the plot thickens...

Counting lines from ls

2011-10-10T11:47:00.001+02:00

I needed to count how many directories where in a directory and print the directory number in the output. It was easily done like this:

$ ls -1 | cat -n
1 CBMessageGenerator
2 CRFeedback
3 CRHelpProvider
4 CRhelp
5 CellDiscrepancyManager
6 ConformanceChecker
7 ControlRoomDeskTop_VFI
8 DDSEmailLog
9 DTOutputFileBuilder
10 DTReportServer
11 DatabaseInstallScripts
12 DynoDBLib
13 DynoIntelliShed
14 DynoMail
15 FTPPoll
16 FTPPusher
17 HeartBeat
18 IPBrokerConfig
19 ReportBuilder2.0
20 ReportBuilder2.1
21 ReportingFramework1.1
22 Scheduler_jqf
23 StaticReportGenerator
24 StaticReportNotificationsEmailGenerator
25 SwarmDDS
26 SwarmDDSProcessManager
27 SwarmDTChasis
28 SwarmDTChasis_VFI
29 SwarmDTLoader
30 SwarmDTProcessServer
31 libDynoMail

ls | cat -n
gives the same result.

XYZ Dark Vader Test

2010-06-17T08:47:00.003+02:00

Last weekend, I found some time to work on my RepStrap once again! There was a problem with the Z plain. I thought it was the stepper driver board, because there was smoke coming out of it, the last time I tried running it, but it turn out it was something wrong with the stepper motor. It appeared to be seized!

I found a replacement stepper motor in an old dot matrix printer, and swapped it out. It was at that moment that my dad walked in and asked what was wrong with the previous stepper motor. I showed him it would not move, not even if you took a pliers, gripped the axle and tried turning it. My dad asked if he could open it up and take it apart, and since it was not working, I said sure, since I was curious to see what the insides of a stepper motor looked like... Once it was open, we could see the two coils. Everything looked fine. There where 2 bearings on the top and bottom of the axis. My dad thought that the problem could be a seized bearing, but they where fine... So I tried again with the pliers... and after applying some force, it began so spin like the others when you finger-turn them...

So I hooked it back up and tested it... and it worked... I found the test code for the steppers on the reprap site and burned it to the arduino... I had to comment out some code... like PSU stuff, and the stuff for the enable pins... I will post my code, but here is the link to the original for now: http://reprap.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/reprap/trunk/reprap/firmware/Sanguino/Sanguino3G/testers/imperial_stepper/imperial_stepper.pde

Here is the result!

Wiring up - Round 1

2009-10-08T22:06:00.006+02:00

last night, (as in the date on the photos... I'm re posting this from my back up blog site...) I finally took the time to work on my repstrap again… when I say TOOK the time… look at the time on the photos… all in all I spent 4hours working on the robot.

This is what I did:

I placed all the boards on the perspex, and drilled holls for them… making good use of my drill press no photos of that needed.
Starting with the arduino and shield, I put :: M3×50 machine screws > washer > PCB > clear tubing > perspex > washer > nut.
Here is the arduino mounted
Here are the 3 stepper driver boards mounted with the arduino showing. This is a view from behind.
Here are all the boards mounted, the two new additions are the PWM driver & the DC motor driver.
And now my wiring nightmares begin… Just take a look at this rats nest! what a mess…
Next I mounted the perspex to the Z axis of the rep strap. The Z axis was taken off to make this a bit easier…
Here is a close up of the clear tubing. Its purpose is to act as a “shock absorber” for bumps and also so that the perspex does not crack if I tighten the screws too tight… which I do… The clear tubing was used to attach all PCB’s
Because the rats nest is such a mess, I am now going to have to de-solder the IDL headers and hard wire cat 5e cable in its place, this will make it easier to connect to the arduino break away shield and easier to route the wires.

Stepper demo

2009-04-07T22:29:00.004+02:00

Here is a short introduction to my RepStrap or CNC machine.

I demo the stepper driver and the stepper motor running the RepStrap test code, stepping the Y axis.

As mentioned... I have no idea how to tell what parts of the wires coming out of the stepper motor are the A,B,C,D wires. All I do know is which two wires make a pair. I couldn't figure out the ABCD cables connection block either. I clamped the wires to small metal parts, then put them inside the plastic female. When I tried to plug the connections block into its male pins the wires poped out. So I have just improvised for now.

The ribbon cable that has ten (10) wires in it... I cant figure out why there was a need for ribbon cable and where the other end of the ribbon cable is supposed to plug into? since only three (3) wires are used and there is no place on the Arduino or the break away board for ribbon cable connection blocks...

Lastly, I may have popped the main or secondard IC on the stepper driver board. I might have not connected the wires properly or something. Nothing was happening & the heat sink was getting really hot. Hope I haven't done too much damage there.

Final Assembly part 1

2009-04-06T21:59:00.008+02:00

Last Thursday evening I had a go at assembling the final bits and pieces of the RepStrap. I started trying to mount the opto end stops... I came into a few annoying problems.

As you can see, the RepRap opto end stop does not like my Perspex opto end stop spacer... My holes where not lined up 100% and if I recall correctly either my dad or I said that we wern't building a swiss clock and we could just drill holes where ever so long as its roughly right.... WRONG!!!
Here is a shot of the reverse side once I forced the parts together... as you can see, its far from square.

Then there was a nother battle trying to get that to line up with my holes I drilled into the X & Y end brackes. Ok so I didn't drill my holes properly and rushed them a bit... But does this image not look a bit odd??? Where is the ethernet cable (cat5e) supposed to go? How is it supposed to reach into the connector? & yes if I swapped the opto end stop around that didn't help either because then its up against the drive screw / threaded rod.

I had to cut a bit off the end of the X stages threaded rod. I had a first go at using my Dremel. Its pretty cool...

Unfortunately the cutting disks dont last too long and snap easily... I borke 5 cutting disks that night! I only managed to cut both sides of the Y stage and one side of the X stage.

The next things I need to get done is, cut the other side of the X stage and cut for the Z stage as well. I ordered a piece of Perspex to mount all the PCB's and the hacked power supply on to.

One thing I can't quite understand is why or what is the great need for a OPTICAL end stop and not just a simple limit switch??? surely a simple limit switch is way cheaper???

That goes for the stepper driver board... It looks a lot more complicated than a board that Murray Horn designed.

If I get time - this could be a year from now - I will try contribute my modifications to the RepStrap and show where I deviated and what I think should change to have a successful RepStrap, but just a bit cheaper.

So far I would replace the Z bearing arm holders... The things that hold the Z satage to the vertical base. I used angle brackets for that. I would swap the opto end stops for limit switches. I would use Murray Horn's stepper boards to drive my stepper motors...

One last very annoying thing... I ordered the electronics from the RRRF. They were expensive and took a long time to arrive. The name says Complete Arduino Electronics Kit. In the RepStrap build instructions it say I will need SIX (6) opto end stops... WHY then does the COMPLETE Arduino kit only come with THREE (3) opto end stops???

Very annoying... Now I am going to have to etch another three (3) opto end stops myself - which will take time - and even worse... I will have to covert that opto end stop double sided board to a single sided board - which will take time - because I only have single sided copper and it took me forever (3 months) to master etching PCB's with ferric chloride... stuff I hate! :(

My Dremel

2009-03-29T22:19:00.005+02:00

I haven't had the time to blog in a while and a lot has happened so I will have to wade though all the back log. I bought a Dremel 300 to use on the Mc Wire RepStrap. I should mention that I finished building ( and testing) all the electronics this weekend and am just waiting for some Perspex to mount all the PCB's on.

Here is the Dremel in its box.

Here is the Dremel's carry case.

Here is the Dremel.

The idea for the Dremel is that it will let me etch PCB's with it and mill things like aluminium and wood, plastic too. Here is the instructables link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-to-Build-Desk-Top-3-Axis-CNC-Milling-Machine/ and here is the RepStrap link: http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/McWire_Cartesian_Bot_1_2

Drill Press

2009-02-11T10:03:00.010+02:00

This past weekend my Dad found an old drill press hidden away in the hardware. It's from 1613BC & weighs 6 tons. (It took me about 20min to clean it from all the dust) Its a manual drill press! You have to wind a handle to make it work! There are two speeds! slow & very slow! I attempted to drill ~150 holes for the arduino board using this drill press. Take a look at the raw power in the video!

I tried to drill a hole... Broke the first bit on the first try! The chuck comes down with too much force & when the pit hits the fiber glass it snaps! This was with a 1mm bit! I put a new bit in & tried to control the decent a bit better. I then realised that if I let go the handle, the momentum from the top piece of spinning metal at the top, is enough to make the handle swing round with enough force to knock teeth out! I got fed up very quickly with this... It just wasn't going to work!
This how ever was! :) Its a Ryobi drill press, with 5 speeds & a 13mm chuck! Cost me R450! It was a demo model at some other hardware & they wanted to get rid of it... & I wanted it!

Here you can see it in action! I didn't set the bit in the chuck 100% so it wobbled a bit... I just wanted to test it out & drill some holes! Works like a dream! (& yes, when I drill proper boards I will have 1 hand holding the PCB & 1 on the acent/decent leaver so the PCB wont spin!)

SUCCESS: Toner trasfer 3rd try

2009-02-02T10:58:00.011+02:00

FINALLY!

I finally have the toner transfer method for single sided boards down! The important thing is to use PHOTO PAPER... I was trying to get away with standard printer/copier paper...
I used HP Everyday Photo Paper, on an HP LaserJet 1012 printer. 25 sheets cost me R75, so R3 a shot. Let me explain why you need to use photo paper instead of normal paper... Toner is plastic particles... that get burned on to the paper by the laser in the laser printer. On the normal paper the plastic toner particles get infused with the paper fiber & then they dont seperate properly in water... maybe if I left a board in water over night normal paper could work...? (I'm not really patient enough to find out...) With photo paper... & if you look click the packaging phtoto to enlarge it, you will see it is SEMI-GLOSSY... I think this means that there is only 1 glossy side... which is perfect for me... the glossy side is glossy enough... so the toner gets burned onto the thin plastic layer of gloss on the phtoto paper... which allows for this... :)
The paper layer magically seperates from the thin plastic layer! I just pulled one corner of the paper & it all came off at once together!
I rubbed the rest of the paper residue off with my thumb, took the board out & dried it... it looked like this! What you see is a thin layer of burned gloss! so I...
Re submerged the board in the water, got an old tooth brush & scrubbed that all off... scrubed pretty heard... the toner was firmly attached to the copper.
& the finished result :) pretty much perfect... there were two tracks that had a small gap in them...
It was a hot day, not a cloud in the sky, probably 35 degrees Celsius! I heard the ferric chloride reaction works better the warmer it is & in direct sun light... which it did. I used another tooth brush to rub the copper. It was a much faster reaction! Probably under 10 minutes... & yes! I am fed up with the smell of ferric chloride & the fumes that it releases. I decided to use the protective equipment I have! Because I was using a tooth brush in the ferric chloride, some ferric chloride sprinkled its self onto my cloths :(
This is the result after rinsing in water. I'm told another way to speed up the reaction is to put a second paint tray with boiling water under the paint tray with ferric chloride! This also work, I made a stepper driver this weekend using the hot water in the bottom paint tray, it was a cloudy day that day... the reaction was very quick, also around 10minutes or less!
Left: the new PCB etched, Right: an older PCP.
I left the toner on, so I could identify where to drill the holes a bit easier... I think all the holes, pads & via's should be 1mm! getting hold of 0.7mm, 0.8mm was difficult... I couldn't find any 0.9mm bits! My drill press is still on its way! I used a drill press for the first stepper board! A drill press makes a 1hr40min job complete in 20 minutes! I am seriously considering trying a board with an SMD component! since I have my toner transfer method working well... I dont want to WASTE time drilling holes!
I placed all the components on the board just to make sure all the holes were drilled & that everything could fit where it was supposed to. I have 5mm LED's, but now see that i need 3mm LED's instead.
View from the side.
View from under.
I decided to put the top ink on!
I didn't align it 100% but it was good enough, also I didnt let the paper soak in water long enough so some markings stayed on the paper...
I then cleaned the toner off with thinners & soldered the most exciting componet first... I now realize that the smallest components should be first... resistors...
capacitors & the choke
I started tinning as I went along. I now know a better technique! Tin the whole board first, then put in the components!
resistors & diodes...
tin
tin for more components. my soldering iron's thermostat was still broken at this time so the tracks started lifting off the fiber glass :(
Finished top view
Finished bottom view.

I read somewhere that opaque transparencies can be used... when you iron the PCB layout onto the coper, just the toner moves off the transparency then you submurge in cold water & the plactic transparency just seperates from the copper, leaving the toner on the copper & then you can reuse the transparency :) I might trie this...

so im waiting for my soldering iron to come back from repair before make another arduino, & then make some stepper motor dirver boards!

Weekend Build 2

2009-01-25T00:00:00.005+02:00

This Weekend (Saturday to be precise) I finished the McWire RepStrap mechanical side... The Z stages was all I needed to get done...
My captive nut was secures by a copper U shaped clamp. It had 6mm holes already. I counter sunk the top side of all the stages so that the mounting screws can be flush. Its an M8 nut.
X stage with captive nut & M8 thread rod. Some 20mm tubing is used to connect the stepper motor to the thread rod.
Same thing for the Y stage.
Vertical base with Flange attached, Z rails & the Z bearing arms to hold the Z stage to it.
Close up of the Z bearing arms on the vertical base. I used some angle bracket to attach the bearing arms. The holes that mount the bracket to the perspex are 3mm, I had to widen the other end to 6mm so that the bearing arms could be held properly with a M6 bolt. There is a self tapping screw with a spring to pull the arms together.
There we are... all done! The flange is mounted with (not enough) thread lock. Everything has just enough clearance to pass. Click on the pic for a high res view! You'll see that the Z stage is leavel!

Weekend Build 1

2009-01-23T11:58:00.005+02:00

Here are the photos & the story for last weekend's build!
Bolt -> perspex -> washer -> bearing -> washer -> nut
I bought the wrong size bolts so I had to cut them down to size.
I had to clamp a #13 spanner to the table then use a screw driver to fasten it.
The first bearing arm done.
There were fine particles of metal powder form the hack saw that stuck to the bearing. :( they were all nice & oily, moved nicely when I bought them. Not any more.

BREAKAGES

The hack saw blade that came with the hack saw snapped in 4 places!
Bearing arm shattered! I think I had the clam on too tight whilst trying to cut the bolt shorter...
X stage perfectly parallel with 1 Y rail support mounted
Y sage on top of X stage, all working nicely after a 2nd attempt at the y stage rails... the first attempt was badly miss aliened. Take a look at everything working here: http://iouzo.blogspot.com/2009/01/x-y-done.html

This weekend I will try get the Z stage done & then start making PCB's again.

X & Y done

2009-01-20T18:05:00.003+02:00

Over the weekend I build the RepStrap... taking lots of photos of all the steps... somehow my camera's memory card became corrupt & I can't access the pics... for now... I'll find a way to get them off the camera.

In the mean time... check out my X & Y stages! Not bad hey :)

McWire - metal done: Part 4

2009-01-15T21:53:00.005+02:00

Today I did all the metal work.
In my lunch hour I went to the skate shop & bought 16 ABEC3 bearings for R160 so R10 a bearing...
Cut the aluminum angle iron [35mm X 35mm] with a hack saw. It was a new hack saw so i just used the blade that it came with, which seamed pretty decent since it was a ~R150 hack saw... I clamped it at 1 end & left the other (larger) end to hang free, that way the weight of the bigger piece would make a gap & it worked out easier to cut this way than having both sides clamped.
The cutting left burs that need deburing, so I...
Used a file so file down all the burs, using my thumb to gage weather it was acceptable.
Drilled all the angle aluminum. Looking that the line of the door & the line of the drill bit, you can see I'm not quite parallel... not quite square :(
& again there was "walking" of the drill bit... really annoying because once your at this point you have to continue.
I had to convert the 21" & 13" to millimeters for the U aluminum.
I tried to use as much down force as possible & to cut as fast as possible. Both the U and angle aluminum pieces can be cut in under 30 seconds. Aluminum is a softish metal I'm told.
There you see all the metal cut to size. I will only drill the U aluminum once i have the fasteners for the perspex... which I will have to sort out on Saturday.

McWire - plastics done: Part 3

2009-01-14T23:41:00.004+02:00

Today i finished off the plastics...
I counter sunk all the bearing arms.
Used prit to glue all the stage stickers on then used the clear tape on the edges so that the drilling & jigsaw cutting wouldn't lift the sticker. I made this observations a bit too late... when drilling, just use the weight of the drill as the downward force, if you apply pressure to the drill while drilling perspex... it snaps/shears!
Here you can see the jigsaw fastened under the chip wood, & the chip wood clamped to the ironing board. I trimmed of the exes perspex from the vertical base & Z stage, there was s strip on the Y satge... i can't remember about the X stage. However... this method of cutting long pieces of perspex worked really well. My Dad poped in & suggested a guide rails srewed into the chip wood because i was drifting a bit... but i don't thing I drifted a significat amount...
Good advice thou...
Stuck all the PTFE bearing stickers on & used a heavy duty scissors to cut them to size. Then drilled them & pealed off the stickers.
There we go... all the plastic done...

I'm still waiting for the springs, skate bearings & nails - we might use screws that have a 90 degree bend in them already... the ones used to hang keys on... instead of the nail method...

I recieved the aluminium today. I will cut it to size... as soon as i convert all the sized to the METRIC system... I still need to suggest to the reprap team to put all measurments in imperial & metric... some of the drill & screw sizes sound rediculous... like this... 6 and 3/3 inches... & 5/16" compaired to say 220mm & 45mm... the metric system just sounds more human... water freezes at 0 (ZERO) degrees & boils at 100 degrees... not 32 & 212 or what ever its is in the imperial system... In anycase... I thought the international standard for measurements was the metric system. SI = Metric!

McWire - Perspex parts: Part 2

2009-01-14T00:05:00.016+02:00

My Dad came home today with all the plastic bits... the perspex & PTFE bearings...
4 A4 size perspex sheets for the X, Y, Z & Backing stages. 2 Strips of perspex for the bearing arms. A meter of PTFE bronze plastic for the bearings. All the perspex is 5mm in thickness.
I decided to cut a PTFE bearing first. My dad & I had an argument about printing out the templates & using them... so we drilled the holes with out sticking templates on top... then put the drilled baring against the template... & it was slightly off... so we used the templated from here onward.
Easy descision really... (His argument was that it would take too long to cut them out & stick them on...)
We didn't have any prit so we used clear tape. A little tricky to align on the perspex.
Drilled the holes.
Cut the end stop off. I clamped the strip to a piece of chip wood & cut through the perspex & the wood so that when I got near to the end of the perspex it wouldn't flap around with the vibration of the blade.
There's the first end stop... not to bad I think! Its a bit big on the sides but I will file it down later if it is an issue.
After idividually sticking on each sticker, drilling the holes, then cutting it off, we decided to get clever... I stuck the remaining 5 end stop stickers on, leaving enough space for the jigsaw to cut inbetween, then drilled all the holes at once.
My Dad drew some alignment markings & screwed the jigsaw in place & flipped it over so that just the blade was exposed to us. Our jigsaw had a trigger with a switch to have the jigsaw permanently on...
This slowed us to cut much faster & do the curves of the bearing arms. I'm not sure how actuate these semi circles need to be... some of our bearing arms have triangular corners. I'm quite happy with this jigsaw cutting method. No more vibrations going through my arms!
It took about 3hrs to get the 10 end stops done & 7 bearing arms done (the 8th sticker became unusable) I have stuck the rest of the bearing arms on the perspex & will do them tomorrow. Then the PTFE bearings, Then the 4 stages... :) Hopefully that will all get done tomorrow..

The aluminum is on order & should also hopefully arrive tomorrow as well as the springs & the skateboard ABEC3 bearings.

I really hope to have the mechanics of this McWire cartesian robot done by the weekend so i can work on the electronics side... more etching...

FAILED: Toner trasfer 2nd try

2009-01-13T10:57:00.028+02:00

I am so close to getting this right now... but not quite yet.

Clean a piece of copper board with thinners & some mutton cloth or a rag.
Use scotch bright bad to clean the copper to a shine. The scotch bright pad is very abrasive & leaves a thin layer of copper partials all over the board. You wont be able to see them but wiping the board down again with some cloth will show... I know this because i tried *this* method of toner transfer & the transfer was patchy... I rinsed the board in water, then wiped it down again.
Turn you iron onto the hottest setting. It's probably better to use a NON-STEAM IRON, but mine was a steam iron, so I had to drain out all the water first.
Print the positive mirror of the board you want. Use the highest print settings. I used standard copy paper & a laser printer.
Use masking tape to tape on end of the print out to the board, then stretch the other end & tape it. Tape everything so that it is tight. this ensures that there will be no air bubbles in the paper when you iron it.
Center the iron over the board, & leave it there for 2 minutes.
Use your 2 minutes to fill up the kettle & boil the water.
Iron the board in every direction putting pressure. You can stop ironing once you hear the kettle has boiled.
So after a total of 5 minutes of ironing my board looked like this. I left it to cool for a bit while I...
Plugged up the kitchen sink & emptied the kettle into the sink.
Let is sit in the boiling water for about 13 minutes, you should be able to see the tracks through the paper.
Rub the paper with your finger. the paper should easily dissolve & come off.

Don't rub in the same spot for too long. The toner tracks will break.
Don't rub too hard. The toner tracks will break.
Don't rub too fast. The toner tracks will break.
Once there as some paper balls, shake them off so that the don't roll over the board again. If you don't, the toner tracks will break.

Here you can see the paper balls forming.
After all the paper is off, this is what the board looks like. Some of the tracks were damaged, so...
I tried my best to touch them up with a permanent marker, but the tip was to fat!
pore half a bottle of ferric chloride in a paint tray.
Submerge the board in ferric chloride. This photo angle shows there was still some paper residue on the board!
I wish i had a shake table! The fumes were so strong! I sat there for 45 minutes shacking the paint tray to agitate the solution in the hope that the reaction would go faster. I Did this for 25 minutes which was not enough. so then I checked on a 5 minutes interval.
Put on a glove & rinse the board in a separate paint tray containing tap water.
Once my board looked like this I decided it was done etching. In some places it was over exposed & the copper tracks were eaten away. Dry the board with a paper towel.
Pour the ferric chloride back in the container. The solution becomes weaker but that's ok. When this solution begins to take too long to do reactions I will try the pool acid & hydrogen peroxide! At least that is clear. (so you can see the reaction happening)
Take some thinners & a cloth & wipe off the toner, leaving the developed PCB. As you can see from this picture there are broken tracks everywhere. The next day, the board looked like it was oxidizing again. I should probably mention it has been raining a lot lately & there is a lot of moisture in the air.

So if anyone has read this & has a working method for toner transfer PCB etching & wants to save me some trouble, please let me know! Photos of each step would be really nice, but at this point I would settle for very explicit, clear & unambiguous instructions.

And Yes, I am aware that the exposure time for the board in the acid depends on:

the size of the board
the amount of exposed copper that needs to react
the strength of the acid
the temperature of the acid - (there is no ways I will heat up any acid! That's where i draw the line)

This is painful!

My McWire cartesian robot: Part 1

2009-01-13T01:56:00.006+02:00

I will be following the instructions on this link http://www.reprap.org/bin/view/Main/McWire_Cartesian_Bot_1_2 to build the McWire cartesian robot for my RepStrap machine.
Here are my plumbing parts. The aluminum is next, if we could just get proper specs of the stuff. The U rail to be specific. All the site says is 3/4" x 3/4"... the link in the reprap parts lister is old & that product is no longer stocked by the supplier.
& here it is, rather easy to assemble. I wish they would list the measurements in metric & not just in the imperial system, that would make life easier as well.
After all, the goal of reprap is to make it easy for anyone anywhere in the world to assemble!

Get a room!

2009-01-13T01:17:00.006+02:00

Up till now, these have been my working conditions.
One paint tray for ferric chloride, one to rinse afterwards. Not ideal... In the top left corner, there are mattress, Then there is a cadac gas braai & scottle. My UV box, (yes I tried photo resist before toner transfer PCB etching) a suitcase, hydrogen peroxide & some more braai stuff. You can see where frerric chloride has spilled on the floor!
I went with my Dad to his hardware so we could pick up some stuff for the workshop. I got a big desk, about 165cm in length, and a cabinet that is on the roof. It was back breaking work loading & unloading this stuff!
I took every thing out the room. Sweeped the flore to get all the dust out, then deceded to spray the whole room down with a hose to get rid of cobwebs & all the other sand...
Here is the result of a lot of hard work & sweat! I have my own space to "play" with for this project.

FAILED: toner transfer

2009-01-13T00:11:00.010+02:00

I found some WEAK instructions on the net on how to do toner transfer. All the instructions are week. I followed them as best I could. When i get my method right I will document it unambiguously & very explicitly!
so after ferric chloride, I thought this was a complete reaction... The color of the original copper was different to the reacted copper... Since i know no better, I continue with the next step.
I cleaned the toner off with thinners, cut a piece of chip board, clamped the PCB to the board so that I wouldn't drill holes through my Mom's kitchen table. Got out my manual hand drill & a pack of 0.7mm HSS drill bits.
I start the first hole & snap my first bit imediately!
My Dad decided to help me & we got a bit clever! We unscrewed the handle of the manual drill, then took put the power drill's chuck over the manual's handle. We balanced the drill combo on some masking tape & a small box, there was just enough spring to push down on the manual (red) drill to drill a hole, then it would spring back easily when done. This method worked for a while... then the manual drill's gears, which i assume are made from plastic started failing. All this hassle just because I don't have a drill press... yet...
So I think I'm done drilling... I find out later that i missed about 5 holes. It took 1hr25 to drill all the holes of a Arduino Serial.

HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!

After all that trouble, I realize that print out was not 1:1! I'm furious now! In my mind I still think that the board etched properly... The next day the board is black with oxide... So then I realized that I took it out the ferric chloride too soon!
I decided to just place in as many components as I could... just for some motivation... My holes we not straight... some of the headers would never fit no matter what! The manual drill "walks" a bit when you start drilling. The position you intend the hole to be in is seldom where it ends up.

Eventually I will either succeed with my own etching or I will go back to trying to figure out how to lay everything out on vero board. Either way, I have ordered an Arduino with my reprap kit order from the RRRF. I just have to wait for my brother to bring it back from the USA.

changing tips on a magnum 1002

2009-01-12T23:28:00.006+02:00

There were no instructions in the box on how to change tips on my magnum 1002 solder iron, looking back I should have google'd around a bit before doing what I did!
So I unscrewed what I thought was just a heat shield. Nothing happened & the original tip seamed to be firmly held in place still... what i should had done was pulled it a bit harder, it would have come off & then I could have swapped it out with the SMD tip... unfortunately that's not what I did! :(
I took apart the body of the soldering iron! This is a big mistake... I have made it so no one else needs to make it.
Out of interest this is the other side.
All this time the original tip was still in, only once the iron was apart did it fall out. I put it back together. there is the SMD tip I bought, which i later found out is a terrible tip to work with :(
a glowing tip... I don't think so... there is obviously a BIG problem! Not what I need right now...

the parallel programmer

2008-12-18T21:05:00.007+02:00

i was trying to follow the instructions here as good as i could. but i didn't have a 220 ohm resistor and substituted it for a 220 K ohm resistor, which i would imagine changes the behavior of the parallel programmer drastically? if anyone knows about what i should do please contact me.

here is the original parallel cable, i removed the cover exposing the wires... just wondering why there are fewer than 25 cables?
next i soldered 2 470 ohm resistors onto pin 1 and 2 as in the guide.
here is my completed parallel programmer. pin 11 has an incorrect 220 K ohm resistor, I'm told by kg4wsv and Adilson Akashi (link) that i should correct this by soldering two 470 ohm resistors in parallel... but it's almost the weekend and i will get a chance to buy a bunch of 220 ohm resistors from my electronics shop :) thanks thou...
next i just cleaned up a bit my placing some plastic sleaves over the exposed wires so that they wouldn't touch
so this weekend i will get the 220 ohm resistor, replace the 220 K ohm resistor, then us test it, programming the arduino i made then using a glue gun to glue everything inplace in the original packaging.

Arduino on veriboard

2008-12-18T19:02:00.015+02:00

i wanted to build the arduino on vero board - striper board - since i was having a hard time getting the printed pcb's. if anyone reading this is form Johannesburg, South Africa, and knows of a place that does pcb's for hobbiests, please let me know, it will save me a lot on trouble and time.

first i made a design, i had paper with squares, 26 horizontal and 37 vertical, so that would be the maximum size of the board. i did many revisions of the design, just to make sure i had accounted for everything...

i would place components on the vero board to check there was enough space between components and so that if i needed to drill a hole to separate the track, i would be able to. i found from previous experiments that i needed 1 "hole" as a gap between components that needed the track drilled.
i soldered the socket for the chip, the switch and the crystal in place. the chip socket's first pin is soldered to pin 12x,13y. the swich is soldered onto pin 1. the crystal is soldered between pin 9&10.
here you can see my soldering and drilling... its not that good... (gets worse!)
then its c1, c2, c3, c8, L1... c1 is soldered on 22x in line with pin 10, c2 on 21x in line with pin 9 , with with one hole between their legs, drilled. c3 between 7 & 8, L1 on 19x with a drilled hold between its legs. same with c8.
my solder work for these components. knowtice how shocking c1 and c2 are joined... i think this may cause me some serious problems. the soldering iron was too hot... i have a magnum 2002 soldering station, with very little experience. if anyone is reading this and can tell me what the right temperature to solder is... then that would be great and much appreciated!
in the top left corner, is a 5 pin header, in place of the serial DB9 sub connector... looking back i should have just soldered the serial connector on, breaking off the 4 unused pins... however, my top line of my board is the ground (bottom is +5V) so i know in my mind that pin 5 of the serial port is connected to the ground. this saves me some space in case i need the pin holes. so my serial connector goes like this from top to bottom, {5,1,2,3,4}
port c is from pin 23 to 28, nothing special there... the pin 1 is connected to the ICSP pin 5... & yes, my ICSP ordering is different as well...
c6 and c2 are joined by a wire bridge.
c1/2 is connected to pin 6 of my ICSP via a wire bridge...

ok so i lost connection with my camera... my parents wanted to borrow it, so i went ahead and did the rest of the board with out taking photos. :( i will try redo the design as i have the board here, labling everything, giving step by step instruction, at work tomorrow, then make another post for that... im really not even sure the board will actually work... take a look below!
i soldered c5 and c8's negative to positive over the voltage regulator, when i connected it to the power source (without the ATmege8) the power LED light up for a while... the c8 blew up, scaring the cr@p out of me...! you can see the insides of c8 all over my pcb! lovely!
so this is what not to do! the shield part of the cap shot up like a bullet! i replaced c8 the right way this time... and...
we see the power LED light up. i left it like this for 5 minutes, just to be sure that nothing else would blow up... i really hope i have built everything properly...

now i need to get a boot loader onto the ATmega8!

my first arduino

2008-12-03T23:11:00.004+02:00

it took me just over 2.5hrs to build, kind of following these instructions. i dont have any means of creating the usb interface yet & am looking for a way to do that now!

Gentoo on the U100

2008-10-27T10:02:00.005+02:00

I finally got gentoo to install on the MSI Wind U100.

First i tried the minimal install cd (usb stick) which worked great, but then when it came to fetching the stage3 tar ball & portage snapshots... & kernel... it couldnt because it had not networking drivers... (both wired & wireless were not working )

so i downloaded the livecd install & made a bootable usb of it. it booted, but after it set the clock, it would come with a message... something about the delta...

Clocksource tsc unstable (delta = -338627902 ns)

if wait about 5 minutes it continues to boot the livecd...

gdm fails to start up becasue of a the video driver...

just do nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the driver to vesa, then killall gdm, then gdm and you should have the gui XFCE.

i clicked on GUI installer, made my partitions...
100M ext2 /boot
10G ext3 /
44G ext3 /home
1.5G swap

continued with the instillation... which failed near to where the end of the install should be...
grub could not list all the kernels in /boot... here is the bug...
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=230998
after reading that, i mounted / and /boot, copied the "gentoo" kernel that was on the livecd to boot, then manually installed grub & wrote a grub.conf.

then i added myself as a normal user... useradd...
unmounted everything... & here is the result

gentoo boots on natively on the MSI Wind U100!

My next step would be to:

get the installer to install more packaged
get the networking sorted out... im guessing it will be easier to get the wired interface to work...

i just cant believe that there was not default wired driver in that livecd kernel...
the drivers are all here... http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=135&prod_no=1474 im just going to have to fiddle with it when i get more time.

MSI Wind U100 - Gentoo LiveUSB boot

2008-10-09T19:58:00.008+02:00

I recieved my MSI Wind U100 on Wednesday the 8th of October & was smiling the whole way home...

I wanted the Linux version, but it came with less impressive hardware, so i went for the Windows XP Home version for the sole purpose of the extra 512MB ram, better web cam & Blue Tooth.
Here you can see it next to my HP DV9607US currently running Kubuntu 8.04 64bit - also due for gentoo in the December holidays.

The keyboard takes a bit of getting used to. I'm used to a full size keyboard. & a 17" screen :)

Video shows XP running. Here is what i changed:

Uninstalled MS Office 2007 (it was a trial version i think?)
Installed OpenOffice
Removed Norton
Installed Avast (Home Free version) - WinClamAV would have been just as good

Then i de-flowered the "Designed for Windows XP Home" Badge :D

Rebooted with the gentoo 2008.0 LiveUSB ( http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml ) - Press F11 repeatedly at boot time to choose the boot menu, then select the USB key. It would also probably have worked with a SD card or something similar. I used the minimal iso. Its 80MB.

Philadelphia - (Philly)

2008-02-16T17:34:00.003+02:00

big buildings...
u see what i mean?
check the flag!
spin round & what do i see?

there is 1 of these statues on both sides of the road! they each say something different on them. you can zoom in ((click the photo) & see what they say...
show me the money :)
Franklyn bridge... yes i walked a cross & back again...
ill have 2 remember to try some of the cheese next time...

San Diego

2008-01-31T18:58:00.001+02:00

pub crawl time!
Kirsten, a kiwi
Gabrielle (ausi) & Kirsten
Dugan (kiwi) on the right makes a plan 2go2 Tijuana!

they paint their donkeys like zebras!
$1 corona!
good times!
supper time... a Mexican family platter so we could try out the local chow!

i cant remember what the translation of that was but it was something about teeth!
no explanation required!
welcome aboard the USS Midway 41 - aircraft carrier! (remember earlier i was angry i couldn't go aboard the sub! I'm making up for that here!)
life aboard the Midway 41
im @ the controls :)
a message 2 who ever that gets pointed @! sux 2bu!!!
HELLO!!!
TAG!!! ur it!!!
ready? GO!
on my 1st mission, i went to...

Aerospace museum :)
Apollo 11 space lander pod

spitfire!
Apollo space module
Bell labs - 1 of the original 12 GPS satellites launched
Balboa Park

Hoover Dam & Grand Canyon

2008-01-31T18:27:00.001+02:00

the voice of my south american bus driver! he was soo funny!
well there it is, the Hoover dam!
now i just have to say... i thought... ok Grand Canyon... just a big hole in the ground... NO... its definately worth seeing! seriously! its timeless... breath taking... it like staring into fire! or staring at a water fall! you can loose your self here! time stands still!

Vegas

2008-01-31T03:54:00.001+02:00

the journey begins...
i decided not to rent 1!
:) german beer!
1 leter!
veal sausage... just to line the stomach!
2 leters! - i lost the downing contest... beer should be enjoyed... not downed!
stayed @ the hard rock the 1st night! was awsum :)
some were in vegas
some day!
:)

flamingo!
venetian
yes, im sure you do!
iron horse!
new york, new york!
an all egg breakfast! was amazing!
:)
cant remember the name of this 1 right now!
blue man group was awsum! blew my mind!
the next day i was off 2 hover dam & GRAND CANYON!

Los Angeles

2008-01-30T04:44:00.001+02:00

time 2 fly 2 LA!

i get a tour of the immediate Hollywood area
think John was trying 2 say something here?
the Walt Disney concert hall!
?
US Bank building!
Beer!
MORE beer!
went 2 the Petersen Automotive Museum!
tricked out trike
krazy sound!
i DIE & go 2 heaven!
Voyager 1 - half scale!
Mars rover

the famous pink's... (i stood in that LONG QUEUE...)
for THIS!!! a (expensive) chilly dog - nothing special personally, but now at least i can say iv done it!

saw the stars! :)
street art!
more street art! this dude looks like he baked in the sun!
santa monica beach
got my feet wet!
Venice beach
MOM!!! i cant tell u enough how much i miss home cooked food! cant wait 4 that again!
i die & go 2 heaven! @ John's work in the server room :P
:D
Chris!!! i went in2 this store JUST for you! its a 3story building just selling guitars!
John's boss heard i saw a NICKS game & got me tickets to see the LA Lakers... @ the staples Center!
Lakers won, 110-105
after the game we had a beer @ this bar! the water changes color every few minutes! very cool!
i really love Heineken!

if i could do it all agina... i would do it here!
Anna goes to UCSB!
just look @ that!
just like in the movies!
ANNA!!!
@ sum club near UCLA
i LOVE roller coasters!!!

i was SO pissed off! they wouldnt let me ride this, because of my cast :(
but it would have looked like that!
& that!
i made up for it here!

well there's Hollywood
turn my head 180 degrees & what do i see?

San Fran!!!

2008-01-29T03:51:00.001+02:00

you could say i wasnt really thinking when i got 2 the SEA-TAC air port... i 4got 2 move shampoo, shower gel & shaving cream into my checked items... so i was searched like a...
when i got out the subway station, this is what i saw! (not bad!)
get my picture taken with 1 of the locals :)
i walk past a lot of nice buildings... this is one of them! i realize that i have a bit more walking 2go!
i get the feeling im getting close...
i get there & i gotta say... there's nothing like free food!
good friendly crowd 2 party with!
good place 2 "download large e-mail attachments!"
the very next day it was raining like hell!
but if you think i cam all this way NOT to walk over the golden gate bridge...
then you were wrong... very wrong!!!
& there's the view from the other side of the bridge!!!
on the way back i passes sum church!
the next day it was still raining like krazy, so i went 2 the California institute of science & saw sum ?fish?
here's another big 1!
its a giant sea bass! freaky lookin!
i bought a certain something for a certain someone there...
im standing behind the USS sub marine... the tour was closed (noticed the fencing) i was quit upset about that!
well im a little happier now... 2bad its just a wax museum :(
Nick... i know you would do the same thing :)
left - activist
middle - Diane - a cape tonien!
live music ALWAYS goes down well :)
& these 2 are from Scotland!
UK

Seattle, Space Needle, New Years

2008-01-17T07:38:00.001+02:00

so after my 18hr grey hound bus ride, threw 4 mountain passes & 2 snow storms... i arrive in seattle. let me just say this. for anyone wanting to see the country side via bus... all you would see during the winter is snow! which is not very interesting!
so i leave the grey hound bus terminal, its 11:30pm & this is what i see... suddenly i remember that i have no idea were to go!
i for got to print any information on the place i was supposed to be staying in that night!
didnt know were it was & how to get there!
... but you know, luckly for me it started raining softly :(
so i have 3 bags & a arm in a cast, dont know were to go & its raining...

i meet some people who are staying in the same hostel as i am & follow them to the hostel! cozey :) fire place & DVD's going on the lap top...
my room is on the 3rd floor, when i wake up in the morning this is what i see!
not bad! im impressed, that 30min bus ride 2 the 'out of the way' hostel was kinda worth it!
so there is my bed! i was annoyed that there was no place to store my lugage! just leaving it on the floor is not good enough! i have a laptop!!! im not just going to leave it on the floor while i explore the city! u mad?
well there's that view again!
& im just enjoying that fire place...
my uncles John & Darren got me a book of the top 10 things to do in Seattle... (10 best... places 2 stay, places to eat, things to see...)
well that climbing wall was i of the 10... so i crossed it off my list! looks like it could be fun in the summer!
well here is the Green Tortoise Seattle Hostel! http://www.greentortoise.net/ there is the link! now as you can see my stuff is safe... i can lock my stuff up & enjoy the city with please of mind! how ever there is no view! (not really a big deal since i only really spent 4hrs in the hostel - that was the 4hrs i slept!)
there's Pike's public fish market!
i donno, maybe they'r going GREEN... saving the environment? :)
im waiting in mind for the sky train... or mono rail... to go c...
... this!!!
the space needle!
now keep in mind, its the 31st of December... the last day of 2007... & im going to the top of that :D
using this $16 ticket - mono rail was $4...
& this is what i see when i get to the top!!!
red bull @ the top :)
& there is the needle again, just after sun set! all the lights r on...
obviously i couldn't miss this!!!
got a $5 IMAX ticket to see 'beavers'... the other option was 'i am legend' the IMAX was ok... wouldn't recommend running out to see beavers...
as you know... the human genome was solved...
these guys were cool... all robotic!

so there's the GT new years eve pre party! free beer from 8pm till the keg finishes...
theres Anna, from Italy, staying in Santa Barbra for a year!
cant remember here name... but...
her friend was kinda freekin me out... that was a bit 2 close 4 comfort! just like my cast!
more free beer!!! 4o FL OZ... thats like a leter!!!
2008!

since the photo was blurred, i took video!
Dimitri's JAZZ ally...i had to take a photo of it... & yes it was in a ally!
went to the EMP - Experience Music Project! - Chris... think u would like this place... A LOT!!!
well i did a lot of walking in seattle... i think this is round about were my blisters started...

Yellow Stone

2008-01-09T09:43:00.002+02:00

2 my surprize i got a chance 2c yellow stone national park!
there i have arrived!
there was a sign saying something about fort yellowstone! didnt read it but stood next 2 it!

there was water shooting out that rock! a gizer!!!

well we got lost trying 2 find the car park & decided 2 run! u'l c in the video i kinda fall & sprain my ancel!
we find the car & im soooooo happy!!!!!
@ mammoth hot springs, just like chico hot springs just with a different name!
there is a rock formation...
liberty cay - a dormant hot spring!
lots of elk
close up!
male with horns!
buffalo... i ended up eating a buffelo burger that day :)
coyote!
more buffalo!
cook city, a snow mobiler's heaven!
45th parallel!!!!! - u can read the sign!!!

chico fairwell!

2008-01-04T03:00:00.001+02:00

the bar... i mean saloon!

warning...

the pool...
Erica, from Chile

the cake
the eating of the cake!

the last supper...
waiting alone @ the livingston bus station... bus came @ 3:30am :(
there was a snow storm so the bus people had 2 put chains on the tiers...

pins & needles!!!

2007-12-28T07:10:00.001+02:00

2day i went 4 the post op & WOW im in a world of pain. now i understand y they put me under a general anesthetic...

thats the video of the nurse taking off the temp cast... i cant believe that!

there is the side view... pins going threw my bones...
there is the other side view!
the pins prevent me from moving my wrist!
:(

top view
front view
& theres a pissed off me!!!
its harder 2 do everything :( boooooo

there is the video of the final cast! it was 2 painful 2 video the whole thing, but i have another camo cast, just like the 1st 1!

broken

2007-12-26T07:25:00.001+02:00

i was in the pool at the xmas party, it was snowing, i got out the pool, the stairs were iced, i slipped... fell on my wrist, broke the ligament joining the thumb 2 the wrist!

i had x-rays & a MRI

if u click on the image it becomes full size

there is me standing next 2 the MRI machine, im holding a key that is "floating" because of the strong electro magnet behind me!

sitting on the MRI

lying on the MRI

theres the video of me getting my cast put on!

& like i said in the video, im @ a bar/saloon playing pool! i won that game since Chris sunk the black!

& theres me about 2 kill a 16" pizza!

for the surgery, they knocked me out with a general anesthetic, cut my wrist open, stretched out the bones in my wrist & screwed a long screw that extends across my whole wrist & sticks out on both sides!

8weeks healing time & they say i will need therapy 2 learn how 2 use my thumb again!

week2 - xmas party & shopping frenzy

2007-12-13T06:25:00.002+02:00

hi every1,

this is pizza hut!

that was my pizza

there is me & Annie eating the pizza

here is the xmas supper party of last nite! thats my table

there is my starter, cream spinish, fried chees (wtf) bbq chicken

thats all the south africans

thats my mains! ribs, prawns, pumpkin, salad, chicken

i just thought i'd help the catering company clear the half empty bottles of wine! that wine was all from south aftica, stellenbosh!

When i woke up i had a BIG head ache! so i went 2 wendy's & got a double burger! ... noting beats burger king! wendy's sux!

Annie wanted 2 ride the bull!

me in USA

2007-12-05T18:04:00.001+02:00

1st of all nobody knows or understands that there r white people living in africa as well... when most americans ask me were im from & i reply - from South Africa... 1stly they dont know were it is so i explain that it is in the southern tip of africa...

when they say America is the fattest country then weren't lying! that 1 slice of pizza & it filled me up! i have how ever put on 2.5KG's in the week or so that i have been here! but let me start the story from the begging!

airport... i was 2 fly out the day after my birthday - which was awsum so thank 2 every1 who was there 2 add 2 the fun! so i arrived with 3 or so hours till the flight time, i was supposed 2b off the ground @ 7:10... & I arrived @ about 3pm... now there is lots of walking 2 do & im not up 4 it so i asked Anni 2 push me in a wheel chair :)

yeah that was more like it! anyway the flight was delayed 3hrs... we only left the ground @ 10pm :< onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_i9CrsdvrrgE/R1bdU4JGVqI/AAAAAAAAAAc/r0tlhDX_foY/s1600-h/DSCN7002.JPG">now SAA ran out of water @ about 1am... so i had 2 drink Heineken while i watched the in flight movies!

anyway so i arrive in USA... lets take a little walk down Broadway!
i did not eat there & i have not eaten Mc Donald's since i have been in the USA!

there was this big ice rink in the middle on NYK with a xmas treee - but they were still busy decorating the tree! & i didnt have time 2 go skate!
yes i went in2 the NYK library's! was nice... 4 a library, ill save u the board um of looking @ photos of books & just show u...

this is the room were they part of "the after tomorrow" was shot... not sure if any1 will remember but when they'r stuck in the library & they have 2 burn books 2 keep warm... they'r in this room burning books in that fire place!
down in grand central station - & buy the way the subway is super dodge, not like the metro in Greece -
i went 2c a basket ball game - the NYK nicks vs the Utaha Jaxx or something like that.. i got dodge tickets for $25 & had 2 sit right & the back... the game was so boooooring... every 3min 1 team would call time out 4 something stupid... its not as fast passed as rugby!

the next night Jeanie treated me 2 a night out in NYK which was awsum :)
sushi, 2 bars & a club! all exclusive stuff!

that night ended @ 3:30 then i have 2b back @ grand centeral station @ 6:30 2 catch the 3day bus 2 Livingston, Montana! now i hated every bit of that bus trip!

here was a mc'd's that we stopped @ but i ate @ the buger king instead which is way way better than mc'd's so i arrived in billings Montana, almost there!
finally after 3 days on a bus, having 2 sleep sitting up right... i arrive in Livingston Montana. now its just a 30mile ride 2 Chico Hot Springs!

thank u Laura 4 the OUZO im gonna have a shot every day after work & think of u! it was starting 2 freeze because it was in by bag which was in the under carriage of the bus for 3 days & we were driving threw snow!

here we are! the 4 South Africans in Pray Montana!
thats just a massive packet of chips!!!
the owner of Chico's car, but they call it a truck ? 1 thing that pisses me off about USA is that people lave their 3ton cars running, if they walk in2 a building 4 a bit & it pollutes! as well as being so f@cking lazy... instead of walking 30meters 2 the next building they will start their big ass cars drive 30m then switch it off, drop something off, start the engine again then drive 30m back... WTF!
there is me staring a moose or elk or what ever that is called!

& im strangling it!
This is Chico!
here is the saloon :)
here is a hall way in the main hotel!
here is the geo-thermal pools, valcano's heat up the water in the under ground water table, that water gets pumped in2 these pools 110 degrees F!

here is my room! its above the saloon :)
as u can see... i can care less 2 clean my room!

so im going 2 make a blog post once a week 2 keep all u posted! :)

need 2 stop smoking?

2007-11-18T18:23:00.000+02:00

heaven n hell

2007-09-26T16:10:00.000+02:00

i ask a lot of people what happens to use when we die... everyone says the same thing... u go2 heaven if u were good & hell if u were bad!

i think u decompose in ur coffin or u get cremated & ur ashes get sprinkled over the ocean or something like that... live life 2 the fullest... there is no 2nd life or 2nd chance... only in the game 2nd life there is! secondlife.com/

typo!

2007-09-19T22:38:00.000+02:00

Well i set up a Typo http://typosphere.org/ blog & was hosting it from my own pc in my room along with a gallery image/video web server! http://gallery.menalto.com/ this was killing my 192k upload speed & everyone was complaining that the site was unbearably slow!!! so i decided maybe i would take a short cut & use my blogger.com account to blog everything! typo is very nice! ruby on rails!!!