I know there are probably about a million of these tutorials all over the internet; however, this is my setup, so I know what I did should I need to do it again… Prerequisites VS Code needs to be installed on your system. The standard Arduino IDE needs to be […]
Maker
141 posts
Tamarisk has been making use of Bob’s AnyCube printer to make Christmas card presses for use in her Adana letterpress machines, (At some point they should write blog posts about it!) The presses that they can make in Bob’s printer work fine on the 5 x 3-inch press, but the […]
I can’t remember where I came across this paper on the design of a ball lock multi-speed transmission system, written by students at the West Virginia University Institute of Technology The SAE Mini Baja team requires a custom, multispeed transmission for their vehicle. Concurrent engineering with the Baja design team […]
I have been trying to design a K9 for 3D printing for a while, even using Fusion 360 getting the body design has been a stumbling block, On Facebook, there is a k-9 builders community and a link to a OneDrive account with 200 x 200 sliced STLs. I have […]
After my last attempt at getting MyOpenLab to work on macOS, I posted my question on the MyOpenLab Facebook group, where I was given the following response: Hello, what version of MyOpenLab, Java and OSX are you testing? You could test the most recent development version: https://myopenlab.org/…/distribution_macosx_3.12.1.zip The fail could […]
I have a selection of common-ish values of components I use in my designs. I bought a Starter kit of 0805 size Surface Mount Resistors from Electronic Things a while ago, this gave me most of the values that I have made spaces for in my boxes. I also have […]
At work, I am trying to make some automated test equipment, (I also have some personal test equipment to automate as well). At work I use MS Windows 10 for my laptop, home I use macOS, and for embedded test equipment I am planning on using Raspberry Pi and Pi […]
On LinkedIn a while ago Glen one of the reps at Würth Elektronik offered free PCB fidget spinners. I asked nicely if MiniBoyGeek could have one, and as such one was delivered, I am glad I opened the bag before giving it to him. A fun little build of 9 […]
On Facebook a friend of mine put out the following request: Calling all 3D printer friends. Can you print up some visors for the doctors and nurses. There’s a plan somewhere of how to do it using a 2l bottle as the visor and the 3D printer bit as the […]
This work from home thing means that I am working in the home office. Time to finish typing it up. And getting all the small things put into the right boxes etc.
I have got my PCB rule business card PCBs back from JLCPCB, so now to check everything works and build one up
I downloaded Notability to give it a try, back to back with Goodnotes, both are about the same price from the App and iPhone/iPad stores, I bought both the Desktop and the iPad app to test on my iPad mini, with my apple pencil, and the desktop app to test […]
One of the things I use my iPad mini and Apple Pencil is taking notes on components from the data sheets. I also have a iPad keyboard case that allows me to use my iPad as a very small laptop, or have the screen propped up for use as a […]
I have spoken to Pycom support about the problems I was having updating the expansion board, and it turns out its a known issue with Mac OS 10.15 due to the security settings in the new version of Mac OS. However the expansion board should have come from the retailer […]
One of the problems I have when designing PCBs, or working in CAD with a view to 3D printing it is easy to loose sight of how big things on the screen are in real life. A lot of the time when you move away from working with through hole […]
Like the bearing size code, resister values for LEDs is something that I keep needing to work out, or just go back to my nominal somewhere between 200 Ω and 1 kΩ rule of thumb. While I could work it out every time I need it using and then chose […]
Since I got Pycom working on my Mac, I can now update the firmware on my expansion board, the DFU updater is available in Brew, which we should have installed in the last post. From the Updating Firmware page we can download the correct firmware file; I have the Expansion […]
On Saturday Tamarisk, MiniBoyGeek, Thinkl33t and I went to The MAD Museum in Stoke-on-Trent with Emily and Glen. We also found a nice little vegan coffee shop called Plantarium. Emily made Tamarisk and I a Flappity Bat for Christmas: Go look at her shop!
If you do any amount of design with 3D printers, sooner or later you will find your self using bearings between two bits to help them move; normally you will reach for a “skateboard bearing” or a 608ZZ, however if you need a size that is not a 608ZZ the […]
I just realised that in Part 1 and Part 2 that I didnt discuse how to go from Datasheet to Fusion 360, While I am not going to cover how to do the drawing in great detail, there are plenty of sites which tell you how to make drawings in […]
Following on from From Datasheet to KiCad Component – Part One, I had got as far as making the footprint in KiCad the Footprint Editor, The layers I have built it out of look like this: Now we have the footprint finished for Type C (I also did Type A […]
One of the simpler inputs to add to a microcontroller is a switch, I have chosen to use the ones I have added to KiCad for my Swarmbot. Most people who add microswitches normaly use something like the following circuit on a Digital in Pin. When the Switch is open […]
I found some cheap small microswitches on AliExpress, working backwards I found the same switch part numbers, and subsequently found a Switch Data sheet for the same size part. I use a mix of Fusion 360 and KiCAD for design, so I CADDed up the three flavours of microswitches, using […]
This is version one of a set of Left-hand Switches made for MiniBoyGeek’s Duplo Railway Yes there is already a version two waiting to print, with additional check rails and re-designed mechanism: You can find it on ThingiVerse here
I found the ‘Picktor’ Pick and Place head for retrofitting on a 3D printer on Thingiverse (GitHub) As designed it uses a Nema 17 stepper motor, however I suspect that will be too big for my design. I got 3 x Nema 14 stepper motors from an old RepRap Huxley, […]
I have started designing assembles in Fusion 360 using T-Slot, a lot of head scratching on how to make use of it at arbitrary lengths in my designs… I started by making a 20mm length of T-Slot as its own model in Fusion 360; This is model has all of […]
Using a LED and a 560 Ω in most breadboard projects means that you end up with four pins connected for two components, soldering them up like this makes them much easer to handle.
In the UK if you want to place some thing on the market you need to ensure that it has a CE mark and has a DoC (Declaration of Conformity), there are a number of things that need to be done. Looking through the list, we have CE, RoHS, WEEE, […]
This week we will be having a play with a 74HC595, the Data sheet lists it as an 8-bit serial-in, serial or parallel-out shift register with output latches; 3-state.” In other words, you can use it to control 8 outputs at a time while only taking up a few pins […]
Following on from last week where we drove a motor in one direction with the help of a simple amplifier, this week we are going to have a go at driving a servo. Those of you who read older posts in my blog will know I have done this before […]