Category 3D Printing

When I got home last night Cindy and I headed out to the chicken tractor to try to make further modifications to make bed time for the baby birds less problematic.  We took one of the under counter LED lights that I normally use on my 3D printers and mounted it to the inside of the coop.  We also used one of our Wemo smart switches to control it so the light could go on and off on a schedule and be controlled remotely.  Our thinking was once it is dark outside, having the light up top would encourage the birds to go up the ramp and go to bed.

The install went pretty well and the light lit up the coop well, maybe a little too well.  So after we were done we returned inside with the plan to come out once it got dark to check on the chicks.  We came out to see the birds all still hanging out down below, having a grand old time.  The light not only lit up the coop brightly but also lit up the area below it, giving the birds adequate light to just keep hanging out.  We again tried to coach them up top but it was unsuccessful.  Instead we once again wound up doing  the same snatch and grab we have had to do since Friday.  This time I was the one grabbing the birds and handing them off to Cindy.

So once we got them up top and inside we turned off the new light.  We immediately hear a commotion, they are freaking out. Usually once the lights go out chickens settle down, for whatever reason these hens have not adopted this behavior, instead they panic.  We check the camera inside and see the birds are all crowded beside it.  I told Cindy I think we are better off pulling the camera out of there.  The red ring of infrared leds on the camera must be what was making them come that way.  I said I think we are better off just pulling it out which we did.

When we turned the light off a second time they were carrying on again but when I went back out later to check on them they were quiet.  I am not sure how we will train them to go up there at night.  The odd thing is during the day some of them will go up on their own just to hang out.  It’s going to be a long month or two if we have to manually put the birds to bed every night.

Last night I also tended to the 3D printer that I had been working on.  In an attempt to fix the original blob of plastic that encased the hot end I hit it with a heat gun on high for a prolonged period of time.  The end result of that was the blob still remained but I partially melted one of the fans that is in the same area.  I received a new fan yesterday and installed it.  To make it work I had to splice/solder it in to the old wiring connector.

I hate soldering now more than ever.  I was never good at it but now it’s even more frustrating because my eyes don’t want to focus on something that small.  I trudged through the process and eventually managed to get it all working again. I shot video of the entire ordeal.  Editing the footage is going to be a challenge since there were so many mistakes I made along the way.

Oh I saw yesterday that the kick that Parkey missed at the end of the Eagles game was actually tipped by an Eagles defender.  On replay you can see the ball grazed the finger of one of the lineman on the side which would have sent kick left.  At least that should make Parkey feel a little bit better but it surely won’t save his job.

Last night I spent about 90 minutes futzing around with my streaming set up, trying to determine what exactly was causing my audio issues from our last stream.  It a pain to test as I have to setup  a laptop to simulate the second person on the call.  I tried tweaking things multiple ways but had the same end result, the audio of the second person sounds fine to me but does not go out on the stream.  I was really getting frustrated.

I decided to try a totally different solution, Google Hangouts which is integrated into YouTube’s Live Streaming platform.  It lacks a lot of the bells and whistles of full blown streaming solutions but in this situation I don’t think it really matters.  No streaming client is needed, just a Chrome browser.  In my tests the connection was easy to set up and the audio/video quality was acceptable which is all we really need.  The only negative I saw was there is no way to have a split screen view.  With Hangouts, it automatically shows the camera of whomever is talking which is not optimal but again, in our situation I don’t know that it matters much.  Hopefully this weekend at some point I can do a test run with Marty.  I’m sick of all of this hassle to produce content that doesn’t get many views.

The long awaited cold front is supposed to roll in today.  It can stay for three months as far as I’m concerned.  I’m so sick of 90 degrees and humid conditions, especially the week before Thanksgiving.

Here is a random fun fact.  I have sold almost $2500 of 3D printed EUC stands this year spread across roughly 80 orders.  It’s funny how this random idea has grown into something with real numbers.  Of course the actual profit on that $2500 is maybe a third of that after the multitude of expenses I incur to make it happen.

So I decided Friday night that I was going to take another shot at running, something I have avoided for weeks since my energy reserves seemed to be permanently reduced from my undiagnosed ailment.  I drove there instead of riding a PEV but I did have the Meepo in the trunk so I could ride it a little afterward.  The first few laps felt especially miserable but not because my energy level felt that bad, it was just because I haven’t been running.  I managed to complete the 13 laps at what was surely a snail’s pace.  I never got the ready to drop sensation, my legs just felt unhappy running, which is to be expected.  I’m hoping I can continue on from here, reintroducing a once a week 5k+ run into the fitness routine.

On Saturday morning mowing the grass consumed the majority of the morning.  After lunch I got to enjoy riding the One Wheel around on that freshly cut grass.  I had only tried this once before and it was pretty early after getting the One Wheel. I recall struggling a lot with the conditions.  The back yard is filled with uneven surfaces that make riding very challenging.  Well a few months of experience definitely has helped me deal with those conditions.  I rode pretty confidently all over the back of the property.

I did have one bad fall when I swung around the hill where the reverse osmosis system drains.  The grass there is normally very wet.  I rode across it without thinking and had the tire slide out, sending me crashing to the ground on my elbow.  I popped right back up, no worse for wear.  Feel free to witness my increased skill set below.

We did a late afternoon trek to Tractor Supply where I bought more than $100 of mostly chicken supplies.  Speaking of the chickens, the egg factory seems to be shut down.  We have gotten one or two eggs in the last three weeks.  I am hoping that production could still possibly resume.  Four or five of the hens are currently molting their feathers, when that happens they don’t lay eggs.  So production may resume but even if it doesn’t they are still our pets first and foremost.  Cindy and I have talked a little about possibly getting a few young chicks to reboot egg production eventually but we haven’t committed to doing so.

Saturday night was not exciting but still enjoyable for me.  I was doing some work getting 3D prints going and also dug into some WoW while Cindy was doing crafting of her own which she really enjoys.  The cool front that was predicted started rolling in during the afternoon, making the temps feel cool and pleasant, finally.

That feeling was amplified Sunday when I awoke to temps in the mid-60’s for the first time since late April or early May.  It felt simply glorious to finally have some less oppressive temperatures, even if we had to wait till nearly Halloween to get them.  I didn’t get to enjoy the real cool temps in the morning that much because it was the Eagle’s turn to have one of those annoying London games, meaning kickoff was at 930 AM.  I barely had time to do the chicken clean up and pay my bills before the game started.

The game was really not as close as the score.  The Eagles, and specifically Carson Wentz made some bad plays early that wiped out scoring opportunities.  However Wentz more than made up with it the rest of the game.  He made some amazing plays and the Eagles played well enough to win.  For the first time in awhile instead of falling on their face at the end of a game they actually did what was needed to close out the other team.

I was multi-tasking during the game, as I worked on assembling a gas station skimmer detector.  It’s a plan I found in Make magazine.  I bought the stuff to make it months and months ago but never set the time aside to do it.  I figured an early morning Eagles game was the perfect time to do so.  I had some trepidation because the project requires soldering small wires onto small contacts between two different boards.  I am terrible at soldering so that made this project somewhat daunting.  My aging eyes didn’t help, I relied a lot on the magnifying glass that is built into my old Radio Shack soldering station.  I eventually got it wired up but I won’t really know if it will work until I do some more configuration work on it.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I wind up having to redo the wires.

Cindy and I got out early afternoon with our wheels to North Collier Park.  The visit was for two reasons.  Of course we wanted to ride but we also wanted to get our early voting done.  A couple years ago we voted on the Minipros so we thought it would be fun to revisit that again.  We did the voting first.  We took turns so the other could guard the equipment.  It was a long ballot that covered four pages in total.  I cast my votes, hoping to make a difference in the direction of our political climate but doubtful it will be fruitful.

The ride we had afterward was fun.  In total I brought four different devices with us, the Minipro, Meepo, One Wheel, and the Msuper.  Cindy, was feeling it yesterday and actually got up on and rode all four devices competently for a substantial amount of distance.  I was proud of her for her accomplishments.  I still maintain my premise that if she practiced more she would quickly surpass me in riding skill on everything we own.  The awesome weather made riding so enjoyable.

Sunday night I had another EUC live stream with Marty.  It lasted damn close to two hours which is sort of crazy.  Marty and I are able to ramble on about things which works out well I guess.

Last night for the first time in a long time the Eagles were part of a game where the outcome was not decided within the last 5 minutes.  They beat the Giants handily 34-13.  Despite the large margin of victory the defense still exhibited why they are the weaker link of the team, allowing the Giants rookie running back to amass over 200 yards of offense.  Jalen Mills once again got burned for big plays multiple times as well as exhibiting shitty tackling ability.  But hey, at least the offense finally got some consistent production for the first time this year.  We just need to play the Giants every week I guess.

The next ten days are going to be very busy for me from a work perspective with two large projects coming down within three days of one another. However once I get past this point the rest of the year should just be normal daily maintenance, something I look forward to.

This weekend I have some bearings to install, some weeds to pull, and some electric transportation devices to ride somewhere in the county.  Sounds good to me.

Cindy finished up painting the monster skulls.  Check it out here.

So just last week Cindy and I were saying how we were looking forward to the end of hurricane season which officially is November first.   Normally weather agencies are all over hurricanes for days if not weeks in advance, well not this one.  Out of nowhere, a tropical disturbance that was given next to no chance of amounting to anything is now a 145mph cat 4 hurricane that is poised to hit the Florida panhandle this afternoon.

It’s pretty disconcerting to see just how quickly this all came about and how late in the year the potential is still there for devastation.  Of course back in 2005 Hurricane Wilma beat the shit out of us in mid-October as well.  Since having gone through two major hurricanes since moving to Florida I can relate to the anxiety and dread people in that area are feeling right now.  It’s going to be ugly.

I shot a video last documenting the monster print I completed on the Chiron over the weekend.  I still am amazed every time I see the thing.

So I have had interest in having a Generlink installed at the house for quite awhile.  It is a device that gets installed onto your electric meter that allows you to plug your generator directly into your house wiring during a power outage and then control the distribution via the fuse box.  It will be a HUGE improvement over the extension cord nightmare we have had to deal with in the past.

So I originally called our power company about this option in May.  At that time I was told they were out of stock and I should call back in September.  So I set a reminder and called almost two weeks ago.  AT that time I was told there was noone available in that department currently (huh?) but someone would call me back.  Well I called twice over the next 10 days and was told the same thing.  The second time I gave the phone rep some attitude, saying I thought it was bizarre that I wanted to pay them for a service but no one could be bothered to call me back.

Well finally yesterday I did get a call back.  I was prepared to give the woman shit for such a terrible response time but she immediately disarmed me with her pleasant attitude and friendly demeanor.  My install is now scheduled to happen sometime next week.  It’s testament to the power of how simply being nice to someone can swing a negative situation into something positive.

I had two of my printers working overnight cranking out Halloween themed models.  Having 3D printers is a little like Christmas.  You go to sleep with anticipation of what will be waiting for you the next morning.  Maybe that is part of why I like it so much.

Cindy is really good at painting the 3D models I create, as you can see.

This weekend we are going to get out to the movies and although I don’t have anything huge on the to do list there will always something worthy of my attention, in my mind.

The last two nights I have spent tending to multiple small issues.  Monday night I worked on fixing up the technical difficulties we have had with our EUC livestream the last two episodes.  I think I finally have the problems corrected and did some real world testing to verify it.  Last night I was working again on in the hobby room, getting some Halloween 3D prints started and recording a one week review of my new monster printer.  I just feel like I have so many things I can be doing at any given point in time.

So I received back the results of my second round of blood tests.  These were testing thyroid antibodies as well as testosterone level.  Once again the tests came back with numbers squarely in the middle of normal range.  The only other result I am waiting on  is the chest CT which should be soon.  If that shows all clear I guess I will just continue to march ahead but try to do so avoiding max exertion scenarios if at all possible.  My fatigue and endurance has definitely improved so maybe its just one of the growing list of odd things I will write off to old age.

I got a chance to set up my new massive 3D printer yesterday.  In order to make space for it I gave away one of my less massive printers to a buddy at work.  The set up and first print went relatively well.  I am looking forward to testing out it’s capabilities more thoroughly in the upcoming weeks.

So the other large format 3D printer that I ordered close to a month ago finally was due to arrive yesterday.  I saw it was coming via FedEx whom is normally fine with leaving stuff at the door.  Well the guy showed up when no one was home and of course this box had a signature requirement.  The tag that was left on the door said we could either sign the tag and it would be dropped off the next day or it would be available for pickup after 6:30 PM at the local distribution center.  Originally I told Cindy I didn’t mind waiting for it but she seemed into us going and getting it instead.

So that’s what we did, it gave us an excuse for a late day Dunkin Donuts stop and to give Elsa a ride as well.  The drive there took less time than expected, we arrived about 6:10, 20 minutes before the time posted on the tag.  I went in anyway, hoping the driver may have already returned from his run.  My hope was not met, the driver was not back yet, the clerk said I should stop back in after 6:30.

So to waste some more time we drove to a nearby CVS for Cindy to grab a few items we needed.  When we returned I wasted more time listening to a podcast, not going back inside until 6:40.  I got the news that our driver, Chuck, was not back yet but the clerk said he was expected back soon. I asked if soon meant before 7, the time the customer service office closed.  The clerk said yes for sure.  Back out to the car I went.

So as I waited another 10-15 minutes in the car.  As I did I saw several FedEx trucks returning, I was hoping one of them was Chuck.  I finally went back inside about 6:55.   I asked the big question, “is Chuck back”?  Nope no Chuck but it should be “any minute now”.  Well I was too invested now so I just stood in the small office waiting for Chuck to return.  Well I guess 15 minutes technically counts as being any minute.  Chuck arrived around 7:15, allowing me to finally take possession of the huge box which I will hopefully get to open today.

On the drive home we rolled into a major storm.  The pounding rain scared Elsa and didn’t make me feel great either, it was very tough to see the road markings at certain points during the trip. Not only was there rain but very intense and huge lightning.  The bolts were fat and stayed visible much longer than normal.  The ferocious storm turned our property back into a bog after being dried out for over a week.

Today I am home awaiting the arrival of a DirecTV tech to help me rectify my poor signal on the Sunday Ticket channels.  It will be interesting to see what the final resolution is.

So although it seems like I am doing 2-3 videos a week on YouTube there has been a dark hole of videos regarding 3D printing, my third major hobby up there with PEV’s and gaming.  The last time I posted anything regarding 3D printing on my channel was around the 4th of July.  So last night I thought I would address it in a video.  I talked about some of the reasons for the absence, some of which may surprise you.  Check it out if you have a few minutes.

Speaking of hobbies, I just got notice that our EUC “podcast” was accepted by iTunes and is now available for consumption on the platform.  If you are on the iOS platform you can find the show here.

This morning I had another blood draw.  Thankfully it did not require fasting or 10 vials of blood to be drawn (only two).  After my follow up visit at the clinic where I mentioned my mom’s history of thyroid issues and inquiring about the possibility of low testosterone numbers, the blood draw was ordered to test for those things.  In addition I am supposed to now schedule a chest CT to get a closer look at a small “nodule” in one of my lungs that was seen during the xray.  The thought is it is nothing significant but a CT will confirm that.

Old age is glorious.