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Review: BuildTak Printing Surface
For last few months I’ve been happily 3D printing PLA on glass. Prints were repeatable, initial adhesion was just fine, ready print was easy to remove after glass cooled down. But I wouldn’t be me if I did not wanted to try something new. So I tried “the ideal 3D printing surface” BuiltTak. My initial…
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How to print with elastic filament
Elastic filaments opened brand new areas for 3D printing. We are finally able to print something that bends, compresses and stretches. While TPE (ThermoPlastic Elastomer) filaments like NinjaFlex or FlexiSmart are still about 4 times more expensive than plain old PLA, they are not so expensive not to give them a try. Unfortunately, due to…
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Mechanical Bat: Bat Bot B2
Nature gave ability to fly to birds, insects and some mammals quite some time ago. We, as a species, learned how to fly only very recently. And let’s be honest here. We are not very good at it. We need machines to fly. Any our machines are not very efficient at that task. They require…
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ESP8266 and DS18B20 – wireless ThingSpeak sensor
Here is another small project of mine: battery operated ESP8266 ESP-01 WiFi thermometer using DS18B20 and ThingSpeak API to collect data. Before we proceed, you should: Know how to program ESP8266 with Arduino IDE Know how to run ESP8266 on battery power for months Have an account on ThinkSpeak, create a channel and obtain write…
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Hardware SmartPort Inverter using BC547 bipolar transistors
This post is only a short update for SmartPort inverter for F4 flight controllers. Here is alternative SmartPort inverter circuit using bipolar BC547 instead of unipolar 2N7000. All other aspects of operations are the same like in MOSFET version.
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ESP8266 ESP-01 Low Power Mode – run it for months
Amazing ESP8266 ESP-01 WiFi boards have pretty irritating problem: theirs power consumption is pretty high. Minimal power consumption of about 70mA when doing nothing and above 100mA when when transferring data makes it rather impossible to use it on battery power for a longer period of time. Set of 2 AA batteries would be drained…
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INAV 1.6: Fixed Wing PIFF Controller
Another new feature of upcoming INAV 1.6 (BTW, INAV 1.6 ALPHA-1 has just been released) is brand new PID controller for fixed wings. I repeat: this new controller is used only on fixed wings, multirotors are not affected. So, what is new about this new PID controller? First of all, it is no longer a…
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How to connect APM Power Meter to Cleanflight and INAV
This topic was eluding me for some time now. It’s time fix the problem and finally present a short tutorial how to connect 90A APM Power Meter for flight controller boards like Naza32, SP Racing F3 or any other running Cleanflight / Betaflight / INAV software and equipped with Current Meter ADC input. I will…
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Hands on: Eachine DIY Suitcase
I like to travel light. Also when going flying. This is why I’m not the biggest fan of all those metal or plastic suitcases. Not my style. I prefer a backpack, mini quadcopter attached on the outside of it, flying wing in one hand, travel chair in the second. Done. Sometimes suitcases becomes handy (after…