Creating With Code

As I said in my last update, I finally upgrade MakerBot #131 with a MK5 extruder because it reportedly works great with the new PLA 4043D. I’ve been having fun printing with the various colors of ABS that MakerBot offers, but have always been somewhat envious of folks that have been printing successfully with PLA. [...]

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Actually, all sorts of new and exciting nonsense has happened to MakerBot #131. I was excited to order get my MK5 Plastruder kit and join all of the cool people who have left the pinch-wheel and nichrome behind.  Unfortunately, I ran into some problems early on, and after buying some cool thermocouple parts to try [...]

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Like many MakerBot owners, I feel compelled to help spread desktop 3D printing throughout the world.  So, for the past several months, MakerBot #131 has been hard at work printing parts in 3D to make another 3D printer! The Mendel is the second (and current) design for the RepRap project, whose goal is to create [...]

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Recently (thanks to the Internet), I figured out how to remote control a digital camera over USB using CHDK. However, if I wanted my MakerBot to be able to automatically control that camera, I needed a way to wire it up! CHDK’s remote USB trigger functionality works by detecting when it receives power over USB.  [...]

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One problem with making time-lapse videos of MakerBot prints is the fact that the MakerBot works by moving the build platform (and therefore the object being built) around in the XY plane, resulting in an unwatchable blur. It recently occurred to me that, since the MakerBot is such a hackable platform, I could probably make [...]

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