Screenshot of the CAD design. The cylindrical chamber has 5.5” inner diameter and 5.75” outer diameter. The height of the chamber is 4.75”.

Motor camera assembly

All components can be assembled on the baseboard, then dropped into the mouse cage as one single module.

Side view with lid on

One 1.5” diameter hole was drilled on a corner of the mouse cage for cables to go through.

The torsional spring was disengaged, the water port was left to be always opened.

Camera view

Components:

The Sleep Deprivation Box is comprised of multiple elements:

A cylindrical chamber that contains a rotary bar that spins at a speed set by the user.
A stepper motor and pulley system for driving the rotary bar.
Raspberry pi camera for health monitoring of mice.
Raspberry pi with additional USB storage for stepper motor control and video recording using customized Python program.

Bill of Materials

Here is a file containing bill of materials for all materials required, their price as of October 2023, and their purchase links.

Fabrication

3D printed parts

Here are the .STL files (small pulley, large pulley) containing 3D printed pulleys.

Here are the .STL files for Raspberry pi mount, cylindrical chamber holders, motor mount 1, motor mount 2, camera mount, ball bearing mount 1, ball bearing mount 2.

Laser Cut Parts

Here are the .DXF files for the baseboard (holes threaded to 4-40), motor camera module piece 1, motor camera module piece 2, cylindrical chamber floor (holes threaded to 4-40).

Mouse Cage modification

Two modifications were made to MBS7115RHMV Allentown mouse cage used in the animal facility at Harvard Biolabs. We disengaged the torsional spring at the water port. We also drilled a 1.5” hole on the back of the cage for cable connections.

Camera Modification

Due to space constraint, we disengaged one of the IR LED lights from the raspberry pi camera. The other IR LED light was disassembled from the camera, then soldered and reconnected to the camera board.

Rotary Bar

Drawing for fabricating the rotary bar is attached here. The 0.089” hole was tapped to thread size 4-40. A set screw is used in this hole to hold the rotary bar in place. One surface of the bar is milled flat such that more space could be provided for food pellets and litter.

Acrylic Cylinder

A 0.6” and a 0.4” diameter hole were cut on the side of the acrylic cylinder for water port and vacuum.

Other fabrication notes

For cost and quality, we recommend that acrylic components be processed by a laser cutter. Aluminum and stainless steel parts are easily manufactured via lathe and mill. If you don’t have access to such tooling, there are a myriad of online companies that will accept these files and fabricate the components rapidly. Here is a list of online fabricators we have worked with.

Code

Here you will find the basic structure of Python code for video recording and stepper motor control. Feel free to edit the code for your own need.