Month: February 2019

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Planning a Semi-Sealed Night Light Part 3

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am prototyping the shape for this large night light project. Let’s get Started!

I made a lot of progress this week. We ordered a roll of white PLA plastic for this project, and since it worked out well with a free shipping deal, we also got an ABS spool for when I print up another Pi case sometime in the future when I have a setup that can safely handle the toxic fumes.

While the spools were shipping, I got into Blender, and fiddled around with merging two half-cylinders on top of a box. The shape is supposed to look kind of like a house with four windows. Modeling that up took the majority of my time, but that was review. Good thing I remembered enough to recognize or look up the names and shortcuts for each tool I used.

I printed up my first prototype, and it turned out about exactly as I imagined it, only the color was solid white instead of clearish white like the demo filament that came with the printer in the first place. I modeled up an interior, and it turned out exactly how I imagined the first one. When I saw the printer wasn’t doing it correctly, I applied my mirror modifier and tried connecting the inside layer and outside layer, but the same problem must have happened again, because when I opened up the slicer with the allegedly third design, it was the second, sealed design. Good to note it doesn’t just draw the outer most layer.

While the third one was printing, I decided to slip in a few “spare parts” that were otherwise rattling around in my laptop before replacing the power port. I paused the print and noted how I would need access to the back of the printer when I install the electronics for the final light. Another minor mystery I’ve been dealing with was specks of other colors showing up in prints. While shopping for the filament, we actually spotted a spool for cleaning the printer. I don’t know how it works, but I could see the demand for such a product if someone wants to make sure if there isn’t contamination between colors or types of plastic.

I’ve used what I’ve learned to refine my understanding of this project:

Prototype shape
Hollow Prototype (present)
Model up relief pictures on “windows”
Deduce Final size
Electronics to fit final size
Refine model to hold electronics
Final product

In the interest of keeping specks of black or red out of my final print, I think I want to make a print to demonstrate the full print range of the printer. I’m thinking of doing a simple cube with just the edges. It will produce a lot of infill, but I think it will be neat to just have a cube around.

Final Question: What fun shapes would you like to see available for print for tiny computers?

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Planning a Semi-Sealed Night Light Part 2

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am covering the repair of my laptop with what I believed (until just minutes ago) was the only full sized SD card reader in the house. Let’s get started.

My overall project will rely on the 3D printer, but the only installation of my printer’s slicer is on my laptop. I’ve had this machine for almost a decade. Even though it’s an old machine, it can still barely keep up with my relatively relaxed demands from it. The slicer is still well within its capabilities relative to my patience.

A few weeks ago, I want to say a month or so, I was setting my laptop up for streaming our church’s service, but it didn’t like its power chord all of a sudden, so I set Blinky Pie (My Raspberry Pi computer) on the case. Meanwhile, after testing and replacing the old power chord, we compared the power port to known good ones, and a central post was missing.

My father and I ordered the part from an official source, and finally got around to changing it out. Note for future operations: When the part you’re replacing is at the bottom of a tightly packed pile of electronics, check the fit with any external connectors before installation. We were okay this time.

The repair took a while. My father did most of the work while I navigated the service manual and kept most of the parts straight as they came off. While it was open, we took the opportunity to extract this impressively rectangular dust bunny from the fan as well as a few rattling pieces, mostly broken bits of plastic, but there was a mysterious screw. During reassembly, I found that three of the screw guides/spacers were broken off from the case. I removed the speaker assemblies from around their spots, and found patterns on the sides to tell which was which. We super glued them in place and finished reassembling. I think at least one of the super glue jobs didn’t hold

We plugged it back in, and… got the same error that started the mess. The brand new power chord isn’t recognized. Some research online suggested it may be the motherboard going bad. That one hurts. I’ve had this machine for a large chunk of my life now, and I still had more plans for it. There may still be a little hope. The internal chord for the replacement power port was a bit longer than the original, so we might have ended up with an imitation or one meant for a different model. Otherwise, it might be a BIOS problem. Time may yet tell.

Final Question: What was the most intense repair you’ve taken part in?

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Planning a Semi-Sealed Night Light Part 1

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I’m starting a new project where I install some electronics while a project is still printing. Let’s get started!

This will be a much larger print than I’ve ever done before. I know that already. I’ll be laying out the pieces of the project and ordering them as I write, just to play with the writing style.

Different parts include: Blender modeling, Laptop repair, White filament, and Assembling a circuit. If I think of more, I’ll insert them where appropriate.

Project Concept: the final product will be a gift for a friend I’ve known for a long time. It will be roughly cube shaped light printed from white PLA with relief pictures of either Angels or Cats on the sides. For extra style and practicality, I want the top sculpted to look sort of like a curved roof. A long lasting light bulb will illuminate the whole thing from the inside from atop a custom circuit board, but anything inside won’t be accessible after the print is finished.

Laptop Repair: the other week, my laptop refused to accept my power chord. It looked like a bent power pin, but it was a large piece of plastic from the port missing. That will easily take up a post when the part comes in and I cover its repair.

White Filament: I have two colors of plastic right now, black and red, neither of which would look good for a light. The plastic needs to let light through, but also go with pretty much anything.

Assembling a Circuit: this is a topic that could easily take two or three weeks and will challenge and grow my abilities the most. Simply put, I have no idea what I’m doing here, except that I need it to move power from the power chord to the light bulb, and maybe some colored LED’s around the outside. I’ll want to thoroughly test it before final installation.

Blender Modeling: this one will happen in tandem with the previous one. I’ll need to establish a maximum size for the circuit board based on how big I can make the case with the printer. But I’ll need the final measurements of the final board before I start the final print. Unless I want to toy around with an induction based power chord, I’ll need a place to plug in a power chord. It might also help if I was able to screw down the board itself.

So far, I have a fairly good idea for the overall shape modeled in Blender; I don’t think I have a good mesh yet, the boolean operator didn’t exactly like two half-cylinders intersecting like I had them doing.

Final Question: How have you aimed for something out of reach, but not so far as to (hopefully) be unobtainable?

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Ice Boat Challenge Port Revamp Part 2

Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I am covering the finer details of my port of one of my favorite minigames in Minecraft. Let’s get started.

Many times over this project, I’ve tun into bugs. There is no way I’d remember them all, but I did pick up a few tips along the way, mostly from Grifter. If things are going wrong with relative coordinates, try aligning yourself with the source block and teleporting to the relative coordinates. Another approach is to set a particle in a repeat command block or a chain command block downstream of one. More often than not, one of these will literally get you where you want to go. I recommend the barrier particle for its lack of movement and occupation of a full block space.

Another bug I had to deal with a lot early on was invalid functions. If you try loading a datapack with an invalid function, Minecraft just throws a compilation-time-like error in the console then ignores it. Fortunately, the error report, once I read it under Grifter’s instruction, told me where the function, line, and column of each error was. It also didn’t help that Minecraft functions can’t have a comment start part way through a line.

The most recent bug I had to deal with was one that royally goofed it during some stress testing my parents, Annie_8472 and Leo_8472, kindly provided. Sometimes, a level wouldn’t load if you didn’t make it onto the pressure plates far enough. I tried fixing that by using align xyz command segments, but I only made it worse. I never did figure it out because I reverted the change and extended the search range to include a bit more of the alcove. For those keeping score, the bug was with the IBC game and not the MGC core.

At present, the project is almost done; I don’t think I’ll have enough for a whole new post next week, but I still need to debug the Lost & Found. Jamcdonald, the one who showed me the super hoppers last time, did a quick test for me and made note of the bug. He also pointed me in the direction of a place to get signs to do some fancy stuff the original credits signs do.

Final Question: I’m open to further development after things launch. What kind of levels do you want to see in this datapack?

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