Here a few updates of what’s been going on.
RepRap
MaRU (Matter Replication Unit) as I’ve named her has been doing a brilliant job of late.
I’m finally getting to terms with the variety of settings, and coming to grips with the fact that nearly every print needs different ones to get the best quality.
Currently I’ve been printing off a bugger load Toy Soldier badges for the MCM Expo. I’m hoping to get some Toy Soldier figures done as well. All designed by Antonio Robins, AKA TheAtomicSoul.
RapRec
Haven’t made much progress on the recyclerbot project, save for coming up with a name for it. RapRep as in Rapid Recycler. I’ve got my hands on a windscreen wiper motor, which ought to probably plenty of torque for the auger to push the plastic through, but that’s all.
MCM Expo
The MCM Expo is next week. Every 6 months, I attend this veritable geek orgy of movies, comics, games, cosplayers, and shenanigans, while staying at a relatively cheap hostel with my friends, the Toy Soldier Army. We’ve turned it into something we love above all else. Between the awesome stories, the fun we have in the park and at the expo, and the general enjoyment of the hostel altogether, I’m looking forward to a brilliant weekend away.
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So, I’ve been taking my time finishing off the RepRap. I’m just too easily distracted.
Anyways, I’ve installed a new hot end, specifically the Mark V J hotend, which fits perfectly, and I was just leveling off the printbed (unheated for the time being till I get my hands on the correct resistor and LED’s for it).
Then, as I’m doing a print test, the X motor seems to stutter when reversing, and then decides that it can only go in one direction.
After I did a few checks, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the Sanguinololu board itself (not the pololu’s or the motor). Luckily, the kind gentleman at Think3dPrint3D on ebay is offering an exchange under warranty. Hopefully this means I’ll have a new board in hand in a few days and can finally get printing properly.
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I blame Cpt. Jack YJ for this entirely. And several other Toy Soldiers.
I seem to have gotten myself rather addicted to Star Trek Online. A MMORPG that’s free to play.
What with my new laptop being able to handle high end games now, by the way, I can have all the settings on minecraft set to max now without a single bit of lag, I just couldn’t resist.
I am Sergeant Dutch.
I am also Commander Dutch Barracuda of the USS Surreality. (Previous ships included the Manifestation and Virtualization)
So. Brilliant laptop, brilliant games. What’s the snag?
Bandwidth. I’m on mobile broadband (that’s broadband via the cellphone for you Americans), which comes at a standard of 7.2MBps. That’s BITS not BYTES btw. And of course, the networks tend to be up and down more than my right hand.
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Though it is important to prepare for natural and manmade disasters, there are also other situations that warrant preparedness and prior knowledge about.
The Internet is a vestige of knowledge and communication, and most importantly, it is free, open, and anonymous. Crimes by government and organizations can be openly reported, and freedom of speech and the press is a basic human right.
However, places like China limit the internet and it’s content to it’s users. This is known as the Great Firewall of China. Other countries have previously made suggestions or attempts at censoring the internet, preventing filesharing and communication. During the London Riots it was suggested that messenger services should be disabled during civic unrest. America recently attempted to pass the SOPA and PIPA acts which would have given corporations the authority of removing websites and content from the internet without any legal proceedings.
Egypt even managed to virtually shut down the entire of it’s internet by simply ordering their ISP’s (internet service providers) to pull the plug. Save for a few small industrious and resourceful groups, Egypt was almost cut off from the entire world.
Should the internet be under threat, and countries seek to impose Great Firewalls upon their citizens like China, there are ways around this.
The Underweb
Only 10% of the internet is viewable via conventional methods like internet browsers and search engines. The rest consists of Virtual Private Networks, communication systems between companies and corporations, databases, and other miscellaneous. Part of it is also known as the Darkweb or Darknet, and can only be accessed either by knowing the IP address, through a series of secret portals using software specific for it. One the most commonly used is Freenet.
The short version is that you install the Freenet software, which allows anonymous access to the freenet network, a large collection of ‘freesites’, and downloadable content. There is no central server, no hosting account, no index of users in the conventional sense.
Part of Freenet’s success in anonymity, is that while it requires very little space on a computer to run, you share some of the space of your hard drive with it, minimum of 2 gigabytes. It’ll parts of other sites, content, etc. and encrypt them, so not even you would know what’s on your computer. Only through the Freenet system would you be able to access it, and even then there’s no guarantee it’s what’s on your own machine.
Freenet’s saving grace and most damnable feature is the same thing. It is completely unpolicable and uncensorable. Freedom of speech runs alongside criminal activity.
Now there are two parts to Freenet. Opennet and Darknet. Opennet is the freely published content, and is indexed through various freesites. The Darknet is a term used for users who solely connect to each other, and connect to the rest of the Opennet via their friends, or just share information between themselves.
Using the information on Freenet’s public website and it’s associated ‘freesite’, a user can ensure 100% anonymity. But there is a cost, which is speed of connection. Depending on the amount a freesite is distributed via other users, the users own connection, and other variables, you’re looking at a return to dial up speeds or slower, though this is not a hindrance to those with a need to access information.
There are message boards and anonymous email plugins for Freenet available (as well as a still experimental IRC chat plugin), so groups can set up a network through the freenet which’ll provide anonymity, and save them from the prying eyes of those who would impose 1984 conditions upon the world.
Getting Started
First off, install decent anti-virus and firewall programs. AVG and ZoneAlarm are good free ones. As previously warned, there can be nasty stuff out there.
Secondly, I highly recommend using Google Chrome to do all your browsing with.
Thirdly, download Freenet and install.
Now Freenet should just work out of the box, and once on will connect to random strangers to access the opennet. But as previously stated you can increase security by adding Freinds so Freenet will connect to them while making your usage of Freenet almost undetectable. The more friends you add, the faster it will be.
Once you’re on Freenet, you can access plugins to increase the capability of it and allow you to communicate with others (so long as you don’t mind waiting 1 to 10 minutes for a page to load. It’s the price of true anonymity).
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Well, the good news is that the netbook didn’t die as entirely as I had thought.
It’s still missing a keyboard though, so the external one will have to do for now.
This coming week I’m hoping to get a decent or even high end laptop. Money is still tight, so I unashamedly will continue to ask for donations to my paypal account (sergeant.dutch@gmail.com) to help increase the power of laptop, as well as to aid my adventures in 3D printing.
On that note, all seems to be working, I think. I’m missing one or two things for the extruder (aka, I lost some bolts I need to keep it in place), but they’ll arrive tomorrow or tuesday, and it’ll be printing time (hopefully).
I’ve had some serious issues with Pronterface/printrun and skeinforge. I don’t know why it’s not behaving as it should, but slicing the .stl files just aint finishing and getting processed to the printer. I’m assuming it’s because I don’t know shit about these programs. Did find that ReplicatorG does the trick straight out of the box.
This is the biggest flaw I can find with RepRaps. There are too many options, and too many ‘variations’ of the same program, with FAR too little documentation for the beginners. Everyone’s expected to know electronics, to know python, or can tell where files and folders go.
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During the weekend, my main and only computer was irreparably damaged and now I find myself stuck using my phone.
This turn of events means all work on the 3D printer has had to stop, as well as updating and working on the TSU site.
Together with zero income, no benefits, and no job, I am truly in a rut. In the vain hope someone might be willing to help, i’m accepting paypal donations for a new laptop so I can continue work on the 3d printer and Toy Soldiers Unite.
The funny thing is that it was o the saturday I overcame the motor problem and was about to get ready to actually start printing. Had the netbook not died, i’d be printing by now with any luck.
Donations can be sent to sergeant.dutch@gmail.com
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So, mechanically speaking, the Prusa is all in one piece and ready to print.
However there is one slight prblem. Ok, several problems, to which I received a great deal of answers and opinions on from the RepRap IRC channel. Unfortunately I’m not so good with small scale changes in electronics and software. I really didn’t see all this calibration and so forth coming while I was tinkering and putting the actual machine together.
Guess I’d been hoping that’d be plug and play, but there are so many different options for the RepRap. Different electronics, firmware, software, and countless combinations there of with countless different adjustments made to each. I love variation, but I wish there was a set standard for us beginners to work from.
‘Get this motherboard, get these motors, and get that software and it’ll work’ that’s not too much to ask is it? Guess that’s where Makerbot succeeds over RepRap in that it’s standardized (despite using imperial measurements and such).
So the solution to my predicament here is to head into London with the Prusa on my back, pop over to the London Hackspace so that maybe one or two of the guys there can help me calibrate this thing and hopefully I can then get printing.
I’m optimistic, but I know there’s no guarantee of anything. Still, here’s hoping.
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Right, some issues with the domain name thingy, but that can be handle later. First, let’s get finger to button and lay out the plans for the recyclerbot project.
Goal:
A small home scale machine that will extrude 3mm and/or 1.75mm filament from scrap plastic.
Requirements:
- The bot has to be able to take up as little space as possible. Nearer to size to a RepRap.
- Constructing a Recyclerbot should only require common items available at hardware stores.
- All plans will made available online according to Open Source rules (which I’d better luck up in case pedantics start asking questions).
- With the plans made available should also be a rough guideline about the different plastics, their properties and how the recyclerbot reacts/processes them.
- Optional: Perhaps non heated structural parts could be produced on a RepRap as well.
Ultimately, the recyclerbot must be easily assembled by anyone who’s been able to assemble a RepRap. This means NO propietary hardware, and it can’t rely solely on mass manufactured items.
An example would be comparing Makerbot to a RepRap. RepRaps are easily assembled, adjusted, modded, and importantly CHEAP, compared to a makerbot, which is becoming more and more of a brand. The Makerbot also relies heavily on laser cut parts, specific extruders, as a kit is expensive and is harder to customise. (Not to mention they’re quite loud compared to the RepRap.)
The recyclerbot has similar endeavour which might make it look like a RepRap when compared to a Makerbot. This is the Filabot:
However, it is still in the quite early stages, it’s garnered a lot of attention (mainly because it’s a kickstarter and everyone loves a kickstarter). Actually, I’m not entirely sure if they’re planning on making it OpenSource. In fact, pretty sure it isn’t, which frustrates me a bit. At least Printrbot will be (otherwise Adrian Bowyer will have to have words with ‘em)
Now, I’m not working from scratch. Recyclebot v2.2 has already appeared on Thingiverse and Github.
It’s based on Web4Dev’s plastic extruder which he used to make material for his hydroponics. (Filabot also started with the same design
As you can see, it’s probably a bit larger then it wants to be for a desktop or kitchen environment. Initial ideas are obviously shortening the main pipe, positioning the main matter beneath the shaft rather than to it’s side. I’m also wondering if rather than bike chain and sprockets, could 3D printed pulleys transfer enough torque to the auger to keep grinding up the plastic and spitting it out? This is definitely something to experiment.
Also, instead of a wooden base and custom made flanges, would using threaded rod and plumbing supplies be suitable? It all depends on the heating section of the main shaft, and the torque requires to nom and push the plastic through.
I do face one slight problem with the construction and testing of this. No workshop.
All I’ve got is the dinner table in the living room, my computer desk, and my rolling workshop trolley (made out of plastic, so it can forget about testing it out on that).
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Well, now that the worst is over at Toy Soldiers Unite in regards to the new website, server transfer, and the Doc retiring, I can now begin working on my own projects.
First off, I quit godaddy’s hosting service. Fuckers were a pain in the arse for everything. Moved the domain name and got a new hosting account with the same guys who host TSU. So far it’s working brilliantly.
Now, I’ve got several projects I need to record on here. The first of being the RepRap Prusa I’m building.
It’s coming along nicely. In fact, I’m only waiting for the hot end for the extruder to turn up, then all I need to do is wire the thing up to the electronics, plug her in, and get printing.
The second project I want to get started on as soon as I’ve successfully started printing with the RepRap is to get a Recyclerbot on the go. I am honestly surprised at how long it has taken anyone to make any kind of headway with this. After all, imagine if every RepRap user had one of these! Their immediate neighbourhood would go on a recycling frenzy!
Only a few uni students have made any kind of concerted effort into build a Recyclerbot, and even then, once their project was over, they presented their work and got their marks, nothing is heard from them again. There’s an out of date build log for the original one, and the V2.2 has been posted on thingiverse and github, but again, no decent build log or videos.
THIS MUST BE RESOLVED!
And so, he started to scheme…
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