inmysocks (version: awoo) @inmysocks@awoo.space

This quick update to the sinister plotter code to support end-stop switches better and it has turned into a gigantic refactoring for the code.

Le Bleh.

Working in C and having to think about data types after working with python and javascript for a while is odd.

Remember your checksum bits!

It has been a while since I coded anything in C, I have been doing python and javascript lately.

Lets see how this goes

@envgen good morning, are you turning into some sort of citrus fruit?

PSA:

Polymorphic encryption != Homomorphic Encryption

This can save a lot of confusion about how far the field has progressed in the past month or two.

@ekaitz_zarraga well, I know who you are so you must be something

Using (web)sockets to send json formatted data has become my go-to setup for having things I make communicate.

I don't know if there is a better way, but this works quite well.

Huh, instead of worrying about threads in python I could just implement the serial interface in node, which I have a lot of experience with because of robbie.

So I am not going to dig into python threads for now.

@ekaitz_zarraga it is also a lot cheaper than anything else we have found. I started out with some software to drive our little plotter and it sort of got out of hand and we ended up making a laser cutter.

Partially because I don't like the interface for bCNC, and bCNC can't use svg files as input.

@ekaitz_zarraga because it is fun.

Also the CNC machine we have can't make cuts that are thinner than about 3mm, we broke some end endmills trying that. So we are going to use the laser cutter to do rapid prototyping using small scale models.

Also etching and art stuff, because of course

This is the first thing we have successfully cut on the laser cutter after getting all the components together.

It cut though 3mm MDF in 10 passes with a 5.5w laser. So it was able to retrace its path 10 times with no noticeable deviation, and we returned it to the initial position every 2 passes to give the laser some time to cool off because it is cheap.
We bought the z-axis movement, the x axis is a camera rail Ben had, everything else we sourced and bought from hardware stores. #Engineering

@ekaitz_zarraga the best reason I had to code in R was that it wasn't matlab, but I very quickly changed to C++ for my phd work and then later python.

Julia isn't bad, but I kept having trouble with the data types.

@ekaitz_zarraga winning. The answer is that you are winning with your life.

We are doing accuracy and precision tests with the laser cutter.

I am so very happy.

#Engineering

We are trying to resolder an 0402 surface mount resistor. For those of you who don't know, they are 1mm x 0.5mm and the solder pads take up about 1/4 of the length.

Fun!

The laser driver seems to be borked, it is ignoring the pwm input and outputting a constant value regardless of the input and it is less than the desired power level.

So instead I am using a 5V 2A usb charger and a motor driver instead.

I expect it is probably not very good for the laser, and may result in uneven power output, but shockingly it seems to function to burn stuff.

I have never gotten proxies to work in node. It is annoying.

Gitea is updated on the pie server, that was less painful than I expected.

so... Does anyone have a copy of the windows source code?