Author Archives: robertwilkie

Xerox closing down callcenter in Maine

Posted on June 11, 2012 by robertwilkie

Funny how Xerox opens on call center, only to close down another.  Its a musical chairs game for where the call center will be. http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/19/news/lewiston-auburn/lewiston-call-center-laying-off-181/

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Filabot for making your own Filament

Posted on June 9, 2012 by robertwilkie

As any 3-D printer person knows, the filament is expensive.  But most of us toss out (or recycle) the basic plastics all the time (think milk carton).  The only problem is the stuff is not in the nice long thread … Continue reading →

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Site for mechanical designs

Posted on June 9, 2012 by robertwilkie

Nice setup from Cornell that has a bunch of mechanical designs with descriptions that you can look at.  Could be useful for robotic and other projects. http://kmoddl.library.cornell.edu/

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Kickstarter project for a dual extruder

Posted on June 8, 2012 by robertwilkie

This seems like a good price for a dual head extruder with mounts, can be all assembled for $130.  Definitely something to keep and eye on. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/qu-bd/open-source-universal-3d-printer-extruder-dual-ext?ref=live

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Windpower with PVC pipe and bicycle wheels

Posted on June 8, 2012 by robertwilkie

Nice build write-up of a vertical windpower with common parts… http://www.instructables.com/id/vertical-wind-power/

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Large home-brew CNC

Posted on June 8, 2012 by robertwilkie

A neat instructable on how to build a rather large CNC for foamboard. http://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-machine-for-shaping-large-pieces-of-polystyren/  

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A little robot for TI’s MSP 430 processor

Posted on June 7, 2012 by robertwilkie

A small tank robot platform for the MSP430 developer board.  Its a nice cheap ($5 for the board and cpu) controller.  I may have to look at this again in the future. http://longhornengineer.com/robotics/msprobot/  

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Scary Security Story

Posted on June 7, 2012 by robertwilkie

A bit of a scary story for a company that tried to protect itself (2 factor authentication, follow-up confirmation calls) but still lost out in the end (bank failed to do some of the initial confirmation calls). http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/05/house-committee-to-probe-e-banking-heists/#more-15245    

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Simple Arduino nursery

Posted on June 7, 2012 by robertwilkie

Nice write-up on a small internal seed starting nursery with an arduino for the controller to automate everything. http://www.inventgeek.com/2012-Projects/Automated-Nursery/OverView.aspx  

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How to deal with annoying loud neighbors

Posted on June 7, 2012 by robertwilkie

The video is pretty funny in this one.  Basically he built a sensor that when the nieghbors crank up the music, it auto0-detects it and plays its own annoying music.  Uses an arduino to controller everything. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Deal-with-Noisy-Neighbors/

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