2014-05-07 (W) Upcycled 3D Printer

Before I've said that I have kept my paper journal for years. It started as almost an informal diary, I spoke in first person and used ambiguous language.  I think I've improved.

Now, I write the date in as YYYY-MM-DD.  The ISO standard format uses dashes between each time unit.  I also use this when I  create file names.  Each day when I open a project data file I do a "Save as..." and save a new file with the date.  That way I can not lose more than a day's work if I encounter an error.  It has saved my butt a few times.

Example:

I can always find the most up-to-date copy of my printer schematics by navigating to the last file.  PLUS, I know that the last time I worked on it.  At work I do the same thing.  Searching through emails is a less tiresome when I know the date of the last time I worked on something.

Another trick I picked up was to put the page number in the corner of multiple-page journals.  If there's no page number it's obviously a single page.  I picked that trick up from yet another college professor.

The last trick was to put my list of stuff to do at the bottom. For some reason writing those out every single time makes me want to accomplish them.  

Enough background

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The code for the printer was changed to reverse the position of the debugging switch so that a button press is necessary to advance the program.  The button press while-statement was implemented at each step.  This is illustrated by an animated computer image.

 

Serial communication window

 

The print statements were added to further diagnose when an event is happening and what is happening.

To do:

• Build chain tensioner
• Replace wooden stand with longer version + mount
• Physically install Arduino
• Test + Debug
• Revise documentation

 

Journal page