The first step is to install the prerequisite software using apt-get:

sudo apt-get install git-core build-essential libgtk2.0-dev libwxgtk2.8-dev libwx-perl libmodule-build-perl libnet-dbus-perl cpanminus libextutils-cbuilder-perl gcc-4.7 g++-4.7 libwx-perl libperl-dev

The next step is to compile and install all the Perl dependencies. Be warned, that this next step will take literally HOURS. My advice is to install screen first and then do it within a screen session in case your login gets interrupted:

sudo apt-get install screen
screen -dR botqueue

Now, install those dependencies:

sudo cpanm AAR/Boost-Geometry-Utils-0.06.tar.gz Math::Clipper Math::ConvexHull Math::ConvexHull::MonotoneChain Math::Geometry::Voronoi Math::PlanePath Moo IO::Scalar Class::XSAccessor Growl::GNTP XML::SAX::ExpatXS PAR::Packer

To compile all of the dependencies for Slic3r, you need the GUI running. If you keep that turned off on your Pi, you need to install the virtual framebuffer to give it a ‘fake’ X server to run on:

sudo apt-get install -qy xvfb
sudo Xvfb :1 &
sudo env DISPLAY=:1 cpanm Wx
sudo killall Xvfb

Now that all the prerequisites are installed, you can install Slic3r itself:

git clone https://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r.git
cd Slic3r
git checkout 0.9.9
sudo perl Build.PL
sudo ./Build install

Once you’ve installed it, you can run it from the commandline with ./slic3r.pl
. Of course I sort of lied earlier… there are no officially available Raspi versions of slic3r available, but we do bundle one together with BotQueue itself. This binary can be created with the following command:

pp slic3r.pl -c -o slic3r -M Method::Generate::BuildAll

I hope this helps anyone out there who is trying to get Slic3r installed on their Raspberry Pi!

Like most people out there, I sometimes have more ideas than time to implement them. So instead of keeping those ideas locked in a notebook somewhere unaccessible and not serving a purpose, I’m going to release them into the world as public domain in the hope that they might inspire, or at a very minimum keep an idea from being patented. I’m not claiming that these ideas are good, or that they are even new. Heck, some of them might even be patented already. They are just ideas in my head that it’s about damn time I put down on (digital) paper. Feel free to discuss, critique, or offer suggestions that expand on these ideas in the comments.

You can do whatever you like with these ideas, except for attempting to patent them yourself. It is my sincere hope that by releasing these ideas, more awesomeness and excellence will be brought into being. Furthermore, I hope that I might inspire others to similarly share their ideas to build a body of ‘protected’ ideas that are protected not by ownership, but by virtue of specifically being released into the public domain for use by anyone. The internet has shown us that the cost of sharing ideas is close to zero, whereas the benefits of collaboration are immense and very tangible. Why hoard your ideas like a jealous miser when it is impossible for a single human, or even a single corporation to act on every interesting idea that it generates?

Idea 1: 3 Point Planar Bed Leveling for 3D Printer or Other Digital Fabrication Device.

One of the biggest problems with 3D printing is keeping the build surface plane aligned with respect to the XY axes plane. Most printers implement this with a bed on adjustable springs. My idea is to add 3 buttons to the edges of the build platform. After the printer has homed to a known position, it moves to trigger each button with the extruder nozzle. The z-height of each triggered button is recorded, and the plane of the build surface can be calculated. During printing, the Z axis position is automatically adjusted to compensate for the build surface. Since most build surfaces use a PCB based heater, it should be trivial to add buttons in the appropriate places.

Idea 2: Adaptive Digital Fabrication with Camera Feedback

3D printing, CNC, lasercutting, and many other digital fabrication techniques are based on a 2D or 3D file format. Most machines simply follow the instructions and produce an object based on a static toolpath. It is possible to add a camera for visual feedback of the process and adapt the parameters of the 3D print dynamically. For example, one could detect if a print is failed, or measure if the initial height of a layer is too high or too low. One could even measure in realtime the extrusion width of a current layer and compensate by increasing or decreasing the amount of plastic extruded. With subtractive processes, one could even scan the base material and automatically determine where to cut the next parts from, freeing the user from panelizing / combining multiple jobs into a single sheet.

Idea 3: Combined CNC + 3D Printing for High Precision Layers

Extrusion based 3D printing is an excellent technology for its ability to create arbitrary geometric shapes of a high complexity. Unfortunately its resolution is not the best, and there are frequently defects on the outside of parts from layer misalignment, warping of the plastic, or other problems. CNC machining on the other hand is a very precise method of fabrication but the type of geometry that can be produced is much more limited. It is possible to combine them into a hybrid process where each layer is extruded, and then a very fine CNC end mill is run along the outside of the layer to trim the material to the exact dimensions desired. This might result in a nicer surface finish, as well as giving higher precision to the part.

Idea 4: Encoder Wheel on Filament Input to Detect Jamming or Stripping

Jamming and stripping of filament is probably the most common failure mode for a 3D printer. Adding an encoder wheel to the filament input will allow the software to check the expected movement of the filament to the actual movement of the filament. If they do not match, then there is likely an error and the machine can pause or go into an error mode. Furthermore, the machine can easily keep track of the amount of filament consumed and pause the job when the end of the filament spool has been reached.

Idea 5: Ultrasonic Welding of Microfilaments

Ultrasonic welding is a technology widely used in the manufacturing industry to weld plastic (and sometimes metals) together. It might be possible to adapt this technology to weld microfilaments together. If so, a printer could be designed that uses a miniaturized ultrasonic welder and a microfilament dispenser to build a 3D printer. Such a printer would have resolution based on the microfilament diameter. If welding of a metal like aluminum wire is possible, layer heights of less than 100 microns might be possible. Furthermore, a metallic microfilament combined with a plastic/non-conductive filament and a pick and place machine could be used to print housings, place parts, and directly wire electronics in the same job.

Idea 6: Pick and Place with Built-In Heated Build Platform

A pick and place machine with an integrated heated bed would allow a PCB to have components placed and then reflowed in a single operation. Such a system would not be good for high volume manufacturing, but could potentially be nice for low-volume prototyping operation.

Idea 7: Flexible Manufacturing Cell with Robot Arm + 3D Printer, CNC, Laser Cutter, Pick and Place Machine or other Digital Fabrication Devices

Digital fabrication machines are great, but it takes human intervention to clear finished jobs, assemble the parts together, and load new material. For 100% automation, a robot arm could be added to handle these tasks. It would require some sort of vision system and communication between each of the devices. The advantage would be having a higher level of automation that could allow higher level parts or even assemblies to be produced without human intervention. This is basically a prerequisite for high level fully automated manufacturing, and it seems obvious that combining purpose built equipment such as 3D printers or pick and place machines with a generic piece of hardware like a robot arm can allow products to be automatically produced using parts from each different machine.

Idea 8: CNC or Laser Cutter with Automated Sheet Loading

A very common method of production with a CNC machine or laser cutter is to cut flat sheets of material such as Acrylic, ABS, or POM. Adding an automated sheet feeder to the machine could allow a machine to operate nearly continuously by ejecting a finished sheet and then immediately loading the next sheet for processing. Software would likely be required to add tabs to hold the cut pieces in place during the unloading process that would be removed by the operator afterwards to break the piece out of the sheet.

Idea 9: EDM Cutting of Nozzles into Special Shapes

This idea is credited to Nicholas Starno. Using Electro Discharge Milling, it might be possible to create nozzles for a 3D printer with custom shapes such as a square. The benefit of a square nozzle would be that the extruded filament would have a square profile. When stacked up layer on layer, square filament would have a smoother surface than a stackup of rounded filament. Nozzles made via EDM milling might also have a better surface finish, as well as giving a much greater freedom in design choices for the geometry of the nozzle body itself.

Idea 10: Flippers to Eject Parts From a 3D Printer

The majority of 3D printers are incapable of continuous operation because they do not have a way to eject the part after a build has been completed. One potential option is to add one or more arms attached to a motor that would eject the part from the machine after it has been completed. Modern build platform surfaces such as polyimide, glass, and carbon fiber allow a print to stick to the platform when it is hot, but after it is cooled down the part can be detached very easily. The mechanical requirements for a system like this could be very low. It is likely that a simple DC servo gearmotor such as those used in RC cars or small robots would be a suitable, cheap, and simple to implement method to achieve this.

Update: there were a couple bugs with the client. I’ve released a new version you can download here.

Coming quickly on the heels of the last release, the latest v0.3 release of BotQueue adds some really exciting new features that make it much nicer to use. I hope you enjoy this new version as much as I do. Be careful though, the new webcam feature is addictive – you can watch your machine from anywhere you have an internet connection and a display.

If you want to take advantages of the new BotQueue, you’ll need to upgrade the BotQueue client, bumblebee. See instructions at the end of the article for how to do that.

Webcam Support

This is the biggest new feature for BotQueue, and the one that I’m most excited about. The BotQueue client, Bumblebee, can now grab webcam images and upload them to the BotQueue site. This allows you to be able to see whats happening on your bot through the BotQueue.com website. That’s right, you can see how your bot is printing from any device (computer, phone, tablet, etc) from anywhere in the world.

I’ve also modified the dashboard and various pages throughout the website to support showing the webcams. The default dashboard view is now large thumbnail images, although you can switch to medium, small, and the old list-style view of your bots. BotQueue will also save the final image of each job so you can have a historical view of how each print turned out. In the future, we’ll even be able to automatically create timelapse videos of each job.

In order to add webcam support, please see the help page with information on how to configure bumblebee to start capturing and uploading webcam images.

Job Pausing

It happens fairly rarely, but sometimes you need to pause a job mid-print to do something. Maybe a nut fell into your print, or maybe you need to reach your hand in to clear out some debris. Well now you can pause and unpause a job from the BotQueue.com website. Due to the magic of the internet, the request will filter down to your bot whether you are in the same room or on the other side of the planet. Due to the way this is currently done (polling HTTP requests) the lag is pretty bad (~30 seconds). Future versions of BotQueue will be implementing Websockets and should be MUCH faster.

Bot and User Leaderboard

I’m a huge fan of stats, and once you have stats you can start doing what every primate has done ever – compare him/herself to others! Well, the BotQueue stats page now has a leaderboard for both bots and users. How does your bot stack up? Are you logging the most hour and producing tons of stuff with your machines? Head on over to the stats page and see how you stack up!

Job Commenting

This is a pretty straightforward feature that allows you to make a comment on any job. Use it for making notes on output quality, or just helping you keep track of what is what. If you add a comment, the job detail page will show a badge next to the comments tab to let you know that there are comments when looking at the job.

Upgrading Bumblebee

Since BotQueue v0.3 adds webcam support, and this requires some new software to make it all happen. For Linux, we’ll need to install fswebcam. If you’re on OSX, you don’t need to do anything – the webcam support is bundled in the new version of bumblebee directly.

You’ll also need the new version of bumblebee which can be downloaded here. Simply unzip the folder and run the bumblebee program like normal. You will need to copy your config.json file over and modify it with your webcam information as described in the help area.

If you’re on Raspberry Pi, your bumblebee software has been downloaded using git. For you, upgrading is really easy. Open a terminal to your Pi and enter these commands to upgrade, modify your config file, and then reboot:

sudo apt-get install fswebcam
cd ~/BotQueue
git pull
git checkout 0.3
nano bumblebee/config.json
sudo reboot

Changelog

* WEB – add ability to make comments on individual jobs
* WEB – fixed a major security flaw that allowed people to see your jobs
* WEB – add organization to job view page – tabs?
* WEB – add canceled status to jobs & remove all calls to delete()
* WEB – Allow pausing / resuming through website
* WEB – create job time logging table to better track time spent in jobs (and be able to handle errors, dropped jobs, and canceled jobs)
* WEB – create script to populate job_clock with times from existing jobs.
* WEB – create job_clock entry on start of job.
* WEB – close job clock entry on job drop
* WEB – close job clock entry on job finish
* WEB – update main stats page to reflect job_clock times
* WEB – update bot stats page to reflect job_clock times
* WEB – update queue stats page to reflect job_clock times
* WEB – added leaderboard to stats page.
* WEB – update time displays to include more digits (eg: 1.2 hours vs 1 hour)
* WEB – add source info for jobs added by url.
* WEB – added webcam display to dashboard, bot, and job.
* WEB – modify dashboard ajax to preload images and then fade-in new content
* WEB – add ajax selector for 4 different views: details, big thumbs, med thumbs, small thumbs
* WEB – add ajax checkbox for turning on/off auto-update.
* WEB – add ajax call to save dashboard style stuff
* WEB – fix top navigation to show what page/area you are at
* WEB – update help instructions to add webcam config info
* WEB – get real default image for bots w/o webcam

* BUMBLEBEE – allow pausing and unpausing based on api status change.
* BUMBLEBEE – added webcam uploading during idle and printing periods
* BUMBLEBEE – fix race condition when workerbee is changing the status of the bot
* BUMBLEBEE – add watermark to each image
* BUMBLEBEE – resize each image to 640×480
* BUMBLEBEE – save each image at 60% quality (jpeg)
* BUMBLEBEE – compile slic3r and update install script

More Robust Bumblebee

I’ve done a ton of work to Bumblebee, the client that runs your 3D printer. I live in China, so internet can be spotty at times haha. As a result, I’ve encountered just about every error imaginable – and made Bumblebee tolerant of it. The result is that it is MUCH more reliable. You can either run from github or download the v0.2 release. No new configuration required – just download the new files, copy over your config.json and run the new Bumblebee. Voila, upgraded!

Cancel Jobs From the Web

This was a huge gap in functionality for BotQueue that has been closed. You can now cancel a job from the website and it will notify Bumblebee which will then stop the job. You can take the bot offline, or just clear the printer of a failed job and it will start it again. I’ll be adding pause/play functionality soon as well for even more interactive control of a Bot.

New Dashboard

The dashboard has been overhauled with an eye towards the common tasks you encounter when using Botqueue on a daily basis. You can create new jobs/bots/queues, see all the critical information on running jobs (like temperature) as well as upcoming and finished jobs. You can re-arrange upcoming jobs, and you can re-run old jobs. Life is good.

Temperature Logging

This is a feature I’ve been wanting for a while now. Using the awesome Flot library and by pulling the temperature data from the machine we can now log and display temperature data for all jobs going forward. Super helpful if you want to see how a machine is doing, or a job fails mysteriously and you want to see if the temperature was the culprit. It will also now show the temperature data on the dashboard which is very helpful during warmup when the percentage sticks at 0.01% for the first 10 minutes – you can now see the bot heating up from the web.

Slic3r 0.9.9

In a fortuitous timing coincidence, the new Slic3r has been released. This new version adds some cool features, and if you use BotQueue you can easily upgrade. Just remember to re-export your config from the new Slic3r in order to pick up any new settings in the new version. You’ll need to select the new slice engine and slice config in BotQueue.com as well.

Raspberry Pi Support

I was a bit skeptical at first, but at the prodding of Jnesselr I took the plunge and got a Raspberry Pi. Holy crap, this thing is AWESOME as a machine controller. It’s pretty easy to setup, and once you have it running, it is amazing. I have put one of these babys on each of my machines and it is so awesome to just have Botqueue built in with no computers or extra stuff. Each machine just has a ethernet cable and a power cable. WiFi works, but I couldn’t find a decent dongle so I’m sticking with wired for now. Slicing is a bit slow, but there are plans to address that in the future. The Pi is a great platform, so expect lots more support for it in BotQueue in the future.

More to come

We’ve got a big, long list of awesome stuff to add to BotQueue. In particular, I’m really excited about webcam support, web-based configuration of bots, and an on-deck system to anticipate and pre-slice models to make the whole BotQueue slicing system more seamless and faster. As always, please submit bug reports to the Github issue tracker and remember to Keep it Locked!

My buddies Matt and Max have designed a sweet board called the Blinkyboard. It fits nicely into an addressable LED strip and allows you to easily control it. The board itself is Arduino compatible which makes working with this whole thing super easy.

I wanted to play around with it, but also make something useful. I live in Shenzhen, China where pollution can sometimes be an issue. Normally, I’ll check the aqicn.info site which has detailed pollution status for hundreds of cities in China. They have a gorgeous color-coded graph that I thought would be very nice if it was represented on an LED strip.

The Blinkyboard strip has individually controllable LED pixels, and the Air Quality site has a graph with a different color for each hour. I wrote a simple python script that takes the image, samples the color at each point, and then pushes that color to the LED strip. It was ridiculously easy to setup and the result was very nice. Now I have a simple, ambient, and colorful indication of what the pollution level is. The strip below is Beijing, which is much more polluted than Shenzhen, so the LED strip is a bit prettier, haha.

Well, ask and ye shall receive!  Today I’m proud to announce that BotQueue now supports online slicing with Slic3r, the wonderful open source slicing tool.  With this release of BotQueue, we are supporting the latest version of Slic3r (0.9.8) although if there is interest, I could add support for previous versions of Slic3r as well.

Here’s a quick overview of how this process works:

1. You upload an STL or OBJ file to BotQueue.com
2. Bumblebee (the BotQueue client) downloads and slices the 3D model into GCode.
3. Bumblebee uploads the GCode back to the site for re-use by your other printers w/ the same config.
4. Bumblebee executes the GCode created by Slic3r.

Now, what if a slicing job goes wrong and Slic3r reports some errors?  This is where two wonderful open source projects come to save the day.  First, the wonderful Thingiview.js plugin by Tony Buser. Second, the most excellent GCode Viewer plugin by Joe Walnes. If there is a problem with the GCode parsing, BotQueue will take you to a page where you can view the model and the gcode output to verify if it is correct or not.  Both of these plugins require WebGL to function properly, so make sure you have the latest FireFox, Chrome, or Safari installed.

This latest feature has been designed with you in mind.  I know that everyone has their favorite slicing engine, and their own custom configuration file.  BotQueue makes it ridiculously easy to manage all that.  The new slicing functionality is based around the idea of SliceEngines and SliceConfigs.  A SliceEngine is something like Slicer-0.9.8 or Skeinforge-0050.  A SliceConfig is the unique settings that you decide for a SliceEngine.  You can have as many SliceConfigs as you like.

Each bot is configured to use a particular SliceConfig. When a bot grabs a new job, it will start the slicing process.  First, it looks to see if that particular model has been sliced with its assigned SliceEngine and SliceConfig.  If it finds that, it can skip the whole process and use the pre-sliced gcode.  If not, it will download the 3D model and slice config and then slice the model into GCode accordingly.  Once it finished the slicing, it will proceed to print the resulting gcode.

This is awesome in so many different ways.  Let me count them for you:

1. All you do is upload an STL and it will automatically get printed.  Configure your bots once and then FORGET ABOUT SLICING FOREVER.

2. You can have 1 slice profile tuned to each bot, and BotQueue will intelligently choose the right engine and config to use when slicing.  No more dealing with 4000 configs and remembering what is what.

3. If you change a config, you can “expire” previously sliced jobs.  No more stale GCode files laying around.

4. Online viewer for both the GCode and 3D model.  You don’t need to install any client software just to look at a print job.

Currently Supported Slicing Engines:

• Slic3r-0.9.8
• older versions of slic3r on request
• Pull requests to add new slicers gladly accepted!

Important – Upgrading to v2

First, get Slic3r running. BotQueue is currently on 0.9.8 and we’ll be continually adding whatever the latest version is.  After that, you will need to upload your configuration(s) to BotQueue from the relevant slice engine page. You can export the config from within the Slic3r program. If you don’t have a config for Slic3r, then the default one is a good place to start.  You will use Slic3r to change any configuration options, or you can edit the config by hand online.

Second, edit your bots in the web interface and choose the appropriate slice engine and slice config for each bot.

Third, upgrade your BumbleBee installation to version 0.1.0.  Download the file, extract it, and then run it from the commandline like normal. You will need to copy over the config.json file from your old Bumblebee install.

Congratulations, you can now slice and print jobs through the internet.

Warning: The previous BumbleBee from v1 is now obsolete.  Do not use it again!  Delete the old folder!

I’ve been playing with different techniques lately, and I may have found an even easier/cheaper way to align your stencil with your PCB using the PCB itself as a fixture.

This technique has the advantage that you don’t need a tooling block. It also means you can use a frameless stencil which can be much cheaper. The downside is that the pins aren’t securely fastened and the stencil can wiggle around during application. I haven’t confirmed it, but I think that can be fixed by using tape to hold everything down while you apply the paste.

In my ongoing obsession with digital fabrication and small volume manufacturing, I stumbled upon the Chinese SMT Pick and Place scene. It started with the TM-240A that I found on Taobao and through that I discovered www.diysmt. om and oursmt.com. It turns out there are a bunch of people building and using low-cost pick and place machines for actual production of real products. I had to find out more.

I used my super-crappy chinese skills and posted in the diysmt forum to see if anyone was local to Shenzhen and could show me their machine. I got a couple responses, and Mr. Chen agreed to meet me and show me his operation. Always down for an adventure, I agreed and got his address. My assistant/translator and I hopped in a taxi and away we went.

We arrived in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Shenzhen – the type with small alleys separating dozens of dusty apartments with stray dogs running around and open-air grocery stores selling meat on hooks. If you’ve ever been to China an ventured off the beaten track, you’ll know exactly what its like.

Entering into Mr. Chen’s place, you feel like you’re stepping into a whole new world. His apartment was immaculate, but signs of making were there if you know what to look for. Tucked away in one corner was the pick and place machine that I came to see. Next to it was a coffee table with boards ready to be populated, surrounded by tea cups.

After a round of tea, he showed me the machine in operation. This $4000 pick and place machine was awesome to see. He had about 16 feeders and was populating entire boards in a single go. Between snapping pics and taking video, I asked him about what he does with it and why he needs gear like this.

It turns out, Mr. Chen was more interesting than his machine! You see, he’s managed to carve our a nice little niche for himself by designing and manufacturing his own electronics and then selling them at the infamous Huaqiangbei electronics market. He started about 7 years ago and has been building and selling various things during that whole time. Today he was making AVR ICE programmers, but tomorrow he might build controllers for the fans for his brothers small DC fan factory.

As we got to talking about making and DIY culture, I began to get a sense that this down-to-earth guy was someone who really understands the so-called Maker culture. He was very business savvy, and even had a slogan: 花小钱,赚大钱 which roughly means spend less and earn more. What he was describing was a lean operation where he had digital fabrication tools that allowed him to retool and switch around really quickly and efficiently. His house was doubling as his production floor so he had very little overhead. He also understood that he needed to find niche markets in order to remain competitive.

His setup was slick and efficient: order pcbs + stencils from a fab, apply solder paste using a clever fixture, use the pick-n-place machine to get the parts on the board, reflow everything in his smt oven, and then hand-solder the connectors. The solder paste fixture itself was rather brilliant. The stencil itself was attached to a hinged lid. He took a sacrificial pcb, hand aligned it with the stencil, and then glued it in place. He then took 2 header pins and nailed them into a connector hole until just a small nub was sticking out. These pins then became the alignment pins for the pcb to apply solder to. Brilliant, cheap, and effective.

I complimented him on his self reliance and was surprised by yet another twist that would be enough to turn any urban farm-loving hipster green with jealousy. In addition to running his own electronics manufacturing operation, Mr. Chen was growing organic vegetables, and raising chickens and pidgeons on the roof of his apartment! This guy was the picture of self reliance, and he had a relaxed attitude that told me immediately that he had carved out a cozy existence in his life with his wife, son, pidgeons, and electronics. Watching the flock of pidgeons flying freely through the sky on a sunny winter afternoon, it was easy to see why.

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon and I feel like I’ve come closer to understanding the impenetrable culture of Shenzhen makers. To all the Mr. Chen’s of the world out there, and anyone else who pursues the goal of self-employment through making, I salute you!

Last weekend, I went to the Guangzhou markets with my buddy Matt. There was lots of good stuff there, but one of the things that caught my eye were these PID temperature controller modules. Its the sort of industrial process control gear that is normally inaccessible to mortals. Fortunately for me, this was China, so I plunked down 80yuan and took one home with me.

+ Exterior

The unit is an elongated cube with interface on one side and terminals on the other. Its got a schematic silkscreened on one side to make hooking it up possible without a reference manual. Pretty snazzy.

+ Interior

Getting inside was pretty easy. The thing has tabs that you press and all the guts slide right out.

The first thing I noticed was that the interior is pretty much all PCB. There are 3 PCBs + the terminal block that are all soldered together for electrical and mechanical strength.

Elsewhere there 2 PCBs connecting. They designed pads onto each PCB where they needed to connect. Then someone simply bridged the pads with solder. Very clever. Not the strongest connection in the world, but it is certainly cheap and effective.

The interface board is interesting. Nothing too fancy here. A couple buttons, some LEDs, and some 7-segment displays. Nice and simple.

The board appears to be controlled by an Atmega and they kindly left the ICSP header exposed and labeled. Probably for their manufacturing process, but if I wanted to hack this device I could load my own firmware too.

+ Wiring it up

The controller is powered with AC wall current (110-230v) so I hacked up a power cable to control it. I took a thermocouple and a heater cartridge and taped them together with Kapton. I wired up my desktop bench supply to provide current to the heater.

Unfortunately my PID settings were way off and this thing has too many options that I didn’t want to mess with. After a couple minutes though it settled in an the appropriate temperature.