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Glowforge Review – Glowforge Laser Engraver Impressions, Plus Glowforge Versus Leading Laser Cutters

Chris Garrett

Glowforge
Glowforge Review

Glowforge review (laser engraver,not laser printer). This review is about the Glowforge Basic — the Glowforge is the best laser cutter I have ever reviewed, or used for that matter. Heck, the Glowforge is the funnest machine I have ever owned.

I say that as an owner of several CNC, laser, and 3D printing machines!

  • Updated 6th October, 2020 – New, optional, premium software subscription is now available – see below
  • Update 15th July, 2020 – wrote a two-year Glowforge review
  • Updated 12 July, 2019 – All models now available in Canada!
  • Updated 6 May, 2019 – Appears camera calibration is solved!
  • Updated 30 April, 2019 to include information about the compact filter, and “Set Focus” feature – see below

Personal Update – we got so much value out of the first Glowforge Basic after this review, we bought another one which arrived early May 2019!

[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Reviews and Buying Guides Tagged With: cnc, glowforge, laser engraver, laser engraving, reviews, tool

Quit Zoom Call Macro Key – How to Make a Custom Cherry MX USB Macro Keyboard/Keypad with Arduino

Chris Garrett

Ever wondered how to create your own custom keyboard or keypad? Do you want a fast way to quit out of Zoom calls?

Today we’re going to be making our own custom Arduino macro USB keyboard. Well, a two-key “keyboard”.

[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials Tagged With: arduino, keyboard, keypad, macro

Automating Twitter Using Python 3 and Tweepy

Chris Garrett

So far I have covered more Arduino/C and even AMOS Basic than anything else, but my main language on the daily is Python, and my main use of Python is for making my day job life easier!

Python is an excellent language for automation and interacting with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Even if you are familiar with another language, or a fan of another system, this use-case makes Python still a worthy tool in your toolkit.

[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials Tagged With: api, developer, programming, tweepy, twitter

Triangle Labs Dragon Hotend Review

Mark Kuhlmann

TL Dragon
  • TL Dragon

When I first saw the Triangle Labs Dragon hotend I was intrigued. There were some interesting features with the hot end such as having nickel plated copper heat block to heat up quicker and a different heat break design that allowed for both a minimal size but structural integrity to reduce damage. I was fortunate that Triangle Labs sent me one to test out in exchange for a review, so let’s have a look…

Specifications

From their listing :
Superior heat break performance
Increased structural rigidity
450°C rated for larger temperature operating range
Drop in replacement for E3D V6 hotend
The HF version(High Flow Capacity) is the same overall dimensions as the standard one
Collision will not break your heatbreak anymore
Nozzles can be changed with one hand, without grasping the hot block Nickel plating copper alloy in the hot block will not soften at high temperatures in excess of 550℃
Maximum extrusion flowrate test result ([email protected])
E3D V6 HOTEND copper heater block 1020mm/min ≈ 40.01 mm³/second
Dragon hotend 1150 mm/min ≈46.08 mm³/second
Dragon hotend HF 1560 mm/min ≈62.51 mm³/second

First Impressions

I have ben a loyal E3D V6 user for many years. Once I received the Dragon hotend from Triangle Labs, I noticed it was heavier. I weighed it to compare against a standard e3d V6. The Dragon was indeed heavier by 15g.

You could certainly feel the difference in weight by hand. Triangle Labs has been known to make high quality parts and this was no different. It looked like it was made well. It had a high quality feel to it and I had no reason to second guess the quality based on an initial inspection of the part.

Printing

I installed it on an Ender 5 Plus using a Triangle Labs extruder in a direct drive conversion. I also installed an E3D 0.6mm Nozzle X after a few tests prints with the stock nozzle.

I’ve used it extensively over the last few months printing all the parts for my MPCNC Primo CNC.

Early on, I experienced one mechanical failure with the Dragon. There are very small screws that hold the heatbreak structure onto the e3d grove mount adapter.

TL Dragon Screws

The screws found themselves loose mid-print and the assembly fell apart causing a print failure. I was easy to discover why the print failure happened and I was fortunate to find the screws still on the build plate. I re-assembled and had absolutely no issues since then. I regret not double checking those screws prior to installation which may have avoided the failure.

Print after print, a few tests first, and then specifically parts for my MPCNC Primo, the Triangle Labs Dragon hotend performed well. I did not have any heat creep based clogs, or any clogs for that matter. It very much performed without complaint. No leaks came from the hot end at any point.

Hotends don’t get a lot of attention because generally, when put together properly, and having a good design, they should just work. That was my experience. It just worked. It helped that my printer worked well itself, but the Dragon integrated without issue and did not cause me any headaches.

The hotend worked fine with the original 0.4mm stock nozzle, and then with the 0.6mm E3D Nozzle-X. There were no clogs or flow issues, and I printed with PLA and PETG.

Conclusion

While I did receive this for review, I try to remain as unbiased as possible. I have used genuine E3D V6 hot ends on all my personal printers I keep. I have long admired the reliability I received out of them. The Triangle Labs Dragon hotend has been as reliable for me, since that first initial incident, as the E3D’s I would commonly install. I have no hesitation recommending this hotend for use and I will be keeping it on my personal Ender 5 Plus.

by Mark Kuhlmann Filed Under: Reviews and Buying Guides

Easiest. Hackintosh. Ever. – How to Install MacOS Virtual Machine on Your PC Using Sosumi & Ubuntu

Chris Garrett

Today, we’re going to create the world’s easiest Hackintosh using the virtual MacOS package, Sosumi.

[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials Tagged With: emulation, hackintosh, how-to, kvm, macosx, sosumi, ubuntu, virtual machine

Ultrasonic Rangefinding with the Wio Terminal and Grove Ultrasonic Sensor

Chris Garrett

Grove Ultrasonic Rangefinder Sensor

Seeed sent me a Wio Terminal to play with, and I have to say I am impressed.

Rather than do a straight review, I thought I would show how easy it is to make a quick project with it.

[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials

Programming the Amiga with AMOS BASIC: A Playable “Shoot ’em up” Game

Chris Garrett

In the final (for now, at least) entry in this series, we are going to pull everything together into a playable “Shoot the Invaders from Space” game that has keyboard and joystick control, killable enemies, moving bullets, and a scrolling star field backdrop …

Previous AMOS Basic Tutorials in this series:

  1. Loading images and configuring AMOS screens
  2. “Dual Playfield”
  3. Bobs and Sprites
  4. Maps and Scrolling
  5. Better Tile Scrolling
  6. Animation & Scrolling with AMAL
[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials Tagged With: amiga, amos, basic programming, retrocomputing

Programming the Amiga with AMOS BASIC: Animation & Scrolling with AMAL

Chris Garrett

amal-scrolling

There is one last popular option for scrolling the screen and covering it gives us an opportunity to introduce the special AMOS animation language, AMAL …

Previous AMOS Basic Tutorials in this series:

  1. Loading images and configuring AMOS screens
  2. “Dual Playfield”
  3. Bobs and Sprites
  4. Maps and Scrolling
  5. Better Tile Scrolling
[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials Tagged With: amiga, amos, basic programming, retrocomputing

Programming the Amiga with AMOS BASIC: Better Tile Scrolling

Chris Garrett

In the previous article, we created a tile map and did a simple scrolling screen using Screen Copy.

While it worked, and demonstrated some cool aspects of AMOS, it wouldn’t really be efficient for use in an action/arcade game, is there a better option? Also, can we load the map from disk?

There is also another option for scrolling the screen we haven’t investigated, let’s look at that first.

Previous AMOS Basic Tutorials in this series:

  1. Loading images and configuring AMOS screens
  2. “Dual Playfield”
  3. Bobs and Sprites
  4. Maps and Scrolling
[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials Tagged With: amiga, amos, basic programming, retrocomputing

Programming the Amiga with AMOS BASIC: Maps & Scrolling

Chris Garrett

AMOS Icons

Up until now, our AMOS BASIC programming has relied on loading quite large full-screen images as our backgrounds. That is not memory efficient, plus creating maps and levels this way would be quite cumbersome.

The go-to solution is to create a tiled map. We will look at loading and drawing Icons, and how we can display and even scroll our maps, to offer massive game worlds at a fraction of the memory requirement.

Previous AMOS Basic Tutorials in this series:

  1. Loading images and configuring AMOS screens
  2. “Dual Playfield”
  3. Bobs and Sprites
[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials Tagged With: amiga, amos, basic programming, retrocomputing

Programming the Amiga with AMOS BASIC: Bobs and Sprites

Chris Garrett

Previously we looked at how AMOS can load images and configure screens, and layered scrolling via a feature called “Dual Playfield”.

If we are going to create playable games then we will also need graphics to represent the player and the enemies.

Colloquially we call these sprites, but in AMOS the term sprite has a specific meaning …

[Read more…]

by Chris Garrett Filed Under: Hacks, Tips, and Tutorials Tagged With: amiga, amos, basic programming, retrocomputing

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