Electric Turnip
  • Blog
  • Stories
    • Story 000
    • Story 001
    • Story 002
    • Story 004
    • Story 007 - Unfinished
    • Story 008
    • Story 010 - BattleWagon
    • Story 012
  • Images
    • Adventure Caddie concept gallery
    • Page Design Gallery
    • Older Work
  • 5FEAT Video
  • Videos
  • Game Experiments
    • Climb
    • Super Shapetoy
    • TurboGarbageTruck
    • 031 - Best Games - Enchanter
    • 033 - Shader Test
  • Contact

331

3/4/2019

0 Comments

 
I wanted to take a short break from fiction to write about machines. Well one machine. No, not one machine, a lot of machines. More to the point, my relationship to machines. With machines? Whatever. I’ll start over.
I like machines. I like the way they work. I like ones that move in consistent and predictable ways. I like machines that use a few repeatable motions to accomplish a variety of tasks. I like to take them apart and put them back together. I like to diagnose problems with machines and fix them. I like knowing that when I take them apart, I can put them back together. I like it when I can put them back together and they still work. I like it when I diagnose a problem with a machine, take it apart then put it back together again, but with one small tweak that gets it humming along.
So here is what made me think of all this.
I was running the 3d printer again recently. It’s important at this point to know that 3d printers are very twitchy, uncooperative machines that are tough to dial in and tough to keep tuned. That goes triple for mine. Mine is a cheap build it yourself kit with a knockoff control board, and issues with some of the electrical connectors. Other than all that, it usually works. At least it works if I don’t want to use the usb port or try to update it. Like I said, knockoff control board.
I hadn’t had it running for a while, because I bought a new board to replace the one that came with it, but as with the rest of the printer, some assembly is required. Also, the new board is just that, a circuit board. Actually it’s a set of circuit boards, but either way it has no case, the mounting holes on the printer don’t fit it, and the display for it is completely different than the one I have. If I want to use this new board I will need something to put it in or attach it to.
Lucky for me I have just the tool for making a new control board case. A 3D printer. That means limping the old board along for a while until I can get one printed. This was a task that I wasn’t looking forward to. Mostly because I was scared of it. If the old board flamed out before I got the case done, or further along, if I installed the new board and it didn’t work, I would have gone from a potentially working printer, to a definitely not working printer. I had Schrodinger’s printer. Turning it on was just too frightening.
I had something else to print, so finally I just said screw it and fired the thing up. There was a lot of tuning and adjusting to do to get it running properly, but in less than two hours I had it printing. Of course that wasn’t going to last.
One failed print later, the heater block that melts the filament was leaking molten plastic, there was a short at the board that stopped one of the print axis from moving, and the extruder wasn’t extruding. I felt very disappointed.
On the other hand, I really like machines. Now that the printer wasn’t working at all, I had no fear of disassembling the thing to try to find out why. I fixed the extruder, since it turns out it was never assembled properly in the first place. That wasn’t my fault, the thing just came like that. I cleared the mess of half extruded plastic from the nozzle, and after a lot of fiddling tightened everything to stop the leak in the heater block. I should probably replace that too though, since this one is a bit of a mess.
The only thing left was the short at the control board. At first I thought that the board had finally given it all up and I would have to replace it. I left the printer and thought about how I would install the new board. Something about how it had failed didn’t seem right. If the board went I should lose more than one axis. I went back and had a look at all the connections running to and from the motors. Sure enough, the board had failed, but it wasn’t any of the chips, it was the contacts that the wires run into. I disconnected the motor in question and re connected it to route around the issue. After turning it back on, everything ran perfectly. Well not perfectly, but as well as it did before.
So now I have one more print to finish up and I can start making a new case for a new control board. I don’t know if it will ever print perfectly, but it should at least print properly.
This whole story might sound like a hassle, and it sort of was and still is. The thing about me is, I really like machines. I like it when they work correctly, but I like it even more when I get to take them apart, fix them, and then put them back together again. I know that isn’t everyone's thing. I know that isn’t even a lot of peoples thing. In a room full of people there might be two who really want to take the room apart. They want to see inside the walls and figure out how the whole thing works. Of those two people, there might be one who wants to put the room back together, exactly the same, like nothing ever happened, but with one screw hidden under the drywall tightened half a turn. I’m that guy.
I apologize to anyone who has to deal with me, because it must be infuriating. What can I say. I like machines.
I have a microwave here that is on the fritz. I don’t think I’m touching that one.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    June 2012
    October 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

    Categories

    All
    Adventure Caddie
    Best Games

    RSS Feed

Owen McManus
  • Blog
  • Stories
    • Story 000
    • Story 001
    • Story 002
    • Story 004
    • Story 007 - Unfinished
    • Story 008
    • Story 010 - BattleWagon
    • Story 012
  • Images
    • Adventure Caddie concept gallery
    • Page Design Gallery
    • Older Work
  • 5FEAT Video
  • Videos
  • Game Experiments
    • Climb
    • Super Shapetoy
    • TurboGarbageTruck
    • 031 - Best Games - Enchanter
    • 033 - Shader Test
  • Contact