(Backdated: Nov. 10, 2016)
In order to measure the diameter of our filament, we decided to use digital calipers with a data output port.
(Backdated: Nov 29, 2016)
Today I finally bailed on thermocouples. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out a good way to measure the tiny voltage they produce, even with an instrumentation amp with buffered inputs and a high gain stage. In light of that, I…
(Backdated: Nov 10, 2016)
Today I built the heating system for our extruder. I made a new heater coil out of about 1 foot of Nichrome wire and crimped it to the end of a length of 18AWG speaker wire (in order to handle the high current required). I hooked it…
(Backdated: Nov. 4, 2016)
Today I experimented with tiny embedded microcontrollers and PID control. I figured out how to program an ATtiny24 microcontroller with an Arduino based on this documentation, which will be way easier to build into our final prototype as a…
(Backdated: Oct. 25, 2016)
The goal of this experimentation was to try driving a motor that ran on 12 volts DC with an Arduino (at 5V) by low-side driving it with a large power FET. I scavenged around for motors for a few days in various stockrooms, and I settled on a…
How does one design a user interface which connects to the electrical system for a filament recycler? Well, first they decide what firmware to use that can handle both an electrical system and running a GUI.