Projects

I have been trying to design a K9 for 3D printing for a while, even using Fusion 360 getting the body designed has been a stumbling block, On Facebook, there is a k-9 builders community and a link to an 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 […]

Over on Facebook, Ed Vergalen is looking to sell a VideoRay Pro 4 Plus BASE ROV System for £29,950. Videoray Pro 4 Blueview sonar C130 Manipulator Hull Crawler Kit Lynn enhancing package Extended Tether Deployment System (TDS). Approximately 305 m (1,000 ft) Extra 300m Neutral Tether on reel Repair kit […]

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 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 […]

We went to Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, to be fair it is badly named… its got far too well signposted; the entire place is a maze or exhibit rooms, and displays showing an over view of life during its time as a bunker.

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 […]

A fair while ago Swindon Makerspace started a group project called LogoBot, a cheap, expendable and extendable easy to build robot for playing with. Even longer ago I bought a MiroBot from kick-starter, it had lived in a box, and parts of it had got damaged. Tamarisk showed me and […]

I have started putting these on Github so you can also follow along. In Weeks 2, and 3 we were driving LEDs directly from the Arduino, While the Arduino can drive a LED directly from a pin, if you want to power something that draws more power like a motor, […]

I picked up a 37 in 1 box sensor kit from china, it includes basic components and sensors, and is compatible with Arduino and Raspberry Pi The Package Included (their description): Small passive buzzer module KY-006 2-color LED module KY-011 Hit sensor module KY-031 Vibration switch module KY-002 Photo resistor […]

I have now been to Bletchley Park twice. In the gift shop they have a Build your own Enigma-E Kit: The Enigma machine was the German cipher machine used to encrypt their WW2 communications and systematically cracked by the Bletchley Park Codebreakers. This highly detailed replica design gives you the […]

Most of the stuff you will need to do the electronic projects I do on this site can be got by going to Amazon (I have affiliate links), I know I have mentioned the Oomlout Starter Kit for Arduino, However I fear that this is discontinued 🙁 The Oomlout Starter […]

Following on from week 1 and week 2, we will be continuing our way through Oomlout’s Arduino Guide, at this point however we hit a snag with using iCircuit. Annoyingly iCircuit is unable to deal with arrays. An array is a cunning way of holding multiple variables inside a single […]

Following on from Week 1 and talking about faking it with an Arduino, we will use UnoArduSim.exe and iCircuit to model the first few circuits from the Oomlout.com’s “Experimenter’s Guide for Arduino” (Full kit was available from here). Oomlout have made the ARDX-circuit-sheets available separately to their guide PDF. Circuit […]

If you want to learn Arduino programming, but don’t always have access to a box of physical hardware, there are a number of Arduino Simulators available, however one of the best ones I have found to use, is also free. UnoArduSim Arduino is a great platform, but If you’re trying […]

After the print yesterday, I wanted to know what the 100% sized eyes would look like. Having also thought a bit more; I can think of a better way of constructing the head, so that is back to CAD for a re-design. The 100% eyes seem to have printed only […]

First test prints of my small K-9 head on our new Prusa 3D printer.

Many moons ago, before Seven Fields was built on, so I assume 1990s, My mum, Debbie McGaw took some photos of the area showing what it looked like at the time. These photos were for many years on show at Emmanuel URC Haydon Wick in Swindon. At some point the […]

On Boxing day, Tamarisk, MiniBoyGeek, and Granny went for a look round Warwick Castle, We also saw the Mill and Hydroelectricity plant on the river Avon

In traditional fashion, A challenge I am likely to fail… however anything that risks me reading more books than normal… So lets try Linz’s The Bookworm’s 2019 reading challenge, this 60 book challenge can be done in parallel with attempt ¿Four? of the 100+ Reading Challenge. Level 1: Book of […]

A while ago I picked up these buttons for my Dr Who’s K-9 robot from AliExpress, Hobby Components have similar available online, The ones I purchased are SPDT with a 24 V DC incandescent bulb in them, regardless of the button colour they are all illuminated with a white incandescent […]

As in my Q-Blade Post 1. I made reference to both HAWT (Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine) and VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbines), A standard VAWT design has been covered by the Ultimaker Blog: There are several other designs that are more novel. One of these novel approaches is the O-Wind, […]

After my previous attempts at cadding up air foils, that can be found here and here for #Makevember, I came across QBlade; According to Wikipedia: QBlade is an open source wind turbine calculation software, distributed under the GNU General Public License. The software is seamlessly integrated into XFOIL, an airfoil […]

I have been back in Fusion 360 designing parts for my wind turbine: These are parts of the hub, they are the bearings 3D printed to be the size of F 6902-2RS (15x28x7 mm) bearings that are commercially available, the printer settings have been edited slightly, so I still have […]

I missed a Makevember post yesterday, and the one for today is going to be quite virtual again… Last time I did a post on K-9’s Back it was to work out how to read the buttons, and to do a first draft of the CADing up for the 3D […]