Recently Finished Things

I've finished several unrelated things in the last 6 weeks which doesn't happen often so I think I should write them down!

God of War 4 game on PC; This is a great game. It is extremely well produced, directed, written and motion captured. The game is very cinematic. I enjoyed it a lot.

Weaponised novel by Neal Asher; This was a good read with a story with many enjoyable twists. Unlike most of Ashers writing, I didn't just hoover this book up at the fastest possible rate. I sort of wanted to enjoy it smaller bit sized chunks. I think that says good things about Asher's dynamicism as an author.

Knife Sharpener Tool v2.1; I've been slowly 3d printing this knife sharpener. I couldn't get one of the non-printed parts in quite the right size, so I had to learn how to modify an existing part from another author. Fun project. Project is here on thingiverse.

Playable Ur; I'm still hacking this on web page Royal Game of Ur implementation in KotlinJS. I need some clues about colour, some sound adjustments and also a colour theme.  It has a very simple computer player, my first coded computer player that I can recall.

Thougts on Printing a Keyboard

 I'm having semi irrational thoughts about printing a keyboard.

Controller: this category got a lot easier recently it appears with the cheap and well support Raspberry Pi Pico. $6 AUD and it has like 40 general purpose IO pins so supports many rows & columns etc without getting tricksy.

 A slightly better Raspberry Pi clone made in Europe for similar money is the Groundstudio Marble Pico which has more ram, some other technical features but most usefully it has USB C! A trouble to get it in Australia at the moment. 

This video covers it and also mentions other USB C clones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma40w3_8dtg

Software: this software called Mechware can be configured and compiled for a Raspberry Pi Pico, and is written in C.

Switches can cost a fortune but there are cheap low profile switches on aliexpress that got an ok review in this youtube video.

I would follow various diode guides about how to solder. 

There is a key cap model generator here on thingiverse, although I'm not sure if it will do what I want for low height keys for non-standard switches. I'm guessing I'd just use openscad.

 

3d Printer Build Plate Sizes

There is a 3d printer build surface manufacturer that has a page which shows all the different build plate size for all contemporary 3d printers:  build plate size

 If you want to build some printer, you can use this as a cheat code on aliexpress to find a build plate/ heated bed in the right size 😀