Category Archives: making

Blinkinlabs Rocks

Posted on December 21, 2015 by paulwallich

I’ve liked Blinkytape ever since it came out. Sure, you can hook up LED strips with an arduino or whatever easily, but sometimes having the controller built into the tape just makes things so much easier no wiring, no mounting, … Continue reading →

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More Big-Nozzle Fun

Posted on December 4, 2015 by paulwallich

This may actually be useful for other people. When I went to test different extrusion speeds for my 0.75mm nozzle on the Ubis13 I was concerned about how fast I could go and still have the heater keep up with … Continue reading →

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Pinbox 3000!

Posted on December 3, 2015 by paulwallich

Arrived just in time for the 11-year-old’s birthday. Delightful. He’s been wanting one of his own ever since he got to play with some of the early prototypes. Takes about an hour and a half for a kid to build … Continue reading →

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I need a better CAD program

Posted on November 13, 2015 by paulwallich

Or to get really good at creating polygon coordinates in my head. My new fan duct is an improvement over the old one, which was an improvement over a bare fan with a dab of packing tape. (I made something … Continue reading →

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True North

Posted on November 1, 2015 by paulwallich

Well, except for declination error and any nearby metal objects, and within the resolution of the stepper motor… Ingredients: Adafruit 9-degree-of-freedom accelerometer/gyro/magnetometer, wired through a slip ring to an Arduino clone with lots of spare 5-volt power, driving one of … Continue reading →

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Octocopters are the new normal

Posted on April 23, 2015 by paulwallich

So at this afternoon’s maker meeting at the library, while the kids were soldering LEDs and making very loud reeds out of plastic binder clips, Tim showed off his multicopter, which he uses for HD video and photography. It stands … Continue reading →

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Montpelier Maker meetings

Posted on April 10, 2015 by paulwallich

A bunch of us got together in the library basement as usual. The kids made a bunch of eggbot eggs and a blinking arduino; the grownups talked about projects ranging from fan-based lissajous figures and photonic communication demos to mobile … Continue reading →

Posted in going places, making, possibly useful | Tagged | 2 Comments

A possible makerspace location

Posted on April 3, 2015 by paulwallich

As in actual space. Volume. Tens of thousands of  cubic feet. Can’t wait till it’s warm enough to look at.

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Kids love a makerspace

Posted on March 27, 2015 by paulwallich

When I got everything down to the library basement yesterday afternoon, there were already some kids waiting. Apparently they’ve been asking for a week or so when the next maker meeting was going to be. Mostly I set them loose … Continue reading →

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What does that button do

Posted on February 26, 2015 by paulwallich

You know the adage that documentation is to let other people understand how and why you did something, including the other person that is you three months from now? If I had either documented the steps I took to get … Continue reading →

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