My website’s theme is broken. Great. It was working fine, why did I upgrade?!
Monthly Archives: March 2011
Dear Movie Studios… would you like to borrow my glasses?
…’cause you are apparently as nearsighted as I am.
I netflix’d the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. The World a few weeks ago. It was pretty entertaining. I don’t often check out the “special” features on movies, but I went to that menu option after watching the movie. In doing so the DVD notified me that the disc contained only the movie itself – but that I should purchase the DVD myself to watch the extras.
Here’s the thing. I don’t want to buy your movie. I’m never going to want to buy your movie. It was good, not great. But, really, that’s why I have Netflix. I’m not going out to invest $20 in your movie and then have another DVD case clutter my life. I’ve already paid for the privilege of watching your movie – I’m not going to run out and pay $20 (or more) on top of that to watch 15 minutes of people screwing up their lines.
Let’s look at this from a wider perspective. The sorts of people who are willing to pirate a movie don’t really care overmuch about the DVD extras – they’re content to watch the main movie. So, now you’ve created a system where the people who are actually paying for the privilege of watching your movie are getting the same content they’d see if they pirated the movie?? Shouldn’t you be doing the opposite?! Doesn’t it make more sense to add more content to DVD’s, not less? Why not make the actual DVD so incredibly enticing with extra features that those people who would normally pirate a film want to either (a) Netflix it or (b) buy it? I mean, it’s not like the Netflix business model is going anywhere. They’ve only gotten bigger in the last ten years and basically put brick-and-mortar movie rentals out of business.
Anyhow, for all you film execs who closely hang all over my every word – if the film industry wants my $20 directly, here’s what they have to do: Make a movie so freaking awesome I’m going to want to watch it again – and soon.
ProfileMaker Version 2.0 is coming!
A few cosmetic details to work out yet… but I’m almost ready to launch the second version of my ProfileMaker. I released the first version late last night.
I’d like to think that I’ve increased the number of options while still keeping a slim and intuitive user interface. I would really appreciate any comments, criticisms, or questions you may have.
ProfileMaker thoughts…
Looking at Dave’s Profileinator seems really well suited to a stepper extruder. However, he also suggests adding a “Flow Fudge Factor.” I just use this set to 1.0, so I’m not sure if I’m using it correctly.
Flow Fudge Factor: I have to enter 1.0 into the flow rate to get 2.0 RPMs on the extruder.. I got tired of doing this math so I added flow fudge factor and set it to 0.5. This doesn’t change the volume calculations – it just modifies the flow rate on the table. If you have a MK4/MK5 extruder with a DC motor, start this at 127.5 to get the PWM value to use
In any case, it looks like by multiplying it by 127.5 you can get the required flowrate for a DC motor. In printing with a DC motor, I never wanted to drop the speed below 255, because the DC motor had such a small range of speeds. I could print between about 230 – 255. Given this, I can understand why so many others, probably using a DC motor, would rather pick their flowrate as 255 and then determine the proper feedrates.
Also, a new poll – what feature would you like next?
What ProfileMaker feature would you like next?
Cross-Platform Profileinator Web App
Some of this write up is over at Thingiverse and some of it is at the end of the ProfileMaker page.
Dave Durant’s program for solving for flowrate is really incredibly helpful. It is truly a shame that it isn’t more widely used. I think part of the problem might have been people were intimidated by all the buttons and part of the problem was that it was a Windows only application. There has since been a port to Java, but that’s not as convenient as a truly web based version.
I’ve hard coded the most common options, but fully intend to bring them back later as advanced options. For now I just wanted to whip something together to help people out and show them just how easy calibration can really be. Give it a shot. If you haven’t printed at 0.2mm layers before, give it a whirl!
I’m really really looking forward to being able to enter values into Skeinforge from my cell phone.
Your suggestions, comments, questions, criticism, e-mails, etc are all welcome and invited.
Eureka!
Not knowing a thing about C++, I think I’ve been able to fumble my way through Dave’s code to the point I can replicate his calculations.
On to coding!
Creating an Online Profileinator
I’m always juggling multiple projects – that seems to be the mark of a Maker and/or a Maker with ADD. 1 I’m looking to tinker with a clockwork spider, an open source disc shooter, possibly an open source shooter compatible with Nerf darts, and now… I’d like to create a web app that aids in the calculation of good profile settings.
I’ve downloaded a bunch of different Thing-O-Matic, Cupcake, PWM and RMP calculators off of Thingiverse and am tinkering with them to get a better understanding of how they run these calculations. 2 Once I understand these, I’d like to make a very simple front end for these calculations.
If you have a good idea of how these things work, please leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail through the contact form. Thanks!
Can we make a printed Nerf dart shooter?
I’m curious.
I figure a typical Nerf dart shooter works as so:
- A dart with a plastic cap and a hollow center
- Putting the dart in a thin cylinder, with the cap facing out
- Pulling back a larger cylinder that fits around the thin cylinder, where the larger cylinder is capped at one end
- Suddenly releasing the larger cylinder, so that it will be propelled forward
- The air between the two cylinders is compressed, and forced into the cavity inside the dart
- The compressed air forces the dart out of the thin cylinder
I think this is doable with 3D printed parts and a rubber band.
Google, what the hell?!
Apparently I can’t access Google Groups. Which sucks. I have several different Gmail accounts and I can’t use any of them with Google Groups. As a result, I can only read what’s going on in the Google Groups on my RSS feed – and not respond to anything.
Google, this may not be evil… But it is just plain mean. Cut this out, please, and restore access to Google Groups to Gmail users.
Default Series Title