Feb 14, 2022

Week Notes - Straighter Lines

I’ve spent some time this fortnight trying to install the latest version of the WLED firmware on the My Baby’s Got LED board which controls my #plasticflowers (each flower contains a ring of 8 WS2812 RGB pixels, so I’ll be able to use the new grid feature to set them up as an 8 x 45 grid and light them up individually). This has proved more challenging than I’d hoped, so I’m putting that to one side for a while (they do look ok as they are).

I have made more progress with pen plotting though. A conversation at DoES Liverpool’s maker night led to the realisation that most of the wobbliness of the lines was due to dirt on the the bearings. These have now been cleaned and the plotter is working a lot better.

There’s possibly still a bit of movement where the penholder is attached, we’re looking at adding another bearing to counteract that.

I’ve also made some pen storage, using one of the parametric designes at https://www.festi.info/boxes.py/. I’ve sized this one for thicker marker pens, and will probably make one with smaller holes for thinner pens, and one for ink:

Now I’ve got the right paper and pen combination, a more accurate pen plotter, and storage for some of the pens, it’s probably time to start thinking about some new things to plot!

I also found out last week that some gears I’d printed in August for the tattoo parlour in the same building as DoES Liverpool were now in use. They’re in old bubble gum machines being used to dispense tattoo designs:

Good to be able to help bring these old machines back to life.

And last but not least, I’ve been doing my bit towards publicising DoES Liverpool’s Boost membership scheme, to help widen access to this amazing coworking and maker space. If you know anyone in the Liverpool area who might benefit, then please tell them about it…

Note: I’m just going to call these weeknotes now, however often I do them (it’s been two weeks this time, which does make it easier to find something to write about).

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