Author: me

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Intensity Gradient Testing

I got to spend some time with the laser cutter to test the engraving intensity gradient.    I threw in some cutting test in the final panel to test the inside dimensions of the cuts as well as the viable thickness of remaining material.   This was mainly done as a test of the Cohesion3D Mini upgrade with the LightBurn software.  The combination of these two tools is a great addition to Orion K40 laser cutter.  I will provide more details on both once on the controller and software in upcoming post, but I like them a lot, and have lots of plans for more upgrades involving them.

I did run into a small issue I suspect is a binding on the X axis, but want to ensure I follow up on all possibilities.  The image below shows some X axis dimensions loss in the center and right most panels in the final operations.   It is square but looks like some steps skipped and or were lost in the processing due to the testing of increasing mm/second.  I hope to find the issue with further testing.   Is it skipping steps or binding….

in the laser cutter

The positive note is that the kerf on a CO2 laser cut is tiny < 0.04.  The dimensions of the squares removed from the right most column outside dimensions (OD),  and the inside dimensions (ID)  of the holes, are all very spot on for size.    Much more consistent that 3D printing with filament.  The long rectangular cut outs reveal a 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm, 2.0 mm, 3.0 mm, and 4.0mm  bars left in the material after the cut pieces were removed.   the bars were slightly out of place due to the X motion skips but.   still square and strait.

The testing of concentric circles was also very good.

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Rice Cooker Chicken Teriyaki

Chicken Teriyaki is easy to cook, and you can do it in the rice cooker.   I use a variation on an easy recipe that uses Coca-Cola,  but I use pineapple juice instead of orange juice.  Here it goes.

  • ~9 mixed flats and drums wing pieces.
  • Juice from one can of pineapple chunks about 1/3 of a cup.
  •  1/4 cup of Coca-Cola from their great mini size.
  • 1/4 cup of dark soy sauce.
  • Garlic to taste.
  • Ginger to taste if you have it today I didn’t.
  • 1 tsp of corn starch (reserved )
  • 2 tbsp of water (reserved)

As always, start the second rice pot with rice.  Throw it all  but the reserved items in the rice pot and hit the button.  Set a timer for 15 minutes.  Stir the wings at 5 minute intervals to ensure even cooking.   At 15 minutes remove the chicken from the pot and add the corn starch dissolved in the water to thicken the stock, you can use a bit more or simmer it longer before adding the chicken back if you want a thicker sauce.  Bring back to a boil on the cook setting, and then re-introduce the chicken to coat.   set Cooker to “Keep Warm” and wait on the rice.

Just one pot, and no need for a stove.    Remember to keep the pineapple chunks for dessert or to cook fried rice with the left over rice.

Maker:L,Date:2017-9-30,Ver:5,Lens:Kan03,Act:Kan02,E-Y
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Industrial Design lessons II

I keep adding more tools to my tool box, and expanding the knowledge of the tools already in use.  It is why I have some many projects going on.  I want to learn new things or more about things I already know.  I continue to invest in learning FreeCAD.  The tool amazes me, each time I use it.  I find it better and easier to use.  Practice practice practice…  Pick a tool and use it.   Well I’ve been tinkering with Tinkercad too, but with some residual AutoCAD skills from my school days.   I am more comfortable in the FreeCAD interface and methodologies.

I had always used OpenSCAD either standalone on in FreeCAD workbench, as my go to design tool.   Today I started testing an new module LCInterlocking for FreeCAD.  It is why the open source community is so great.   Great tool and then people invest their time to make modules for it to make it greater.   This tool seamlessly integrated into FreeCAD and has its own workbench and easy to follow video tutorials.

I still need to work on my Industrial Design but the new box has better tab strength and a slot for all connection access.  It is a little less visually appealing, but I though the original revision the tabs were too small.  The kerf  on the cut was too tight and the box was very tight to assemble.  I may need to adjust the laser cutter’s focal length to prevent tapper in the cuts.

I know what your thinking.  I should have added a place to include the switches in the box with access like these.   That is why you build projects to learn new tools and how to best utilize them.  I will just use the painter’s tape to hold them on top for now.

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Industrial Design lessons

I am not an industrial designer, but I need to refresh some of the basics basics.  I had gotten a driver board for some old LCD screens that were salvaged from a Lenovo W510 laptop which overheated.  It was a great panel with high resolution and good black.    The driver board was great and easy to use, but lacked any case.  I have been using it as an extra display for configuring my Ordoid and Raspberry Pi’s prior to adding them to the cluster.    I found it much handier that a full monitor for quick an easy configuration.

Now that I have a laser cutter I can make custom cases for project so I don’t have to leave things like the driver board on my desk like a hazard.  I mainly use FreeCAD, but prefer OpenSCAD for 3D part creation .  I have not yet reviewed  or updated sheet metal fabrication and card stock box techniques into the CAD world.  I had learned back in the mechanical drafting classes taken in my past.  Yes I’m old enough to have taken pencil and paper drafting classes.   I guess that will have to be updated.   What to do to create plans for cases….

I headed over to MakerCase to build a box.    If you have not used their tool it is super easy, and has great results as you can see.   However, my ability to measure and line up the ports was lacking.    I also missed the check box for “inside dimensions”  so a bit tight.  My only reservation about the tool is there is not size control on the output.    That is a minor inconvenience that InkScape fixed right up.

I wonder if I should do a rev 0.2….   For another day….

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Ansible Tower for the ARM cluster

I had been using Ansible from the command line interface to ensure all my nodes were installed the same.   I have to give credit to the companies that provide a license that is good for testing and development of their centralized management.  While it is limited it is great for testing in my ARM Big Little cluster.

“Self-support trial license that will not expire. Does not include features in Standard and Premium Ansible Tower, such as LDAP and Active Directory support, system tracking, audit trails and surveys.”

So I have spun up a x86 CentOS 7 VmWare VM so I could have a compatible platform to run Ansible Tower and the basic install is done and tested.   Now to begin the projects of configuring Projects, Inventories, and Roles so that node deployment and management of my nodes can be automated.

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Docker swarm on Odroid XU4Q

Sometimes the easiest way to learn new things is monkey see monkey do.   So I started with the guide Docker Swarm, and updated it for my ARM bigLITTLE cluster.

The only major update from the MC1 guide is that the busybox image was no longer in the git hub or would not run so I used a different image.  It works as expected and if one of the nodes goes down the web “httpd” service spawns on a new node and starts responding to request.     I also changed the port for “Visualizer” as I had a conflict with another project running on the cloudshell2 data node of my cluster.

root@cloudshell2:~# docker service ls
ID NAME MODE REPLICAS IMAGE
3teh7qj0jist dsv replicated 1/1 alexellis2/visualizer-arm:latest
m44k0ueudh8b httpd replicated 3/3 hypriot/rpi-busybox-httpd:latest

My next step is to work on my own web service as I prefer nginx.     I have also built the mentioned 2+2 GlusterFS and plan to use this to run my containers from.

This has been a great monkey do, and I can see why docker is gaining traction in the enterprise, so expect to see more projects based on it.

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Laser cutter testing part1

When you get a new tool you want to put it to work right away, so i’m no different and made raspberry pi cases right out of the gate before doing more formal testing. I got the import laser cutter as a starting place from Amazon.  Please use link below.  It was well packed and shipped from California instead of overseas, so delivery was quick.

Orion Motor Tech 12″x 8″ 40W CO2 Laser Engraving Machine Engraver Cutter with Exhaust Fan USB Port

The object I used to first test was  Thingiverse thing 679809 it is a great case.   I did two in 3mm birch plywood and one in acrylic.   They came out nice the discount acrylic was a little thin so the case is a bit loose, but not too bad.   Wood cases were cut at 40%@40mm/sec and took two passes.   The Acrylic was cut at 60%@40mm/sec and took 3 passes.   I will definitely have to learn the best settings for the new laser cutter.

I will resume formal testing and adjustment of speeds and feeds.  I will also start documenting the upgrades I did to make the laser cutter mine.  This site is about tinkering after all so even if the cutter came complete ready to go.  I still had some upgrades in mind already when I bought it.

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Potato and Leek soup

I make a variation of a classic potato and leek soup that you can find the recipe everywhere on the internet, but I typically don’t use cream, and I originally started with a vegetarian recipe.   However I started adding chicken bouillon to make it a bit richer since I skip the cream.

  • Leeks chopped  amount equal to potatoes 1 stalk is a good double portion for one person.
  • potatoes peeled and cubed equal amounts to the leeks about two for one stalk( leave unpeeled for a heartier soup Yukon Gold also holds up a bit better that russet but the skins break down less during cooking adjust accordingly)
  • Butter ( Original recipe uses olive oil as a vegetarian option)
  • hot water to cover about two cups for 1 stalk and two potatoes measure it if you plan to use chicken base.
  • Chicken base Optional  follow directions 1 tsp per cup of added water.  It can be skipped for Vegetarian soup.
  • Garlic is optional.  I like to taste the leeks and try not to over power their flavor.

Clean and chop the leeks and add to pot with butter and saute while you clean and peel the potatoes.  If you are adding Garlic you can add it at this time.  Chop the potatoes and add them to the leeks and saute the both for a bit.   Add the hot water and chicken base and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.   Blend in the pot using a stick blender.

Optional garnish of Parmigiano-Reggiano freshly grated.  If the hydroponic garden is up I garnish with herbs as well.

You can also add some heavy cream or half-n-half to make the soup creamier, but I feel it makes the soup too heavy so I have been skipping it.

Serve hot, The vegetarian option is also good cold, but I may have odd taste.

 

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Rice Cooker “buffalo style” wings.

I love some “Buffalo wings”  but as i get older I’m too lazy to fry wings and they are harder on my system fried.   So, I am working on a technique to cook them in the rice cooker.  Here is my first pass.  I know lots of folks use the oven, but come on rice cooker is the future.   Yes I know these are not traditional as I did not have any Frank’s Red Hot.

Melt the butter in the microwave, and add the Valentina, water, and spices.  stir and set aside.  I browned the chicken in the rice pot to try and get some texture on the skin and remove some of the fat.   This was done in batches in my little rice cooker.  Once the skin got a little color I poured on the sauce and gave it 15 minutes on the “cook” setting and then switched it to keep warm while I posted this recipe before I forgot.    I let the simmer on keep warm with the lid off to thicken the sauce.  I will have to use less water next time.

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Late Night Snack and questions on diet.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of what people eat are sandwiches?  What is the difference between a cheese quesadilla and a grilled cheese sandwich?  I love both of them, but was out of bread so quesadilla it was.

I think I love all sandwiches hot and cold from all cultures.