I had her show me the basics of it and having watched a ton of relatives sew everything from boat canvas to wedding dresses over the years, I felt like I could work it out.   For the most part that was true, even if she did have to show me the thread routing half a dozen times.

Anyway, I’ve blundered through a few things in the last 6 months when need arose – starting with the image above: a laptop sleeve and a small drawstring bag.

I was psyched with this first effort, even if I didn’t quite know how to really make something. Lesson learned: my lines aren’t super straight, and I need to leave more material to sew, and trim it of later. I Think stuff has fallen out of this smaller bag already.

Next up: a tool belt. I volunteer at a community bike shop and frequently need to have a few tools on me, as well as a place to wipe my grimy hands from time to time. I bought a pattern for this a few months back while out shopping with Amy but never got around to it. Recently I sat down to try:

Lessons learned: there’s probably an equal amount of sewing that’s not visible on the finished project as there is visible – doing it ‘right’ takes a lot of work. Oh, and I have no idea how to really use a pattern, but made it up as I went along and I think it mostly worked out. I’ve clearly got something wrong somewhere as the back of my stitches look like crap, but I’m all about function over form, so this is a win in my book.

Latest attempt: lock pick roll-up case.

Lessons learned: I probably went overkill, and didn’t need the whole thing to be double-thickness. My lines are straighter but my tension (I think?) is still way off, as the back-size of stitching looks bad. No pattern on this one, I just made it up as I went along.

Turns out that even the ‘base’ model is fairly loaded, which makes sense given the relatively high price tag.  We’re extremely happy with the car so far and have given a lot of people rides in it and answered a ton of questions about it.  Rather than review it, I figured I’d just give a quick 6 month set of notes:

Total Miles: 5095
Miles Since Delivery: 5089
Total Gas Used: 21.8 gallons
Average Gas MPG:  33.83
Percent Of Driving on EV: 84.6%
Best Month EV % – September – 99.1% on EV
Worst Month EV % – January – 74.9% on EV
Most EV Miles in a Day:  94.28
Most Miles Driven Without Any Gas:  598.33
Most Miles On a Single Tank:  2542.79

Total Average Calculated MPG:  233.3

Here’s what he stack showed:

Since the car only holds 9.3 gallons and I had never run it dry, I made it through 6 months with only 2 stops at gas stations.

The car gets plugged in at night (just on 110v) and recharges easily by morning.   In the winter I can get to work and back without using any gas – but it’s close if I really blast the heat.  In the summer I can commute for 2 days on a single charge.

The car will definitely draw questions;  even at a local Cars and Coffee event I’ve had to pop the hood before for curious car nerds like myself.

Overall we’ve be super pleased with the car.  No trips back to the dealer, no squeaks or rattles, and no other problems to speak about.   I’ve heard these listed as common gripes:

• Poor rear visibility (yeah, I see it – but it’s now awful – and we don’t have the rear camera)
• Seats are firm (definitely firm)
• The white center stack looks too ‘Appley’ – I like the gray better, but Black / Gray wasn’t an option at the time
• The high MPG tires aren’t very sporty (Yeah – but that’s not what they’re made for)

The car is basically a gadget on wheels:   proximity locking / starting, remote start and monitoring via iPhone app, the ability to link your OnStar data to VoltStats and other services, etc.   I can see us having more EREV’s in our future after the great start on this one.

Tons more photos of our Volt here.

Ever since seeing the “Build Your Own Predator Drone at 99.95% Discount” talk at Shmoocon 2010 I’ve been tempted to build an aerial drone.  Busy with other projects I never got to it, but this past Fall at World Maker Faire Amy saw the AeroQuad guys and was intrigued enough to get me a quadcopter for my birthday.

While an R/C quad isn’t quite the same as an un-piloted one, it’s a good first step in my mine since learning the flight dynamics and electronic basics will be super useful.  In addition, some of the autonomous drones are ‘put up’ using R/C before they take over and run through their programmed flight path.   I fully intend to go down that route at some point, and will probably get some gear from DIYDrones.

While I would normally stick to something open source – the lack of spare parts availability spooked me from pursuing the AeroQuad platform.   One of the most common quads going is the DJI Flame Wheel 450 – or “F450″ as you’ll see it in a lot of places.   There are a few good things for novices in the DJI realm:

• Spare arms (or booms) are widely available, and cheap ($5-$7 each usually) – even dyed interesting colors.
• The DJI flight controller – NAZA-M is well documented and very common.  There are tons of videos on YouTube detailing every setting with possible implications
• It only takes a minute or two to switch from 3s (3 cell) to 4s (4 cell) LiPo batteries so you can run either
• It comes with both 8″ and 10″ props for running with various loads and different battery voltages.
• It has a built-in and configurable low voltage alarm on board.

There are a ton of how-to build documents online so I won’t go through the steps here, but a few pictures of the very quick assembly process are included for those curious:

Flying:

Never having flown any R/C helicopters or really any serious planes – I was fully prepared to crash (and had spare arms and a bundle of spare propellers) but my first flights went well.  I had a chance to fly it indoors first, and we took video of some of it:

The following day I mounted a camera to the quad (Swann Freestyle HD) and flew outside in the wind:

After a few days of flying, some small tweaks, and learning a lot more – I’m getting smoother.    Here is the progress after a week:

Clearly my video editing skills need even more practice than my flying skills.   To be continued…

Helpful resources:

• RCGroups – Multirotor Talk
• MultiRotorForums – DJI General Discussions

I’m not sure how they landed at Revel, but they weren’t there long before they called us:   “The place is empty, you have to come down for a night at least.”

Lobby View – Revel

We were actually ‘on vacation’ and kicked around the idea, but weren’t initially convinced.   An hour later we got another call:   my father-in-law was at the front desk, and put us on the phone with a Revel staffer.   Two minutes later we had an impossible-sounding deal on a room, and were packing bags.

For less than I’ve paid at some low-end hotels, we ended up with an ocean-view, corner suite:

Our Room – click for larger view

For anyone not into stats, there are a few interesting ones about Revel:  it’s the second tallest building in NJ, and it’s got 1399 rooms currently, but there’s unfinished space for a bunch more.   Our guess was that about a dozen rooms were actually occupied when we got there.

Where is everyone? 

Walking around we made a few “I Am Legend” jokes – frequently going ten minutes or more of wandering without seeing any other customers in any direction.   We thought that maybe the casino would turn up some Revelers.

Slots?   Sit anywhere you’d like.

Nobody here either. 

There were definitely more staff in the hotel than there were guests.   We wandered for quite a while and didn’t see anyone.   I was constantly trying to figure out how many staff it takes to run the place, and how much money the had to be hemorrhaging every minute.   At least a dozen restaurants were open, most of which had only a customer or two (if any) in them.

Empty stores, empty lounges.  

There was only one area left to explore;  maybe guests were in the spa area?     Of course they weren’t, but we had to check.

Indoor / outdoor pool:   abandoned like everything else.  

The experience was surreal; a few dozen guests (at most) in a building designed for thousands.    I played blackjack by myself for over an hour, as a few other dealers and pit bosses stood by chatting with me as nobody else was playing.  We ate at various restaurants – all of which were great, but it was mystifying that the place was even open.

 

View from the 45th floor – Revel Casino (click for full-size)

- Cupcake CNC: 100mm
- Thing-O-Matic: 120mm
- Replicator: 150mm
- Replicator 2: 155mm

And to check in on some competitors:

- Printrbot Plus: 203mm
- Ultimaker: 220mm
- Series 1: 230mm

With the swapping of just 6 pieces*, a Replicator 1 can be made into the (Unofficial) Replicator XL – with a Z-axis build area of 250mm. The only pieces needed are 4 new wood panels and 2 smooth rods.

How much bigger is it? The Replicator 1 build volume is 300 cubic inches. The Replicator 2 is 410 cubic inches. (Unofficial) Replicator XL? 500 cubic inches (err…498 I think).

I also figured if I was in there editing files, I might as well make it look a little more like the Replicator 2, so all of the ‘window’ shapes have been changed to reflect the ‘new look.’

Enough talk, let’s get to the photos!

flickr.com/photos/jabella/8129250268/in/photostream

flickr.com/photos/jabella/8129224609/in/photostream/

The smooth rods I used are: mcmaster.com/#6459K112 (8mm x 400mm)

Big thanks to Bruce Wattendorf (of Giant Ultimaker fame) for helping with my meager DXF editing skills. Thanks also to Dan and Jetty for helping after I spent hours messing with broken firmware.

The new parts are cut in 5.5mm plywood.

NOTE:   You need to use Sailfish firmware for this to work correctly.   The MakerBot 5.5 firmware won’t work no matter what.

Assembly Notes:

There have been reports that early Replicators may have had longer wires, long enough that they don’t need any wires being spliced, but mine needed about a dozen wires extended – including steppers, fan power, and extruder heater wires.  My thermocouple, HBP, and endstop wires on mine were all long enough.

Before starting I took a few detail shots of my MightyBoard wiring for reference, since there aren’t really any published assembly instructions:

A lot of the assembly should be easy enough to understand – you need to replace the side panels as well as the front and rear, which means removing the LCD panel and the entire X / Y gantry section.    I have some detail shots here that I thought would be helpful to understanding reassembly:

There are a bunch more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jabella/sets/72157631867590921/with/8195856299/

One trick to making this work correctly is that the Z-axis threaded nut (it’s brass) will need to be flipped from the top of the Z platform to the bottom.   It’s only held in with 4 screws, but it requires taking apart part of the platform to access it.   On my machine I had to remove the cover plate with the “The Replicator” and MakerBot circle logos to get to the nut.    Unthread it off the rod, lift the platform, put it on the rod (upside down now) and screw it in from the bottom.  It should look like this:

If you don’t flip the nut it won’t let the platform go high enough.

Speaking of which, you’ll need to move your Z-endstop from the pre-drilled holes to the slots to be able to adjust it enough for it to work.

G-Code Edits:

You’ll need to make two edits to your start and end.gcode files to make this work right:

start.gcode edit:

before: G1 X-110.5 Y-74 Z150 F3300.0 (move to waiting position)
after: G1 X-110.5 Y-74 Z250 F3300.0 (move to waiting position)

end.gcode edit:

before: G0 Z150 ( Send Z axis to bottom of machine )
after: G0 Z250 ( Send Z axis to bottom of machine )

Electronics Note – IMPORTANT:

The Mightyboard is super sensitive to being wired up wrong, resulting in pops, sparks, flames, and various other ways to kill it. Take photos of the wires before you change them, and triple check before you turn power back on! You’ve been warned.

http://blog.makezine.com/2012/09/20/maker-faire-new-york-3d-printer-village-interview-with-john-abella/

I was also part of the live Google+ Hangout which was recorded and is hosted on YouTube as well.   A ton of my photos are in the Make slideshows for the event.    The special issue will be released November 20th.

We also talked about the Ultimate 3D Printer Shootout issue on the first ever International Maker Meetup which was live-broadcast and is available on YouTube.

The issue is available for order at MakerShed.

Anyway, here are photos of all of my cars in the order that I had them with some notes.

During the Summer of 1991 we picked a 1984 Chrysler LeBaron that needed work.   The passenger side was hit, and well – it was gold.  I was still suitably thrilled, despite being too young to drive it.

By the time I was old enough to drive it, a few birthdays and holidays had passed, and the car was all tuned up.   My father painted it black in his shop, and we installed a new  convertible top as well.   Here’s a shot of it finished (and me dressed up for some event.)

In the early 90′s I spent a few years racing personal watercraft on the IJSBA tour.   We had an old 1984 Subaru GL wagon in the family that wasn’t being used, so over the course of a weekend my father and a family friend painted it to make it a flashy tow vehicle.

Yep, the wheels are painted too!   I drove this around part-time in my senior year of high school and freshman year of college.  This was the first manual trans I drove, as well as the first AWD car I had.

While I was at Rutgers we picked up a 1984 Volvo 240DL wagon, and that became my daily driver – and the third 1984 car I’d driven regularly.

It’s got a custom made fork-mount bike rack on the roof that my father whipped up.   I drove this for a few years, and had lots of adventures in it.   It never had rear hubcaps while I owned it.

My first summer out of college had me doing IT consulting, and it involved a lot of travel.   The Volvo only lasted a week or two of hard commuting before going up in a cloud of smoke.   Despite the fact that my father fixed it, it was time for something I could pour some real miles into.  The Volvo went to my cousin and when it eventually died, it was cut up as part of an EMT training event.

The year was 1998 and I needed a car fast over 4th of July weekend.   I picked up a shiny new 1998 Plymouth Breeze, one of the JA-platform ‘Cloud Cars’ of the era (Stratus / Cirrus / Breeze.)   This was early times for digital cameras, and the quality shows.   The breeze was flawless though and I drove it until 2000 and put 80k miles on it.

The Breeze held up well but had lots of miles, and I was looking for something more fun.   In 2001, Volkswagen introduced a Jetta Wolfsburg with a 1.8T motor, and I promply snatched one up.  The Breeze went to my folks, where my mother drove it for another 5 years or so.

Galactic Blue, BBS wheels, 5 speed, and tons of modifications that I’ve written up detailed documentation on.   Sometime in 2001 after I’d gotten I heard some friends talk about ‘Autocross’ and decided to take part in a few events with the Jetta, my only car at the time.   We borrowed a helmet from someone, printed up some numbers on magnets, and went to the races.

My father co-drove, and we did well.   It was quickly obvious that it was rough on the car, and that a Jetta with my modifications was wildly outclassed.   A plan was hatched.  Or ‘hot-hatched’, if you’re a car guy.

After pouring over past SCCA results and consulting our limited budget, we picked up a 1984 GTI for a few hundred dollars.   Bone stock and not in show condition, it would be a great platform to start from.   We did tons of work to this one and built it up into a formidable racer.

We won our SCCA class locally (F Street Prepared) as well as our class at NASA Northeast, and I think we won our class at Waterfest that year as well.    The following winter there was a rule change in NASA that was going to put us into a class that wasn’t a good fit, so we went back to the books, and back to 1984.

The GTI was put back to mostly stock and sold to someone on VWVortex, and we picked up a 1984 Rabbit L for $250.   We swapped all of our expensive bits into this one, and because it was only a 1.7L motor, it was still in our preferred class.  We ran it for an event or two in this ‘patchwork’ trim, a black fender, white body, and burgundy hatch.   It was just to make sure it would be able to compete.  Once we knew, then the real work started.

The rabbit got gutted, got a roll cage, lexan windows, metal Kirkey seats, and a whole host of additional upgrades.   This photo was from a track day at Pocono raceway, with just street tires on it temporarily since we towed it out.  We ran this for a few seasons, and dominated E-Prepared in SCCA and the G class with NASA locally.   We won the Tri-State Championship, Waterfest, and a whole host of other events.  Fourty-four wins out of fifty events or something.

At this point I was still daily driving the Jetta, but it was well over 100k miles already.   Time for something new.   I went to the VW dealer and picked up the second new MKV GTI on the lot – my buddy Joe got the first.

2006 GTI – Two liter turbo, 6 speed manual, and BBS wheels again.   This generation of GTI had the plaid seats, xenon headlights with washers, and a few other niceties — some of which got decontented the following years.   This car also got tons of detailed modification writeups as time went on.   I drove this until Fall 2009.

For 2010, Subaru revamped the Legacy and while it killed off some of the things that enthusiasts loved about it, the overall package became a lot more popular.   I got one in the Fall of 2009.

And even the Subaru got modded, at least a little.   It’s huge compared to the GTI, but it is AWD and gets good mileage.   It’s a great highway cruiser and we’ve done some fairly long drives in it.   I drove this for most of the time where Amy and I were split between two states, so the miles added up quickly.    We still have the Legacy, at least for now.

Fall 2011 and we’re in the third state in the last 26 months.   Our commutes are both short, and Amy’s 2003 Civic has 160k miles on it.   We decide to sell the Civic and get her a new Impreza, but they’re not out yet.     I picked up this from a friend:

2003 Mini Cooper S, with lots of modifications.   It’s great for my 4 mile/day commute and zipping around town.  It’s a 6 speed, has all the options available, and runs great.    I don’t have any plans for getting rid of it any time soon.   For now.

Well, that didn’t last long.  I kept the Mini for 9 months but ended up doing a lot of repair work on it.   Between spending a lot of time and money on parts and downtime, Amy can’t drive a stick – so off it goes.   The new ride?  2012 Chevy Volt:

This is probably the most technically advanced car on the road today.   From the gauges / instrumentation to all of the engine management and remote monitoring the thing really is a rolling technology demo.  It also feels a bit like the Jetsons.   No new cars for a while…

(To Be Continued, eventually)

This particular mini was used in a lot of early performance product development, and has had a lot of different aftermarket parts on it at various points in its life, as well as measurement points to do testing of all of those parts, including airbox temperature, pre- and post-intercooler air temps, additional map sensors, wideband O² sensor, etc.  It’s probably had 5 different intakes, different intercoolers, 4 different exhausts, and a host of other parts.

The car started life as:

2003 Mini Cooper S

• Premium Package:  Auto climate control, dual-pano sunroof, leather steering wheel with multifunction and cruise, on-board computer
• Sport Package: Dynamic stability control (DSC), 17″ S-Lite wheels, foglights, Xenon headlights with washers
• Cold Weather Package: Heated seats, heated mirros, heated washer nozzles
• Interior:  Panther black leather, magnesium interior trim, park distance control, navigation system.

Current Modifications

• Helix 19% supercharger pulley (also have a 15%)
• Helix 380cc injectors
• Helix short-shifter
• Remus cat-back exhaust
• RDR 19mm rear swaybar
• Omori mechanical boost gauge
• Summit racing digital oil pressure / water temp gauges
• Whalen shift machine

Dyno Tests

Stock:

144.1 whp @ 6250 rpm
129.8 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm

Modded:  15% pulley, Alta Intake, Magnaflow cat-back

173.1 whp @ 6750 rpm (+ 29.0 whp over stock)
158.5 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm (+ 28.7 lb-ft over stock)

Current:   To be determined, but estimated 183 whp

More Photos:

Repairs and Maintenance

Items I’ve replaced / added since I got the car in October 2011:

• CravenSpeed strut-tower defenders
• Coolant expansion tank
• Thermostat / thermostat housing
• Radiator hoses
• O² sensor
• Serpentine belt tensioner

The mini isn’t complicated mechanically, but packaging-wise it’s hard to work on.  Things that should be simple aren’t, because of how tightly everything is packed.

At a 2011 MakerBot meetup, I was interviewed by the NY Times about MakerBots and the enthusiasm for the hobbyist 3D Printing market.   The article made the front page of NYTimes.com.      The article is available here.

The 2010 3D Printer Village got some great press as well:

• New York Times - I’m in the photo.
• cnet TV
• smartplanet.com - My Bot in the photo.
• New Hampshire Public Radio - Interviewed my father
• The Martha Stewart Show

3D Printer Village 2012 was a huge success!  We had 30+ enthusiasts pushing the limits all weekend long and showing of what’s possible on these devices.   Press has started to turn up as well:

• Extremetech:  We’re in the slideshow
• Tech News Daily:  I’m interviewed, quoted