The morgan project (Picture heavy)

So, 3D printers. The are awesome.
FACT.
Unfortunately, I don't own one (Well I did buy one...but 2 years later I still haven't received it...meh...Ever heard of Buccaneer 3D?...yeah) so the next best thing is to build one.

I'm planning on building a FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) 3d printer...in essence it's a glorified glue-gun strapped to a CNC. There are other methods of 3D printing such as SLA, DLP, SLS, SLM, EBM and LOM but all are either over complicated or over priced for a mere peasant such as myself to even think to build (let alone buy).
There are many ways FDM printers work, most popularly is the Cartesian system that printers such as the Ultimaker 2 use.

These printers uses basic Cartesian coordinates (X,Y,Z) to create the printed objects.

 The next, more niche type of FDM printers are Delta printers. The print head is suspended from 3 arms that are controlled along vertical supports, while the print bed is completely stationary.

The printer I am building is none of these. It's a Scara printer. I'm building a RepRap Morgan.

It uses scara arms to move the printing head int the x-y plane,m making it a very interesting alternative 3D printer. I mean look at this thing move:

If you are interested in building your own: link

Any how, lets get building.

First step is to get all the parts 3d printed, with 3D printer...that I don't have...damn.

So after some searching, pleading and bribing I found a friend who would be willing to help out with printing some of the parts I needed. He printed the 2 arms and the extruder. 

Blurry photo is blurry...tad hard to take the pic and hold it with the other hand

Decided to use a geared Greg/Wade extruder

I then legged it to my local maker space and used a tiny 3D printer to print the pvc pipe supports.

Next challenge was trying to find the correct pvc pipes...that took about a week, but finally found it.

Didn't have access to a laser cutter, so out came the jigsaw.

The wood is mdf...which is brown...not ideal...so I painted it black with some acrylic paint.

Now what colour would look epic with black? Green...nope. Red...nope. ORANGE!!! Damn straight.

This is Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover spray paint, my weapon of choice. Usually lasts me a project or two.

I wanted to do something about the power supply (I will be using a PC ATX power supply) and some form of able management. So I decided on making a "basement" layer of sorts. 80 mm (8cm), ie the height of the standard ATX PSU

Decided to go with a PC ATX power supply as I had one, and is much cheaper relative to its LED PSU counter part.

I snipped and modified the wires according to this RepRap "tut" thing link

Note: THIS WILL VOID ANY WARRANTY OF THE PSU IF YOU OPEN/MODIFY IT

PSU is mounted to the MDF via the fan skrew holes...was hard to keep the fan still inside a closed up PSU.

Starting with the PVC pipe mounting. This went nice and quick. Zero issues here.

Phone camera at night time does weird things with colours.

"Final" structure

After that I started with the wiring...Sooooo many wires xD

After "Doing what I can" with what I had, I had to move to a larger 3d printer as the tiny volume of the maker space printer just wasn't going to cut it.

So...I asked around, and I got access to my varsity's 3d printer (In return, I had to do basic maintenance and upgrades to the printer...win!!!)

Look at that smug face

Final bits (with the "new" wheel designs)

 

A small hiccup...when I started a print something (in ABS)...and then left for the day...below is what i was greeted to the next day...welp.

Straight out of a horror movie

After cleaning up, hitting reprint (this time in PLA) I started on the Z gantry.

After some wiggling and tweaking, finally got everything in place.

Now for the z axis, Usually one would use a lead screw...but I saw there was a thread-less ball screw concept...I didn't even think twice about any complications that it would bring. I mean. Just look at it. 

It is a smooth rod yet it can carry the print bed and print with no backlash...pretty dang epic in my opinion.

Printer progress (excl arms)

I added the arms and started wiring up the heated bed.

First "final" phase. Now I was ready for testing.

The build is now 6 month in...I'm done. Or so I thought. This is what happened when trying to home the printer.

To be honest. I freaked. I thought I broke something. Luckily everything was in one piece (in an unbroken state). I re flashed the firmware, double checked the parameters, etc, etc....to no avail.

Finally disassembled the whole thing, and restarted all the electronics from the start.

Turns out, the Ramps board that I bought never came with micro step bridges....

I grabbed a few, and it solved the majority of the movement issues.

"Finished" state. Sexy looking am I right?

How ever...my struggles didn't end there. Calibrating this was a pain in the rear end.

I spent 2 month on just attempting to calibrate this. And this was The best result I could produce. 

Now thats one ugly test cube. In case anyone asks. The nozzle is the correct temp and unclogged.

I mean come on. But to prove, that thing was actually working....where is a vid.

After all this, I've decided to can this build. It's just not reliable enough. The Hall effect sensors used to home the arms just didn't produce a reliable result.
The printer design looks epic, that is why I started this project. However I could not get it to reliably print something, thus deciding to stop.

I have learned a ton while building this. So I will not be giving up on building my own printer. I'm just going to start off with a simple mechanism (Standard Cartesian system).

TLDR:
IF you are planning to build your own first 3d printer...avoid the morgan/scara design. Start with something simpler and attempt this when you have a larger knowledge about printers (or you hate your free time)

Tackling the good old "auto bed leveling" problem

Greetings all

So, I've been building the same 3d printer for 2 years now (A reprap morgan) and although frustrating, I'm loving every second of it.
Alongside my (unfinished 3D printer), I started building a variant of the rostock mini for a family member. I find the concept of auto bed leveling appealing...not necessary, but more of a nice to have imho.

Now, the usual way of bed leveling is that probe that gets engaged  by the belt and then it moves along the bed in the usual fashion,

There is alos a servo isk micro switch solotion like this

But more moving parts = more that can go wrong (imo)

Then I saw Steve Graber's video on YouTube, this concept stayed stuck in the back of my mind, but wasn't exactly what I wanted (the tilting looked a tad wonkey...and he didn't provide links to the files)

After a while I saw the concept of using Force Sensing Resistors on the bed of the printer for bed leveling, brilliant expect for the fact that you could not use a heated bed (as the head would affect the resistors)

Seeing that I want to be able to upgrade the printer in the future with a heated bed< and took a liking to the FSR concept I kept searching....and came across edlep's FSR Groove Mount for a hot end on Thingiverse link

Finally a solution that I really like...until I started trying to source some FSR's. So I'm from South Africa, and our currency is shot recently, these ended up as a non viable solution.
I did not give up how ever, remember Steve Graber's system I talked about earlier (having a micro switch attached to the hot end) now I thought that would be a great concept if combined with this...so I did a quick mockup.

Ladies and gent I present to you an alternative solution to an already solved problem.

Unfortunately, seeing as my printer is not done yet I cant show a working prototype yet, so if anyone is interested in giving this a go give me a shout and I'll upload the files.

Any C&C is welcome, as this is my first post here on the forums.

Global Game Jam - 2016

So, yet again I've decided to do the Global Game Jam hosted at my University this year.

This years theme: RITUAL 
The diversifiers: 

Comic book colours
Your game uses only 4 colours, with an emphasis on contrast 
- Accessibility, Art, Design, Pervasive

LEGO Got It Right
There are no spoken or written words in this game. This is even true in the instructions 
- Pervasive, Accessibility

The Bard's Tale
2016 is 400 years since the death of Shakespeare. Build a game around one of his works - Content

A local game for local people
Make a game that features your country, city, or people that jam around you 
- Content, Theme

Where in the world is…
Gameplay or art changes depending on the player's geographical location (GPS, IP location, etc). The game experience is therefore significantly different for players all around the globe - Art, Content, Design, Pervasive

Crowd sourced
Anyone who is watching it can play along!
- Design

No retreat, no surrender
The protagonist is unable to go anywhere but forward, in every situation 
- Art, Content, Design, Theme

Capture and Play - Bluetooth
Make a game with Bluetooth capabilities in which any bluetooth device near the PC that have the game would interact with something inside the game. (More items, more enemies, another challenger player, or instant co-op, etc)
 - Code

Take Control
Instead of the usual keyboard and console controllers, your game must use a custom controller
- Design, Accessibility

Marco Polo
Create a game that contains no graphical output -- all information is conveyed to the player through audio 
- Accessibility, Audio

Gandhi’s Game
This game must have zero violence in its game play. Conflicts must have resolutions based on logic 
- Design, Theme

One hand tied behind my back
Create a game that can be played with only one hand. On mobile just one hand holding and playing at the same time i.e. just play with your thumb. Desktop, mouse only or keyboard only 
- Accessibility, Design, Serious

Multijammer
Work cooperatively with other GGJ sites within your own timezone 
 - Meta

Story Mode
No cutscenes, textboxes or interruption of gameplay. Use player actions for all your storytelling - Content, Design, Accessibility

Infinite
Your world is procedurally generated 
- Code, Content

Loudmouth
All audio assets are created by sounds from your mouth
 - Audio

What was that?
Any sound featured must not be sourced from the object in the game making that sound 
- Audio

Work and Play
The game requires the player to code/learn to code to progress - Code, Serious

Won’t somebody think of the children?
Your team must use the works from a child or children - Meta

Companion screen
The game uses a mobile device as an additional screen to show a different mode or portion of the game - Code, Design

Common Ground
Make a co-op game playable by players who have very different levels of ability to each other - Accessibility

Twitch Plays (sponsored by Twitch)
Create a live streamed game intended to be played concurrently by the masses on Twitch.

Do You Even Care? (sponsored by iThrive Games)
Drawing from guidance materials from iThrive's subject matter experts, make a game that teaches empathy to teens.
Guidance materials from iThrive's subject matter experts is available from: http://ithrivegames.com/iThrive%20G4H%20Materials.pdf

Now...I could not think of a game....Nothing. I was a barren wasteland. Luckily, the rest of the community had a ton of brilliant ideas. So, I joined a team and we made a game called:

RPG where you are the village's most amazing and successful hero. (Named Bjorn) You also happen to have a severe case of OCD. You're sent on a quest to save the village, but you'll encounter a lot of things that are an extra challenge for you with your OCD condition.

The team (Not to be confused with the A-Team...different division ;P ):

(Left) Ben Geldenhuys - Art

(2nd from left) Megan Hughes - Game Designer, Project Manager, learnt-to-colour-in-using-wacom-at-ggj16

(Middle) Jem Smith - Lead Programmer

(2nd from right) Jacques Botha (Me) - Programmer, Art, Sound

(Right) Kevin Gibson - Music                         (can't find him?...welp, resident ninja in action)

Some of the Epic art that was designed by Ben (and his sexy assistants): 

The Hero, Bjorn

The home stead

Village

Dreaded Forrest

Final Boss

Unfortunately I don't have the original files anymore (Formatted PC soon after the Game Jam)

Exe download link [win] (for those of you who want to try your hands at being an OCD'd viking hero)

All in all was a epic experience. Even after the disaster (Coined the "Great Git Crash") where by we lost all audio (cept music) we still where voted the best game at the venue....squeeee xD. I would love to team up with these epic folks again and see want we create.

Guess I'll be back next year for another update on GGJ adventures, cheers.

Quick RC Remote power mod

So, I have this Propo XG6 (6 channel RC remote). Love the thing, does what I need and some.

Any way, AA batteries here in South Africa are overpriced....That and I didn't have any around.

What I did have lying around was a power bank. Now, the remote needs 4x 1.5v batteries to operate...that's 6v....The power bank produces 5v. At first I thought this might not work out, turns out that my remote displays the current battery value of the battery in the receiver, and half way through the previous pair of AA batteries they hit 5v...so...yay.

My Mii power mank (10400 mAh)

 Next step was to hook up the power from the power bank to the remote. Now, I'll be using the power bank for other things, like...charging my phone when I'm in lectures and such. So modding the power bank was out of the question...that means alternative methods of power transferred needs to be explored. Turn sout, I had a broken micro USB cable laying around (with the standard USB still in perfect condition), so I stripped that and got ready for some epicness.

Remanent of an micro USB cable

Conveniently, the Black wire int the USB is the Ground and the Red is the V+...so WIN, no need for searching for arb coloured wire.

  Because I wanted a backup to the power bank, I left the battery clip in (in case I don't have my power bank but do have access to some AA's) and just soldered Black to Black, and Red to Red.

After all is hooked up I did a quick power test.

Power Test: GREAT SUCCESS ^^

Put everything back in place.

 

 

Oh my...did not think this through did I?

Nah, I gots this. Measure the cable width with my suuuuper high tech calipers to get a sub micron accuracy measurement of aprox 4mm.

 Made a 5mm hole...just to be sure.

 Next up was attaching the power bank to the controller. Seeing that I would be using the power bank for other things...it had to be detachable. Now I wanted to make something fancy...like a clip on system, or somthing like that...but I lack the hardware (3d printer) to do that...so Velcro Time.

 Measured the lengths needed to cover the power bank. Two horizontal strips should be more than enough to hold the weight.

 By using contact glue, I stuck the Velcro to the power bank.

 And obviously have their counterparts stuck to the controller.

Wait until the glue is dry and you're done.

So with a need, an idea, a Power bank, USB cable, Velcro, some glue and hour of your life. PROFIT!!! 

An infinitely powered RC remote control xD (Ok not infinitely...but it uses so little power that that power bank could last forever)

Proof that it works. ^^

Hope you (poor lost souls who accidentally landed on this post) enjoyed this impromptu project.

Ghost in the shell wall painting

A "Quck" little update on a project I'm working on (you know, besides varsity, gaming and the 300+ other projects I never finish xD)

In my room I have this "massive" bare white wall, and for a while I've always wanted to do something on it. However it seems that I have commitment issues or something, because I could never decide on something that I would like to keep there. Then I had an idea, why not do it on canvas, so if I'm tired of it I can just take it down. (brilliant xD)

So, with this new founded 'hazaa', I set of to find a image I would really like on my wall.
Now I really like myself some Ghost in the shell...so why not a painting/picture from that. I started re-watching the series and came upon this scene

And I just had to do this.
So I started with the layout of the canvases (because a large one is expensive...and I had these lying around)

Then, just to get an 'Idea' of the layout, I overlapped the image onto the canvases using Photoshop.

Now excited with how this could possibly look, I pulled away at redrawing the low res image iver onto canvas. Took a while, still needs some touch up but ended up with this.

Used a light blue clutch...this means that trying to get a picture of the sketch visible...kinda hard

Next step would be to start the colouring (painting) in. Stay tuned for updates on those.

Longboard paintjob

So for my brothers birthday I thought I'd surprise him by having his longboard "stolen" and give it back to him on his birthday with a custom paint job. I tried to keep up with pictures as I was making it...so here we go

So I started with taking of the trucks and sanding of the old design (the old art was an attempt of my brothers with which he wasn't to happy with...so me taking it of is fine...right?)

Hand sanding with 100 grit sand paper...fun (took me about an hour)

I then proceeded to think up a design, something my brother would like. So let's see, he is starting high school, likes anime, ninjas, oh and lets not for get girls...aha...light bulb. Anime, ninja, assassin girl....thingy. Now that I have an idea, I started sketching

Started with a light pencil to sketch out the basic concept

Got the design how I liked it, so went over with darker pencil

I then had to start painting...now my experience with traditional painting is nothing short of lacking...so this was going to be interesting. To add to the challenge, I'm strapped for money...so no fancy paint or variety of colours (yes I spell colours with a u). I decided to go with acrylic paint, as it's fast('ish) drying and easy to manage. Due to budget constraints...I had 3 colours; Black and white (they are not colours) and then Red, Blue and Yellow. Prime colours go.

I started with the skin, moved on to the jacket, then the scarf, then pants & top and finally the hair.

So I kinda forgot to take pictures here so the most recent one was approx 1/3 through the painting process.

Started with basic colours and shading

Some more colouring...majority on the face and small details like sword and accessories

 After a few days for touching up here and there, getting the shading down to an acceptable point, I painted the peach blossoms in the background and started the out lining.

The end is nigh

2 days before my brother birthday, I finished it up. As a final touch I signed the bottom of the board (cause...you know...art) and sealed everything in nicely with Rust-Oleum Satin clear lacquer. I re-attached the trucks and waited for D-day.

The final product

 I wasn't there for his birthday (as he had his birthday on a Monday...and I was on campus) but was told he loved it (and was surprised...so success).

All in all, it was an interesting project. Took aprox 2 weeks to do, and the results looks pretty damn interesting (if I may say so myself)