High speed internet

Another upgrade in my neighborhood.  I got word about gigabit internet being available in my neighborhood and jumped at the chance.  I've noticed that while I have gigabit, it isn't as big of an upgrade as expected.  Downloading install disks for different operating systems still takes about as long as it did on 150 down.  What I did notice is that patching my own systems happens at lightning speed.  I think I was able to get a torrent of Ubuntu down in a few minutes.  Much like the old meme about coffee, I can do dumb things faster.  Pretty happy about it.

3d Printer

I've been slacking on updating for a few weeks.  I got a 3d printer.  After going through a few weeks of "Print all the things", I've settled back down.  I've had a few fun things to add about my printer, and the work I plan on doing with it.  Let me put you to sleep with my geek out.

I had a few discussions with coworkers and in forums about which printer to purchase.  There are a ton of options, all of which carry their own pros and cons.  One coworker owns 3 different printers, each are in the sub 500$ range.  One of them requires expensive proprietary filament.  Another coworker owns 4 of the exact same model that run 24/7 for an Etsy shop.  That sounded like the kind of machine I wanted.  I ended up buying a Prusa Mk3 that I put together myself.  It took roughly 8 hours to build it, and one part of the filament loading assembly snapped and had to be torched back together.  It did not break in a way that would risk a re-break from torching it, so I just rolled on, but be warned that it is a possibility to break a part when building.

The SD card that came with it had a bunch of stuff you can print immediately, so I went big with a dragon, then an offensive octopus, and eventually everyones favorite boat Benchy.  I connected to my desktop with a USB cable, then patched my desktop and rebooted.  That caused the printer to stop, which forced a reprint of the dragon.

I had some trouble with a few random things like boomerangs, and downloaded a ton of editing software and printing software.  There was one thing that confused me in all of this.  Prusa has a version of Slic3r made with their print settings already in there as a default.  You can also add a pi zero w to the controller on the printer to make it a wireless 3d printer with Octoprint.  But Octoprint can import your profile from Cura, not Slic3r.  Just a weird thing I noticed while messing with stuff. 

I also ran into a problem that I have stopped messing with.  Adding the pi to the controller.  I'm sure I could have resolved the issue with some electric tape and patience, but opening the controller box and dorking around in it took a few zip ties and 4 screws being removed and replaced every time I messed with it, so I decided not to risk messing anything up.  It seemed like the USB on the pi was coming in contact with the soldering of the heated bed, and I kept getting heated bed issues while the pi was in it.  Went with my new 3b pi and have been happy to give a full sized pi some purpose at home. 

Speaking of pi with purpose, I was able to print a case for my pi with the Matrix hat, finally.  And for my pi camera with IR bulbs, finally.  I made some wall mounts for echo dots, toys for my kids, and a really cool storm trooper pen holder for my tablet stylus.  Which leads me into another gripe.  Everyone wants to have the best tools they can get.  I got a Wacom tablet that is not in the kernel being released with Ubuntu 18.04, yet.  I messed around with Bluetooth settings to get support for my on-board card, but the tablet is only recognized when connected through USB.  Which makes designing parts fun.  It was described in another blog that using a mouse in Blender is like using a pencil that you are holding with chopsticks, so I really can't wait to be able to use my tablet.

There's a fun learning curve with the printer.  Clean it often, if things slip on the printing plate after cleaning use painters tape, some objects just won't print until you mess with them a lot in different software.  There's a not fun learning curve with Blender.  That application is up there with GIMP and Photoshop CS for functionality.  There are endless permutations to get the software to do what you want, which means that there are endless methods to screw up what you are creating.  I was trying to build my own case for the first thing I blogged about, the IR blaster.  I now have an ingot made of filament.  Practice makes perfect, so I will keep updating my progress on building my own stuff.  It can be very frustrating when you print Link from Legend of Zelda in such high quality and detail that you can see belt holes in a wrist strap, then you print your own work and it is basically a brick of melted plastic.  At least it was geometric.