PLA for these, as PLA is best mating with aluminum poles expansion rate and range in my climate zone (rings sit tight from 30F to 130F).
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