I have not posted anything in a long time. I want to get better about that. I honestly feel like this is more of a journal than anything else but that is OK I guess.
I have a few things I want to work on in the future and a few projects that I want to talk about.
Most of my free time has been consumed by 3D printing lately so I haven’t been doing anything with the home lab.
I upgraded the Prusa MK4. I bought the MK4S upgrade kit a while ago and finally spent an evening and put all of those upgrades onto the printer. It was a great improvement. It printed a lot faster and I did not have any issues with it that were not user error.
One of the things that I printed was a modular Hydroponic tower so my wife and I can grow herbs and vegetables again like we used to but in a tower that can go outside and get more sunlight.
I finally have my MMU3 unit assembled and did a test run before putting the MK4S into the enclosure. The test run did not go as smooth as I expected. I had a lot of issues with feeding and unloading. I am still working on that though. I printed some auto-rewinding spools to put in the dry-box that I also assembled for this kit in hopes that I can eliminate the buffer and one full set of the PTFE tubes. I want this setup to be as clean as my CORE One is. That is one of the biggest downfalls of the MMU3 unit is the space that it takes up when you use it how Prusa sends it. I feel like upgrades and alternate options are required for this. I will update as I get this thing figured out.
I have also started printing with some new materials that I have never printed with before. I tried TPU and I made things like some coasters that are slightly grippy and sit on the end table in the living room and don’t slide, which is nice. I also printed a case for my Amazon Kindle.
I also tried ASA and I use that for parts that I want to be strong and heat resistant. I have printed a camera mount to put a Raspberry Pi camera inside of the Prusa CORE One.
I also set up OctoPrint on the new CORE One recently. I wasn’t sure that it would work based on some of the things I was reading online but it did so I am happy about that.
Prusa released their own Buddy3D camera for the CORE One that I have on order and another one that I had set up on the MK4S. These cameras leave a lot to be desired so I still choose to use OctoPrint with a Raspberry Pi and a Pi cam. I have two almost identical setups for this and I can monitor both of these from my phone and my computer as well which is a huge plus. The Prusa Buddy3D camera only takes a still shot every 10 seconds or so which is a bit disappointing. They will likely change the firmware to add additional features such as live video in the future though.
I also bought an iPod recently. That will be a trip down memory lane. I want to put my old mp3 collection on it and be able to listen to music without interruptions. You can’t listen to music on your phone without putting it on airplane mode because you will be interrupted by something at some point. I want to be able to avoid that.
I have also been listening to a lot of audio-books. I set a reading goal of 50 books for the year and it would be impossible for me to read that many books but I feel like audio-books is fine. I have close to an hour ride each way too and from work so that is a great time to listen. Depending on what I am doing at work also, I may or may not be able to listen to an audio-book while I work.
Beyond that, I have been researching herbs and vegetables as well as aquariums. I want to setup an aquarium. I may incorporate some smart stuff into that which could give me something to discuss here in the future as well.
I will try my best to get better about posting more frequently.
Until next time.