TheMakerz #15 – 15 … Again, New Prusa, Giant Classic Skeleton Minifigure and Mostly 3D Printed Keyboard

Direct MP3 Download: TheMakerz #15 – 15 … Again, New Prusa, Giant Classic Skeleton Minifigure and Mostly 3D Printed Keyboard


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Email – themakerz@podnutz.com

Hosts:
DoorToDoorGeek – Steve McLaughlin – http://Podnutz.com
Jonas Rullo aka Bambiker,  aka jrullo on IRC Tumblr: http://bambiker.tumblr.com/
Chad Cory – youtube – watchmydiy   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnXEH0eHynU464l5Lw9zyEw  etsy shop – c3dbycac  https://www.etsy.com/shop/c3dbycac
Brett Hansen – @Newstalgic Twitter
Aaron Turnbull – aar510430@gmail.com
flyingRich – http://flyingRich.com
Liam Tidwell – LiamTek.com  https://www.etsy.com/shop/3DTek
James –  james@cad9.design

Contact:
Email – themakerz@podnutz.com
Instagram – http://instagram.com/themakerzpodnutz/
MeWe – https://mewe.com/group/5884ebf15b25bc52222e1ffc
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC254waH49Ar28JfPvVnhw-A

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Notes:

 

Aaron Turnbull – Lego Skeleton build- https://www.myminifactory.com/object/classic-skeleton-minifig-42077

24/20-pin ATX Computer PC Power Supply Bench Top Power Board Module Adapter – https://www.ebay.com/itm/24-20-pin-ATX-Computer-PC-Power-Supply-Bench-Top-Power-Board-Module-Adapter-/152278180148

Jonas Rullo – Built: Mostly 3D printed keyboard is done!. Break: It’s been 28 days since the last breaking incident.  Learned: Don’t buy anything from Home Depot unless you’re installing it yourself. Service is horrific and nobody has any power to make useful decisions or change the process.

New Prusa Research – king of printing has a feature rich new model ready for pre-order: http://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i3-mk3-kit.html

New Einsy board is the key: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuvaSTg33r4

Most notable:

  • Steel PEI painted (magnetic) sheet build plate cover – self aligns
    • Removeable to bend and pop off your parts.
  • Resumes on lots of typical errors
    • Optical Filament sensor: printer pauses when filament is not moving, is missing, or jams. Restarts at last position when corrected.
      • Pause to change color can be pre-empted any time from the control panel. – no need to pre-arrange color change by layer.
    • Skipped step sensor: auto-resumes from last error. Push your print head off axis while printing and it will self correct
    • Power outage resume: Unplug the power and the printer stops. The new board will save it’s position in memory and restart after re-heating to previous temps after power is back on.
  • Only $50 more than the previous model.

Keycaps can be printed but should be low layer height for good quality. Same for any small part really.

http://www.meshconvert.com – Site converts .stl files to other formats.

Mostly 3D printed 40% clicky keyboard. The “Let’s Split” also known as the Planck (non-split version of same)

 

 

                                          

Good

  • I’ve only been typing on it a couple days but I’m already enjoying getting use to the layout.
  • Several key layouts can be used at once.
    • Normally you would use the shift key to get numbers or the symbols under the numbers. You still have the shift key but with the limited number of keys, two more keys are “shift” keys. The extra keys are “Raise” and “Lower”. These “shift” from one layout to the next.
  • The lower key count is beginning to be useful.
    • Previously I would take one hand off the home row to use the arrow keys when Vim keys weren’t useful. Now, my arrow keys are on the home row. Holding down the “Raise” key with my thumb, my other fingers are free to use the home row as arrows without losing the locational feel on the keyboard.
  • The default LED patterns are pretty cool
  • Because you have access to the firmware, you can make up any key combo you want.
    • You can make up your own key codes.
    • You can program combinations of key codes into one key code. You press a key and execute a macro.
  • Don’t forget about sound. This is next on my list. As far as I can tell, it just takes a speaker, a small resistor and a small ceramic capacitor.
    • You can add a speaker to your keyboard like the old days. Remember when keyboards had a speaker inside?
    • You can program your own songs in 8 bit glory, or play some of the firmware defaults.
      • Plays a tune when you switch modes
      • Plays a tune when you activate and deactivate a mode
    • There’s even a music keyboard mode. Plays notes when pressing different keys.
  • Some instructions talk about having to figure out what serial port your keyboard is connected to for flashing. The latest version of QMK is almost automatic.
    • The new firmware has a build in script that detects the serial port when you click the reset button on the board you want to flash.
      • First run the firmware flashing script. After you see the compile finish, you’ll see several empty lines start scrolling. Click the reset button then and the port to flash is detected. You’ll see a progress bar of the flashing process and a success message.
  • Each Arduino pro micro has 32K of flash memory and there’s two in the Let’s Split setup. That’s a lot of room to add your own programming and key maps. That’s 64k if you count both sides, the same amount of memory in a Commodore 64 back in the day.
  • The 3D printed case fits together great. I printed mine in clear for the LED fun. Several others you’ll find are laser cut acrylic plates that use common stand-offs for holding things together.
  • You can print your own keycaps. I found some keycaps on thingiverse and cut out a finger divot on top using tinkercad. https://photos.app.goo.gl/GsoyjCZps2CbzIdW2

 

 

Not great, but mostly my fault

  • There are plenty of instructions showing how to assemble the keyboard but I did not find a schematic of the circuit board itself. That makes it hard to troubleshoot if you have a problem. Luckily it’s just a keyboard so there are only four possibilities: A bad diode/installing a diode wrong, bad switches (not very likely), a bad circuit board (not very likely) or a bad/mis-installed arduino.
  • My mistakes
    • I left some pads soldered on the wrong side of the board and didn’t test the board before setting the switches. The fix was to unsolder two switches above the pads and unsolder them.
    • I actually had another problem. Even after fixing the soldered pads, one keyboard side didn’t work at all after re-flashing. After trying to un-solder one of the arduino boards, I scratched a trace. I had to replace the arduino. I did plan ahead though. I ordered 4 originally because they were super cheap.

Keycap puller: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1318655

Keycaps: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:281103

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2314316 – works well for my switches.

 

Arduino Pro-tip: When working with Arduino or electronics that need data connection through a USB cable; make sure your cable is actually a data cable.

While flashing one of the boards, it looked like my board was bad because the computer wouldn’t detect it plugged in or reset. However the problem was the USB cable. I switched to a data cable and problem solved. Flashing continued.

Same for a 3D printer or anything using USB for data.  If when setting up your 3D printer, you did not use the USB cable included and you get no connection, check the cable. The problem may be that the USB cable isn’t a data cable. Always swap out the cable to troubleshoot.

An easy test is to try connecting a USB disk drive with the cable you’re troubleshooting.

Chad Cory – helping a guy with https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0QHAF7/

Got my flsun kossel delta printer running but still no first print

Building a electric kettle

http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-brewing-system/

DoorToDoorGeek – The Slim Wallet https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1648262

Liam TIdwell –

James –

Brett Hansen –

RIchard Hughes –

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Liam TIdwell – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffg9dArNfCg&t=413 Cost calculator & gcode analyzer for better time estimates