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)

MYO armband (Start of project grasp)

A while ago (about a month give or take) I received this little package

This my friends is the first part to my prosthetic hand project (Yes you heard me, I'm going to attempt to make a prosthetic hand).

It's a MYO motion gesture armband made by Thalmic Labs (link).

Myo motion gesture armband

I'll be using this to read (hopefully) the users muscle contractions and convert that into data which I can hand (hehe..hand, get it?) it over to the prosthetic hand.

Without a further ado, a quick un-boxing:

All nicely snug packing with some bubble wrap.

Once I was able to tear myself away from popping all the bubble-wrap,
I get the first glimpse of the MYO armband in it's very professional packaging.  

Just the back end of the display box/case (yes the orientation is wrong,
 just turn your head 90 degrees....see it as a stretching exercise for your neck)

Whats inside the box?
1x usb dongle, 1x micro usb cable, brace re-sizer (for those with smaller arms)
1x Myo Armband, 1x thank you for purchasing card

The Myo armband (with protective plastic)

Fits nice and snugly (and possibly fashionable as well XD )

Till thus far haven't been able to properly play around and develop with this (Due to varsity gut punching me with tests, assignments, workshops and projects), but from the little I have played with this it seems very promising.

For more details on this product go and check on their website Thalmic Labs (link).

With this I'll be one step closer to beginning the prosthetic hand project (more details and concepts to come)
If you have any question do feel free to ask.

Global Game Jam 2015

Global Game Jam 2015

This past weekend I took part the annual Global Game Jam event.

1. "A game jam is a gathering of game developers for the purpose of planning, designing, and creating one or more games within a short span of time, usually ranging between 24 and 72 hours. Gamedevelopers are generally made up of programmers, game designers, artists, and others in game development-related fields."

This years theme was: "What do we do now".

Diversifiers (Optional conditions):

1. Noise Generator: The mechanic of the game is based on players having to stay in constant communication with each other.
2. Folk: The game uses a folk or indigenous art style of your region.
3. NES: Make the game playable on an old school console, either directly or through an emulator.
4. Wrist Watcher: The game is playable on a smart-watch, or uses wearable technology in some way.
5. Clueless Parents: The game helps kids teach something to their parents or other family members.
6. Batch Job: The game is a batch file from any operating system, using command line tools found in an out of the box installation.
7. Chimera: The game is played partly as a digital and partly as a non-digital (board, card, etc.) game. (we did this Diversifier) 
8. Hyper-Local: The game is set in your town/city and contains elements locals can identify, while still being entertaining for a global audience.
9. Can I Try?: Any spectator of the game automatically becomes a player as well.
10. This is How it Feels: The game raises awareness of how hate speech or unfair accusations feel, and what kind of effect they have on their targets.
11. Stephen Hawking Can Play This: In the game everything (including any menus) can be navigated with one button, without any need for quick / precisely timed presses.
12. Eagle Ear: The game is primarily visual, but is also playable by visually impaired  players, either through audio design, or through a screenreader (VoiceOver, Talkback, JAWS etc).
13. Relatively Speaking: A game based on the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which explained that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time, such as light bending around black holes.
14. Public Domain Class of 2015: Make a game based on the works entered to Public Domain on 1st January 2015 - for instance works of Wassily Kandinsky, Edvard Munch, Edith Sitwell, Piet Mondrian, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Felix Nussbaum, Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti, Glenn Miller, Flannery O’Connor, and Ian Fleming (cough, James Bond, cough), depending on your country.
15. Code for Good (Sponsored by Intel): Make a game with the goal of improving literacy, or inspiring interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

So when this jam started I was like, "I'm not going too code a single line of code. This year I'll be purely art-ing"....I ended up being the only coder in a team of 5.

Anyhow, it was tons of fun, this is what we made.

Augmented reality card game where players play cards to give their beasts weapons and actions. To start the game, each player chooses their character and takes the associated deck. Shuffle the deck and draw three cards each. Each card has an image, description of impact and the energy cost for the card. You cannot play a card if you do not have enough energy to play it. Decide which player will play first and place both creature cards onto the play mat. Player 1 selects one card from his or her hand and plays the card face up on the player mat card slot. The computer will calculate damage and reduce energy. It will then be Player 2's turn to play a card. The game continues until one beast has been reduced to zero health. Note: If a card indicates that you gain or lose defense percentage - this applies for the attack in the very next play of the opposing player. to use AR, ensure you have a decent webcam connect too the system that can see the cards.

GGJ link

The team

Jacques Botha (back middel) - Augmented Reality & Game coder, Project Manager, 3D modelling + rigging + animation, DJ

Ben Geldenhuys (back left) - 2D Art, Creative Metal Direction

Richard Ramsbottom (back right) - 3D modelling & rigging

Megan Hughes (front right) - Card game design

Adam Linder (front middel) - Music

Game screen shots 

Tech demo vid

Augmented tech: Vuforia

All in all it was fun, stressful, hard work and most importantly very very educational (even if we didn't stick to the theme). We as a team are contemplating on maybe continuing developing this game for a few months and see what the results turn out too be.