The trial run at making our own Gen 7 PCB was a success, so we ordered the components and went for the real thing. A few tricky obstacles required surmounting including out-of-date config files, a blown Pololu and invisible shorts, but finally we have life! Continue reading Gen 7 Up and Running
All posts by Hannah
Quick and Dirty X Belt Tensioning
Mendel’s X belt tension needed increasing, but this is a beggar of a job to do with the original belt clamps (I have the injuries to prove it!). Turns out there is a simple solution, inspired by the Open X Carriage – cable ties!
While this is a preferred solution to the original, it is still difficult to tension the belt beyond a certain point. Also if you change your mind and decide it needs loosening by a notch or two, that can prove to be a challenge! Ideally I’d like a tensioning system like this Y Belt Tensioner by sliptonic on both X and Y axes, but the cable tie will do for now :).
Etching Generation 7 PCBs
The premise behind the Generation 7 RepRap electronics is replicability, so we decided to fabricate our own for our Huxley in progress. Originally we had hoped to set up our Mendel for milling with our Dremel, but with our sticky y axis problem being only improved but not completely solved by increasing the belt tension, we decided to play it safe and etch the PCB instead. Continue reading Etching Generation 7 PCBs
The Huxley Build Commences
Having a working Mendel poses a difficult question – what to print next? After having successfully printed its first self-improvement, it is time for Mendel to become a parent! And what better solution to our portability problems when taking Mendel on the road than a “Mini Mendel”, aka Huxley.
Spool Holder & Sticky Y Axis
We decided when taking our Mendel for a trip to the office that the first project had to be a spool holder – feeding the filament manually was getting tedious and meant Mendel couldn’t be left to print unsupervised. Enter Simple spool system for a Mendel (or other 3d printer) by brokentoaster on Thingiverse, a perfect solution.
Printing these parts has revealed that the Y axis is missing steps somehow, leading to slanted prints. Luckily the parts are still usable. Continue reading Spool Holder & Sticky Y Axis
Mendel On The Road
Our Mendel has been printing successfully in the study for a while now, but how will it fare on the road? We decided to take it on a jaunt to the office to test its metal…
WordPress in-built HTML Tags
I can never remember what HTML tags I can use in WordPress and what they do, so here is a list taken from the WordPress.com Support Pages with examples for quick reference.
Continue reading WordPress in-built HTML Tags
Displaying Other Posts in the Category Hierarchy in WordPress
On several pages, including a category archive page (and in the category feed), WordPress by default shows posts in that category and its child or sub-categories.
What if you want to change which posts are included? Use the pre_get_posts filter to modify the query sent to the database and customise what posts are displayed. Here are some functions to add to your theme’s functions.php file.
Continue reading Displaying Other Posts in the Category Hierarchy in WordPress
Best Practice for Setting Up WordPress
A guide for setting up a self-hosted WordPress site with considerations for security and optimisation.
Oh ReplicatorG, I had such high hopes!
Sadly, switching to ReplicatorG after experiencing problems calibrating the RepRap Host software wasn’t the golden bullet I had been hoping for, although it looks like Skeinforge is the way to go after all. Continue reading Oh ReplicatorG, I had such high hopes!