FreeCAD Tetrapods!

I've seen a lot of Tetrapods recently... they seem perhaps to be the next Blåhaj having been spotted all over the #why25 hashtag. I'm imagining they'll be spotted out at FOSDEM and EMF camp next year... on searching though I couldn't find anyone explaining how to draw one up in your favourite opensource CAD FreeCAD! So, instead of concentrating on earning a decent living, I've spend some time this afternoon making this little video above about how to whip one up! 

Do give me a follow over on Makertube, it's a an excellent platform and I'm committed to putting content there in the future. Also feel free to hit that KoFi button to support my never ending nonsense (most of which doesnt pay!)

Parachute Manufacture with Opensource Toolchains - Ballute Design

 

A while ago I had the great pleasure of an online call/meeting with Mads Stenfatt from Copenhagen Suborbitals. I've been interested in Ballute parachute designs for a while and was interested to hear about Mads approaches. He was incredibly kind and shared lot's of really interesting practice and tips from his projects. As an aside it's the only video call I can remember where both people sat with their hard copies of the TK Knacke recovery systems book discussing content! Supergeeky and validating. Anyway, during the call I kept thinking about how FreeCAD and Inkscape could be tremendously useful to Ballute and Parachute design and construction and have been wanting to put together this little video ever since.

Magnet PCB Clamps.

 

I've been tinkering with this idea for a little while and designing and printing a few iterations. It's my take on magnetic clamp posts for, primarily PCB's, but also super useful as a helping hand for many items. There's not a huge amount to them, designed in FreeCAD, there are 3 small parts to print. The base has a captive M4 nut and a captive 12mm diameter x 2mm thick Neodymium magnet. Above that a 40mm machine screw/bolt has a compression spring under a floating clamp section and an upper clamp section at the top. They work, even if this sounds like blowing my own trumpet, incredibly well!

For a base there are lots of options. I've used mine stuck to a random piece of invar steel that's been lurking in my shed for an age, but also they can clamp to say a small tobacco tin, or a really  nice option can be a small whiteboard. 

I may well make up a few sets to put on my Tindie store, and I'm also going to chuck the repository (where you can download all the files) in for OSHWA certification.

 

 

Tech Talks Pesda

 

 

It was a pleasure earlier this week to host an evening of tech talks at Canolfan Cefnfaes in Bethesda. Partneriaeth Ogwen allowed us to use their excellent community room and we were treated to a collection of great talks. Charles Gersholm  from Reality Boffins got us started and spoke about how Godot has put the fun back into coding, not just for games, but for quick tools and applications also. Along the way he highlighted how Reality Boffins are paying it forward into their community running excellent tech help drop ins for anyone having problems or fed up with their tech to come and get some help and a cuppa. (I'll be blogging on that very soon)!

Chris Huffee, aided and abetted from the sidelines by Snoof Kattekop, spoke about their frankly brilliant work over at Steam Engineers. They work ceaselessly to make science and making and related topics fun and accessible with a brilliant focus and set of skills in working with neuro-divergent groups. Fabulous. Chris also brought some tantalising hardware that can be used as a controller for the TOUV project... but I'm going to post next week about that more properly!

Finally we had the fabulous Adrian McEwen talking about his company and what drives them to do both exciting commercial work, but also to work on fascinating slower burn projects that have garnered lots of support and use. He spoke about the amazing Museum in a Box which is in use widely in a broad collection of settings, from dementia care to schools. He then rounded out a motivating talk with some show and tell of the "My Bikes Got LED" project and how it has enabled a community bike joy riding group to operate more safely and crucially, have more fun! Thanks to everyone who turned out. Diolch pawb.