Darn Server Software

We commonly refer to software that you aren’t using all the time as becoming susceptible to bit rot. After discovering multiple things that didn’t work on my site, I went ahead and updated all the software to latest revisions.

In the mean time… if you need to contact me, you might try twitter @allmybrain. I’ll work out the bugs in the contact forms sooner or later.

Server Updates

I’ve tried to keep this server up to date but it seems like sometimes you just have to start over.

Here are todays adventures.

  1. Try to find out why my contact form is blank
  2. Delete the old contact plugin that won’t work.
  3. Delete all the other old plugins that won’t work for I don’t know what reason.
  4. Search google/wordpress for plugins that have good reviews.
  5. Update pages with new plugins.
  6. Install even more plugins and fixes so things can start working.

Yeah.. better now. I hope.

Battling StackOverflow?

I’ve been thinking about the state of this blog for the last several weeks. I upgraded my virtual server and had the opportunity to bring over the blog and associated software dependencies and data. When I first started this blog it actually had a fair bit of traffic on several of the posts that had information relevant enough for enough developers. That was the intent. Find something interesting while developing software, write a bit about it.

Then sites like Stack Overflow started coming online. I remember when one of my blog posts was linked to by an answer on Stack Overflow and my traffic for that blog post spiked. Since then, I, like many others, have created profiles on the various Stack* sites and probably am more likely to answer a question on there instead of take the time to write up a blog post on something.

Anyway, just some random thoughts. Perhaps I’ll think of a new direction to take this blog.

How much filament is on the roll of plastic?

So my slicer software of choice (Simplify3D) gives me some estimates on filament length for a printed part. That’s handy enough but my filament is wrapped around a spool and it’s a little bit unclear exactly how long that length of filament that is left is before it runs out.

So… apply math instead.

Weight the spool. (Scale gives me oz but if you have a grams scale that’s a good thing.
Full spool is about 43 oz or so. (Multiply by 28.3493 to get grams if you need)
Subtract the weight of an empty spool. I got around 7.7 oz for this.

Result: I have 997 grams of plastic on a full spool. Good they sell in 1kg rolls.

So… how long is that left. Convert grams to volume. You get this from the type of plastic you’re using.

.96 cm^3/g .8 cm^3/g

If you multiply that and the grams, you can get the volume in cm^3 for your roll.

Result: Full roll of PLA is about 800 cm^3 and ABS around 600 cm^3.

Lastly, how long is it? You just need to divide by the cross section area of the filament diameter.

So for 1.75mm filament (Lets convert that to cm to keep units the same). .175/2^2 * PI = cm^2

Result: 800 / ((.175/2)^2 * PI) = ~34000 cm or 340 meters for PLA.

3d Printing in American Fork

Been printing orders from 3dhubs for quite a while.  It’s easy for anyone with an object they need printed to just upload it and get it printed out.  Come by and pick it up or I can mail it.

It’s harder if you need something custom made.  You have to do the CAD work first.  Or course I can do that as well for you if you need something special.

Order a 3D Print