Spotted on the interwebz today is a copy of Jamis Buck’s 2011 Ruby Conference presentation, “Algorithm” is not a four-letter word. It’s a fantastic presentation for veteran coders and novices alike.

In his presentation, Jamis details what it takes to become truly good in a given field. Being good at programming, like any other field, requires dedication, practice, and exercise. To help illustrate recreational exercise for programmers, Jamis goes into an explanation of maze-generating algorithms with many examples that is sufficiently detailed without being overly rigorous. Interactive demonstrations of various algorithms are presented, many of which are truly a-maze-ing.

So, sit down and give it a read, you’ll be glad you did.

(Thanks Brandon!)

Maker Faire Fort Wayne is just days away. Are you gonna be there? We are! Last week we received a shipment of printed circuit boards, and what better thing to do with some of the extras than give them to people who stop by the NBitWonder booth at Maker Faire.

Up for grabs are four copies of our latest VoIP32 and Class-D Audio Amp projects. We’re giving away two of each each day at the Faire.

Throughout the day, we’ll be posting free pcb codes to our LED sign. If you spot one of the codes, be the first person to contact us with the code, as well as your name and address, and the board is all yours!

This is the 11th post in a series detailing my efforts to construct a RepRap Mendel, an open source 3D printer. For the rest of the build series, see here.

Introduction:

When I last left off things were almost done. The printer had run into a hotend issue, but that had been corrected. The mechanical systems were assembled and verified, the extruder was thoroughly tested and worked correctly, and I ran through some software debugging to allow the print head proper motion and operation. Things were looking up.

Buuuuut, the plastic, while extruded correctly, was not sticking to the printbed, but rather was simply being dragged along with the printhead on the table surface. Further investigation suggested that the print surface needed to be heated for the plastic to stick to the build surface correctly. The Mendel-Parts kit I originally ordered included parts to build a heated printbed, so I set out to build and test this printbed.

Heated Printbed Assembly:

The Mendel-Parts heated printbed is essentially 4 power resistors that are bolted to the bottom of the aluminum build surface. Power is then run through these resistors, heating up the surface. There is no control over the build surface (so if you wanted to, for example, kill power to the heated printbed when the printer’s not in use, you need to do this manually by disconnecting the power supply), but by setting the power supply voltage with some small fuses, a handful of temperatures can be achieved for printing.
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Some time ago, we ordered a round of boards for the Class-D Audio Amplifier v2 and VoIP32v3 projects. Historically, Sparkfun’s BatchPCB service or Advanced Circuits has been our service of choice for PCBs. This time around, though, we decided to try Seeed Studio’s Fusion PCB service. There’s been a lot of good press for Seeed’s service lately, and with the price of their PCB service reduced to $9.95 for 10 boards, they are considerably cheaper than services we’ve used previously.

The boards arrived at the NBitWonder lab this weekend. Some photos of the boards appear below:

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Mark your calendars, Maker Faire Fort Wayne is less than a week away! Maker Faire Fort Wayne will be taking place from 9am to 6pm October 1st and 2nd in the Lincoln Pavilion at Headwaters Park East in Fort Wayne, Indiana. For more information, check out the event website.

Want to be part of Maker Faire but don’t like paying for a ticket? Consider going as a volunteer! Maker Faire Fort Wayne is looking for volunteers. More information about volunteering for Maker Faire Fort Wayne can be found here.

NBitWonder’s limited-edition Seal of Omega medallion is now available for the new lower price of $15.00. Proceeds go towards NBitWonder and its employees and help us continue to create fantastic open-source hardware.

Show your support for NBitWonder and consider taking home one of these fantastic pieces of art today!

This is the tenth post in a series detailing my efforts to build a RepRap Mendel, an open source 3D printer. For the rest of the series, see here.

Introduction:

When I last left off, the hotend for the Mendel had broken, necessitating a replacement be ordered. This was installed and the printer was back in working order. I was able to move the print head, and even performed a successful extrusion test, as shown below (note the healthy coil of white, rather than blackened, plastic)

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Day 2 of Maker Faire Indianapolis was fun and exciting, with more people and more events! We had a great time at the faire, and would like to thank all of the hard working men and women of Conner Prairie that helped make this a reality. Below are some pictures from the faire, and for even more pictures, check out our flickr set!

The NBitWonder booth at Maker Faire Indianapolis.

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Maker Faire Indy has been a blast so far. Settled in a tent on a grassy field, Maker Faire Indy is the sort of place where one can find heirlooms and radios, steam powered tractors and 3D-printers, all occupying the same square mile of space. We’ve met many interesting people at the faire so far, and had the opportunity to talk about NBitWonder and everything we do. We’ll be back for Day 2 tomorrow, but in the meantime here are some photos from day 1 of the faire: (continue reading…)

Spotted on the web today, a new electronic design automation (EDA) tool promises a new approach to collaboration on open source hardware projects.

The tool, called Upverter, is a cloud-based schematic editor for creating electrical schematics. Users can edit schematics for their own projects and projects developed by other users (via a forking system). It even allows users to integrate with existing github accounts and share further. From their blog, it appears that the Upverter team will be attending the Open Source Hardware Summit in New York, so that is a great time to go find them and share your reactions, if you happen to be attending.
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