Very similar to my Flickr profile listing but more in depth and lots of links to it all for the curious.

I’ve yet to actually print anything recognizable thanks to a number of challenges along the way.

Once I got the software sorted, I tried printing some calibration cubes. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as the extruder got clogged with PLA almost immediately. It seems I was trying to force the filament into the hotend faster than it should have been. So then I had to disassemble it, clear it out and try again.

After rebuilding the hotend, the X axis belt was loose so in the process of tightening it, I managed to break all the PLA bushings that were supporting the X axis. I had already fixed these recently so was pretty much done with them at this point. Fortunately, I received some LM8UU linear bearings (from Mixshop.ca which are smaller than normal ones for some reason) and printed some replacement parts (in blue – I couldn’t be bothered to swap colors to match the previously printed green ones).

I liked the design of the Prusa 2 parts but wasn’t prepared to cut my smooth rod to make it work so I modified a derivative version of the Prusa 1 idler to fit my LM8UUs (which I posted on Thingiverse in case it would be useful to anyone else). I now have a hybrid X axis since the motor mount is this one (with the awesome integrated endstop trigger) and the idler is a modified Prusa 1 version for LM8UUs.

It all works so I’m happy and I don’t have to worry about snapping off any more bushings. I opted to stick with the old X-carriage as it’s opening is large enough to allow me to remove the extruder and hotend without having to disassemble it (although I may swap in this open x version once I track down the bearings…which leads me to my next issue:

Seems that once again, I was pushing too much filament into the hotend and I may have had a problem during one of my rebuilds with the teflon tape getting compromised which lead to the ‘leakage’ of PLA above the PEEK block in the photo above.

This should be easy to fix and I’ll try it all again very soon. Once again, the folks in the local RepRap group I belong to helped out very quickly by helping to diagnose the issues just from some photos so I hope to be finally printing by this weekend.

One final thing for Reprap users on Mac OSX – Kliment has released a native OSX app version of Pronterface which I found on his Github while troubleshooting getting a new version of it running…this is great as it means I don’t need to run a couple of command line scripts in order to get Pronterface going anymore. Works like a charm!

I was surprised how close the owls were to the trail (and tons of people) and we were able to see at least 8 in just our field of view…with many more further out. There was even a barn owl hunting nearby but I wasn’t able to get any good shots of him.

No shortage of photographers doing the same thing I was, except with much better (or at least more expensive) gear:

This is what $12 million gets you…the estate overlooking the owls and the bay:

I also managed to capture one of my favorite sunsets yet:

View the full photo set on Flickr.

If you want to check out the owls for yourself, head out towards Ladner via Hwy 99. Turn left onto Ladner Trunk Road and then right at 72nd Street (follow the signs to Boundary Bay Airport). Stay on 72nd until the end of the road and park where ever you can (likely along 72nd but there are a few parking spaces at the very end). There is a trail you should stay on that gives you plenty of viewing of owls. Don’t disturb the owls by getting too close…there are lots of signs saying as such.

Conveniently, they have a regular 3d printer night on Thursdays and that happened to be the night I had free to visit.

Upon arriving, I was greeted by Matt, the owner of Metrix and he gave me a tour. It’s definitely a maker’s dream space with lots of room, tools and even a sushi place upstairs that delivers to nerds in need.

There is an array of cool tools to use including 3d printers, a laser cutter, a giant CNC machine and lots of soldering/laptop workstations.

One of the things I had read about Metrix is that they have been making clonedel parts for 3d printers which are basically molds that you use to create objects out of whatever material you pour into the molds. It was cool to see the setup in person and check out the quality of the parts:

There was also a couple of reprap printers built with the clonedel parts:

They also have a vending machine filled with arduino microcontrollers and other geeky toys, snacks (including MREs!) and electronic kits. I ended up buying a bunch of things for myself from the machine:

Since this was a 3d printer night, Matthew brought down his CupCake:

(aka a FakerBot since it was a copy of Makerbot’s open source design that they made at Metrix) which he had modified to make it quite similar to my beloved Thing-O-Matic in how the Z stage operates.

I brought some of my prints and we compared parts. His modified CupCake was printing incredibly well…just as good as my Thing-O-Matic and much better than the output I had seen from stock CupCakes, thanks to his mods (which he posted on Thingiverse shortly after my visit).

I love how the CupCake has all the electronics and wiring on the OUTSIDE…so much more accessible:

It was a very fun way to spend a Thursday night in Seattle…I highly recommend checking out Metrix if you’re in Seattle as they offer lots of interesting workshops and a really cool atmosphere.

One method I’ve used is 2D extrusion which how I made the page keeper gadget for a coworker.

Another method is called solid modelling. There is a relatively new website, called Tinkercad, that gives you the tools to create 3D objects right in your browser, for free. It is built on the WebGL platform so requires a modern browser (and in some cases, modern graphics cards) to run it…I used Chrome as Safari doesn’t currently support WebGL.

Using a number of different shapes you can add or subtract the shapes to build up your design.

You choose the height and the size of the shape using direct numeric entry or a slider.

Choosing the workplane allows you change the level or angle you’re working on.

The measure tool allows you to create a positionable ruler to assist with measurements of your design.

The top left menu item, “Print 3D”, is how you export your model. You can either export it to an *.STL file (which is compatible with other 3d software packages as well as the software I use to print with my 3d printer) or you can send it to a 3d printing service like Shapeways.com if you don’t own a 3d printer. They’ll print it for you, in a number of different material options and ship it to your door.

Here’s their quick start tutorial that should give you a better idea of how it works:

I wanted to design a mount that would allow me to attach my GoPro camera to a remote control quadcopter. I couldn’t find a design on Thingiverse so I toyed with modifying some other GoPro mounts on there for the purpose but nothing looked like it would work any better than simply duct taping the camera down.

I also didn’t want to modify the quadcopter at all so opted to use the same mount point for the battery which already has velcro to hold it in place. I did find a mount online that someone designed and printed with a 3d printer who was selling it but there wasn’t any good detail photos of it so I had to come up with my own version and used my calipers to measure everything.

It took a few iterations before I found a design that worked:

The final version (I had to print two of them):

Here’s the results of this mount attached to the quadcopter with GoPro camera installed:

Turned out pretty good! Now to design one that fits underneath the quadcopter for an unencumbered view.

Another cool thing about Tinkercad is that you are given a permalink to your design that you can share. Then others can make a copy of it and make other things with it. I did this with something I found on Thingiverse, a tool holder for my 3d printer, that was a cleverly designed mount for tools that are commonly used when operating the 3d printer. I thought the same object, minus the tool parts, would be great for mounting my webcam onto the printer. The creator of the tool holder had used Tinkercad to create it so it was easy to duplicate it and then erase the unneeded bits to make this:

So I made a couple versions, a big and small one depending on what you wanted to attach to the platform.

So far, I’ve been really impressed with Tinkercad. I’ve found it the easiest way to get designing something, without all the usual technical stuff. It did take a little getting used to and it was a little tricky to figure out the workplane stuff, but once I spent a little time with it, it got much easier. I also now have two different designs that I have successfully printed and are working great.

There’s also a newer beta version you can try out at labs.tinkercad.com.

It was a good place to try out the new zoom lens (a 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR) I recently picked up. I normally wouldn’t consider this kind of lens since it breaks my lens purchase rule of nothing slower than f2.8 but I’ve been doing more and more outdoor photography lately and the price was just too good to pass up.

Here’s some of my favourite photos from the visit:

Not the best photo since it was shot through glass, but I think it was funny that he was licking his lips as he approached me and then turned around and peed directly on the window in front of us…

View the full set of photos on Flickr.

via The Future is 3D

I know some of my readers are self-proclaimed coffee snobs…I get that. I’ve made many attempts at home with too many coffee makers, espresso machines, etc to count. I like the Tassimo since it’s single serve and easy to clean/maintain. I just wish the T-discs were more environmentally friendly or at least refillable.

Anyways, after a lively chat with a coworker and our local baristas, it was suggested that I give black coffee a try. They said it would take at least a few days to get used to it and then I wouldn’t look back. I could also use a little milk or creme to ‘take the edge off’ since I’m used to sweet & milky lattes.

So I decided since I had all this new coffee to sample, might as well give it a shot.

So, since Sunday I’ve been skipping the usual $5+ latte (I even have syrup at home to make it just like at Starbucks) and give ‘regular’ coffee the good ole college try.

I’ll let you know if I’ve been converted next week.

UPDATE: Success! I’ve been converted…well, at least not loathe to try a non-latte coffee on a regular basis. I may spoil myself occasionally with one though…perhaps like my friend, Lee LeFever who likes to earn his latte during the week and save it for Fridays.

I didn’t do it strictly via Tassimo though…with some Starbucks & mystery cafeteria coffee thrown in the mix over the past week. Thanks to everyone that commented here and on Facebook…machines like the Tassimo work for me since I don’t live beside a coffee shop with a Clover machine, nor am I interested in spending the time in the morning brewing my own the conventional way. Certainly on the weekends, I’m able to spend more time but during the week, with my commute, it’s a drive-by coffee experience or none at all. The environmental impacts of this approach aren’t lost on me either (as I noted in the post above). Maybe I’ll soon be able to recycle the t-discs in my 3d printer?

With huge help from Brad and Eugene, we were able to get everything wired up and the motors moving.
It was pretty cool to finally get to this point and have things generally work as they were expected. The only issue I noticed was that the Z axis was inverted so it was simply a matter of flipping the connector around.

It wasn’t without some casualties though…we managed to break off 3 different PLA bushings while testing things.

If I was doing this from scratch tomorrow, I’d definitely skip the PLA bushings and go for LM8UU or brass bushings…the PLA bushings plus the epoxy is just a pain in the butt.

When testing out the Z axis motors, it became apparent right away that that original couplers weren’t going to work. The threaded rods wobbled like crazy and I may have stripped the plastic parts when assembling. Fortunately I had a set of the updated couplers printed which worked really well after a quick trip to Home Depot for some tubing.

At Brad’s suggestion, I swapped out the original belt clamps for the new ones in the 2nd Iteration of the Prusa files as it’s taller, has grooves for the belt teeth to hold it and helps the belt line up better with the motor and bearings on the Y axis.

I had printed some M3 nut thumbwheels for use elsewhere and they came in handy for leveling the build area on the aluminum thick sheet I have.

Brad also soldered the wires to the heated build plate PCB (Mk1) after my failed attempts…seems my new soldering iron tip wasn’t heating up enough but Brad was able to make it work. The PCB works great and gets toasty hot pretty quick.

The RAMPS 1.4 board almost fully wired up…just missing the extruder and thermistor connections:

Note the fancy fan with blue leds – everyone seemed to like it and wanted to get one for themselves. It’s an Antec SpotCool Fan with 3 speeds and is SUPER quiet. It’s mounted to the Prusa frame via this simple mount.

We also had quite the adventure figuring out how to make a usable hot end out of the parts I had from Mixshop. The brass barrel was too short so we cut down the PEEK block and also milled out the heater block with a drill bit and some fancy dremeling by Brad.

Not a lot left to do: mount the endstops, clean up the wiring, finish building the extruder/hotend and check everything is tight and level. Hopefully this weekend I should knock those off the list and possibly even get to the point of extruding some plastic! I can already tell that I’ll have lots of calibration to do…it’s definitely not as solid yet as my MakerBot is so the fine tuning will be critical to getting some decent prints with it.

Also have to say thanks again to Brad & Eugene…they were a huge help and I’m not sure where I’d be without their assistance at this point. One of the things that’s good & bad about RepRaps is that there are an infinite number of ways to build them…having Brad & Eugene share their wisdom was awesome and really sped up the build since I didn’t have to make some key decisions because they’ve already been through the process.

UPDATE: Here’s a couple videos of the motors running. The extruder is just clamped in place (for now) for testing purposes. Yes, it’s a printed clamp :)

I’m currently running the Sprinter firmware on the RAMPS and using PronterFace (running on Mac OSX) to control everything but it also works with Replicator G:

So much quieter than my MakerBot! Although the motor speeds in the videos are pretty low…it can go MUCH faster.

UPDATE #2: Success! Last night the bot extruded it’s first plastic (PLA). The hotend worked perfect right out of the gate (once I had all the wires properly connected), it just needs to be tidied up with some kapton tape. Next step is to calibrate and actually print something:

I was a little disappointed though. I had read that PLA (which is basically cornstarch) smelled like candy when extruded in this manner…sadly it doesn’t…in fact it doesn’t smell like anything although I haven’t had it printing for hours…perhaps it will be more noticable once I start printing objects.

UPDATE #3: Printing! Sort of!

Had an issue with the Z-axis voltage being too low to move the whole extruder (now properly installed), the whole X-axis fell down and the filament was sliding off the hobbed bolt teeth (results of which are in the video above). I’ve printed a filament guide that should help with this so I hope to actually be printing something recognizable tonight.

My original plan was to use Replicator G but I’m quite liking PronterFace with SFACT installed instead of the regular Skeinforge. It’s almost like the Print-O-Matic settings options I have for my MakerBot and aside from my filament issue, the above print is done with no calibration at all! It definitely looks correct when it’s going thru the motions.

A highlight this year was the surprise from the Vancouver Fire Department who had a couple of their guys repel down the exterior of the hotel, with toys in tow:

The dramatic sunrise lighting and venting steam only added to the spectacle!

Sophie Louie from Global TV looks on as the firemen repel from above.

At the end of the morning, over 12 tonnes of toys had been donated! That should make for a lot of happy kids come Christmas morning!

Thanks to Rishad at the Pan Pacific Hotel for inviting me along…it was a great event to get up early for.

View all my photos from the morning on Flickr and see the full wrapup on the Pan Pacific’s blog.

A quick day trip to Seattle met with great weather as my girlfriend and I took in the Underground Tour of Seattle. It’s been on my list of things to do in Seattle for as long as I’ve lived on the West Coast and just never got around to it.

Meeting up in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, we started off with a brief bit of history at the tour’s base of operations and museum. We then headed out into the square and proceeded through the streets and into nondescript doorways and passages which lead us to stairwells that took us to the underground.

I don’t want to give away anything but the tour focuses on the parts of Seattle history that have been ‘swept under the rug’ and tells a fantastic tale of the city’s early days. It reminded me a lot of the Sins of City Tour in Vancouver…it’s amazing how many cities are built by some very colorful characters.

Our guide, Teri-Lyn was outstanding and she really made the tour come alive. It truly is a unique tour that I highly recommend checking out. I love the fact that so much is hiding behind and below those hidden stairwells and doorways throughout Pioneer Square.

Then, once back in Canada, I headed down to Vanier Park on Saturday for the Winter Wander. It was basically a $5 open house to all the attractions at Vanier Park. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I’d never been inside the Maritime Museum so it seemed like the perfect time to change that. I then proceeded to climb all over the St. Roch with my camera in hand.

After passing a little yarn bomb between venues,

we headed to the Museum of Vancouver and the Neon Vancouver | Ugly Vancouver exhibit which I had been wanting to check out.

Also couldn’t resist checking out the Smilin’ Buddha sign in the permanent exhibit side of the museum either.

A couple of great photo walk days for sure. Check out all the photos from the Seattle Underground Tour and the Winter Wander on Flickr.

After playing with a bunch of different storefront options, I’ve decided to just use a simple PayPal order button for now. There is just too many options and settings to sift through before I’d feel comfortable running one of these stores so I thought I’d keep it simple to start.

There is also a capacity issue as I can only print so much with only one printer online (the 2nd, my Prusa, should be online in a week or two) so it’s currently only offering Prusa parts at the moment with up to a one week lead time.

I plan on expanding the printed item offerings (and the storefront) at AllThings3D.com as soon as feasible. I’m also planning on detailing my Prusa build on the blog over there (as well as here still) to help illustrate using the parts I’m printing to build a 3D printer…hopefully a value add over other sellers of the parts, and definitely better than what you get on eBay.

It was held at the Chan Centre out at UBC which is a stunning place to witness any kind of event or performance. In this case, a thousand people came out for the day to listen to speakers from all different backgrounds and disciplines.

I was initially reluctant to attend a conference where you have to apply to go (I missed the previous two installments due to being out of town). What if I wasn’t worthy enough? In the end I decided to apply and just be myself not caring if I didn’t end up being accepted. I had expected a more daunting application but it wasn’t much more than a registration form with a few extra questions about myself.

Turned out I had nothing to worry about as I got my invite a few weeks later.

After a lively discussion on Twitter with @TEDxVancouver about this process, I agreed that there is a problem with many people signing up for conferences but either don’t really want to be there or aren’t willing to make the most of it. The application process forces people to make an extra effort to show that they want to be there and to be open to the ideas presented. I like that concept, especially when dealing with an increasingly bigger audience that wants to attend events like these – being the first in line to buy a ticket doesn’t necessarily make for a good attendee. I’m still not a fan of this process, as it was presented at least and organizers seemed to want to find a better way to do this that doesn’t come across as elitist as many people have labeled the application process.

A bit of a disclosure: while my application was accepted to attend TEDxVancouver, I was later asked if I wanted to attend and take photos under a (free) media pass, which I ultimately did. I contemplated simply attending (without my camera) as a paid attendee but decided I wanted the option to take photos of the event since I like to do that anyway and it’s rare to have camera access in a venue like the Chan Centre. I would have gladly paid the paltry $80 admission for the value that I got from the event.

Tickets went on sale just a week before the conference was scheduled to happen. I saw on Twitter that as the day got closer, people were able to extend ticket invites to their friends. I thought that was a little strange and possibly suggested that not all those that applied and had been accepted chose to buy tickets and organizers were trying to fill seats at the last minute. It kind of cheapened the whole application process in my mind. I have no idea how widespread this was. Having helped to organize conferences myself, I know how hard it can be to get everything right in the days leading up to the conference – especially with one this scale. Knowing that the TEDx organizers are all volunteers (and it’s a non-profit) helped me understand the difficulties they are under as well to produce a solid conference.

This was definitely a solid conference…and possibly one of the best ones I’ve attended in Vancouver.

One challenge with a conference like this is having the right speakers. The schedule wasn’t finalized until the very last minute and I honestly didn’t care who was speaking. I was going on the premise that TED (and TEDx) is famous for bringing together an amazing assortment of speakers from all walks of life to help inspire the attendees. I wasn’t even sure I needed to be inspired but I went in with an open mind.

As the day unfolded, I found the speakers that took the stage were incredibly engaging. One nice thing about the TEDx format is that you have a short amount of time to get your story out. There is no Q&A, which usually bores me to death (that’s what the hallways & after party is for). Just give your talk and move on to the next one. It made the day go fast, with little time to get bored if the topic wasn’t compelling. Instead of being exhausted at the end of the day, I found it energized me…which is usually the intent of any conference, but rarely the result in my experience. My mind was racing when I finally went to bed that night…still processing all that had been said in the talks, and the great conversations I had with many people during breaks.

I’ll let you decide for yourself if the speakers were as engaging to you as I found them to be as you’ll be able to (eventually) watch them on the TEDxTalks site…assuming you didn’t attend in person.

Interspersed throughout the day were a number of videos from TED.com featuring people discussing topics that were somewhat related to the upcoming in person talks. I quite liked this format and while it’s apparently mandated by the TED folks, it makes sense that it’s a good way to spread those ideas around beyond your own city limits. In particular, I found Marcin Jakubowski’s talk about open source ecology and his ‘global village construction set’ facinating. It really hit home thanks to my recent experiences building 3d printers.

One thing is for sure, I got a lot more out of TEDx than I expected to and will be thinking about the talks that occurred for a long time to come.

If you were reluctant to apply like I initially was, I encourage you to let it go and apply to attend next year’s event…or any TEDx event for that matter. I think there are at least 3 different ones happening this month in and around Vancouver alone: TEDxCapU (already over), TEDxSFU (Nov 26) and the Vancouver edition I attended.

I followed the very thorough tutorial on PCPro so I won’t be going over the steps in this post. I did use Windows 7 for the install since the tutorial specified it. Not sure if there is Mac tutorial out there but the steps involved should be doable on a Mac, just like the Preware hack I did previously.

The nice thing about this hack is that you still retain WebOS and have the choice upon booting to pick which operating system the tablet will use.

I’ve only played with it for a little while but despite the alpha build status, it seems to function pretty stabily and fast. In fact, just as good as any Android phone I’ve owned. Emphasis is on phone here since the Android build being used isn’t the tablet (Honeycomb) version, so the TouchPad feels like a big phone. But you can access the Android Marketplace (make sure you do all the steps in the linked tutorial to enable this). Upon logging into my Google account, it even synced all my apps down that I had loaded on my Nexus S.

I’m looking forward to see how this hack evolves and makes use of a decent hardware platform like the TouchPad which many people were able to scoop up for cheap during the recent fire sale when HP exited the tablet business.

There is also a bunch of people interested in using Android to control their RepRap 3D printers and there are a few projects working on that right now. My TouchPad would be perfect for that so I’ll be keeping a close eye on this aspect.

Update: Looks like an alpha of Ice Cream Sandwich (aka Android 4.0) has been released.

A few nights before halloween, I figured it was time to carve up a pumpkin down at my local indoor shooting range:

and practice for the upcoming zombie apocalypse with a 9mm and shotgun.

Of course, this was all preparation for me to shoot real zombies, however instead of with a 9mm handgun, I used my DSLR to cover the annual Thrill the World Vancouver event. They set a new record for the number of zombies simultaneously dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller – 434! They also raised over $4400 for the food bank.

This year’s event was at night which presented some photographic challenges but that’s what giant LED light boxes are for.

You can view my full set of photos from the event on Flickr.

At the end of September I visited Fairmont Hot Springs, BC. and did a couple of guest blog posts over at Miss604.com. Easily the highlight for me was the hidden natural hot springs waterfall:

and I used my GoPro to capture the salmon run that was happening underneath my kayak while on a sightseeing tour:

I also got up close and personal with a bear cub on the resort grounds:

I had actually just finished in the spa and was following the bear cub around in my robe and flip flops. The momma bear wasn’t in the area…we saw her the next day and she was as big as a VW beetle.

Speaking of furry animals, I also got a new kitten recently. A female orange tabby that I’ve named Pixel:

She’s adorable…and is growing up quickly. She’s a Mac fan too!

And lastly, this year I’ve decided to throw my face into the ring (?) and participate in Movember. I’m actually going to grow my facial hair, even though I can just print a mustache on my 3D printer:

I’ve lost a number of people I care about recently to cancer and figured it was time to endure a month of awkward looks with a creepy janitor-esque mustache. Although I may try and do a fu man chu if my follicles play along. If you’d like to donate, please visit my Movember page. I thank you in advance for your support.

In no particular order:

1. Lomokino & Lomoscope (~$100, Lomography)
   I love the concept of this retro film movie making camera from Lomography that uses 35mm film stock to shot about 60 seconds of footage. Sure you can probably fake it with half a dozen iPhone apps but that’s not nearly as fun. Get the bundle as it comes with a projector as well.
   
   
2. Star Wars peppermill ($20, Think Geek)
   
   Think Geek has some of the coolest stuff that you won’t find anywhere else…and this R2D2 peppermill is one of those things. I recently got this for my birthday from my girlfriend and can confirm that Droids DO in fact make the best pepper.
   
   
3. Arduino! ($30-$100, multiple places)
   
   As regular readers here know, I’m a big fan of Arduino microprocessors and there are no shortage of fun projects and kits to check out, regardless of age or skill level. It’s also the brains of my 3D printers. SparkFun has a great starter kit, as does Solarbotics who also has a couple awesome robot platforms to put those microcontrollers to work. Adafruit also has some great kits and lots of other fun stuff. In Vancouver, you can get Arduinos from Lee’s Electronics on Main Street and they also have the SparkFun kits
   
   
4. A 3D Printer – ($500 and up)
   
   A little higher up the $ scale but I definitely know a few people that would love to unwrap a 3D printer. I’ve written extensively about my experiences with 3D printers. This is a kit from Mixshop in Toronto that is only missing the plastic printed parts which can be bought from ebay for around $75 (I also print/sell them). Definitely for those geeks that like to build things from kits and aren’t afraid of a little soldering. Of course you can also go the route I went and get a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic which is a bit easier to build with a higher price tag ($1,324) or you can spend a little more and get it fully assembled ($1,624). Not sure if MakerBot can deliver to Canada with their lead time + customs but the previous links are for Canadian reseller that has them in stock.
   
   
5. The F-Stop Watch ($35, PhotoJoJo)
   
   This is a pretty slick and inexpensive watch for any photographer. PhotoJoJo has lots of other great stuff for the photo geek.
   
   
   
6. Xshot Extendable Hand Held Monopod (~$25, multiple)
   
   I bought one of these a few years ago and they now have a newer version that is even more compact. I primarily use it with my GoPro to help me get above or below the action. It works with just about any kind of compact still or video camera, you know, when you’re ziplining through the trees in Whistler. Great for taking self portraits as well. I got mine at London Drugs but I can’t find it on their site but it’s definitely in stores. Photojojo also has them.
   
   
7. Gift Cards – (various)
   
   Don’t be afraid to give a gift card to a geek…if you know they have a favorite place to shop for their stuff, they’ll appreciate a gift card more than you trying to guess what they may need.

Happy shopping!

Kinda.

I have created other things (mostly font based objects) but this is the first thing I literally sketched out and ended up with a physical object.

It’s taken awhile to finally get up to speed on all the different tools and techniques required to do this (and I’ve still got a lot to learn)…and it technically wasn’t even my idea to start with.

Let’s say I was inspired by another design. Yeah, that’s it.

What is it? I call it the “Page Keeper”. Inspired by something my coworker showed me (a low res photo) and asked if I can print her one.

So I tried. It actually seems to work too!

This lead me to post my first truly, designed from scratch, 3D object to Thingiverse (my face doesn’t count since it was technically scanned and printed unaltered).

It’s easy to see why going from idea to physical object, in a short period of time, in your own home, is so gratifying.

Let’s hope my coworker likes her new Page Keeper.

Technically, I’ve got everything I need to assemble the 3D printer…just a lack of time lately. I’m hoping to fix that this weekend though.

I’ve got all the electronics now and just need to wire them up.

I ended up going with RAMPS 1.4 that I bought preassembled from Ultimachine. They seemed to have the best reputation and easiest shipping options for me. I also got my heated build platform from them as well. I’ve got the RAMPS mounted to an acrylic mounting plate from Lulzbot.com (I bought just the plate, not the kit, by mistake so had to find some compatible hardware to mount it and fortunately, they posted the mounting clamps on Thingiverse so I was able to print them myself) as I liked how it looked. It also has room to hold an LCD or keypad which I’ve also purchased although I haven’t landed on specifically which firmware to use yet that will ultimately dictate these extras usefullness. My plan is to ultimately be able to print from SD cards using the LCD/keypad combo directly but that’s another hurdle I’ll tackle when the main build is finished.

A friend cut some glass and I now have a 20cm x 20cm heated build platform…nearly double the size of my MakerBot’s!

The Y-axis motor has been mounted as has the lower thick sheet, belt and bushings.

I’m still concerned my bushings are too stiff so will be attempting to loosen them up this weekend using the heat gun on the smooth rod trick I’ve heard about.

And lastly, I’ve figured out what I’m going to do about the extruder and hot end. In the photo, it’s just sitting on the rods for the X-axis and not mounted nor fully assembled. I’m going with Greg’s Accessible Wade’s extruder and the standard hotend for the Wade’s that I got from Mixshop.com. I’ve been waffling back and forth over which diameter to use for the extruder given I have so much ABS plastic filament and PLA is generally harder and more expensive to get in Canada. But I’ve decided to go with the 1.75mm PLA filament for now, as I had originally planned. I bought the parts to make two complete extruders (one in each diameter) so I could always swap it out at a later point if I decide to change my mind.

The biggest challenge during this process is the constantly evolving Reprap community. While I’m half way through my build, a number of revisions to parts I’ve already printed have shown up that makes me ponder reprinting the new parts vs going with what I have and swapping out later. Also, as you can see from the various parts listed, I’ve had to literally source parts from all over the place. Places like Mixshop and others are now starting to put together complete kits for sale but I guess the benefit of sourcing things from all over, it gives me more control over the options that I build into the Prusa.

It’s definitely not for the faint of heart and unfortunately it’s a fairly technical process…but it is a hell of a lot of fun to work on.

As a side note, I just sold my first complete set of Prusa printed parts to someone locally so they can start building their own 3D printer:

I’ve already started printing another set. Contact me if you’d like a set to build your own 3D printer.

Now that it’s aired, I can embed the video right here:

We shot a timelapse of the Thing-O-Matic printing the show’s logo and showed off a bunch of the 3d prints I’ve made.

It was a fun experience and I think the segment turned out quite well.

One thing that I wanted to do from the beginning though, is try out the electric vehicle on my own personal commute. I live in Port Coquitlam and drive to North Vancouver every day. It’s about 70 kilometers round trip. Last week, GM Canada loaned me a Volt to try it out on my local commute.

As with previous posts, this is more a overview of the technology in the car than a traditional car review… so I’m going to focus on a couple of things including the realities of charging an electric car at home, driving one on my daily commute and what you can do with GM’s smartphone app for the Volt.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Volt is meant to be charged with a regular 110V wall outlet. It has a dedicated port on the front left side of the car (complete with push button on the key fob and on the driver’s door to open it). It’s a proprietary port for use with the cable reel that is located in the trunk. I had initially spent way too much time looking for a long extension cord inside my house before I realized the cable reel had plenty of cord to go from my garage outlet to my carport without issue. Using this method takes a depleted battery about 10 hours to charge to 100%. This gives you anywhere from 40 to 80 kilometers of electric travel depending on a number of factors including road/traffic conditions, what you have running inside the car (air conditioning, heated seats, charging up your phone, lights, etc). The gas engine tops up the available range to just over 400 kilometers with a full tank of gas & fully charged battery.

If you want to charge it faster, you can get a 220V outlet installed (think of your washer/dryer connection) and the Volt will charge in 4 hours.

Unfortunately for me, at my office, I wasn’t able to find any parking stalls that had ready access to a wall outlet. I’m sure they exist, I just wasn’t able to get a stall that had one during my loan period. So I had to go all day at work without charging that meant I’d get to see if I’d get to go my full commute under battery power.

On the days that I had the car, I seemed to have had some of the worst traffic days in quite a while so it took longer than normal to get home. At the end of the day though, I usually only had to dip into the gas tank for a couple of liters of gas to get home with the battery getting depleted just minutes from my front door. I think during my whole week of usage, I used less than 10 litres of gas.

Since this is a GM vehicle, it came with OnStar and the model I had included the full navigation system which is an optional add-on to the base Volt.

One thing I really liked was the ‘Traffic Events’ that would pop up on the screen via the OnStar service. It was pretty consistent with what the local news radio station was reporting (slightly more realtime) and also reflected the reality on the road in front of me. The events popped up a few kilometers from where they were and showed me exactly where the accident was located and even suggested alternate routes if any.

I also liked the heads up display with navigation right above the steering wheel with key turn by turn directions (I was being audibly told by the nav system to do a legal u-turn when possible in this photo):

The free OnStar RemoteLink app is available for iPhone and Android smartphones in their respective marketplaces. It gives you a lot of control and information about your car at your fingertips. Everything from being able to lock/unlock & start your car remotely, being able to monitor & review your battery life, tire pressure and other vehicle diagnostic information to even honking the horn.

One particularly cool feature was the navigation tab which would give you the ability to search out a destination on your phone and send the routing information to the car. You can also set reminders for charging the vehicle and schedule the charging to begin at specific times if your electricity is cheaper during different times of the day.

One thing I can say after having a few non-geeks in the car during my time with it is that the dash and display screens can seem overwhelming to the uninitiated. Personally, I loved it but I can see how the large console area with it’s plethora of buttons, busy dash and touchscreens can be confusing. No doubt there is a lot going on in this car. Fortunately, you can turn off the screens and just drive normally if that’s your thing.

I really enjoyed my ‘real world’ week with the Volt. If I was looking to upgrade my car right now, I would give it some serious consideration after reviewing my annual gas expenses and mileage. It’s just too bad my home province of BC doesn’t have any rebates for eco vehicles like many other provinces do. It would make the purchase price that much more attractive.

UPDATE: Looks like BC is finally getting on board with rebates for cars like the Volt beginning December 1, 2011!