Author: Richard

Create G-Code from an EAGLE File

Overview

Prototyping a circuit board in this way is a good idea so you can be sure that things are working before sending your PCB off to a fabricator. This method is also a good way to do low run or one off testing PCBs.

G-Code is made up of some simple commands that tell a CNC mill how to move so that your designs come out correctly. This is also called a Tool Path. PCB-GCode is an add-on for EAGLE that lets you create a Tool Path in G-Code so that it can be made by a CNC Mill like my Shapeoko 2. Though there are many ways to create G-Code for PCBs, I will focus on EAGLE and PCB-GCode because they are rather easy to use and the software is free for making basic PCBs Continue reading Create G-Code from an EAGLE File

DIY Vacuum Former

This Saturday I will be trying to make a small Vacuum Former for heat forming plastic sheets. Vacuum Forming is a fast and easy way to copy 3D printed parts, provide a smooth plastic shell for finished products or to make your own Storm Trooper helmet.ST-armor

This will be my first time actually building one of these machines, but they are relatively easy and I have done similar stuff with heat forming acrylic using a toaster oven and home vacuum cleaner. The design will be loosely based on this Instructables tutorial.

For this build I will be using mostly reclaimed wood, two old toasters, and a small shop vacuum. I will be drawing up plans for the laser cutter and in the end I hope to publish a DIY guide to show others how to make a scalable version.

 

Off to the Intel Hackathon

Intel IoT Hackathon

Wednesday, Feb 11, 2015, 9:00 AM

Startup Hall
1100 Northeast Campus Parkway, #200 Seattle, WA

0 Hackers Went

Event details, courtesy of Rex St. John, Intel’s IoT evangelist:Important: You *MUST* register here to get your *free* Intel Edison Dev Kit!You are invited to join Intel to participate in a one-of-a-kind Seattle hackathon with Intel Edison at the SoDo Makerspace. Sign up as soon as possible, spaces are highly limited. There will be cash prizes an…

Check out this Meetup →

Pods issues

I have used Pods.io for easy handling of custom post types for WordPress. It makes it easy for other users to change how the content is displayed and create new post types by using a fairly well designed GUI. I can edit the page templates from the Pods Admin dashboard and I don’t get confusing looks when I try and explain the fundamentals of the register_post_type() function.

All in all, Pods has just made it easy for me to customize WordPress and make it easy for a basic user to maintain. However, they have started to get a bit sloppy with documentation for the last few updates. This came as a shock to me when suddenly the educational content on my Hack-E-Bot website was not showing up correctly.
Continue reading Pods issues