Refining Una the Ultimaker

I think you should know I endured a lot of pain to fit this part…

Just because I’m on holiday, doesn’t mean I don’t get to play with tech. I spent a big chunk of today fiddling with Una, my Ultimaker 3D printer. I don’t usually give my devices names, but since I’ve discovered that this particular device has moods I thought a name would be appropriate. The great thing for me about 3D printers is that they don’t work all the time and you can always persuade yourself that there are things you can do to make them better. Perfect for a tinkerer like me, who was brought up on Meccano.

Today I convinced myself that by replacing the wooden end bearing caps with adjustable plastic ones I could probably improve print quality. I could certainly cut down on the banging and crashing that I was getting during printing, when the print head changes direction and the rods it slides on are pushed into the side of the case. I’d already made one change earlier in the week, when I upgraded the fibre feed mechanism that pushes plastic into the machine. That had improved print quality a bit and so I figured I was on a roll with this.

So I set to and printed all the parts (finding a matching colour for the case, which was nice) and then I had to fit them. This was where the fun started. I put the original fittings on as I was constructing Una, and then put lots of parts around them. This meant that the nuts holding the end caps in place were really hard to get to. I tried printing out a “nut calumet”, which sounds like a desert from a posh restaurant, but is really something you can use to put the nut on the back of the bolt. But eventually I found the best way to replace the fittings was just to jam my finger inside the machine behind each nut, so that it held it in place, undo the existing bolt and put the new one straight back in. This removes the need to put the nut in place, as it never goes anywhere, and leaving aside the pain involved in forcing your finger inside very tight spaces, worked very well.

I’m not sure if the print quality is that much better to be honest, although printing is a lot quieter and smoother than it used to be. I’m a bit worried that steel bolts in the end caps are going to grind chunks out of the steel rods they are rubbing against, so I’ve ordered some brass bolts (which cost the princely sum of 14 pence each) to replace them with. These should form a bearing against the steel and be a bit smoother.

If you have an Ultimaker then I think it is a worthwhile upgrade, just because it makes printing much quieter. If you are about to build one from a kit, I’d advise getting some end caps printed so that you can put them on during construction and save yourself a bit of pain later.

Whitby Again

..and so to Whitby. Love the place. And the Fish Pie served at the Magpie Cafe. Actually I like the cafe as much for its technology and business approach as its food. They have large screens showing you what fish is available on the day. All the attentive and hard working waitresses enter your order into a PDA (and have done for quite a while now). The cafe is on Twitter, and they are continuously updating what they do. In these respects they are very like Fudge in Hull, working to improve and extend that their reach while still remaining very good at their core business, serving really good food.

We were blessed with some of the best weather I’ve seen for, well, months, and so I took some more pictures of the place.

We didn’t take a trip on the boat, but these folks seemed to enjoy it.

Last time we came the sea was so bad that we weren’t allowed this far out on the pier.

Elsham Hall

Took a trip out to Elsham Hall today. The weather was cold and grey, but didn’t actually rain, which was something of a relief. We were able to see the promise of the place though, definitely going back there in a few months when the gardens have got going properly. As it was, the main attractions were the livestock, of which there was plenty.

They have a peacock there.

.. and a turkey…

.. and some rabbits.

If you’ve got kids and are looking for somewhere to take them and tire them out, I can recommend the place. After all, that’s how we found it a few years back. And with Humber Bridge tolls down a bit now, going south of the river for a trip out is looking a lot more affordable.

Zombie Dice for Brain Eating Fun

Another day, another game review. I’m taking quite an aggressive stance on the holiday this week I’m afraid, so that means that if you don’t receive a response to a work related email it is because I’m, quite literally, too busy doing nothing. Normal servicer (or what passes for it) will be resumed on Monday next week.

And so on to Zombie Dice. It is a nice, simple, dice game with you playing the role of a zombie, hungry for brains and rather less keen on shotgun blasts. The mechanic is simple enough to get your head (or at least skull) round and great fun.  For me the best bit though was looking up the product on Amazon for a link and finding that game was linked with the following special promotion:

Just what your average Zombie needs….

Lego City for Wii U

If you are forming the impression that I’ve spent the last few days going to movies and playing games then you are pretty much right. I’m on holiday.Go me.

Anyhoo, today I got hold of my copy of Lego City Undercover and finally got to play it. It was a bit more finally than I expected actually, as firing up the game triggered a console update of the Wii U itself and the game does have its share of loading screens. But it is well worth waiting for. I like the Lego versions of the films that have been around for ages. But this is in a different league. The story is all home spun (but none the worse for that) and there is lots of dialogue (which is all very well presented). There are lots of movie in jokes and characters that you start to care about after a few missions. The Wii U gamepad is used to very good effect, as a mapping device, communicator and crime scene scanner.

I’m really enjoying myself going round solving crimes and arresting bad guys. As the whole thing has been designed to be played by seven year old kids I’m finding that I can actually do quite well, which is nice. The only real gameplay issue that I’ve noticed really is that the handing of the vehicles is a bit tricksy. But everything else is great fun. I don’t think you should buy a Wii U just to play this game. But if you already have the console, the game is a really, really good buy.