After a long time, another post! We have been to 4 states on the west coast of America for almost 4 weeks, after that a pneumonia kept me from doing stuff.
Slowly, I started finishing my Workshop/Lab for my new business. So I didn’t have many things to post about. So now I’ll post something about this Home Assistant solution, because there was not a decent post to be found about this solution.
Some history: A long time ago I made a 4 button 4 led controller with my friend Duncan. At that time we were using Domoticz, and used a NodeMcu with ESP Easy to read the button states and made the leds act as status lights.
This is made using a NodeMCU (8266) but ESP32, Wemos, whatever will work also. We wanted to repurpose the old NodeMCU, instead of building a new one.
So Migrating to Home Assistant: How to install ESPHome is easy to find on the internet.
Below is an example for 4 push buttons which TOGGLE a Home Assistant entity. And the LEDs will give a feedback of the state of an entity.
Note: There is 1 out of 4 configured like that. The other ones are generic. One button toggles my shelly lab ledlight, and lights up a led when toggled!
I’ve printed two books using the Lulu service. (One for Tyrone) When they arrived, I noticed some faults. Lucky Lulu will be printing them again for me.
The book has over 500 pages and has a nice hardcover.
And I’ve been busy building a Mega Tower with 4 Motherboards. This will have a superb processing power! .. not. It houses some old motherboards for hardcore machine coding on real old hardware.
From top to bottom: 8088, 8086, 80386, 80484
Todo:
Rework on the cables
3D print an information plaque on the front of each board
Add a control panel on each board
Maybe some dust cover would be nice
I can remove the boards, and place them on a table. I’ve made some custom feet for them. Twist and lock by my own design.
Padded feet
The openscad files:
The locking is done by making the cylinder slightly oval by 0.5mm
FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeller made primarily to design real-life objects of any size. Parametric modelling allows you to easily modify your design by going back into your model history and changing its parameters.
Designed a case for a measure tool, I’ve printed a case for a while ago.
What are my thoughts : I like it, I like the setup, workbench and the fact that you can edit every step again.
I’ve made a script to view the camera using vlc. But it was much work. Now I’ve installed the HACS Bambu integration in Home Assistant. Much easier to get an image.
While Bambu studio is nice, I started using FreeCad. I still use OpenScad and Blender, but I really try to use a CAD program for modeling 3D prints (technical prints). For sculpting I still use blender.
Add filament and print model (after calibration process)
All fine and dandy, problems? Check YouTube for solutions.
What do you know about 3D printing?
People are forgetting about the knowledge to get at this point ..]…
How does it work, what is needed?
My first 3D printer. Lets compare:
Get printer in parts
Assemble
Calibrate
Manual bed calibration (*) 5 point calibration step by step, needs user input
Test print
Fail several times
Try different sticky methods (hairspray, double sided tape, gluestick)
Bed warping? Add tape to underside
Feed filament by cutting at 45 degree angle and manual feeding.
Load and unload using buttons and feeding until previous color flushed
Learn about Gcodes
color changing? split part and pause manually, switch manually.
out of filament, problem with printing? start the whole print again
no out of filament detector, no temperature failsave
Filament error? Start again or split gcode by hand and superglue parts
Clean plate, clean head
Manual change temperature of head and bed when problems arise
Using multiple software tools to design and slice
Put your gcode on a sdcard to print, or later via octoprint
Every next print start at calibrate in above list.
What did you learn? How your machine works and reacts. Fix extruding problems, temperature, filament wetness, starting layers. Difference between PLA, PETG, ABS in great detail. Learn to wait Troubleshooting in general
Never forget where we came from! 40 years old, but getting available to the masses after 2000.
While watching this movie on YouTube, I recognised several people in small roles. Most of them their first roles. (I never knew about this short before last night)
It is the first (short) movie by Richard Curtis, a (now) famous writer/director. (Mr Bean, The Black Adder) He only did “Not the nine O’clock News” before that.
Funny to see the young faces.
Many have worked together after this short.
Do you know who is who?
I made a short incomplete link graph.
"If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing."