SOURCE Issue 2 Out Now!

 

 

 Well here we are! After a lot of work I'm pleased to release SOURCE issue 2. It's larger than issue 1 and we have a collection of tutorial content rather than one big deep dive. In this issue we get started with the Godot game engine, we look at Termux that brings a linux terminal to your android phone, a little Inkscape tutorial and look at a really simple way to contribute to Open Street Map.  I also included a piece I've wanted to write for a while about combining Logseq and Synchthing for some really handy functionality. 

Here is the direct PDF link for SOURCE Issue 2.

As established in Issue 1, this is a pay what you feel magazine, and there are links in the magazine to chip in some cash via paypal or kofi. I'm committed to producing at least 4 of these but I'd love it if there was a little bit of donation, enough for me to continue to give it some attention and carry on after Issue 4. Also if people are donating by issue 4 we can look at hosting this in a better way. Speaking of, DO feel free to share SOURCE, you can host it, compress it and email it, seed it, whatever, lets make it spread the opensource knowledge far and wide!

So I now turn to Issue 3. I think it's going to focus on some opensource tools for open hardware and generally look at open hardware related stuff! That's the "plan" so far anyway!

Printing the Mundane Can Be Rewarding

 

I'm still, after all these years, in awe of 3D printing and what it allows me to create and make. Today is a good case in point, my Prusa mini + is on with a longish job printing a new rear panel for  my uConsole, the uConsole is a great portable computer that runs of 2 18650 cells but they are inside a bolted on aluminium cover, and there is no battery hatch. I found a design for a back cover with a magnet hatch over on Printables and chucked it onto my machine. That's pretty magical but it's the other job I've chucked together in 5 minutes for my other machine I wanted to talk about. 

For ages I have had this really cheap set of USB lights. They are primarily deployed for adding light to take photos of stuff for articles, but often also get deployed as a temporary work light. They have swivel heads and are mounted on pretty light (but OK) tripods and are reasonably adjustable. The one thing that has bugged me about them is that there is nowhere to stow/stash the built in USB cable. I end up wrapping it around the tripod which is a mess, also is definitely shortening the lifespan of the cable, and takes ages to unwind when I want to use them.  

I whipped up a supper simple glue on slot piece. As you know I am an advocate for FreeCAD, but really, what ever tool you choose, it's just so super handy to be able to make even simple items like this in whatever CAD you choose. This took me way less than 2 minutes to create and within 5 minutes from the "I need to keep half an eye on the first 20 minutes of this uConsole job what else can I do" moment it was on the printer. 

20 minutes later and it's glued onto the pair of lights.  The slot allows me to insert a length of hook and loop, which I have in my sewing box, to make a simple tie down system for the wrapped USB cable. Such a handy solution. 

So Yeah! Whilst I might catch your eye making  DIY Tiny Opensource Underwater Vehicles, I flipping love 3D design and print for these little practical doohickeys. Finally, many moons ago I wrote an article for Hackspace magazine about a similar theme  of 3D printing functional things. Was reasonably popular at the time in Issue 36.