3D Printer Progress

I'm afraid this post is going to be a relatively short one, because I don't have particularly much to say. On Friday, I picked up the electronics for my 3D printer, and soldered much of that together. After some quirks of the design (for instance, completely refusing to start unless a temperature sensor is connected, and not giving any warning that this is the case), I was able to get the motors running successfully.

I now need a beefier power supply (a heated bed, useful for making parts which don't curl and look a mess, will probably be eating several times more power than an old scanner power supply can deliver). The vague plan is to cannibalise an old computer PSU with some add-on circuits to keep the output pretty stable - computers are a nice, constant load most of the time, but motors and heated beds which might suddenly switch on or off aren't so nice (especially when everything's switched off, the load is far too small to keep the output voltage stable).

In other plans, I dug up an old CRT monitor from my collection of junk. Expect to see some high-voltage goodness in the next few weeks. That is, if that lovely flyback doesn't kill me first...

If any of this has been too electronics-orientated then don't worry, I'll include something slightly less geeky in the next installment. Also, in order not to break the combo of "rich media" (I hate that term) in every post, I leave you with the following reminder of the week's viral sensation:

Have a great week,
Charlie

On particle accelerators and penguin-balloons...

My last week was filled with trips galore! First was the visit to Cambridge - a talk from an admissions tutor essentially telling us that unless we achieve 97% in our modules we may as well not even bother applying to Cambridge, dinner with ex-pupils who were fortunate enough to achieve said results, and a vaguely maths-related talk to end the evening.

Next came the trip to Diamond - seeing the inner workings (well, not working at the time, fortunately) of a 5MW particle accelerator is pretty inspirational - the planning, thought and effort that goes into keeping a machine like that working at exactly the right frequencies and timings is phenomenal. No pictures, I'm afraid - if anyone else has any I'd be interested.

Last was the DT trip - seeing the "Big Bang Theory" live show (in which Copper ions magically burned red, and Barium ones green...?), being promoted-to by several engineering and tech companies, and seeing some other cool DT-related things:

Bio-mimicry in action - this balloon-robot mimics how penguins move, allowing it to majestically "swim" through the air.

This doesn't even need to be a caption to be awesome.

Those were the highlights of my week,

Charlie

PS Still waiting on electronics for the 3D printer - I haven't forgotten about it...

Quake, Trips, and Insane People

So, I've recently started playing around with the Quake II game engine (more specifically, Jake2, a Java port of the original). Not much to say on it yet, only that it is incredibly powerful and well-written, given that it's a cross-platform, hardware-accelerated port of a decade-old game. I'm going to be borrowing some of its design concepts for a project of my own within the near future.

Click it to view it in full-resolution. If you're not too chicken to handle the size, that is...

Secondly, this following week is going to be an awesome one. 3 trips in 5 days - Cambridge Uni for a maths talk, tour around the Diamond Synchrotron, and some DT-related visit. With a name like the Diamond Synchrotron, and the general fact that it's a particle accelerator, how could it possibly fail to be awesome? Disregarding the risk of it creating a black hole in the middle of Oxfordshire and destroying all life as we know it, of course. (To see why people complaining about the risks of particle accelerators, and the LHC specifically, should cease spewing their uneducated opinions as loudly as possible, see this).

Image from the Synchrotron's website, found here 

In other, considerably less awesome news, I discovered (well, was linked to) a website with rather conservative views, and happened to read a selection of their top 100 list of "reasons not to watch porn". The highlights include, in summary:

39. It hurts.
40. It can lead into further addictions.
48. Sex is gross.
58. You don't have any internets left.
69. You laugh at immature things. *snirk*

I kid you not, some people actually believe that those are valid points to make.

Yours hopefully-more-able-to-think-critically-than-they-can,
Charlie

Another quick post

I'm afraid I've had a pretty busy week, so this blog entry is rather an afterthought rather than something to be proud of. I spent much of the week finishing my DT coursework - apart from some minor corrections and amendments, it seems that I'm finished, with 5 weeks spare. Certainly a rare occurrence for me.

I also rediscovered one of my old favourite games this week:

Jak 3 - One of the defining games of my childhood.

The Jak and Daxter series are, put simply, some of the best games on the PS2, both technically and in terms of pure enjoyment gained by playing. The gameplay and mechanics aren't complex, and the game isn't particularly challenging, but the simplicity,appealing art and beautiful graphics (especially given that it was designed and written over a decade ago for a machine with less ram than the average mobile phone), combined with a simple but effective storyline, make for hours of pure fun. If you haven't played the series, start with the original Jak and Daxter - you won't be disappointed. It simply isn't possible to dislike these games.

Signing off now, since I have to wake up in less than 4 hours. Fun.

Oh, and Benji? I note a severe lack of post for the week...

Over too soon?

That Sunday night feeling kicks in especially hard after half term... That and the massive mound of homework.

So, I spent much of the last couple of days working through my DT courseworks. The plural was used because I pretty much finished the one I was meant to have finished last term (year), polished up my "current" one, and spent a fair amount of time wiriting up the 3D printer, for use as my coursework next year. In related news, I'm still waiting on the electronics for the 3D printer. I'd like to thank Dave R for his kind donation of some bits and pieces towards the printer, but I'll say so properly in an email once I have a bit more time on my hands.

In non-DT related news, I saw Inception for the first time. My mind was well and truly blown.

Sorry this post is so short - as partial compensation, I leave you with this video. I'll make another post to make up for the inadequacies in this one.


There is still hope left in the world.

Charlie

xx,xxx,xxxxx,xxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Points for the first person to work out the significance. Mega bonus for naming an author who uses a similar system of chaptering...

Some of my project updates

So, one project I've been working towards over the last few weeks (well, a bit over a month, on and off) has been a 3D printer. It works by "squirting" out molten (ish - plastics behave oddly) plastic through a nozzle, and working upwards in layers. I spent a fair amount of yesterday writing that up in typical DT coursework style. Progress so far is that I have a set of motors (3 NEMA 17s and a NEMA 23), nozzles, materials for the extruder, electronics (some still in the post), and a fairly decent idea of a design in my head. More on this to follow in upcoming posts...

The weekend before last, I took some time and finally rebuilt an old laptop I had lying around. I wasn't too fond of the original scratched and worn red look, so I might have made some small alterations. Before, the laptop started as a (particularly horrific) shade of red. Now, nearly 2 cans of spray and a good few hours of work later: 

Because Photoshopping (badly) is easier than tidying your desk...

The ugly scratches on the lid are because I didn't lacquer-coat it afterwards. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how that turned out. In future, I won't leave out the protective after-coat though!

Apart from that, I spent a pretty straightforward weekend at a family meeting of sorts, attempting to tidy, and accomplishing a fair amount of coursework.

Until next time,

Charlie

PS The sun hasn't risen yet, so no slaps owed ;)

An eventful weekend...

So, my Saturday was a pretty eventful day. I got up, headed to the post office (well, sorting office) to pick up some stuff I'd missed, despite being home when they claim they had tried to deliver it. Delivery people are skilled at that. In the collection of parcels was an F/1.8 50mm prime lens. Those of you who are into photography will probably already know what that means. For the others, it's a lens which allows a metric shit ton of light through it - yes, that's a non-standard (read: made-up) unit of light. It also means that I have to walk around whilst using it since there's no zoom, that it's very light indeed (the entire camera with lens weighs about 650g), and that it has very shallow depth of field. It's low-light performance is pretty amazing, although it takes some getting-used-to.

From the post office, I went along to Auto Soc (if you go to school with me and have an interest in mechanical engineering or cars, ask about it!), before moving smoothly into building a laser. This isn't your average 1mW pointing laser though....

Much like a Mafia boss, looking at this guy the wrong way can lead to some very nasty consequences...

It outputs roughly a thousand times more power than your average pointing laser in the UK. The "actual" colour is a royal shade of blue - 445nm, not violet as the picture would seem to suggest, but cameras aren't exactly designed for handling the focused intensity of laser light. More on this laser to follow before too long.

After having some fun with my new lens around town with some friends (but completely failing to take any decent photos due to my incompetence at focusing), I ended up home. I watched a film (the original Rush Hour - not particularly deep or moving but amusing enough) before going to bed. I promptly wasted most of Sunday procrastinating my homework time away. Now here I am.

That's all for now, but expect some more shortly..

XXXXXXX
(Scott Pilgrim reference combined with Benji reference FTW)