Category: Projects

Various different projects in various states of construction and destruction

ProfileMaker – Crippled, but back…

At least for the time being.  :)

I’m guessing that only about 10% of ProfileMaker users were using the complete profile feature.  For those of you who didn’t use it, this feature would use your inputs to create an entire Skeinforge profile, zip the whole thing, and e-mail it to you. 1  However, this 10% use case was probably accounting for a huge portion of the server load.

I’ve disabled the e-mail-a-profile feature to see if this will help.  Let’s cross our fingers and hope!  As a friend of mine always says, these are good problems to have.

  1. Pretty convenient, really. [↩]

Alas, poor ProfileMaker, I knew you well…

I launched ProfileMaker on March 20, 2011.  After serving up more than 3500 awesome Skeinforge profiles, my website hosting company has actually started to complain that I’m using too much of the shared hosting environment’s resources.  As a result, I’m going to have to disable temporarily and potentially discontinue ProfileMaker.

I suspect it is the Skeinforge profile creation feature that has caused the most trouble.  Every time this feature it used, it creates a temporary file and incorporates it into a full Skeinforge profile, which is then ZIP’ed for e-mail delivery.  It’s possible that disabling this one feature may dramatically reduce my site’s server load.

Two weeks later

On April 14 I posted that ProfileMaker had served up 209 profiles to 58 people.  As of right now there’s 598 profiles and 144 people served.  That’s a lot of repeat business! 1  The number of people increased by 100%, the number of uses went up by 200%, and the amount of my awesome went up by 37%. 2

I figure this means either:

  • People really like it and are using it a lot
  • People really hate it and they are clicking the same button over and over again cursing my name

I hope it is the first one.

  1. And, by business I mean people clicking a button on a free web service [↩]
  2. I’m rounding here [↩]

ProfileMaker: More than 209 profiles and 58 people served!

More than 58 people have generated profiles with ProfileMaker1 !

Seriously, you need to stop printing calibration cubes and fiddling with Skeinforge.  Find out more than 58 people have discovered and start using ProfileMaker to create your Skeinforge profiles.  You can either manually enter the values provided by ProfileMaker into Skeinforge or have it e-mail you a ready-to-slice Skeinforge profile.

Always wanted to try printing at 0.25mm per layer or with 1.75mm filament or in PLA?  Your ‘bot can do it.

  1. Powered by SCIENCE! [↩]

ProfileMaker v3.0

It’s online and ready for testing.  I would appreciate the help of any beta testers.  Here’s what you need to play:

  • A Thing-O-Matic with a MK6 Stepstruder
  • Ideally you have filament in 1.75mm and 3mm diameters and in both ABS and PLA
  • A fair amount of patience, a willingness to print off some test objects with a variety of profiles, and the ability to summarize your findings for me

To entice you, here’s what v3.0 can do right now:

  • Provide good settings for your Thing-O-Matic MK6 Stepstruder for ABS or PLA in 1.75mm or 3mm diameters running a Heated Build Platform or Automated Build Platform
  • Allow you to specify the gear diameter, gear swell, and feed rate
  • Allow you to generate a full profile based on any stock Thing-O-Matic profile – along with the solidity/fill ratio
  • E-mail you the finished profile as a zip file

I’m still struggling with the math required for a DC motor extruder.  However, as soon as I get that sorted out, I look forward to updating this web app to provide Cupcake and Thing-O-Matic MK5 DC motor calculations and profiles as well.

So!  Do you have what it takes?

I should really take that poll down now…

I ran a poll recently asking for input on the following:

  • Work for PLA as well as ABS (5 votes)
  • Work for DC motors as well as Stepper motors (2 votes)
  • Work for 1.75mm filament as well (2 votes)
  • E-mail myself the results
  • Ability to change the feedrate (2 votes)
  • Ability to manually change the filament diameter (1 vote)
  • Ability to manually change the gear diameter
  • Ability to obtain multiple settings
  • Ability to include a “fudge” factor
  • Ability to manually change the gear swell
  • Nothing! I love it as is!
  • Meh.

I’m in the process of testing my ProfileMaker v3.0 – and it’s got ALL of the above features except the DC motor stuff. 1  If you’re interested in testing it out, let me know by sending an e-mail or leaving a comment.

  1. And, the “Meh.” too. [↩]

My Ultimate Bag

Bag without notes
Bag without notes

In college I used to carry a camera bag where I kept my stuff.  Car keys, notebook, pens, pencils, etc.  This was an old faux-leather camera bag my dad used to use years ago.  I loved that thing.  Unfortunately, it was stolen out of a friend’s car while we were at a concert.

Over the next few years I thought about what I liked about that bag, what I liked about other bags I had seen, and what I would want in an ultimate bag.  I wanted a bag made from tough canvas, hopefully as tough or tougher as denim, and preferably a khaki color.  I ended up going with a relatively thick canvas from a fabric store.

I also wanted a bag that was big enough to accommodate a full size 3″ binder (the type I thought I might use in grad school), small pockets, wide pockets, a large pocket, and a spot for pens and pencils.  It has thick nylon straps around the bag for holding it together and surprisingly expensive plastic buckles.  I sewed the entire thing with khaki colored upholstery thread.

Bag with notes
Bag with notes

If I were to re-make this bag, I would change several things:

  1. I would try to put the pen holder flaps horizontally rather than vertically.  When the bag is mostly empty the vertical pens poke the bag flap upwards.  I think the bag would probably fit better if pen holders were horizontal.  It would also make it easier to reach in and grab a pen when the top flap is buckled down.
  2. I think it would be pretty useful to have one or two small pockets on either side for stowing away a pen on the outside of the bag.
  3. I don’t really ever use both long pockets.  I’d probably nix one.
  4. I’m always using the four small pockets – they’re incredibly useful.  I’d definitely keep those.  However, I think they might be even more useful if they had a velcro flap to keep them closed.  I have a feeling velcro is a lot easier to attach than zippers.  On top of that, zippers can jam – velcro is basically all good.
  5. I would make the large interior pocket a little wider.  It’s about four inches wide – it could be widened to about six or so.
  6. I would absolutely, positively print all of the plastic buckles on my MakerBot.
  7. I would add a plastic lanyard/carabineer/key hook.  Sometimes I want to toss my keys in and don’t want to worry about them bouncing out (not that they ever have).
  8. When I sewed it together I used a setting on the sewing machine that put the thread seams really close together.  With the thickness of the thread and the closeness of the seams, this ended up essentially making perforations in the cloth.  I would still use thick canvas and thick upholstery thread, but I would set the seams to be wider apart.
  9. I’ve often thought that the bag would be a little better if it were lined or reversible.  If I’m going to line the bag, I might as well make it reversible anyhow.  If I did this, I would make one side black and one side khaki color.  I’ve used this bag as a pillow more than once – and having two layers would make it more…  fluffy.
  10. I’ve been caught in the rain with this bag on more than one occasion.  While this has never been much of a problem, I think a thicker canvas (perhaps the kind used as a painter’s tarp – the kind that’s partially sealed with plastic and/or rubber) would make an excellent water repellent version.
  11. I’ve taken to carrying zip ties in my laptop backpack.  They’re just always useful.  I think it would be nifty to have a long thin pocket where I could stash a few of these.  They would take up practically no room and also act like ribbing.
  12. Have you ever taken a good look at those luggage tags at the airport?  Whenever I go to an airport, I always snag several of them.  They are springy and very very difficult to break.
  13. I would definitely use a much wider carrying strap.  I think something about three inches thick would be ideal.  Perhaps seat belt strap material?
  14. What about a spot for sticky notes (already there in the small pockets), a cell phone, sunglasses, bluetooth, or camera?  Maybe a spot for my sonic screwdriver…
Custom Every Day Carry Bag
  1. My Ultimate Bag
  2. Custom Every Day Carry (EDC) Bag
  3. Sewing Practice
  4. EDC Bag Materials, Designs, Etc
  5. Off the rack options for EDC bags
  6. A more practical EDC sling bag
Test