As a side project, I have decided to build a Mac for under $300 that uses genuine Mac parts so that I may develop apps for the iPhone and iPod touch legally. Links: For Pics, For Details

As this is a technology modding blog, when I happened upon this little nugget of info I immediately decided to put the Girl Tech IM ME toy on my Amazon wish list. I'm totally going to try to write a Linux driver for it. I do not understand how the DMCA prevents Hunter from releasing his driver to the public, but as I am not a lawyer nor do I want to consult one, I will not release my driver (if I do end up making one).

I believe that the repairs I just performed on the extruder are going to work this time! I tried building a test dodecahedron recently and my extruder just stalled on me. This has happened before, but I think I have found the problem. The pinch wheel was allowing the filament to slip next to it during extrusion, causing it to lose contact with the idler wheel and stop extruding to fix this, I simply filed down the pinch wheel. If this works, great! If not, I'll file down the pinch wheel more until it is impossible for the filament to slip. Actually, I think I'll just file it down anyways to prevent making ANOTHER cracked idler wheel.

As I said in the last update for this, I rebuilt the extruder. Yay!

But there is a slight problem: the extruder, for some reason, extruded for a while, but then just stopped. I think I just need to tighten it down better (I did it by hand first). Ugh. This run-it-for-a-bit-and-then-it-breaks-and-I-have-to-fix-it routine is really getting on my nerves.

Ok, here's the picture of the Wii Nunchuck with the LED inside:

Self-explanatory title is self-explanatory.

Long story short, I rebuilt the extruder for my MakerBot and will be testing it tomorrow. Then I will be able to see how well having less ceramic tape on the heater barrel works.

Ok, here goes:
I recieved the parts for the extruder on Monday, but didn't even touch them until Wednesday and I haven't yet attached the nichrome wire, thermistor, and ceramic tape to the heater barrel nor replaced the Idler Wheel yet due to time constraints. It's not that I don't have enough time—in fact I have plenty of time—but I don't have enough contiguous time. I need a good, constant 3-5 hours of total zen/focus while working toward the goal, otherwise, things could go horribly wrong. I need total concentration when I work.

Why do I need 3-5 hours to work?
Well, I first need to fix the hardware issues, then I need to figure out optimal skeinforge settings so this same problem doesn't happen again. Namely what I need to do is adjust the temperature settings to accomodate the lesser amount of ceramic tape I will be putting on the extruder. I'll probably keep the speed and infill density stuff the same as before I got the new skeinforge. I may want to print out a few dodecahedrons with the default settings first, then with my own, then I will compare the two and pick the better settings set.

I hope to be working on it over Thanksgiving weekend.

I figured out how to use FeedBurner! You can subscribe by clicking the FeedBurner badge on the right-hand side of the page or by clicking the RSS icon in the address bar of your browser.

Ok, so I just got the WordPress 2.0 app for my iPod touch. It's awesome. I'm actually posting from it right now! I was surprised that it could work with self-hosted WP, but it's true. I'm glad. :)

So I decide to finally fix the extruder. In doing so, I found more problems than I thought existed.

Problems:

1. Idler Wheel has cracked
2. Insulator Retainer has cracked
3. Nichrome wire insulation has turned to powder
4. Overheating caused kapton tape and ceramic tape to burn
5. The barrel and nozzle are full of eels ABS.

I have ordered replacement parts.