An unexpected journey

30 Dec 2015

I had a great start to 2015, I'd just been selected to Road Test a Cel Robox 3D printer at the end of December and managed to get detailed look at the inside of the printer and also do some test prints before the printer went off for an upgrade at the end of Jan.

I'd just re-launched my Workshopshed website and I found out on Jan 14th that I'd been made Member of the Month,

http://www.element14.com/community/groups/3d-printing/blog/authors/Workshopshed

I intended to make some circuits using the touch sensor chips I'd experimented with the year before. To help with this I bought my self a temperature controlled soldering iron and some tweezers.

I started on a magnifier lamp project in February. This used some LEDs I'd bought many years before, some scrap metal and wood as well as a selection of 3D printed parts. After a strong start in Feb and March progress slowed and it was not till October that the lamp was finally completed. The lamp was designed using OpenSCAD and I've really improved my skill in that over the year.

In March I applied for the Enchanted Objects Design Challenge, and my application was accepted. I knew this was going to be a lot of work as it was 16 weeks of blogging and making. In the end it was over 200 hours of designing and making electronics, configuring and coding embedded Linux and designing and printing the mechanics. 41 blog posts charted the progress of the project which was weaved around the story of Hans and Matilda the young meteorologists. The challenge dominated my life from March through to the end of June.

At the end of March, Maplin awarded me a prize in their "Arduino Day" competition for my Topsy Turvy Clock project which was an added bonus.

In the summer, I met with shabaz and mcb1 whilst Mark was on his grand tour. An entertaining evening from what I can remember of it.

At the end of July I got a call from Dave to tell me that I'd won the challenge and a trip to New York and the Maker Faire which was fantastic news. What Dave did not mention was that I'd also have my pictures and name up in lights around New York!

The trip to the New York Makers Faire was an amazing weekend and I met loads of great people and their project. It was a packed weekend and I can't thank Element14 enough for sending me.

I took Hans and Matilda along too but managed to loose them somewhere in the show ground. Luckily a Swiss company who make weather houses managed to send me some replacements later in the year.

My reports from the faire made it far and wide, as well as the reports here, here and on the Workshopshed blog, they were also published in the Imperial Engineer (the alumni magazine for Imperial College) and in Model Engineer's Workshop magazine.

This was a good end to my year but I also won a copy of the Beagle Bone Cookbook in November.

My final electronics project of the year was a Christmas Decoration in the form of a tree powered by an Adafruit Trinket.

So what's next for 2016? I do plan to do a little more metal work than this year, I've a little Stirling Engine I've been hoping to build for some time now. However, I do think I'll have a few electronics projects, hopefully I am now in a position to build the rotary sensor I was researching a few years ago. I've also got a Raspberry Pi Zero and a Beagle Bone Green to play with so hopefully I'll be able to put the Linux skills picked up during this years challenge to good use with those.