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Hardware

Arduino CDP Revisited

UPDATE 5/5/21: Please check out the most current version. During some down time I’ve decided to revisit the Arduino CDP sniffer and add extra features. This will be a running post and will be updated periodically. As mentioned in the comments of the other post I will be looking at adding LLDP support and an export feature to a mobile/laptop. The export or “history” addition will allow a log to be saved to an external device as easy as possible. As a prototype, it’s had an ESP8266 added to it with a web server running showing modified serial output. Initial results work, but I’m again getting plagued with power issues from the ESP8266’s. Getting those 3.3v and enough amps into the original container will be problematic. The benefit of this is it’s exported as text… Read More »Arduino CDP Revisited

Mini Virtual Pinball Cabinet

While smoking some meat in the drum smoker, I had some time to kill, so I decided to build a smaller desktop virtual pinball cabinet. Hopefully one that would be portable, but still big enough to provide a similar experience to a full size cabinet. The base cabinet was cut and monitors fitted during this time, the rest was done over the following few weekends. Similar to the other one I built, this too would be mainly build from recycled/cheap parts: The laptop inside has a smashed screen and no battery, which would have other wise been thrown out, but fine for this build. The backglass is an old LCD (unknown origin). The playfield monitor was a cheap purchase from a swapmeet (<$10). The arcade buttons are the last left over arcade buttons from several… Read More »Mini Virtual Pinball Cabinet

Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS)

This project started when I was doing a pork leg and it was too big (and tall) to fit in my old charcoal BBQ (18″ Eurochef kindly donated by a good mate). Old bricks  and clamps where to hold the lid down. After some research I found a DIY smoker called a UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker). After much thought and research, I opted for a food safe drum (stupid move) from a chocolate factory, formally it was full of sucrose. So far I’ve invested $5. . Checked the local fire laws – unfortunately our shire does not allow burn off’s,incinerators or fire pits. To be honest our property isn’t big enough and I’m not a huge fan of the toxic fumes. I emailed a few local businesses to get quotes for sandblasting, the best came… Read More »Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS)

Virtual Pinball Machine

Virtual pinball tables consist of the same basic elements as regular pinball machines with a few replacements; The playfield and backglass are replaced with monitors and controlled by a PC. The buttons (and sometimes the plunger) are replaced by buttons and a game controller or keyboard emulator. In more advanced tables the LED dot matrix display replaced with a compatible replacement or a 3rd monitor. This previous project was the perfect test bed to see if the PC I was planning on using was good enough to run the games smoothly. The first test run was running Future Pinball with a Kinect for facial recognition.  At 25-30 FPS is was OK but there was noticeable lag at times. As this was my first and I wanted to use atleast 90% recycled parts I’ve moved away from… Read More »Virtual Pinball Machine

Bartop Arcade

I’ve wanted to build a bartop MAME cabinet for a while, my first attempts last year led to 4 failed CNC jobs, infact the first side panel I did for this project ended up the same way (top left): The Z axis fails; instead of going up, it skips the instructions to raise, and then drills down into the wood, going further and further until either the bit snaps or I turn it off (to prevent fire). This second attempt was successful – I worked out that if I don’t put the front and top panels on the CNC machine it doesn’t happen. I still don’t know why, but it does mean that it’s a lot louder and there is more dust. In this cabinet I wanted to press fit the center panels into the… Read More »Bartop Arcade

Augmented Reality Sandbox

Found this neat project by Oliver Kreylos, and gave it a go over a weekend using only spare parts. It came together well on a Toshiba i5 laptop. I found there to be issues using the Intel graphics card/drivers, so I swapped to an AMD Athlon 2X4 with a Radeon HD47## card (no longer supported by AMD). It did refresh faster than the Intel graphics card, but had the same ‘unknown’ issue when trying to render water. After swapping out the Radeon with a slower Nvidia card, it all displays correctly, but the frame rates where pretty slow. I reduced the quality of the water and the frame rates have increased. With a working model, I decided to upgrade from the test cardboard box, speaker stand and copious amounts of quick release clamps. The sandbox and stand… Read More »Augmented Reality Sandbox

Mostly Printed CNC (MP-CNC)

Having a CNC machine to cut panels for projects has been a wish for a while. Then I found this awesome project: Mostly Printed CNC (www.vicious1.com). As the name says, most parts are 3D printed and the non-printed parts are easily accessible. The controller is a RAMPs 1.4 board with Arduino Mega, easy to find cheap online. I used the Marlin firmware because it’s the same as both my 3D printers. After destroying my Mendel i2 trying a new printing surface I had spent many hours printing the parts on my Solidoodle2 with a printing volume 6″ x 6″ x 6″. It took longer than usual due to my choice of ABS over PLA. I have had to reprint most of the parts in PLA. The project page gives accurate build times for each part,… Read More »Mostly Printed CNC (MP-CNC)

Hot End Failure

While trying to print out the LCD mount for the “Internet Radio” project. I returned later to check the progress on the print after it finally starting due to temperature issues. I found this: The temperature sensor had pulled free and had a piece of plastic lodged between it and the hot end. When I removed the hot end for inspection, the sensor broke apart. Clearly it was time to replace the entire hot end. It has served me well and is only the second one used in my Prusa Mendel i2. The new hot end is 95% metal with a short piece of PTFE tube in the centre. I’ve used it twice and it had already jammed. Pulling it apart, I found the PTFE tube had been damaged preventing the filament from being pushed… Read More »Hot End Failure

Bakelite Internet Radio

NOTE: If your a vintage radio purest you may want to look away now, as I never had any intention of restoring the radio back to its original glory due to the damage of the insides and the custom speaker. I wanted to give it a fresh lease of life while hopefully doing it justice. The radio is a Stromberg Carlson Ovaltone (model number:5A29), manufactured around 1949. I was unable to find much information on it, and I’d guessed the model number by comparing it against other online pictures. What I’m going to do is make it into an internet radio powered with a raspberry pi, using WiFi, a small powered amp, 2 rotary encoders, LCD, and stereo speakers. If you’d like to split hairs, technically WiFi is digitally encrypted ‘radio’ waves… So it’s kind… Read More »Bakelite Internet Radio

Prusa Mendel i2 to CNC Engraver Conversion – In progress

I’ve been checking out parts lists and prices for DIY CNC routers. After some research, I’ve decided to convert my Prusa Mendel i2 to a small, very cheap CNC engraver, So I could get a feel for them and work out if it would be worth making a full size one. Below is what I had to work with. You may notice the extra braces on the top corners – the green parts. There is other extra supports on the board it’s screwed on to, to make it more ridged than usual. I found a few mounts on thingyverse, but I have an old Ozito rotary tool. The flexi shaft has different dimensions than the Dremel, so I created my own mount for it: Ozito_FlexMount I did a test print @ 20% fill and 1… Read More »Prusa Mendel i2 to CNC Engraver Conversion – In progress