Freeside Atlanta

SCYTHE OF DOOM!

2012-05-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

This giant masonry blade has been sitting around Freeside forever:

Rust and dust are indicators of abandonment.
Please make use of the rusty and dusty.

Note the diamond tipped edge

I KNOW!

Let's make a giant scythe for my Halloween costume!!

(Never too early to plan)

Safety first. There will be a lot of sparks, noise, and dust.
Wear appropriate safety equipment.

Make an outline of the blade (on the blade)

Start cutting.
Here I used the cutting wheel for the angle grinder.

Basic shape

Switched to the grinding blade for the angle grinder.
I also went to the bench grinder for the edge.

Still rough but a good start for Sean's "Scythe of Doom"

Next time on this Old Makerspace:
-Clean up shape.
-Sharpen
-Polish
-Make holes for mounting on pole.

Later:
-Start on pole to mount it to.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

Thingiverse: Anatomic Human Foot

2012-05-06T18:12:00.002-07:00

Freesider's are evermore professional printistas of sorts. As our sprints are ramping up, there seems to be a growing interest in "organic modeling". Things often found in nature fall into this category for CAD artists.

Here is a recent Thingiverse upload, which was made from some very simple modeling techniques in Newtek's Lighwave 3D application. A little goes a very long way, indeed.

per Thingiverse.com:

There are 26 proper bones in the human foot; 28 if you consider the sesamoids of the 1st metatarsal phalangeal joint complex. That's over 25% of your body's total musculo-skeletal anatomy, hitting the ground every time you go for a walk or run! Quite impressive, really.

Read More:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot
learnbones.com/foot-bones-anatomy

This anatomic foot model was designed in Newtek's Lightwave 3D, as part of the podcast @ YouTube.com/DrGlassDPM

Anatomic study models can be quite expensive, search.anatomywarehouse.com/search?keywords=foot&x=0&y=0 so I wanted to share my printable version with the Thingiverse crowd and give a big shout out to Freeside Atlanta's Hackerspace!

Instructions
I've included the individual bones with a straightforward naming convention. These parts will be replaced, as I continue to add more detail and such; for now, enjoy!

Additionally, there are FootBones.stl and FootSkin.stl, for those of you Duel Extruding.

Otherwise, I'd be impressed to see some of the techniques towards printing this and having a clean separation from support material. This (and deriviatives thereof) will hopefully rival things like: molded study models search.anatomywarehouse.com/search?keywords=foot&x=0&y=0

-Nick

Freesiders Hackers Collaborate in Medical / Surgical Research

2012-04-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Published in the May issue of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery:

"A Novel Combination of Printed 3-Dimensional Anatomic Templates and Computer-assisted Surgical Simulation for Virtual Preoperative Planning in Charcot Foot Reconstruction."

This collaboration of specialties represents an undertaking by members of Freeside Atlanta, Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance, and The Podiatry Institute. Charcot foot reconstruction remains on of the most challenging procedures in foot and ankle surgery. These procedures are often lengthy procedures which can be riddled with complications.

With the help of Freeside Atlanta Members, institutional researchers used open source Osirix Image viewer and 3D Software such as Newtek's Lightwave or Blender to create simulated surgical reductions as well as 3D printed templates. Freeside Atlanta members assisted in providing 3D printing solutions and know-how to the project.

Experimental test prints were done on a Makerbot Thing-o-matic, and final templates were printed on a modified ZCORP z400. These templates were full scale replicas of the patient's boney anatomy, which were used in the laboratory for practice purposes. (see video below)

The surgical bone cuts were trialed in advance and the the Ilizarov fixation frame was constructed and modified prior to surgery. The combination of these two things saved the surgeons literally hours of work in the operating theater, ultimately lowering cost of care and risk of complications.

3D simulations were used for templating surgical approach on printed replicas.

Intra-operative execution of practiced surgical plan.

Application of Ilizarov External Fixation Construct

The Abstract reads as:

Charcot foot syndrome (Charcot neuroarthropathy affecting the foot), particularly in its latter stages, may pose a significant technical challenge to the surgeon. Because of the lack of anatomic consistency, preoperative planning with virtual and physical models of the foot could improve the chances of achieving a predictable intraoperative result. In this report, we describe the use of a novel, inexpensive, 3-dimensional template printing technique that can provide, with just a normal printer, multiple "copies" of the foot to be repaired. Although we depict this method as it pertains to repair of the Charcot foot, it could also be used to plan and practice, or revise, 3-dimensional surgical manipulations of other complex foot deformities.

Copyright © 2012 American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Red Bull Soapbox Derby

2012-04-29T17:46:00.002-07:00

OH look! A package! I wonder who it is from?

Maybe it is something about the Soapbox race?

Looks like it

Oh Man! Red Bull and a note card saying "thanks but no thanks."

Don't they know I prefer diet?!?

Onboard Firmware of the Human Brain

2012-04-21T20:44:00.005-07:00

Freesiders are continually tinkering with robotics and other such machinery. Many of these embedded processors and firmware are becoming open source and every-more diversified in the wake of the modern Maker movement.

One notable boost to the hackerspace arsenal is the Arduino (an like platforms). This offers designers an incredible power to devise not just individual devices but even the emergence of complex, integrated systems.

This evolutionary pace of modern technological systems may be significantly faster the biologic system development, but there may be a few well learned tricks yet to be mastered. It seems that studying how nature has managed to solve many development challenges will aid in designing robotics, where efficiently counts just as much.

One challenge, that is particularly interesting, is data processing. Artificial intelligence is labored with processing data and producing a meaningful and useful output. When considering the increase in sensory and input devices avaible to robot hackers, AI technology may not be able to simply apply Brute Force for all scenarios.

How does the human brain sort through data and minimize apophenia, in real time? It delegates.

This, unfortunately is not a perfected system but it is still, (currently), better than anything man has managed to hacked together. What's important to remember about these systems is that they are subject to some strange exploits, which we call "Illusions". Optical illusions are centuries old and have often uncovered the curiosity within us all.

A recent study in the science journal, "Perception" has illustrated this point well. In this, they illustrate the error of duplication. Some such duplications do not appear to throw off any red flags in the observer. However, try causing an irregularity to someone's face and it's a totally different story.

The human face is one of the most instant and profound "appliances" of human interaction. Humans have evolved a very acute sense of facial recognition, which plays a vital role in our day to day goings on.

The difference between a smile and a frown, could mean the difference between a successful mate and a fight to the death. Other mild variations in not so useful things don't trigger the same primal response. This assumptive processing center of the brain acts somewhat comparably to a natural checksum, operating autonomously in the subconsciousness like a daemon.

Often, Makers and Hackers share their knowledge and designs in a very "open" manner. Nature itself has many lessons to teach designers as well. A better understanding of these such integrated systems and their exploits may better help us to design technological systems which are both sophisticated and efficient.

-GlassDPM

3D printing in action.

2012-04-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

After seeing Joshua Oster-Morris with this little box I asked him to write a post for us on how it came it to being. Worth the read.

Dateline: San Francisco, May 10 2011: Google I/O 2011 opens up with much fanfare and I, a lowly “software guy”, sit down to listen to a couple of sessions on Google Web Toolkit. I have been using it to develop a motorcycle navigation website (http://www.dualsportmaps.com) and its always good to try to pick up a few new tricks of trade. These are mainly esoteric talks about development tools, but there is also one about a new API called RequestFactory that allows state aware communication between client and server characterized by its low bandwidth. They discuss how it might be handy to use as a protocol for communicating with Android devices. To that, my ears perk up and I make my best impersonation (imdogination) of Scooby-Doo. I have been doing a little Android development for personal projects, I have an extensive craft cocktail recipe book that I have compiled through pilgrimages to the best bars around the globe, and I have created an app so I can find them quickly on my phone. I found my options for sending data back and forth a little tedious (I was just creating my own one-off APIs). My interest was diverted from GWT and I segued to sessions on Android for the rest of the day.

The Android sessions were full of energy and free schwag. I have little twinges of jealousy as each session seems to close with a nifty new gizmo going into the hands of each spectator in the hall (I am streaming the sessions from my office in Atlanta so I get nothing). More talks about tool chains and performance mods followed until I see a session on the schedule about Open Android Accessory Development Kit (ADK). What is that pray tell? At this point, my day is shot and nothing else is going to get done anyway so I settle down to watch another session. ADK is an API for starting USB connections between small form factor USB Host microcontrollers and your Android phone or tablet. Phones in particular are unable to host a USB dialog. They are just client devices, meaning they need to plug into a Host device such as a computer which manages the state of the conversation. Google had taken the idea inside the IOIO (yo-yo), a PIC based USB Host controller for Android available at Sparkfun, and extended it to the Arduino platform. Really, the ADK is just an API and it can be implemented on any Host compatible platform, but Google’s official implementation uses the Atmega2560 (with Arduino bootloader) and the MAXIM 3421EE USB Host controller. They begin to show off some pretty cool tricks where they control some giant contrivances with their phones and tablets including a man sized marble labyrinth.
http://www2.pcmag.com/media/images/258238-labyrinth.jpg

At this moment I little bolt of lightning strikes inside my Scooby-Snack addled brain. Why don’t I make a mobile version of my website? I never considered it before because phones don’t work well with gloves and motorcyclists wear gloves. With this, I could make a remote control and put the phone in a waterproof case.

Fast forward 16 days and I’ve got a working version of the Android app (which is a fully functioning GPS device that uses OpenStreetMap vector data to render maps while offline) and I go about sourcing some hardware to create my first version of the remote. The Google board is very expensive ~$300, but in the intervening weeks a few more suppliers have entered the market place and I settle on the Freeduino USB Host board from moderndevice.com ~$70. It arrives a week or two later. About 6 hours after starting up the Arduino IDE for the very first time I’ve got a working prototype of my app remote control. Now, I haven’t used a soldering iron since 1991 when I was a freshman in college so this wasn’t easy for me, but I got it done. In fact, I used a gas powered thing to assemble the joystick shield kit I purchased from Sparkfun. I sent moderndevice.com a video of his new board in action and they posted it on their website. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmnhFc3-oAI

I learned a few things from this. First, working with Arduino hardware is easy, even for a guy who has never done any embedded programming before. Second, Android is pretty much straightforward Java programming so if you can do one, you can do the other. Thirdly, I need to waterproof this remote because it’s fricking cool! How the hell can I do that? The only thing I know how to make, other than software, is cocktails. A little research introduces me to a thing called a 3D printer and that a place called Freeside Atlanta has one. On a Tuesday, with a few roughly drawn 3D files in my pocket I ride down to check the place out. The people there generously let me print out a couple of parts after the meeting (thank you Panda) and I get my first taste of the frustration of building tangible things. Unlike debugging software the iterative process is stultifying and slow. That is another story though...

What I learned from the that first trip to Freeside was the I needed to shrink down my electronics, A LOT. While the Freeduino host board from moderndevice.com works great I can’t really use it for this because it is just too big to shrink into useful sized package.

After more research I decide to give the Arduino Pro Mini a try with a circuitsathome.com USB Host shield attached to it. It is much smaller than the first Arduino, about 1/6th the size.

The smaller size allows me much more freedom to box it up and place it conveniently on the motorcycle. I ultimately design the enclosure below using my new toy SolidWorks. It is just awesome! It’s very expensive, but it is also an amazing tool that takes all the guesswork out of part design.
I order the parts for this design and proceed to actually build one.
It looks pretty good but some crash testing tells the plastic I was using was not up to the task.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHl4iiPZfUU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_CeNxcn8RU

So I come up with new a design and a new material.
This stuff is tough! Tougher than nails. I devised several tests to challenge it, but pretty much anything I hit it with broke. The assembly is a real bitch though! It’s taking me hours to assemble one of these bastards.

Plan three starts to hatch in my brain. This time with the help of a new friend and app customer I decide to build custom electronics. We agree on a 3 board design. I don’t know diddly about this electronics stuff but he teaches me how to read a schematic and working over the phone we actually succeed in designing and building new custom electronics which helps shrink everything down into a dainty little package. (I’ve since moved on to a milled aluminum enclosure which is boss)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fpvCJAIvQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiWlCVZFWnM

For me, this is another epiphany. I no longer am limited to electronics I can buy at the store. I am only limited to what I can imagine and build. The latter list is WAY larger than the prior one so let me tell you, my world has gotten a lot more interesting since this epiphany.

After taking part in the design process of the new electronics for my remote control I decide to try my own hand at circuit design. I am able to download some very useful and inexpensive PCB design software called Eagle and get started right away. Essentially no barrier to entry (unlike SolidWorks).

The first board I decide to build is a throwback to the board in the second remote design, it is similar to the Arduino Pro Mini except it has an integrated USB Host in it. It’s a small and incredibly useful tool. In itself, it is not a product, but it is something that creative people could use to build products. I felt the need to redesign it for several reasons. First off, the cost of two products from different vendors each with their own shipping costs is rather high > $40. Second, because the MAX3421ee require 3.3V to operate and USB requires 5V to operate there is an inherent incompatibility that the one small sized option available in the marketplace did not handle. The obvious solution is to build an Arduino with a the MAX3421ee with both a 3.3V, and a 5V linear voltage regulator (LDO). USB has a rather specific requirement of supplying 500mA to a connected client so I needed to make sure I specced the 5V LDO at 500mA and design the board accordingly. It takes a lot of sifting though Digikey.com to find parts that will squeeze into the small board that I want to design. Learn TONS about everything reading the datasheets. Along the way I come up with a few ideas for the board as well.

I finally settle on this guy and have it built at seeedstudio.com who will build my boards for <$1.50 each, delivered from China when I order 10 (so it costs $14.90 total).
In anticipation of the PCB delivery I order all the parts in the bill of materials (BOM) from Digikey and wait for my new boards to arrive. When they finally do arrive, about 3 weeks from order to delivery for the cheap delivery option, I realize there is a problem The 5V LDO I have and the area on the PCB do not match. What have I done?! The large chip below is what I had and the small chip below is what I needed. It goes in that little spot at the bottom left of the board above.

Always ready to make lemonade from lemons I go about reading the datasheet of the larger LDO I ended up with. It seems strangely perfect from what I want to do with it. This fact is a little strange to me because it is so much larger and yet not over qualified for what I am doing. I begin to wonder how the chip I chose could actually do the same thing in such a smaller package. I read the smaller part’s datasheet again and realize I must have gotten confused along the way. It cannot do what I need (it claims to be able to in bold print but the fine print clarifies that it can only do so when the Sun is conjunct the Moon in the Seventh House). Somewhere during the part drawing process I started looking at the wrong datasheet and then drew the wrong part I guess. At least I ordered the correct one. No worries though, this board is exactly as useful as the 2 board combination I was replacing (without its 5V LDO) so its not a major loss. I am able to salvage these boards with a little glop of solder across all the pads on each side of that chip.

Now I head back to Eagle to fix my mistake and order another pile of boards that actually fit the LDOs I have. Another $15 spent. Another 3 weeks pass. And viola!

You wouldn’t think that I could squeeze the “giant” chip in the place of that tiny one on that already cramped board, but amazingly I was able to and the overall size did not change at all. This board works exactly as I wanted it to and I am quite pleased with it. I am in the process of putting together a bunch of cool little demos to show off all the things it can do (talking to Android, communicating over bluetooth, HID, GPS, SLR camera control) and then I will start a Kickstarter to see if enough other people are interested in having some of these to get a large batch made. I’ve got a vendor in China willing to build them for about $17 if I build 500. I requested a bid for 100 from an on shore outfit as well but it has not come in yet. If the price is right, I’ll be able to do the Kickstarter with a smaller threshold price.

I am not done of course. No sooner did I get this guy built did I start using it to work on a new design for a new product. I’ll save that story for another time, but I’ll leave you with a teaser of it...

My First Tool Box

2012-04-19T10:28:00.001-07:00

I was looking for ideas for tools to put in the little blue tool box I have been refinishing. I am giving this to a kid I have been working with and I was wondering if people had ideas for what tools a teen should have.

What tools would you have wanted when you were a kid? What tools are you always needing?

Here is what I have so far:
Small hammer
Metric and standard socket set
Metric and Standard Allen Wrenches
standard screwdriver bits and small screw driver.
Small hand saw with switchable blades.
Three different types of pliers.

Entrepreneur Discussion Group update

2012-03-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

In the last meeting of the Entrepreneur discussion group, we talked about business plans for our different ideas. Most businesses (Profit/Non-Profit, Product/Service...) that require some level of investment, fit into a similar planning pattern. We looked over one planning tool that I developed in Excel as an example of that pattern, which is then reflected in the example business plan that I posted to out Dropbox share (email me if you'd like access).

The model works by developing the product and estimating it's price and market potential (revenue projections). Next, you develop the cost model (bill of materials, equipment, facility, labor, administrative). These costs are allocated by product (or service) and together, the revenue and cost projections form the key financial data (Annual Operating Expenses, Pro-Forma Income Statements, Cash Flow Analysis, Breakeven Analysis By Product, Working Capital Requirements). All of these are based on research and best-guess assumptions.

The final result is a %ROIC (Return on Invested Capital). This is the number that investors really care about, because it reflects the % return on their money. Finally, Sensitivity Analysis looks at how robust the model is. If your sales, product mix, price, materials costs, etc... don't meet your expectations, how far off can they be before your model isn't viable?

At the next meeting on March 24th @ 6pm, we'll review the model for any newcomers and apply it to some of our ideas to gain a better understanding of how it works and what it means.

Intorduction to Arduino Class

2012-02-21T17:37:00.000-08:00

Join us a Freeside next Thursday for an Introduction to Arduino Class. The class will be aimed at the basics of Arduino Programming, so some programming experience in any environment would be preferred, but is by no means necessarry. We will even have a limited number of Arduinos and Computers, however if you have the ability, please bring your own laptop and Arduino to work with.

Location: Freeside Atlanta
Time: 7:30 - 10:00 pm
E-Mail: freesideatlanta@googlegroups.com

Pictures from the Welding Class

2012-02-13T20:18:00.000-08:00

Just finished the Saturday series of welding classes at My Inventor Club. Matt from Freeside taught this one, but Shane from MIC does a series too.

Here's Newt on the MIG while Charlie and I are playing around with aluminum on the TIG.

Gloves and trendy jacket belong to the house, I just had to bring the glasses. Ear plugs may be a good idea too.

Here I am, grinding down a piece for an ugly, abstract sculpture to practice on.

All in all, we learned and then got to play with Oxy-Acetelene welding and cutting, grinding, portable band saws, MIG, Stick, TIG, and cut-off wheels. I came in with no experience and left with at least enough knowledge to not burn my own eyes out.

According to Matt, they do the classes as 3 weeklies on Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Saturdays with 2-4 person groups. Drop a line on the Freeside mailing list if you're interested and they'll put together a class.

Arduino Class

2012-02-12T06:43:00.000-08:00

Sort of late to the show but here we go:

Sign up today!

http://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/classes/arduino

Next Buildout March 3!

2012-02-09T16:52:00.000-08:00

Next buildout is scheduled for March 3, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM. For those not in the know, Buildout is when Freeside's members get for the purpose of making the space better, socializing, and eating food. Incidentally non-freesiders are more than welcome to show up, help, socialize, and then *maybe* become members afterward. Buildout's a great time for anyone to show they care for the space.

If you have an idea for what needs worked on, please add it to the task list here:
https://sites.google.com/site/freesideatl/build-out/to-do

If you need something for said task, such as a ladder, please feel free to add it to the list here, and we'll try our best to see it shows up.
https://sites.google.com/site/freesideatl/build-out/shopping-list

Incidentally you might notice that many of these items don't have a responsible person. If you can please try to take ownership of at least one task. If you don't know what the task involves, it's possible no on else does either. Take it anyway, and ask the list for advice!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of the officers directly (so as not to spam the list) or to ask the list.

See you there!

Stanford University Online Courses

2012-02-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

Stanford University will be offering free online classes this semester in a variety of fields. Students will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the class too. We at Freeside are forming a study/discussion group to help people through these classes and kick around ideas related to the subject matter, with a focus on the Technology Entrepreneurship classes. any of the classes are open for discussion, so feel free to grab what interests you.

The group will meet on Saturdays at 6pm. Classes still haven't opened yet, so it's not too late to sign up for one. You can find the main class here - http://www.venture-class.org/ and the links to the other classes are at the bottom.

The following classes will be offered this semester:

Entrepreneurship
Lean Launchpad
Technology Entrepreneurship

Medicine
     Anatomy

Civil Engineering
     Making Green Buildings

Electrical Engr.
     Information Theory

Complex Systems
     Model Thinking

Computer Science
     CS 101
     Machine Learning
     Software as a Service
     Human-Computer Interaction
     Natural Language Processing
     Game Theory
     Probabilistic Graphical Models
     Cryptography
     Design and Analysis of Algorithms I
     Computer Security

Meetings will be open to members and non-members, so feel free to drop in. We'll post and update on the Freeside mailing list once these classes start.

Reprap Firmware comparison, smoother prints

2011-12-22T03:21:00.000-08:00

I've been running Sprinter on a RAMPS 1.4 control board for my MendelMax since I built it a few weeks ago. This is the most common firmware in use, with the most community support. However there are other firmware options that are faster and more cutting edge, at the expense of having more bugs and a smaller user base. Today I switched to Marlin because I read that it handles acceleration between moves more smoothly, and can draw smooth arcs as well (a much more experimental feature).

I chose this funnel as my test print because the cone and cylinders comprising it cover a range of arc sizes.

On the left we have a print with Sprinter. There is a strong ridge at the layer change point near the left side, and additional ridges on every edge around the model. This print took about 40 minutes.

In the middle is the exact same gcode run by Marlin. The edge ridges are gone, but the layer change ridge is more pronounced, especially on the cylinder at the top. This is much closer to what the original model looks like.

On the right is Marlin with arc gcodes produced by Slic3r. It looks through the model for series of points that look like arcs and replaces them with arcs. This produces an exceptionally smooth model everywhere except for the layer change ridge. There was a mostly unrelated print failure around 70% of the way up, everything above that should be ignored for the purpose of this comparison.

This has been an educational experience. I've learned how to begin configuring a new firmware (Marlin has a LOT more functionality with regards to runtime configuration), and I got a print quality increase as well. Switching away from Sprinter is not for the faint of heart, but I'd advise everyone to try it at least once.

PS: The latter two prints produced progressively less vibration in my printer as well, which should allow me to greatly increase my print speed in the near future

Lights to the North

2011-12-21T09:21:00.000-08:00

Zane, a member of the 7Hills Makerspace (http://www.7hillsmake.org/) to the north of us, has made this great light display for in front of his house. "...powered by a bluetooth enabled Arduino..."

About $30 in parts and many hours with Zane's brain.

http://zanecochran.com/entry.php?blog_id=335

Check out their group at http://www.7hillsmake.org/ and tell them Freeside says "Hello."

2011-11-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

Our Dr. Glass and Sparr fight it out on who can create the fastest. From Dr. Glass:

This was part of a "Day Project" at FreesideAtlanta.org

In all fairness, Sparr and I became challenged in a Speed-Modeling contest. Me on Lightwave 3D and he on OpenSCAD. Sparr was victorious, but agreed to let me upload my model anyways. Thanks bud.

I'm including this original as well as the Freeside Atlanta emboss.

Sunrise Alarm Clock

2011-09-29T19:05:00.001-07:00

Now that winter is coming to the northern hemisphere, getting up for work means getting out of bed before the sun comes up. In order to help the natural waking mechanism of light, I've decided to hack together a sunrise alarm clock on a shoestring budget.

Part List:

Arduino
Real Time Clock Module (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/99)
24xAssorted LEDs (In my case: 3UV, 2 Blue, 4 Red, 3 Yellow, 12 White)
24xResistors, 220ohm
Solderless Breadboard
Assorted wires
3x74HC595 shift registers
A Shadow Display Box
Frosting Spray

To put this thing together I used Elco's ShiftPWM Library to control the 24 LEDs. You could go bigger, but I wanted this to all fit into the box.

Personally, I had some PCBs from a previous project that I could fashion to make the LEDs easier to mount.

Everything is hooked up like in the schematic:

The "To SCL" and "To SDA" lines go to the Real Time Clock Module.

The parts are all mounted to the backing board of the shadow display box like so:

Load the program below in and you can set the time on the clock with the following command in serial monitor:

T(00-59)(00-59)(00-23)(1-7)(01-31)(01-12)(00-99)

T(sec)(min)(hour)(dayOfWeek)(dayOfMonth)(month)(year)

You can then set the alarm with a command:

A(00-59)(00-23)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)(0-1)

A(min)(hour)(sun)(mon)(tue)(wed)(the)(fri)(sat)

The alarm will attempt to be done with the cycle at the appropriate time set, so it will start with the UV LEDs and move through the progression fading the LEDs in and out as indicated in the arrays at the top of the program.

Frost both sides of the glass for good distribution of light, then cut away the side of the box so that you can power the Arduino with it mounted inside the box.

This is a very sped up version of the alarm sequence looks like this... the lights at the beginning are part of the power up sequence of the Arduino.

Arduino Code... fast and dirty, I'm going to clean it up so that it works with alarm times at the borders of the day eventually...

Thanks to Freeside for a access to some of the parts and some soldering space and time.

Thanks to John Vaughters for the Clock Tutorial

Thanks to Elco for the ShiftPWM library

Makerbot Dual Extruder Demo

2011-09-25T13:08:00.001-07:00

I am coming to freeside tonight. I should be there around 7.30pm I finished the hardware build of the new dual extruders from makerbot. Also their new interface kit build. I'll be installing them and doing the software work, calibration and hopefully a print or new design for the dual extruders before the night is up. Since I am going to be in the space anyway, I am going to open this to anyone who wants to attend. If you are bored or free try to stop by...

Anyone interested in our progress on this is welcome to come read about it at http://www.linkreincarnate.com/

Free Stuff from Freeside!

2011-08-30T12:57:00.000-07:00

We will have some free freeside (free^2side?) keychains at our 3d printing presentation at Dragon*Con. In the meantime you can download the stl of the keychain hereand a few of our logo stl files as well.

New Video walkthrough!

2011-08-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a new video walkthrough of our space. Enjoy!

Thanks to Engunneer and PeterP for hosting!

Mini 3d printer meetup.

2011-08-15T12:54:00.000-07:00

We will be having an open house/mini 3d printer meetup this Friday (August 19) from 4-8 pm. All are welcome to attend. We will be taking apart an UP printer for documentation/reverse engineering as well as tweaking a few others. Come on by and get your geek on!

Open Source 3D Printing Class: 7/28/2011 @ 7:30pm

2011-07-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

Freeside Atlanta would like to invite everyone in the Atlanta area to a free introduction level class on open source 3D printing. Topics will include:

Basic Printer Operation
Various 3D printer designs including reprap and MakerBot
OpenSCAD modeling software
Common print materials

So if you an just getting interested in 3D printing, or are already involved in 3D printing, stop by Freeside this Thursday night at 7:30pm. People already familiar with open source 3D printing are also encouraged to come and help teach or just meet fellow enthusiasts.

Making print cartridges for a Z400/Z402 3D printer

2011-07-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

One of the costs of running an inkjet based 3D printer is that the cartridges have to be replaced on a regular basis. The Z400 and Z402 use Canon BC-20 ink cartridges which are readily available.

There are currently two known ways of making these cartridges ready for the printer.

The first method is to cut the cartridge in half, remove the foam inside, cut a Blue Falcon BD-50 Centrifuge tube in half, and epoxy it and a small O ring to the reservoir at the bottom of the cartridge. This is how the cartridges that are sold by Z Corp are made.

An alternative method is two drill two holes in the cartridge, epoxy down some type of barb, and flush the cartridge. This is the method I am currently using in my Z402. Click below for full instructions and a few pictures of the process.

I've done both methods, but always had trouble getting a good seal with the first method. Here's a few photos of the second method:

First, the Canon BC-20 print cartridge:

These remanufcatured cartridges are easily found online. It is also possible to find empty cartridges and refurbish them, but I've had better luck buying the refurbished ones directly.

First, mark two spots for drilling the holes, as shown below.

I recommend removing the label before drilling, but that is optional. If you have trouble with binder leaking out, try removing the label and roughing the surface up with a knife before drilling and gluing.

The next step is to choose what you're going to use to get the binder into and out of the cartridge. I recommend easily available inflator needles. Cut them down to about one to two inches in length, find a drill bit slightly smaller than the threaded part of the needle, and drill into the cartridge.

Once you've drilled both holes, clean them out with whatever tools you have on hand. You want the holes to be nice and clean.

Next, insert your nozzles in to the now drilled holes. You may need to stretch the hole out a bit. If so, use a pair of needle nose pliers. Insert them (closed) into the hole, and move it around and push it in a bit further. It should open up the hole a bit.

You should now be able to thread the inflator nozzles into the cartridge, as shown.

I recommend that you insert the threaded part of the nozzles into the hole, and use a pair of small pliers to turn them until they are almost flush with the plastic from the cartridge.

The next step is to epoxy the nozzles down, and block off the air vent at the top of the cartridge. Mix up some five minute epoxy, and apply it all around the nozzles, and to the hole on the top of the cartridge.

Now wait for the epoxy to dry, and you have a new Z400/402 print cartridge! You will need to remove the tubing from the original ZCorp cartridge, and zip tie it over the new posts. If you have trouble with leaks, some teflon tape can be wrapped around the inflator nozzles. The top nozzle is for drainage, and the bottom nozzle is for fresh binder.

Here's a photo of the new cartridge, installed and ready to print.

You may want to blow air or binder mixture in to the cartridge to remove all of the existing ink. You may have a few layers of printing before the new binder starts to flow, so I recommend:

- Blow air into the cartridge until no more ink comes out

- (Optional) inject binder into the cartridge and keep going until it comes out the proper color

- Start a long print using waste / old powder, and keep the machine running until you see the binder coming through cleanly.

It may sound like a big job, but it can be done in under 10 minutes once you've gotten good at it. Here's a photo of my most recent print, Mr Stephen Colbert:

This method of making cartridges was invented by JC Wang, and documented here. Larry Trowell helped with creating this tutorial, and restoring the Z402 printer.

Now that you can get a print cartridge for a reasonable cost, you might need some new powder and binder. Follow Open3DP for more developments in open source 3D printing and rapid prototyping.

The bust of Stephen Colbert was printed using XS1 binder and USG Hydroperm powder.

Freeside Buildout 7/9!

2011-07-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hey, this is Pepper! We got a lot of clean up work today! We painted the kitchen and the back hallway. Work was done, accomplishments made!

We also painted the back hallway wall a lovely chartruese (bwahaha) and took care some of the less seemly graffiti. Next buildout will be scheduled in the near future! :D

Open House this Saturday, June 11th

2011-06-06T06:46:00.001-07:00

Miss all those Tuesday meetings because you don't live close and hate downtown traffic? Here's your chance to come check us out on a weekend!
There will be plenty of members hanging out at the space doing stuff that interests us. (3D printing, metal pouring, etc). Stop by and hang out.
All day Saturday (11Jun).

Bring projects to show off, or projects you'd like some advice on. Bring friends and friends of friends! Weather permitting, there will be grilling.

This event is FREE and OPEN to the public. Like all of our events, donations are appreciated. Children must bring their parents in order to attend.

Add this event to your Calendar!

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