electronics

3d printing / cnc / computers / electronics / projects — 11 Comments
22
Mar 16

Auto level for the Folger 2020 Prusa i3

I follow a number of FB groups and forums about 3D printing in general and the Folger 2020 i3 in particular and questions about auto level keep coming up.  The 2020 i3 doesn’t ship with autolevel, but when I ordered mine I thought auto level sounded like something I’d like and Folger sold an inductive sensor for just under $4 so I tossed one in with my order.

My first inductive autolevel sensor and mount.

My first inductive autolevel sensor and mount.

Little did I know what I was about to get into.  Let’s see if I can make this a little easier for other people than it was for me!  After the break I’ll explain what autolevel is and how it works as well as share my experiences setting it up and using it.

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3d printing / cnc / diy / electronics / projects / RC — No Comments
24
Feb 16

Wait, a new project already?

Yeah, I know.  I haven’t even finished blogging about the build of the 3D printer.  I do want to add more about that, but it’s proving very difficult to do more than 24 hours after I did it.  I may be doing some re-wiring on it to clean things up soon and that will make it easier to remember the gotchas I ran into.  The 3D printer has been working great for me – a few minor issues now and then but is overall really working better than I had expected.  So the past week I’ve had it busy working on parts for my next project.  I estimate I still have around 35 hours of printing (give or take 10 hours) before I can move onto the next stage of this project but here’s the start of my attempt at building a CNC machine.

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3d printing / diy / electronics / projects — No Comments
11
Jan 16

Folger Tech 2020 Prusa i3 – The Build – Part 1

Ok, this is going to be a bit more text heavy than I had wanted. But once I got going I forgot to stop for photos and I basically had one day that I could dedicate to the project with minimal interruptions so I just dug in and focused on the build instead of trying to really document the build.

Since then I’ve been having so much fun printing things that I haven’t found the time to write up this post.  But I’m wanting to talk about the stuff I’ve been printing and feel like if I do that I’ll never get to this post.  So before I forget all this it’s time to put it down for posterity and to help anyone else who’s building one of these “Kits”.

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3d printing / diy / electronics / multirotor / projects / radio / RC — No Comments
26
Dec 15

Is this thing on?

With my youtube channel starting to pickup a bit of a following I’ve been thinking about reviving this blog again.  Not sure if I’ll find time to stick with it or not but figured it was as good an excuse as any to blow out some cobwebs and so some updates.

I’m back to a very simple stripped down theme for the time being, if I do customize things it won’t get much fanicer.  Just perk up some colors and maybe add a header image or something.  I like it clean like this.

Lately I’ve been pretty focused on RC flying, I’ve become a regular poster at the Flite Test forums starting with my first quadcopter build using a homemade MultiWii flight controller.  Since then I’ve dug in and made my own RX’s my own F4 based TauLabs controller and am currently helping test a new fork of Tau Labs called dRonin. I’ve also done quite a bit of fixed wing and FPV flying along with all the electronics and have been having a blast.  Quite a few people have told me I should have a blog to share all my exploits and my answer of “I have one, just haven’t updated it in years” is starting to feel lame.

Today I’m hoping to dig in on a new project.  I’ve been intrigued by 3D printing for years and have wanted to build one for about a decade.  I finally felt kit prices had got low enough and quality high enough that I started saving for one, and with the addition of some holiday funds pulled the trigger on a Folger Tech RepRap 2020 Prusa i3 kit that is scheduled for delivery today.

So seems like a good enough excuse to dust this thing off, see what still works…and maybe start using it again 🙂

diy / electronics / house / projects / radio / sdr / softrock / weather / weekend / wind / yuma — 4 Comments
29
Aug 08

Being right ain’t no fun sometimes.

Yeah, I admit I like being right.  Most of the time.  But sometimes I really wish I wasn’t right about something.  Like the prediction I made when we bought this house that “Those carport tarps won’t last a year” despite the sellers assurance that “They have a 7 year warranty and are only a year or so old.”  Which of course means – it happened again.

It happened again.

It happened again.

Read on for more details, more photos, and something completely different.

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diy / electronics / house / new house / weather / yuma — No Comments
09
Jul 08

You would think….

Living in one of the best areas for solar power in the entire country you would think I’d have better luck with said technology.  But no, that’s not the case.  Shortly after Amy and I moved into our new house we bought a set of solar path lights using one of the many gift cards we got from our wedding.  They were fairly cheap, made of plastic, and having just a single amber LED in each they don’t give off much light.  It only took a week or two for me to replace them with a set of traditional 12v lights.  But the LED lights still worked so I didn’t want to just discard them.

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