At long last, I’ve released an Autotune Library to compliment the Arduino PID Library. When I released the current version of the PID Library, I did an insanely extensive series of posts to get people comfortable with what was going on inside.
While not nearly as in-depth, that’s the goal of this post. I’ll explain what the Autotune Library is trying to accomplish, and how it goes about its business.
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I needed a break. I’ve been working hard on the osPID for several months, and I just needed to not look at code or control algorithms for a little bit. Nothing says “break” like an out-of-left-field project.
I only started knitting recently. Something that’s been bothering me about it is the length of the needles. They’re 14″ long, and I’ve been worried they’ll be bent while riding in my backpack.
It occurred to me that some sort of collapsible needle might be useful in this situation. Taking my inspiration from elastic tent poles, I got to work on my “not PID” project.
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It is to my great delight that I can confirm that this Kick-ass, Kickstarting, Open Source Espresso Machine is using the Arduino PID Library.
They seem to be using a stand-alone commercial pid controller for at least some of the control. Perhaps this could be replaced with an osPID for a 100% open experience?
About 5 months ago I sent an out-of-the-blue email to RocketScream electronics asking if they wanted to help me build an open source PID controller. It’s been far more challenging than I expected, but today I get to announce the release of my first open source hardware project: the osPID!
(pause for applause)
As per the request by the Arduino Team, I’ve moved the Arduino PID Library to GitHub. I’ve also used this opportunity to:
The google code site will still be there, but there will no longer be updates.
I’ve played around with printing multiple colors using a single extruder, but by and large all the multi-color action was restricted to a single layer. There’s a good reason for this: every color change takes time, and having 2 or more colors run throughout the part would require a color change ON EVERY LAYER.
But I had to try. I had a great idea: a fairly understated bottle opener with different color text embedded on each side. To the uninitiated it’s a neat little thing, but to people who know 3D printing its a: “wait, what? how did you do that?”
Well, here’s “how I did that.” It took a LOT of time. I didn’t call it “The Saturday Killer” for nothing.
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I’ve been making bottle openers for friends, and I recently struck upon the perfect design for my friend Matt. For some reason, he still pines for a hockey team that left our home state in 1997 (THEN won the Stanley Cup.) His opener got a Whalers Logo:
Up to this point, all my openers have been single color. But combine the fact that I’m jealous of the new dual extruder with the fact that Matt was my Best Man, and I decided that this time I would go the extra mile.
The procedure was straight-forward, and a huge pain in the butt:
This was a fairly simple multi-color design, but by breaking up the model ahead of time, this technique could be used for any part.
My first Maker Faire… where do I start? I could go on and on about the standard stuff: amazing projects, amazing people, etc, but here’s 3 things that I think capture the essence of my experience.
As you can imagine, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I will definitely be doing this again.
I haven’t done many PID posts in the last couple months. Rest assured I haven’t been sleeping on that front. I’ve been working closely with RocketScream on an OSHW project that should be released soon. Here are a couple teaser pictures to (hopefully) get you drooling.
As I post this I’m on my way to Makerfaire NYC. I’ll have this with me if you’d like a closer look.
I recently posted an improved bottle opener design to Thingiverse. Unlike the mighty bottle opener, this is one that I’m proud to give out, and people are happy to receive.
Because I did the model in OpenSCAD, it turns out to be really easy to create personal, one-of-a-kind gifts for my friends. In this post I’ll go through the steps I took to make an opener for my friend deWit. He skis, and he’s pretty good:
Ok, maybe he’s really good. Anyway, this has been my favorite skiing picture since it was taken a few years back. I thought it might be nice to capture some of this awesomeness in opener form.
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