I've been so busy with my YouTube Channel that I've completely neglected this blog. My fascination has been the evolution of the low cost 3D printer. The Da Vinci Jr is now released at $349 and I'll soon have one for 30 days to evaluate. Also Printrbot Play at $399 is now released. The M3D is another Kickstarter success that is now shipping. At $349 its another low cost option.

In all three printers you are mainly looking at printing PLA on a small platform. The M3D claims to print ABS and Nylon as well but without a heated bed that makes me wonder. If that's true, its a great value at $349. 

All three feature a smaller print area. Jr is the largest at just under 6"x6"x6". Simple is slightly over 4"x4"x5" and M3D is basically 4"x4"x4". I have a couple Da Vinci 1.0's that print effectively 7.5" x 7.5" x 7.5" and there are many times I need all that space. But there are enough times where a smaller bed would work fine. 

I mainly print with ABS plastic but recently started using PLA. I've found more choices in plastic with PLA but I like the results with ABS better. It's more flexible, more resistant to temperature, and easily smoothed out or repaired with a little Acetone.

These low cost 3D printers are making "a 3D printer in every home"  more of a reality everyday. I know there are other printers in this low price category in the works as well. So it is still early in the 3D printer evolution and I'm having a lot of fun being part of it.

My latest book "Beginner's Guide to 3D Printing" just launched on Kickstarter.
It's a new direction for me so I'm not sure if it will be well received or not. I need the support of Kickstarter to get that first batch of books printed for distribution and determine how much interest there is in this type of book.

The book takes a reader through the various low cost home 3D Printers and then selects the Da Vinci 1.0. From there the reader is shown how to get that first print going. Then how to create their own with Tinkercad. Then how to get a professional print from Shapeways. Tips and Tricks to make the Da Vinci 1.0 printer even better. It's all in this book. So if you know someone or even yourself that is looking to get into 3D printing and don't know where to start, my book tries to help you through it all.

So please pass it on to your friends, relatives, etc. that the book is released and please help make it a success so more people can learn to have fun 3D printing products an having fun.

The people at Printrbot recently announced a new low cost printer. It's called the Printrbot Play. It's targeted at $399 but if history is any indication, that price will rise as all Printrbot 3D printers do. This is an interesting entry though because the sub $500 3D printer seemed like the low point. Now sub $400 seems to be the new line. The new Da Vinci Jr. at $349 seems to be the new low point for a fully assembled ready to user 3D printer.

The Play is all metal construction but a rather small build area at 100x100x130mm. The Da Vinci Jr at 150x150x150mm is larger. The Play has an aluminum print bed so it doesn't appear to offer a heated bed so I'm not sure if it will only print PLA like the Printrbot Simple, there other low cost metal 3D printer. The Da Vinci Jr. will print PLA only. The Play looks to maintain an open source software control while the Da Vinci Jr. is closed source.

It's clear that 3D Printers are getting both better and cheaper. And kits seem to be fading away with more companies offering fully assembled printers. I like the direction things are going. This gets us closer to a 3D printer in every house. Then the fun can really begin.

For anybody out there looking for a free open source BASIC compiler for PICs, then I highly recommend the Great Cow Basic Compiler. To make things even better, this compiler has been improved about 5000% in the last two years. A small group of individuals have contributed to making it better and I was one of the contributors to the team. There is now a new "Hot Release" available. It's called this because it's not a completely stable released but about as close as you can get without tons more testing.

I've talked about this compiler before and even created a website dedicated to it. When I created my GreatCowBasic.com website, there wasn't much documentation on the compiler. There wasn't an install facility. Setting a programmer up took a lot of steps. There were several different IDEs for it but none of them endorsed by the team.
Many bugs existed and the documentation was poor. Plus there were many requests for new commands. 

So I attempted to make it easier to use with the CHIPINO module as the hardware. Now the compiler has really grown from where it was. It now supports both PIC and AVR micros. I prefer PIC but now people using a CHIPINO can share code with an Arduino user. The SYNWRITE IDE has been improved and become the standard. The help files have been greatly improved. Tons of sample code are now included. Lots of new features and commands are part of Great Cow Basic.

Despite all these improvements, the simplicity of the compiler has been maintained. You can get access to any of the libraries and modify them if you really want/need to. What I like best is it still produces pure assembly code and I can load that into MPLAB or MPLAB X and debug with professional tools.

It really is a great compiler now and the price of FREE cannot be beat. So if you are just getting started with PICs, I highly recommend you look into this compiler. And if you like what you see, get involved, post to the forum, help find any missed bugs. It's truly a community project but far from a limited effort. It could easily sell for $100 or more based on what it can do but it remains free and completely open source for hobbyist or commercial use. 

Thanks to a subscriber at my YouTube Channel, I now have a version of Simplify3D to evaluate. This is an expensive software package ($150) to control a 3D printer. It doesn't design the print, just slices it and send the generated G-Code to the printer. Its the only 3rd party software that works with the Da Vinci 1.0 3D printer stock software.

I want to see if it gives me better quality prints and if it allows me to do things I cannot do with the stock Da Vinci software. Simplify3D gives you far more control of the print. You can set the heat of the print at different layers. You can slow down or speed up the print at different times. You can change the fill at different points in the print. The biggest advantage is you can control where supports for added or removed for sections of the print that may hang over and fall if not supported.

I'm just getting started with the software so it will take me time to learn it. There is a lot to learn. I hope to do some videos on the software in the future so if you are interested in that, stay tuned to my YouTube Channel. I also like the fact that it will work with many different printers. This allows me to jump to a different printer in the future if I need to and not have to learn new software. That is a nice feature.

I've been using the Great Cow Basic compiler for Microchip PICs for many years. Probably around 15 years now. I was never a heavy user and in the early days it was a bit limited and difficult to use. That was then and today it's a totally different story. There have been many great contributors to this open source compiler and the creator Hugh Considine is still behind the scenes making improvements. A new version is close to release and hopefully by the time you read this you will see an update dated with a February or March 2015 release.

The compiler has expanded to support both PIC and AVR microcontrollers. A full featured IDE is now available and works great. There have been many new commands added and improved documentation. One thing that was missing in the past was a library of sample code and now that is available too. 

Evan Venn, a top contributor, worked closely with Hugh and with some key forum members, to expand the compiler and sample code and commands to make it on par with any BASIC compiler out there. 

What I like the best is it produces a pure assembly code file. This allows me to see the core libraries and how they work. It allows me to load the assembly file into MPLAB and run debug mode or on the simulator without any special changes to the file or any special setup requirements. In fact MPLAB doesn't know a BASIC compiler created it. It thinks its a raw assembly code file.

So I suggest you give it another look. I created a separate website at greatcowbasic.com to help make it easier for a beginner to get started but I need to really update that site. The main Great Cow Basic site is a sourceforge website that has improved over time. So give it another look and let me know what you think?
My guess you'll want to try it out.

Back on December 23, 2014 I wrote a blog post asking "Is Radio Shack Done?" and the answer is apparently YES! They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It appears that Sprint, the phone company, may take over some of the stores and there is rumor that Amazon may be interested in some stores for a brick and mortar presence. I visited one of my local Radio Shack's and found it having a big closing sale. I picked up a few parts for cheap including some copper clad boards for cutting my own circuit boards on my recently completed Shapeoko 2.

While I was there I found the latest Radio Shack project flyer. These are 8 1/2 x 11 color glossy sheets that have a project using Radio Shack parts. When I first saw these in the store, I thought this was a great idea and I thought about contacting them to offer to write a few myself. Then I remembered that they reviewed my books a while back and they weren't interested in them because they weren't Arduino. So I said screw it.

As I collected many of these project sheets I noticed that most were very simple projects that I often found a bit dated. This last one I picked up at the sale summarized it for me. The flyer showed the project for a countdown timer run by an Arduino module. But rather than have the user plug in an LCD shield they have them wire a couple 7 segment displays. Then I realized this was an Inventables project and Radio Shack was just using them for content.

I thought, why use a whole Arduino rather than just an Arduino microcontroller. But then I realized they don't carry the crystal or the USB to RS232 adapter to program it. And I can't tell you if I ever saw an LCD shield in the store. But most shocking of all was the construction. They show someone drilling a 1/2" hole in the plastic box with a spade flat blade. That is asking for trouble as the blade will smack that box around and the hole will be a mess. It's all old school. 

The flyer said in small print that it was created by Instructables based on a project by Randy Sarafan. It referenced RADIOSHACKDIY.com but when I went there I could not find it. In fact the projects there were all far more complicated than what I could build with the stuff I found at Radio Shack. So clearly this was created for Radio Shack store and not for the DIY site. So it got me thinking; How would I have created Radio Shack featured projects?

First I would have recommended Radio Shack present a modern DIY project. First, show a brief summary on the flyer of all the steps and a link to the full plans online. A teaser for the full project. Show how to wire the circuit on a breadboard (using Fritzing.org or a Radio Shack branded version) and then show the board layout with a Radio Shack featured board layout partner (such as ExpressPCB or Kicad) and offer the gerber files as a download or run on your home CNC machine. 

Then show the steps to wire it all up using the Arduino IC, not the module (use your Arduino to program the device with the free software download). Then offer the .STL file for the 3D printed box to fit the circuit with holes designed in for the LEDs and the pushbutton switch on the side. 

Then reference that you can buy online or in the store, all the parts in a kit including a pre-made circuit board and optional 3D printed box. Promote the build your own with your own Radio Shack featured Arduino module, Radio Shack featured 3D printer, Radio Shack featured Inventables Shapeoko 2 CNC machine and all the components available at Radio Shack and RadioShack.com.

Encourage customers to submit projects to the Radio Shack DIY website and if selected would become a future kit and receive a ticket for a drawing in the free tools give-away. Bonus entries for using Radio Shack parts. Can you imagine your project wins you a free 3D printer? 

It would promote the components and kits at Radio Shack, the tools needed including a 3D printer and make Radio Shack a relevant place to get this kind of information. 

Offer a blog every week showing the latest Radio Shack featured DIY project. And have a project once a month for kids to build with mom or dad the way Home Depot does with little wood projects to build a future generation of customers. Feature the latest project on the Radio Shack YouTube Channel and post it to Facebook, Twitter and other social media. 

In other words, get out of the 80's and become 2015 and beyond. But this idea will never happen because Radio Shack decided that being just another phone seller was far more important than trying to stay relevant in the DIY community they helped launch all those years ago. Instead they just went lazy and relied on inventables to do the dirty work. And what incentive was there to feature Radio Shack?

They lost site of who they were and why they were such a name in the DIY community of my generation. And so Radio Shack is gone. Sorry, but I don't think they will be missed.

It's been a while since I updated my blog. I've been very busy in my shop and my YouTube Channel continues to grow approaching 1000 subscribers. During all this I was able to put in the hours needed to complete my Shapeoko 2 that I purchased around Christmas. There was a $100 off sale and I bought one.

The kit has a lot of steps and it's not really a beginner kit but I was able to get it together and cut my first piece of wood. I had several mis-attempts because I had not setup the GRBL software properly. Inventables gave me the tip to check the settings and I found the error.

I was finally able to cut out my new CHEP logo and it did a fine job. I need to make a visit to Harbor Freight tools to see what bits I can get for this thing. I want to get some small blade bits so I will be able to cut out circuit boards. My goal is to find a way to cut out 2 layer boards from ExpressPCB files. I can get the gerbers through CopperConnection and then I'll try to find a Gerber to G-Code converter. I know it exists but I just haven't put the time to fully investigate the steps plus I didn't have the the CNC tool to test it all out until now. Learning to cut circuit boards is just one thing on my list of things to do. 

I also 3D printed a base to mount the Arduino board to the frame. If you look close you can see that the mounting bosses split. I have a fix I want to try so that will be part of a future YouTube video. If you have one of these Shapeoko's and have some tips for me, I'm all ears.

For Christmas I bought myself a Shapeoko 2 CNC machine. I'm still waiting for it to arrive but my own CNC machine is something I've been dreaming about for a long time. I've watched CNC machines come down in price and thought about getting a cheap Chinese-built unit on EBAY but the software was always the hangup. They all seemed to use Mach 3 software which required a computer with a parallel port. I had two computers that fit the requirement but they both crashed in the past year so I preferred to get a USB controlled unit. I also wanted an easy software for creating the design. When the Inventables.com guys released the Easel software that also controlled their Shapeoko 2 CNC kit, I was sold.

I saw them at the Detroit MakerFaire and saw the Easel software in action. I wrote about it in aprevious post. Well over the holiday, I saw the Shapeoko 2 was on sale for $100 off. This is because the new Shapeoko 3 was coming out soon. Shapeoko 2 had everything I wanted so I bought it while on sale. 

I received an email that my package was shipped and they are in Chicago and I'm outside Detroit so it shouldn't take long to get here. I'm told it takes about 10-12 hours to put it all together so I'll be doing that over a period of time. I also plan to time lapse record it for my YouTube channel. 

To get a CNC machine with software for around $550 is something I hoped I'd see but never thought it would happen this soon. I plan to build things that my 3D printer can't and find ways to combine CNC, 3D prints and Electronics to make some interesting projects. I just wish I had more time to play with all these great tools.

And best of all, if you have been following me for a while, you know I'm a really fan of 8-bit microcontrollers. I prefer PICs but most of all I prefer the simplicity of 8-bit. I've had people tell me that I'm crazy for not switching over to 32 bit but I'm still not convinced I need that extra horsepower for what I like to do; build electronic products. Well my 3D printer is 8-bit, and now so is my Arduino controlled CNC Shapeoko 2. Not to mention my lab full of 8-bit PIC boards and projects. Tell me again why I need to switch to 32 bit?

I've always wanted a low cost way to program PICs and a tablet seemed like a great solution. But most tablets either didn't have a USB port for the programmer or ran an operating system that didn't support the software tools I like to use such as Great Cow Basic and PICkit 2 software. Then I found the Winbook tablets at Microcenter. They offer a very low cost tablet that runs a full version of Windows 8.1 and has as full size USB port. On the smaller ones they are a USB 2.0 and on the larger versions they offer USB 3.0.

The pre-Christmas deals offered the smallest 7" Winbook for $59.95. It included Windows 8.1, 16GB of Flash Storage and 1GB of RAM. It also has wireless-N and a micro-HDMI port. So I bought one and downloaded the Great Cow Basic IDE at my Greatcowbasic.com site. I then ran the software without issue. The next step was to test the PICkit 2 on the USB port. This worked smoothly as the GCB IDE has the PICkit 2 command line interface built in. The programmer launched and programmed a PIC16F886 on a CHIPINO module without issue. 

I did find that 8GB of the 16GB was taken up by the operating system and other features so the memory size is limited, but plenty for what I was doing, at least I thought so. Then I decided to see if the Davinci 3D printer software, XYZware, would run on it. I downloaded that and it ran fine. I could load a 3D print into my Davinci without issues and the print was launched. My next step was to try and install the ExpressPCB software I like to use for creating circuit boards. Before I did that, I decided I needed a keyboard and mouse first. I tried a bluetooth keyboard but I couldn't it them to connect so I used a USB expander and was able to connect the PICkit 2, USB Keyboard and USB mouse to the tablet and everything worked great.

I also wanted to to see if I could load Chrome on the tablet so I could modify Tinkercad designs but I found the memory usage was already getting low. Seems that Windows did an update and used up a bunch of space. I have to figure out what I can do to get some of that back but my idea of installing ExpressPCB may not be possible either. I guess 16GB isn't enough space. The 32GB is $139.95 but as the price gets higher I may just stick with a low cost laptop. The tablet has a microSD card slot so I'm going to try and load the programs on there and see if I can run everything from the SD card. So I've achieved one goal of programming PICs with a tablet but to create designs, write the software, send the 3D print file for a complete design from a tablet will require more memory with the SD card if that works or spend more money on a larger tablet which is not what I want to do. But at least I know its possible at the simplest of all levels. I can write a Great Cow Basic program and program a CHIPINO module with the code. Not bad at all for $59.95.