Update

Just wanted to update anyone who is interested, I had some surgery on 6/5 and things have gone well. I'm slowly getting better and drove for the first time for a short distance today. Still bothers me to sit in a car for any period of time. 

My abdomen is still stiff and sore in spots, but overall everything is healing well. I started rehab exercises on Monday, and while things are going slower than I hoped I am improving.

Thanks for the prayers and messages, I do appreciate it, and I hope I'll be back to normal soon. 

Hexapod is running!

Took some time this weekend to work on my Hexy hexapod.  I've been playing with this for a year or two after getting it in a kickstarter, got frustrated and put it away for a while.  Had some ideas to get it to run better (mostly because of power issues) and implemented them this weekend.

It's working fantastic (well except for a few stripped servo gears) when it's wired, but wirelessly it's extremely jerky and it's missing commands.  So the next steps are to replace the servo gears with carbon ones, and replace the controller with an updated one and install an Arduino as it's 'brain' to send the commands over serial so there's no wireless delay. Then I'll use a PS3 controller to control it and it should work awesome.

https://youtu.be/7qxB9p5sH24
 

More Bumblebee stuff

At dinner tonight I got to thinking about the best way to power the Raspberry Pi and it came to me.  A very simple, effective, and inexpensive solution.

Instead of using a 7805 regulator I am using a BEC that normally I use in my RC airplanes.  The one I have right now is rated at 5 amps at either 5 or 6v.  Sure enough when I wired it up to the Pi everything started up just fine and I'm running some test prints just to be sure, but I think it's going to work out great.

It even has a low voltage alert in case for any reason it stops getting the clean 5v, and it has filtering and smooth regulated power for the Pi.  Best part is they only cost about $6 and install in a flash.

So all I have left is to cleanly mount it and the wiring, then make a board for the lights and add switches to them both so I can turn the lights off and on, and install my emergency stop switch that will kill all power to the motors and the Rambo board in case of a  mechanical issue.

Bumblebee II is running again

I finally got both my printers running again, the Hippie was pretty easy, it just needed a new hotend as the thermistor on the current one (which is over a year old) broke.

The Bumblebee II I was switching back to the E3D V6 hotend, and I was finally able to get it to print reliably and consistently.  I think the whole issue was related to my extruder, up until a few months ago I had been using a Maker Gear geared extruder and it had tons of torque so adjusting it wasn't that critical.  I switched to a Bulldog XL after the planetary gear was worn out in the Maker Gear extruder, and I had been struggling with getting consistent prints.  Half way through the print the filament would stop feeding, or it would strip it out.  I did some experiments with temperature and filament tension on the Bulldog and finally got the right settings.  I have to run the E3D a little hotter probably because of the active cooling, but the prints have been coming out great finally.

I started working on the onboard power system for the lighting and the Raspberry Pi and the lighting sections are working fine, but the Pi doesn't seem to be working correctly.  I need to pull out a monitor and keyboard and test it tonight, I'm not sure if it's not delivering enough current, but I also ordered 1.5a 7812 and 7805 chips from Mouser just so they won't run as hot.
 

Latest update

Well since I didn't go to the maker faire I started doing a lot of long awaited fixes and upgrades to my Bumblebee II printer.  I'm putting the E3D V6 hot end back on it, building a regulator board to provide power for the Raspberry PI, and power for the lighting so I won't need separate power adapters.  I'll only have one power cord going forward.  I also am going to do the same thing for the Hippie so it too will only have the single power cord.

I'm toying with the idea of converting the Bumblebee to a Bowden extruder, I've got all the components except I need to print the extruder itself and the Bowden mount.  I think once I get some other things printed that I need to get down that'll be the next thing, then dual extrusion.

I have a prusa I3 kit to build, but it's going to be a group build with the robotics class so they can learn about 3d printers more, and we haven't gotten that scheduled yet.  But I've been going through the kit and looking at the parts and I have to say I'm very impressed for a $320 kit.  The only thing I think I'll be changing is using a RAMPS and a graphic LCD instead of the melzi, but I might try experimenting with the Melzi first to get the auto-bed leveling working.

I am also going to start building my 3DR rostock printer, which I'm very excited about.  That thing is just going to be a blast I think :)
 

Burlington Mini Maker Faire

Unfortunately due to work I am not going to be able to present at the Maker Faire.  It's a bummer because I had some nice signs setup for the display, and I was really looking forward to scanning people.

Burlington Mini Maker Faire

Work has been very busy lately, and that combined with the upcoming Maker Faire I haven't had a lot of chances to work on much.  I still need to make some minor fixes to my printers to prepare for Saturday, and I have to make some signs and start printing out the Yoda heads :)

I have ordered another printer, this is actually a kit from Banggood for an acrylic Prusa I3.  I'm going to add a heated bed to it and we'll see how well it performs.

I have also been working on cleaning up my two workshops at my house in preparation for the Laser Cutter build.  I've finally got the last parts I needed (the laser tube, power supply and controller) so I'm ready to start the assembly.  The first step is to hook up all the electronics and make sure that's all working, then I'll be starting on the frame.  I still haven't decided what material to use for the panels, but I might get some panels from Inventables to use.

Then I have my Rostock 3DR to put together, I've had all the parts, but again no place to build it.  I had let my workbench get cluttered and it's just not good to try and put together a printer in a cluttered workspace :)

I also want to put together my 1.75 extruder for filament, and also the chopper so I can do colors more consistently.

Two more updates

The first one is about my Libelle first flights.

I took it out to a local park (Gibson park) and went out on the soccer field.  Did my assembly of the plane, range checked it, checked the controls, and started with the trim flights.

It was pretty spot on, only took me 5 trim flights to get it dialed in where I could throw it and just watch it glide and land on its own :)

Then I tried a side hand throw and it did pretty well again, flat flight, forgot to turn on landing mode, but still landed well.  Did another side hand throw, then did a full DLG launch throw but didn't try to push it.  

It climbed well and floated really good, I was really enjoying it a lot.  Next DLG launch and all of a sudden it goes into a left hand spiral VERY hard. Flips over and noses straight in with the wing halves going separate directions away from the fuselage.  During the entire time I was frantically trying to correct it, but had no response.  Took a look at the plane and couldn't figure out why the left aileron was all the way up, or the rudder all the way hard left.

Took the radio and tried turning the ailerons and the rudder, and I heard the servos but their was no motion.  Turns out the servos had been stripped :(

So I think I'm going to just buy a whole kit again and build another one, buy some new servos and then get started again :)  I just had too much fun on the short flights I had.

The other update is on my personal smart watch project, well it's actually the OSWatch Project.

I've gotten almost all the parts to start assembling it, but I missed ordering the TTL to usb converter that I need to program the Microduino.  That's been ordered and hopefully should be here soon.

In the meantime I downloaded the iOS app source code to my new laptop, and compiled it and loaded it on my iPhone 5s.  Worked the first time, so I'm very happy with how that went.

More updates to follow as I continue to actually get some of my projects done!!

The Olio glass blowing studio in Winston Salem

I was so excited to find out about The Olio, I've gone to another glass studio in Durham called Firefly Hotglass and made an ornament and a glass heart, but it's a bit of a drive.

They were having a special session this afternoon for making a Shamrock or a Paisley in celebration of St Patricks Day, and I had to go out and check it out.

The studio is impressive, very well laid out, and I love the glass shop out front where they sell a lot of what they make there.  The atmosphere is awesome, it's more of a workshop/glass shop mixed together, and they use a lot of recycled material from the tables and benches, to the actual glass they use for blowing.  They purchased a recipe that allows them to recycle beer bottles (clear ones) and other commercial bottles and mix it to make glass that works very well for glass blowing.

The teacher was awesome and explained what we were doing and why, and I had an absolute blast.

If you've ever wanted to try glass blowing definitely attend, if your just curious about how it is done come by and watch it's very kid friendly as well.  

Be sure to read the guidelines about what clothes and shoes to wear as you will be working with VERY hot glass :)

http://theolio.com

Various projects getting done

Finally got some free time this week to work on some of my project backlogs.  

First I was able to complete my Libelle DLG completed, and I have to say that it went together very easily.  This is a high quality kit, and the only modifications I had to do was trim one of the servo shafts a little bit because it was too long, and notch the rear housing for clearance for the linkage.  I have it all balanced up with 18g of lead in the nose (well lead substitute ;) ).  It's all setup and ready to go for it's first trim flights which I'll probably do tomorrow, as it's the first non-rainy, non-muddy non-freezing day we've had since I finished it!

I also worked on my printer, the Hippie had a problem with a bad auto-leveling servo.  I think the one I used was one I abused in one of my robots, so I got a brand new one and installed it, and just had to make a minor adjustment to the bed leveling height and it's printing again great!

I need to re-work the next Arduino class at the ham club, as I'm having reservations about including a frequency counter in our VFO.  I like having an amplifier in the box, and I've got the parts coming to make a simple one that we can put on the breadboard.  But I want to do more with the Frequency counter, and I'd like to make it as compact as I can, so I think we'll put it in a different box by itself.

Tomorrow I'm going to test fly the Libelle, and hopefully do some first launches with it.  I still need to add a dedicated launch button to my radio, but for now I'll just practice my 'flings' without the launch button.

I'm also going to reinstall the E3D V6 hot end in the Bumblebee II as I think the problem with it stopping extruding about 20 minutes into the print was because I was being too conservative with the tension settings on the extruder.  I was having the same problem with a J-head and discovered another turn made it operate reliably, so I'm going to use the E3D again because I really like that hot end.  I also purchased a 24v fan so I won't have to worry about step down voltage converter for a 12v fan.

Stay tuned for pictures of the Libelle!!!