You Always Like Machines

Joey: Why is this paint brush yours?
Me: Because I bought it.
Joey: Oh. Why do you always have all the machines that you need?
Me: Because I bought them with my money.
Joey: You always like machines. I think you are like Donatello.

Waffles

Me: Do you want waffles?
Joey: Yeah, but I want syrup on them so they don't taste bad.
Me: Are you saying my waffles taste bad?
Joey: Yeah, but I want syrup on them.

GCODE

G-code and M-code are systemic methods for computer numerical control (CNC) of axial motors.

Today I wrote my first G-code file from scratch. This is an automation-assisted z-axis leveling sequence for my 3D printer:

;Printer Bed Calibration, with user feedback. JOSBORNE 27Jul2015
G21 ; set units to millimeters
G28 ;home all axes
T0 ;select tool 0 (extruder 1)
G1 Z10 F1000 ;move to Z 10mm, set Feedrate 1000
G1 X100 Y100 F1000 ;move to X 100mm and Y 100mm, set Feedrate 1000
M104 S0 ;set extruder temp to 0C and return control to host immediately
G90 ;use absolute coordinates, realative to origin of machine
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;first iteration
;back right corner
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X104 Y110 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;back left corner
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X30 Y110 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;front left corner
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X30 Y0 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;front right corner
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X104 Y0 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;center
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X70 Y55 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;second iteration
;back right corner
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X104 Y110 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;back left corner
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X30 Y110 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;front left corner
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X30 Y0 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;front right corner
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X104 Y0 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
;center
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X70 Y55 F3000
G1 Z0.300 F1000
M71 (Select to continue...) ;display message and wait for button push
M70 P200 (Calibration Complete.) ;display message for 200 seconds (or ms?)
G1 Z10 F1000
G1 X140 Y110 Z50 F3000
M84 ;stop idle hold

Bedtime Stories

Tonight we read from Edgar Allen Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle before bed and we found the following.

From The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

"This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that it means?" 

"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise [sic] before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

Beware the narrative fallacy.

Level-Up

I gave my Materia some upgrades.

A guard for my power switch so I don't accidentally abort any print jobs.

Extra cooling fans to keep my motor drivers cool under the hood.

Spring guides to help with printing bed leveling.

A large heat sink for the extrusion motor. This has helped enormously to prevent overheating and filament clogging.

Swimming with Cabbages

The following is from The Tree of Knowledge, by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela.

A story is told of an island somewhere and its inhabitants. The people longed to move to another land where they could have a healthier and better life. The problem was that the practical arts of swimming and sailing had never been developed--or may have been lost long before. For that reason, there were some people who simply refused to think of alternatives to life on the island, whereas others intended to seek a solution to their problems locally, without any thought of crossing the waters. From time to time, some islanders reinvented the arts of swimming and sailing. Also from time to time a student would come up to them, and the following exchange would take place: 

"I want to swim to another land."
"For that you have to learn how to swim. Are you ready to learn?"
"Yes, but I want to take with me my ton of cabbages."
"What cabbages?"
"The food I'll need on the other side or wherever it is."
"But what if there's food on the other side?"
"I don't know what you mean. I'm not sure. I have to bring my cabbages with me."
"But you won't be able to swim with a ton of cabbages. It's too much weight."
"Then I can't learn how to swim. You call my cabbages weight. I call them my basic food." 

The same sentiment is expressed by Thomas Friedman in The Lexus and the Olive Tree. The Lexus embodies progress and technology. The Olive Tree represents tradition. Progress requires the ability to climb fences and defeat the boxes in your life.

Project Nightlight

My first project for my 3D printer was a nightlight for the kids. The photocell senses light levels and turns on the RGB LED when it gets dark. The case was designed in TurboCAD Pro and printed on an Arduino Materia 101. The brains of the device is an Arduino Mini Pro.

Robots Building Robots

From "Second Variety", a short story by Phillip K. Dick:

"There is no race after man."
"No? Why not? Maybe we're seeing it now, the end of human beings, the beginning of the new society."
"They're not a race. They're mechanical killers. You made them to destroy. That's all they can do. They're machines with a job."

Breaking Badly

Arduino powered printer. Still in the works. Had some trouble with the z-stop. Ran the printing bed right into the extruder nozzle. Still not sure what kind of damage it caused.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Midnight Hacker

Here are some pictures of my first Computer Numerical Control (CNC) project.