Bloggings of Newness

How horrifically lazy of me, new bloggings here:  The Iron Jungle-Gym of the Girder Gibbon

Regenerative Blogging

I appreciate that this blog has been sparse on updates, but I'd like to give a few short messages about the future of this blog, and indeed my future:

1. This blog needs a re-vamp - name's too hard to google, sounds like a 15-year-old came up with it (because he did) and I don't feel like I'm writing with as much finesse as I'd like.
2. That house didn't come to me in the end - my friends live there, but the landlord (my pal's dad) didn't trust me on the grounds of my contractor job, pity...
3. The SLA 3D Printer design is virtually ready - I've enquired about pricing for the laser cutting and it came to £400 inc VAT, add £160 for 3D printed parts (I need clamps for the Projector mount among other things) and you have an expense comparable to a cheap 4K monitor (yum).
4. Talking of which, my PC needs new hardware - not just a new GPU, but both my monitors predate LED backlight technology and I generally need to invest in my PC to reinvigorate it.

I know, a pitifully short update, but I'm still thinking over which direction I can take my life such that I can take the time to make engaging, fully-featured posts without the slovenly tiredness that characterizes the end of a working day.  I need to bring my income in-line with my values and skills as much as possible and earn enough to afford tools and materials without working myself into the ground.

See you on the other side...

All quiet on the whimsical front...

I've been a bit of a ghost on this blog for quite some time now, so much of my energy is diving into my SLA 3D Printer Project over at the Tawe TMD blog it's unreal, I'm actually making use of my University Education, in my spare time, no less!

Anyway, here be a few life-related updates on my end:

1. Me and two of my pals have found a terraced 3-bedroom house only 30 mins away from my parent's house to move out to; the deal is that my pal's gran owns the place and staunchly refuses to sell, old age doing what is does to your sentimentality; this pal's dad has negotiated a bargain rent for us, the magic man that he is.  The only caveat - it's suffered hideous treatment from the previous residents, with some of the doors showing their cardboard honeycomb structures!  That'll take at least a month to work into an acceptable condition...
2. I've found some employment at an engineering firm in Farnborough on a contractual basis, I'm hoping to secure a full-time position by way of performance but either way, combined with the through-the-floor rent at the new place (shared rent ftw) means a massive boon to my projects, assuming I don't blow it all on an Ivy Bridge Extreme PC I don't need.
3. I want to be free...  because rule of 3...

Just for fun, I'll throw in some of the project ideas I have buzzing around my noggin, simply because containing my imagination is like keeping water in a bowl made of paper towels - not fun when you are trying to focus on getting just *one* project done:

• A new PC Case:  I've got an eye on a few manufactured cases to replace my antiquated workstation case, such as the Zalman Z12 Plus or even going mini-ITX with a Corsair 250D, but I still want a case with as many Bitfenix Spectre Pro 230mm fans as possible so I wouldn't count on that.
• PC Upgrades:  my GTX 560 is now thoroughly trounced by a card that doesn't even have a PCI-E power connector (The GTX 750 Ti), my HDD is 6 years old and my Corsair RM850 is going completely to waste only powering 250W during gaming sessions; not so sure I want to give my i5-2500K up though, a truly timeless CPU.
• A Python Recumbent Bicycle:  I don't really feel like I'm being so efficient on an upright bike anymore, the most glaring problem is the wind, but there's also the issue of the huge moment arm that gravity has in bringing your head into sharp contact with the road.
• A Model Railway:  There's space for a shed at the new house, and my pals are okay with it, why not?
• Network Attached Storage:  Not a sexy thing, but it'll be a fun exercise in configuring a linux PC and backing up will be easier than with a USB3 HDD.
• A new Kick Scooter:  I've got a Razor A5 Lux and it flies at warp speed compared to walking, but why not make one with a 100mm suspension fork and hydraulic disc brakes?
• 100 things to do with a Raspberry Pi.

Tawe TMD blog is live

This is a blog for Tawe TMD thingummybobbins.  Also, all my SLA 3D Printer Project posts will reside here from now on.

SLA 3D Printer Log 1: Projection, Projection...

In between dreaming of a house where model trains bring me pre-mixed Robinson's squash and keenly observing the cathartic tidal wave of backlash against Dungeon Keeper Mobile I have received a 720p projector from Ebay, costing £250.  Before launching into the specifics of how to use it, let's examine the unit itself.

The book is A4 width (and 2cm shorter lengthways) for comparison, and the unit weighs 1.13kg

The unit is actually 206 x 162 x 75mm (lxwxh), feels like a quality implementation despite it's low weight and is highly intuitive to operate; this isn't surprising when we learn that this model (Nobo X22PW) is simply a rebranded Optoma TW330, which is going for £410 at time of writing.  That is excellent value for money given that most projectors in that range will be 1024x768 native at most, not 1280x800 native (keep an eye out for native resolution, most projector sellers claim their model will "handle" 1080p, but this is done through upscaling and will make your movie look anything but sharp).

*Review Interlude*

The unit is surprisingly quiet in spite of the fan having to keep a 2200 lumen lamp from exploding (not a hint of facetious here), and that lamp gives plenty of brightness even on std-mode with 1700 lumens.  It is audible, but it quickly fades away during gaming since the noise has no irritating frequency (that goes out the window in bright mode, I suggest just turning up the brightness in windows).  Having played Medal of Honor: Airborne on it I can say that it eco-mode might not be to everyone's taste but with lamps costing around £90 I think most can sacrifice 29% brightness for 66% more lamp life.  This is also a Single-Chip DLP model so it suffers from a little colour separation during fast motion (highly noticeable when you shake your head viewing a black background); finally I would like a better contrast ratio than 2000:1 for more defined extremes in the colours, but I'm rapidly disappearing down a rabbit hole here.

*End Review Interlude*

Back to the point at hand, 1280x800 will allow for a detail level of 0.1mm per pixel for a build area of 12.8cm x 8.0cm; I'm looking for a minimum resolution of 0.05mm seeing as I design for FUD on Shapeways (0.1mm Resolution), giving a build area of 6.4cm x 4.0cm.  One of my ideas up to this point was to traverse the projector along a vertical rail, utilizing a redundant RAMPS axis to adjust the build area/resolution balance, but I forgot to account for projector focus; what's worse is that the minimum distance I could get the projector to focus was around 28cm, which gives an image of 197.5mm x 124mm - well above the 64mm x 40mm required.

Despite this, the brightness of the resultant screen area was highly encouraging.

In order to attain this build area, I need to add an adjustable lens with at least 3.0x magnification.  DSLR lenses can be had used for around £50, given that a UV filter is a common accessory it may be that the lens can transmit UV without hindrance, but apparently DSLRs have UV filters of their own and there may be some in the lens too - an optical testbed will be required to fully investigate the matter, as well as some actual 3D resins (no VOCs, please).

Free Ideas Bucket 1.0

I intend this project to be completely open-source, that means any and all STLs and diagrams related to the build will be available royalty-free and not on my Shapeways Shop; if *you* would like to sell it, go ahead but be prepared for a hard time making money given that the models are free and Shapeways can be used by a Bonobo.  Anyhoo, I present my current list of ideas:

• A standalone built-in computer, either a Raspberry Pi, it's more powerful compatibles or even a full-on x86 PC.  This is to allow the printer to run without having to keep either my PC or Laptop running with it all night.
• An ultrasound sensor to detect the resin level in the bath and adjust the build platform starting point to suit, this is only relevant to top-down designs.
• A touchscreen on top of the machine, adjustable to either face outwards (for desk use) or upwards (for floor use).
• Gullwing doors...  just because...

That concludes the first of hopefully many buildlogs to the SLA 3D Printer Project.  The ultimate aim is to largely free me from having to use Shapeways for every.  single.  solitary.  step.  in the R&D Process for Tawe_TMD.  It's always the way when you make something that you trip up on things you couldn't have predicted, but even if I flounder and fail, I can always watch Zero Punctuation across my wall.

Sirens of the 1080p screen, and the prints of reason.

As far as temptation goes, getting a new PC is up there with crisps positioned but a few feet away after 3 hours of CAD.  I say temptation because my current aim (and New Year's Resolution mind you) is to be able to subsist upon my own business alone - not to have to rely on a job to pay my bills.  I have already made inroads towards this with my Shapeways Shop Tawe_TMD but I've hit a snag:  Research and Development.

I am currently developing my first proper product, which is a Metropolitan Ex-Twin Brake Van from the turn of the century in N gauge (1:148); the body is pretty much sorted out, pending any minor alterations for functionality.  The chassis also pretty much looks like the final iteration, so the bulk of the work is now done leaving me with the R&D associated with functionality - and boy was I in for a ride!

Each one of those strips on the side is 0.1mm high by 0.25mm wide.

In the UK it takes around 3 weeks from order to delivery, in the latter stages of R&D (tweaking) this holds true even for minor changes like increasing the distance between the axle holes; this is doubly frustrating when a mistake is made, such as an item being wrongly printed, this being the direct inspiration for this post and the potential project I will get to in a moment.  Shapeways solved this issue with haste and care and I applaud them for such attention, however, I consider it a call to action for a proper solution.

That solution is my very own SLA (Photo Lithography) 3D Printer; this isn't as difficult as it sounds, because according to many Youtube videos and This Instructable, it is entirely possible to print a 3D object using nothing more than a Z-carriage, a beaker of resin and a DLP Projector.  Feature sizes can be minute, too:  a 1280 x 800 DLP projector (£250 from Ebay) can result in objects up to 12.8 x 8 cm in size with a resolution of 0.1mm in the X and Y; you can even get higher resolutions simply by reducing the distance between the Projector and the resin (e.g:  6.4 x 4 cm with and XY res of 0.05mm).

I have made a not-terribly-professional case study into this idea and found some interesting facets to the idea of running a 3D printer like this:

I was never noted for relishing writing novels...

For the record, here's some additional information for those looking to check all this out (I did this on many assumptions):

• 1 Metro Brake Van = 2656 mm³
• I set a budget of £200 for materials, this includes minor electronic items like stepper motors, and any 3D prints for special parts.
• I don't know what I will coat the build platform with, but it will need to hold things during printing whilst peeling off when done.
• I assume Council Tax to be included with the Rent.
• Food + Taxes is broken down thus:

1. Food = £30/week or £120/month
2. Income Tax = £38.12/week or £165.19/month from here (assuming gross earnings of £15,000 a year)
3. The rest is for other things like electricity, gas, water which I can't be stuffed to calculate, but the remaining £164.81 should cover it

• As for printing, I am assuming a perfect run of setting up supports (SLA prints need copious support material, maybe not in the case of the Metro Brake but I'll apportion it anyway), a successful print owing to a reliable non-stick application (that's what the Sylgard 184 is for - It stops the print from adhering to the resin basin in bottom-up designs), and finally a flawless post-processing run (fat chance...).

It is quite clear to me that running this printer to print Metro Brake Vans to sell is not a viable proposition - even with sufficient resolution, the time spent in preparation will ensure absolutely no free time, an unacceptable situation when this business is intended to help me achieve financial freedom.  3 hours per print sounds low compared to 3 weeks, but remember that Shapeways is taking on all the work in those weeks, and I am free to make new designs while my Metro Brake goes on sale.  This printer makes much more sense for Functional Testing, i.e:  making minor changes around the coupling area or testing strengthening ribs.

To any aspiring Shapies, I say this:  If you have passionate pride in your work, be prepared to test and test and test - go so far as to intentionally break your redundant testing models to reveal weaknesses.  On the note of final presentation, don't be like many of the modellers on this virtual superstore of human creativity and only upload the STL with some token renders; this really shouts "That'll do, next!", and is that the attitude you would tolerate from a carpenter?  An engineer?  A NEST team?  One of the best ways of showing that you have done such testing is to upload a Youtube video that will show it running.

I hope that PC temptation doesn't get the better of me...

Do you keep a PC lineage?

One of the benefits of Asperger's Syndrome (sadly one which you don't necessarily appreciate when scared to death of being discovered as such when talking to people) is that I keep a mental Rolodex of all the PCs I have ever owned.  This is off the top of my head mostly, so don't expect the strictest of accounts:

0th PC:  Mum's Socket A Machine

• CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 1833MHz
• Motherboard:  Some Abit model...
• RAM:  I suspect 1GB DDR-266 since it could at least play MOHAA on XP...
• GPU:  Nvidia Geforce 2 MX 64MB
• HDD:  ~80GB EIDE
• Resolution:  1024x768

This PC isn't strictly mine, hence the fact that it's my 0th PC.  While this is the PC that got me into gaming, I could hardly wait to be able to mutter 12-year-old swears about the rangers in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault without my dad browbeating me, having heard me in the same room (taking the computer away was like meta-death to me).

1st PC:  1st PC?...

• CPU:  AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 1467MHz
• Motherboard:  Abit KV7
• RAM:  1GB DDR-333
• GPU:  ATi Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
• HDD: 80GB EIDE
• Monitor:  Viewsonic VX924 1280x1024

My first PC...  so goddamn old the CPU doesn't even have a sticker on my case's CPU lineage:

Unrelated items:
1)  The Pentium II Xeons were installed when my case allegedly housed one of the PCs rendering Lost in Space.
2)  The central barcode - Apparently scans as 'SEC' o.O
3)  Right items - random stuph that has ended up in my PC over time.

That said, this PC was instrumental in allowing me to graduate from muttering at MOHAA to screaming unspeakable possessed noises at it instead (seriously kids, DON'T attempt MOHAA on hard when you're 12).

Talking about this PC also reminded me of what stuff I also had in it:  for the longest time, or what felt like it, I had an all-copper Cooler Master HSF with the noisiest freaking fan I have ever heard aside from delta fans; combine this with barely-effective dual heatpipes at a time when a 1.6V CPU was considered a "Low Voltage" model (1.75V being the norm for AMD CPUs), and you have a genuine waste of space!  A waste of space that was replaced not before time by a Zalman Flower cooler and suspended 92mm fan ;)

Maximum Overclock:  ~1.8GHz

2nd PC:  SWAG in the proper sense of the word...

• CPU:  AMD Sempron 64 2800+ 1.6GHz
• Motherboard:  Some Socket 754 make
• RAM:  1GB Generic DDR2-667
• GPU:  ATi Radeon X1300 128MB
• HDD:  250GB SATA-1
• Monitor:  Viewsonic VX924 1280x1024

Not a great deal is known about this PC because it was so goddamn poor, plus the fact that at 15 I had pilfered a small trust fund to...  ahem...  fund it.  It spent several months (anything from 3-6 months from memory) stashed in my dad's shed after Maplin refused to return it (lack of receipt ;) ).

Maximum Overclock:  Did Not Attempt

3rd PC:  The Advanced Massive Dominator

• CPU:  AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2GHz
• Motherboard:  Abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X
• RAM:  Bizarre mismatch of 1GB Generic DDR2-667 and 2GB Super Talent DDR2-800
• GPU:  ATi Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB
• HDD:  250GB SATA-1
• Monitor:  Viewsonic VX924 1280x1024

Now we're getting somewhere!  Definitely a moment of pride for me since I now had a PC that could toast those Netburst heathens!  The defining title for this PC?  Battlefield 2 :P

Some notable facts about this PC:

1. The RAM Mismatch is down to me being completely unable to afford a replacement 4GB or even 3GB kit (DDR2 is still an anomaly of DDR pricing, with DDR2 costing more than either DDR or DDR3); I had to ship it in from the US, as well.
2. The Motherboard had a separate daughter-card for audio output - ostensibly for a cleaner audio signal; It was mounted on an offset PCI-e 1x slot that was also flipped round.  As well as this, 2 x 40mm fans were in the I/O panel, never turned on since they were just too fecking loud!
3. This was the first PC that was housed in my current TDZ 2000 GX1 case, before that it was in some no-name "Gaming" case which didn't even have a single 120mm fan mount, relying on 80mm fans throughout.  I ended it's tenure properly by giving it a puddly, poorly executed gold paint job.

This PC now enjoys a peaceful retirement as my dad's main PC, with the exception of the monitor, but that's another story!

Maximum Overclock:  ~2.6GHz

4th PC:  Defection Part 1

• CPU:  Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66GHz
• Motherboard:  ASUS P5K Premium WIFI-AP
• RAM:  4GB Corsair Dominator DDR2-1066 Dual Channel
• GPU:  ATi Radeon HD 4850 512MB
• Sound Card:  Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi SB0770 OEM
• HDD:  750GB Samsung HD753J
• Monitor:  Dell S2209W 1920x1080

Yep, you read that; I bought Intel for this PC; was definitely impressed with a lowly 65W TDP under the previous 90W TDP, as well as it's increased efficiency in all regards.

This is the point it began to dawn on me that I'm not very lucky when it comes to overclocking - I only managed to squeeze some 600MHz out of this CPU when others were reaching 1GHz increases >:(

Nevertheless, this was the first foray into 1080p and DirectX 10 (I was with ATi so ADD A POINT ONE!!!).  S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is the game de jour with it's DirectX 10.1 adding sooooo much improvement to it's notorious performance issues; not that this was too much of a celebration since before I discovered how to turn noprefetch on I suffered hourly Blue-screens, sometimes within minutes of startup.

Interesting fact regarding the HD 4850 - I modded it's BIOS to overclock it permanently so that it would remain that way without needing the intervention of Rivatuner.

Following this was a stupid, ill-thought-out attempt to sell these bits in order to upgrade; forgot to account for depreciation and the fact that I used an iCute 600w (now forever rebranded iFryAllYourCircuitry with thanks to Autobot on the Bit-Tech Forum), which I suspect treated the VRMs to under-spec voltages for several years - this caused the motherboard to die on the poor fuck I sold it to, don't ask me how VRMs can "get used to voltages", it's the only theory I've got...

That left me without a PC for 1.5 years...

Maximum Overclock:  ~3.2GHz

5th PC:  Defection Part 2

• CPU:  Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz
• Motherboard:  ASUS P8P67 B3 stepping
• RAM:  8GB Corsair DDR3-2000 (running 1866) Dual Channel (2GB x 4)
• GPU:  Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 1024MB
• Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DG
• HDD:  750GB Samsung HD753J
• Monitors:  Dell S2209W and Viewsonic VX924

And so we come to the end of this carousel of silicon to my current machine:

What can I say?  2 screens is liberating enough to justify 2 desks :)

You know what, fuck it, I'll let you go TMZ on the internals:

A veritable nest of wires can be beheld...

A healthy PSU fan transplant - yes, it is possible!
Thankfully un-furrying a CPU cooler is much easier with an air duster.

Among the car-accident wiring and wholly ineffective sound-deadening foam there's an Air Penetrator in there somewhere...

The collapsed defeat of a Perks For Pocket Change post, will probably just leave it like that TBH.

That Sharkoon 1000 80mm fan really showed off a good shutter; god I love my camera!

This is my current gaming/CAD machine; she runs very well and Windows 7 is remarkably smooth given that it's on a 6-year-old HDD.  The dual-screen setup is odd in that the screen heights are dissimilar both in resolution (1080 vs. 1024) and in physical height - this leads to the pointer seeming to jump vertically when crossing the border.  The best thing about it though is using it in CAD, being able to view both the model and some research material at the same time is such a breeze to say the least; the other thing it's good for is to view a slideshow of railway station pictures during a loading screen, as well as a few gadgets to monitor CPU, Memory and GPU utilization.

Maximum Overclock:  4.6GHz at 1.425V - toasty and risky...

I hope this recollection stirred fond memories in you all, especially if you began in the BBC micro era or similarly early days.  I for one love to tell stories like this and I'm only 22!  Being an OAP suddenly sounds so much more fun...