Sorry for the lens flare, just some test fitting my upgrade 1w Meshcore node going up soon.

The case is printed in ASA, smoothed with acetone with a brush to reduce the gaps, then sprayed with Rustoleum. Hopefully help with water resistance.

I need to print a fixed adapter for the p/s board, and then need to print the TPU seal and top. Finally wire up the batteries that I designed a cartridge for (proud of it.)

Then after this, next node is Reticulum.

#Meshcore #3Dprinting #DIY

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Image is of a 1w Ikoka radio module, with a LTO capable solar battery charger. It's inside of a 3D printed enclosure and the adapter was just doing a quick test. Found that I printed an adapter for the Pi Zero W by accident, so had to adjust the holes for the next print.

Eyeball #2 is done enough to be functional and has much better motion tracking!!
https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/05/atronachs-eye-2026.html
#robotics #3dPrinting

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A mechanical eyeball in 3d-printed plastic. It's a red sphere with a camera lens sticking out the front, encased in a cradle that sits in a case/backshell containing two motors mounted in gearboxes, a Raspberry Pi, and two driver boards.

Boo.

#3dPrinting

https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/developer-re-enables-3d-printer-features-that-bambu-lab-disabled-firm-promptly-threatens-legal-action-orcaslicer-bambulab-project-now-shuttered

Working on a mesh node today. Designed and printed an enclosure in ASA, did a quick Acetone wipe to seal it up a bit, and then spraying with Rustoleum black and green to make it less visible. Also learned tape won't stop potting compound haha😂

There's a very sexy (if I might say) battery pack design that goes into the pot in the back. Once it dried I'll post an update.

If this works out, next up is a Reticulum node. The H2C made this easy to print.

#3Dprinting #Meshcore #Offgrid #Reticulum

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ASA enclosure for a mesh node, freshly covered in acetone giving it a bit of a shine. Sitting on a piece of cardboard being recycled for this purpose

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Back of the solar panel with a 3D printed enclosure epoxied on and with a bit if messy potting compound to protect the wires from shorting. The original odd/cheap plastic enclosure was remove to put on something more durable. Once done, will epoxy a bit more and epoxy a cover on top to full protect as it has a pigtail ready to go. The two sadly stale bottles of potting compound are helping it stay at an angle after the tape doesn't hold incident...

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ASA enclosure for a mesh node, freshly covered in black rustoleum giving it a bit of a back matte look. Sitting on a piece of cardboard being recycled for this purpose

New Yorkers, it's not too late to demand your representatives drop state-mandated censorship and surveillance from the proposed budget. https://eff.org/3DPrintNY #3dprinting #opensource #privacy #NewYork

Two local men promised to build housing with a 3D printer. That didn’t pan out.

When reporter Molly Parker started to investigate what went wrong, she found the printer disassembled on a flatbed truck at a country repair shop.

Then things got weird.
https://www.propublica.org/article/3d-printer-cairo-illinois-housing?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Illinois #Housing #3DPrinting #House #FBI #Journalism

New York's budget deadline is extended to tomorrow. Stand with creators NOW and tell your representatives to take surveillance and censorship mandates out of the budget. https://eff.org/3DPrintNY #newyork #3dprinting #privacy

New G10 Garolite heat bed for my H2C. Very curious to try it and hopping to try some PETG today and not have it stick too much... Updates to follow!

#3Dprinting

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Brand new Darkmoon3D G10 Garolite board inside of the H2C, it's perfect clean and unused or unblemished. It has a set of Emily's favorite calipers on them for scale, yet she sadly forgets the scale itself. Oh it's 200mm!

Home #3dprinting is fun. I like making fun things like #ttrpg minis, and useful things, like a spice rack organizer.

I like how they fit into #solarpunk story telling.

But until/unless one can recycle and more importantly, produce filament, it's still a centralized technology based on plastic.

I've only worked with basic PLA, and read a bit about PETG & the differences.

Are there any filament technologies that are recyclable / reusable or that can be produced locally from raw materials?

Every 3D print in NY can be surveilled — from political speech to company prototypes — if these provisions make it into the state budget. We need to act NOW to stop it. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/stop-new-yorks-attack-3d-printing #NewYork #3Dprinting

Buried in New York State's proposed budget is an ill-conceived measure to stifle 3D printing with surveillance and censorware. We need to act now to defend creators and demand legislators to drop these provisions. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/stop-new-yorks-attack-3d-printing #newyork #3dprinting

While California is at the forefront of print blocking, the impacts will be felt far outside of its borders. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/dangers-californias-legislation-censor-3d-printing #AB2047 #opensource #3dprinting #DRM

Compared to other 3D printer laws proposed this year, California’s is the most troubling. It criminalizes open source, reduces consumer choice, and creates a new bureaucratic burden. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/dangers-californias-legislation-censor-3d-printing #opensource #3dprinting #AB2047

Video of the H2C Printer detecting each of it's toolheads on initial start up

#3DPrinting #Bambu

https://youtu.be/Nhz6vao13bs

[copypasta]

California AB 2047: The End of Open Source 3D Printing

California just introduced a bill that doesn't just regulate "ghost guns", it mandates a digital kill switch for every 3D printer sold. California AB 2047 requires "blocking technology" that connects your printer to a government-approved database before every single print. If the system goes down, or your file is flagged, your hardware becomes a paperweight.

This isn't just about firearms. This is the death of Open Source. If this bill passes, it effectively bans Marlin, Klipper, and Orca Slicer, forcing every manufacturer to lock down their firmware. It turns general-purpose computing into a walled garden where you only rent permission to use the hardware you own.

[/copypasta]

#OpenSource #RightToRepair #Privacy #Clippy #California #Monopolies #3dPrinters #3dPrinting #Technology #Government #Firearms #Guns #SoftwareFreedom #Surveillance #Panopticon #Lobbyists

All the donor-funded foundations ought to be fighting against and speaking out against this Orwellian garbage.

@eff@mastodon.social
@fsf@hostux.social
@linuxfoundation@social.lfx.dev
@privacyint@mastodon.xyz
@openssf@social.lfx.dev
@rms@mastodon.xyz
@CCIAnet@techpolicy.social
@WriterOfMinds@sigmoid.social
@SeaGL@mastodon.social
@hopeconf@mastodon.online
@w3c@w3c.social
@ACM@mastodon.acm.org
@irtf@discuss.systems
@osi@opensource.org

I am VERY excited to compliment my X1C and A1

#3DPrinting

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Shipping update for a Bambu Lab H2C 3D printer for a very excited Emily

Atronach's (second) eye, without wiring. Building up the first one gradually left me without an appreciation of how much tedious effort goes into assembling one of these. Not sure if I can really do anything about that in future iterations or not. #robotics #3dprinting

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A 3d-printed "eyeball" with a camera in the center, inside a shroud in which it can rotate. The shroud is mounted inside a larger case that holds the motors and several circuit boards.

Progress is slow, but in the background I am still gradually working on this year's robotics projects (these are ACE's gearboxes for the better motors, which I still need to buy). #robotics #3dPrinting

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A bunch of black-and-white gearboxes, made from 3d-printed parts and ballpoint pens, scattered on a fuzzy blanket.

I had the opportunity to try a #BambuLab printer at the #FabLabHH today and damn… it sucks!

Refused to accept my filament for solid 10 minutes (hotend sensor malfunction?), print failed (Spaghetti Detection didn't recognise anything) and upon the next attempt the printer crashed (software).

They seem to have problems with it all the time (it crashed the nozzle into the bed at least once, looked awful). Not even remotely as "easy" as the aggressive influencer campaigning suggests.
#3DPrinting

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A Bambu Lab X1-Carbon 3D printer with its multi-colour AMS system on top. There's a sticker on it that says (translated from german): "Danger! Do not connect this device to the internet; no matter how much it begs you to!"

3D Printing's IP Reckoning: Who Bears Liability When Users Infringe?

#3DPrinting #IntellectualProperty #TechLaw #AusNews

https://thedailyperspective.org/article/2026-03-06-3d-printings-ip-reckoning-who-bears-liability-when-users-infringe-78d7a4d4

After I decided on a cylinder with a removable end, my first thought was the radial slots you see here. It's pretty, but my printer made a hash of the variable-width spaces between the slots. Transparent PETG made even the internal mis-extrusions visible. Wider spaces between the slots helped, but not enough.

🧵 2/N

#3DPrinting

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Four 3D printed can lids are in the foreground. They have slots that converge toward a center point. The slots are constant width, but the material between the slots is wedge shaped.

I started with standard screw threads. I've used those successfully in other projects. But I had three problems.
- couldn't get a consistent fit. They were either too loose or too tight.
- printer couldn't deal with the overhangs on inside curves.
- took too long to unscrew.

🧵 3/N

#3DPrinting

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Two canisters and five lids show their threads. Problems are as described.

So I learned how to make custom threads. It's actually kind of fun. All of these use a trapezoidal cross section.

The custom threads solved two of the problems above, but they made getting a consistent fit much harder -- less thread surface and shallow engagement angle mean less friction, right up until it's way too much friction.

(I started making minis because the full size cylinders were wasting a lot of plastic and time. (Those vertical slats take forever.)

🧵 4/N

#3DPrinting

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Four 3D printed mini canisters have a few shallow threads and a high thread pitch. They're all slightly different.

So I started over with a bayonet style latch. It took three tries to get the clearances right -- the first two were ridiculously loose and very loose, respectively. The third one is in the center.

So I thought I had a good latch (foreshadowing), and moved on to the slots.

🧵 5/N

#3DPrinting

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Three 3D printed can and lid pairs positioned to show both halves of their bayonet latches.

Here are some sketches of slot patterns. There were others that I didn't even save.

🧵 6/N

#3DPrinting

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A CAD rendering of a disk with slots. The slots look a little like nested hexagons.

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A disk with circular slots. They are unevenly spaced.

So I modeled all the slots (crashed Fusion 360 a few times along the way -- I set up the sketch constraints badly and sent it into never-never land) and printed a full size version. It was way too loose. What worked at 40mm diameter didn't hold at 70mm.

So I reshaped the can's neck to allow thicker engagement tabs without making the lid huge.

And it worked. Wasn't that easy?

🧵 7/N

#3DPrinting

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Cutaway drawing shows that the top section of the can has thinner walls and the latching tabs on the lid are where the walls would have been.

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A different cutaway view shows how the lid's retention tab keeps the can from opening.

I decided to use opaque PLA for the lid because the knurling didn't show up in transparent PETG. I like the knurling.
🧵 8/N

#3DPrinting

(What, is he still talking about this?) When I browse Printables or other 3D model sites, I'm disappointed at how most of the stuff people throw up there hasn't gotten this kind of polish. And then I get a vivid reminder of how hard this kind of polish is.

Anyway, I'm done grousing, for now. Thank you for your indulgence.

🧵 9/N

#3DPrinting #Printables

I decided to make a funnel that screws right onto the desiccant canisters. Then I decided to try some stuff I'd seen about making G3-continuous surfaces in Fusion 360. This isn't perfectly G3, but it's close.

I made it ten times harder to model by flaring the funnel's outer surface out 45º to match the chamfer on the bottom ring, but keeping the inner surface G3 with the canister's inner surface. But I got it to work.

🧵 10/N

#3DPrinting #Fusion360

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A 3D printed funnel is screwed onto the top of a 3D printed slotted canister. The funnel's mouth is a rounded rectangle with a flange, and the bottom is circular like the canister's mouth. The sides start vertical, smoothly taper in, then end vertical again. The can's regular lid is next to it, and four more cans with lids are in the background.

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A screen capture of the funnel from Fusion 360 shows the funnel-lid rendered in highly polished bronze, blending smoothly into a knurled cap in rough steel. Inside the cap, the inner edge of the funnel and part of the bayonet mount are visible.

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A screen capture from Fusion 360 shows the funnel interior with a zebra analysis. The zebra stripes show that the funnel's inner surface has no curvature discontinuities except at the hard chamfer at the top flange.

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A screen capture from Fusion 360 shows the funnel with isocurve analysis enabled for half of the outer surface. The funnel is transparent so both positive and negative isocurves are visible. The horizontal isocurves show a smooth transition from nearly zero at the centers of the sides to round at the corners. The vertical curves show S-shaped tapers with a sharp bend at the bottom where the outer surface makes a 45 degree bend to match the knurled cap's chamfer.

The basic shape is a difference of two lofts. These images show the profiles and guide rails of both lofts. The curvature combs are for the inner loft.

The curves are 5th degree splines (and two circles). The top profile is not a closed curve, but it overlaps through enough control points to have G3 continuity.

Note that the inner loft extends further down than the outer -- I continued the curve to the lid's bottom surface.

🧵 11/N

#3DPrinting #fusion360 #3DModeling

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Fusion 360 screen capture shows a perspective view of profiles and lofts. They are smooth curves.

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Screen capture shows the same curves but from a nearly top view, and with some construction lines turned on. The top profile is an open curve that overlaps itself with G3 continuity at the overlap point.

Uh... I continued the curve to the lid's inner top surface. That's what I meant. Words are hard; look at the pretty picture.

It seems like a trivial detail, but it stood out like a barking hyena in the zebra analysis.

🧵 12/N

#3DPrinting #Fusion360 #3DModeling

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A detail show shows that the inner loft rail extends down 1.6 millimeters into the cap, while the outer rail stops at the top of the cap. This image also shows that the inner rail end is vertical, and the outer rail end ends at 45º to effect a fillet.

It's on Printables now (finally).

Tagging @matt because he asked for it.

https://www.printables.com/model/1610013-desiccant-canister-and-funnel

🧵 13/N

#Printables #3DPrinting