Author: Bzzz

Batches of GEEETECH 1kg 1.75mm PETG 3D Printer Filament Vacuum Packaging Overseas Warehouses Fast Ship (WHL #89)

Well, this might be obvious for everyone that has been into 3D printing for a long time, but I completely fell for it.
For a current project that’ll take a couple kilograms of material in chunks of like 500 to 700g, and the recent singles day/11.11. sales frenzy, I bought (among other spools) 3x 1kg of Geeetech PETG white. I previously bought a single roll of that exact “700-001-1310” stuff, so I figured I could just print one of the parts for as long as the filament lasts, and then simply switch over to the new spool.

Of course I was mistaken. […]

19th November 2023 19th November 2023 By Bzzz In 2 Comments

The Ender 5 Plus and a pack of RGEEK High quality 6.0 W/mK 200*400mm Thermal conductivity CPU Heatsink Cooling Conductive Silicone Pad Thermal Pads (#E20F4)

Someone was lazy and skipped the last four blog posts
So, let’s jump right in, the Ender series is probably good for another dozen posts. Today I’ll give a quick assessment on the use of silicone pads for the build plate.

The Ender 5 Plus (and many others) uses a 24V 400ish Watt heating plate that is screwed onto a sheet of aluminium, that is in turn mounted to the Z axis assembly of the printer. On top of that, a textured glass plate is “fixed” by some binder clips which I somewhat dislike. There is no solid connection between those – the clips press down on the glass on four corners, but that’s about it. […]

5th November 2023 6th November 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

The slightly more silent Ender 5 Plus (#E20F3)

Well, since the printer is running just fine, I used it to make some quality-of-life upgrades to it.
The bottom lid that covers PSU, all the mains wiring and the rest of the electronics has been removed and replaced by a 2 part print (due to size). Several reasons for that: a) Four of the six screws are covered by the additional aluminium frame, so it’s difficult to remove if properly fastened, b) if left unscrewed (which isn’t much of a load problem on the remaining two screws since it is sandwiched anyway), the ends of the large metal piece would be free to vibrate and resonate, c) the stock 40mm fan close to the driver board is terribly noisy and pointless in terms of air throughput, so I would have swapped it anyway. […]

3rd September 2023 4th September 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

Ender 5 Plus and the dimmable Lightbox (#E20F2)

A couple of prints later and the lightbox printer is now contained in the intended footprint, with no external spool holder needed anymore. A simple roll with pockets for two bearings, a piece of an old M10 threaded rod, a couple of nuts and spacers, and a small mechanical adapter to make everything fit onto the original Ender holder was all it needed. The LED panels are now connected via XT30 connectors, and a 1-to-3 adapter for these mates with the DC step-up that still needs to be integrated. Not sure if I should use the integrated 24V power supply (as that is maxed out when printing) or add another desktop power brick, and how to (nicely) integrate the dimmer circuit that is just a significantly extended potentiometer from the DC-DC converter. […]

27th August 2023 27th August 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

Ender 5 Plus and the lit Lightbox (#E20F1)

Fiat Lux!

LED panel brackets are installed, and so are three “45W” panels that currently max out at 135W with the supplied AC drivers. I’m likely gonna move them to a dimmable solution (a DC-DC converter with external adjustment pot…), but for testing purposes that’s just fine.

Here’s a small print (30cm x 6cm x 2cm) with single-walled towers on each side, made from matte black PLA (Sunlu), still sticking to the black Ender glass printing bed. Clearly this needs a bit more optimization in that all black parts around it could use a more reflective surface covering to brighten up the scene. […]

20th August 2023 20th August 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

Ender 5 Plus Lightbox (#E20)

Super short update: I’m doing stupid things that I totally would not recommend to anyone, I’m having fun, and I’m making progress. The extreme humidity right now is a hindrance, but I’m gonna power through and fix things later, in case those ugly mofo brackets fall apart.

The second-hand Ender 5 Plus 3D printer* that I bought recently now has lockable wheels** and at least one side is covered by a 60×60 LED panel*** while power distribution is still unclear****. It’ll replace my old light box***** if things go to plan******. […]

13th August 2023 14th August 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

CEM DT-9939 multimeter leads (WHL #88)

Just an oddball thing that I discovered this week when lending out the leads of my newest multimeter, a CEM DT-9399. While the unit was an absolute bargain for what it can do, and the only thing to complain about is the slow continuity test mode and the slow Wireless USB (!) data transfer, this post really is about the boring leads. They just happened to be the only ones around in the office, and the boss asked for a spare multimeter that he could take home for the weekend for some rudimentary electrical testing, likely on an AC device. Well, better safe than sorry, don’t hand over the regular (non-safety) 4mm leads with some add-on test prods – give him the leads that came with the 1000V CAT III/600V CAT IV meter, right? […]

30th July 2023 31st July 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

Universal PCIe, AGP, PCI, ISA card storage board (#P43)

Looks like I haven’t tagged any post as “project” for over a year now…time to release some open hardware

I don’t really store much computer hardware – most components are either in use (at least occasionally), waiting to be sold (eBay and the like), or waiting to change hands the next time I visit family. Of course there’s floppy drives somewhere, or good old memories (ha), but it’s not like I have a collection of each and every Socket A motherboard or something crazy. There is, however, two boxes (Really Useful Boxes to be precise, the 9 liter type that I use for lots of things since they fit a specific cupboard nicely) of extension cards. […]

16th July 2023 17th July 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

Samsung TV custom USB jacks from IKEA? Nope. (#R18F1)

Super quick update on the Samsung USB port with the additional retaining pin: Although I usually don’t watch Youtube Shorts, especially not the ones from BigClive since I just watch the regular video, I recently stumbled upon this:

It’s a review of the smaller IKEA Smahagel USB charger (the one with just a single port). In there, he mentions an anchoring pin of the USB port that he doesn’t really talk about in the main video:

Around 5:44 where the PCB bottom side discussion starts, the USB layout can be seen. I’ve added a couple of arrows to the four regular USB pins and also the USB retainer (next to the L-shaped PCB cutout). […]

2nd July 2023 2nd July 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment

YIHUA 850AD Digital Display Hot Air Desoldering Station: Power inlet + power switch retrofit (WHL #85F1)

Small-ish update on the Yihua hot air station: Standby power draw is now zero!

But as is common, things weren’t quite as straight-forward as I had hoped for. Let’s start with a quick teardown of the unit, as promised. The lid is uneventful in that it has the same color on the inside as it does on the outside – and surprise, surprise, the holes go straight through Other than that, most of the chassis space is taken up by the pump, which is very reminiscent of the unit of the Toolcraft hot air station at work, even the sizing of the cable ties. […]

25th June 2023 16th July 2023 By Bzzz In No Comment