#264

[@DuckDonald1969]

Hello Ralph, welcome to the 3D community! For me (I have had my Prusa for about 3 years) it is unimaginable how I could live without a 3D printer before. Hardware is now no longer a problem. Every project I do has parts that are not available to buy like this. No problem. Design and print. Done. No problem.

[@RalphBacon]

Well said! Since this video I designed and printed 3 brackets for the World Clock display. They fit beautifully and even have a tiny lip on the front so it will never fall off. As you say, the more I use it, the more I think of uses. But I must improve my terrible FreeCAD skills!

[@DuckDonald1969]

@@RalphBacon Hello Ralph, I have also started with FreeCad. But with very extensive constructions I always ran into the "Topological Naming Problem". If you are a complete beginner, please also have a look at Onshape and Fusion 360. Both tools have their advantages and disadvantages. But they are very very powerful. And don't have the "topological naming" problem. And always: happy printing 🙂

[@jonathanr4242]

Exactly what I needed. You always do this; every time I’m a bit stuck on a project you produce a video with the solution.

[@RalphBacon]

I'm going to have to charge you extra, Jonathan; bespoke software and all that! 😮😂

[@jonathanr4242]

@@RalphBacon I’ll buy you a beer next time you’re in Australia.

[@RalphBacon]

If you live near Sydney that might even happen one day (my daughter and her family live that way).🍻

[@jonathanr4242]

@@RalphBacon Awesome. I live in Sydney.

[@cncdavenz]

Hi Ralph, This project looks like fun and i think i have enough displays in stock. Now all we need is a birthday reminder. I am a long time watcher of your channel and enjoy the way you present the content.

[@RalphBacon]

Thanks, Dave, most appreciated. I have to admit this project is a real "plus" for me, even though I took months to get it wired up and put in a case!

[@electronics.unmessed]

Ralph, really nice looking project. This is one of the things where tinkering really makes sense.

[@RalphBacon]

It's working well, I have to admit.

[@keitholiver3981]

A nice project Ralph and has a lot of possibilities

[@RalphBacon]

Indeed, I'm hoping people will build something based on this and use it for their own ends, especially the messaging bit.

[@thegizmobuilder4442]

That looks fantastic, love to see how you've wired it from a schematic point of view.

[@RalphBacon]

I think we might have covered that in a previous video #256 kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppjUc2SknbBgmLc but if not I'd be happy to share. Let me know.

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

Nice case, and a useful clock. i quite like the "it's 10 to 3" type displays. sounds like I've got another project to add to my list.

[@RalphBacon]

It was a nice project to do, no technical issue and best of all it finally used up that long strip of MAX7219 modules!

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

@@RalphBacon the MAX7219 also make a very nice 8 "7seg" display drivers. Which was properly the intended use for them.

[@RalphBacon]

Like the one I use in my Pond Controller? Yes, I finally got rid of... er, found a use case for that too!

[@davidharms3562]

Love your ideas and Channel Ralph! I always seem to learn something new, and I appreciate that. 👍🏻

[@RalphBacon]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for the positive feedback 👍

[@flashcorp76]

Can’t wait for the ´suite ´( follow up😊), programming the software and etc 😊

[@RalphBacon]

We must have covered _some_ of the code in video #256 kzbin.info/www/bejne/ppjUc2SknbBgmLc and there is the full VSC/PlatformIO project in the GitHub for _this_ video. Do we want more?

[@flashcorp76]

@@RalphBacon will look into #256😁👍🏻

[@OtusAsio]

I like this one for shure, made one with only four digit that are scrolling and it was fun...You have more room than me with so many diplays. Nicely done.

[@RalphBacon]

Thanks, Pierre. It's surprising how much info you can get onto 4 modules, but 8, 12, 16 is better! I've got 28 in that strip!

[@jasonlee3247]

You work for the microphone company?

[@RalphBacon]

🤷‍♂️Sorry, not with you, Jason?

[@wjn777]

Looking good. I've got some LED matrix units laying around, wanted to make a clock, this project inspired me to finally get around to finishing it

[@RalphBacon]

Yes, do that! It's amazing what you can do with a few LED matrix modules.

[@kentswanson2807]

For just a brief moment, when you were hunched over the display, I thought I had stumbled into a video where a maniacal piano player was about to launch ino a wild rendition of some Beethoven

[@RalphBacon]

Yes, I did that 🎹 just after the MAX7219 demo, don't tell me you missed it?

[@noweare1]

Looks great ! Nice project. I love microcontrollers and what we can do with them.

[@RalphBacon]

You and me both!

[@gpTeacher]

Hi Ralph. I'm just watching the movie 13 Lives about the rescue of the Thai boys trapped in the cave. Viggo Mortensen plays one of the UK rescue divers. He looks just like you and sounds like he comes from the same part of the UK as you. Great film!

[@RalphBacon]

You've discovered my day job, Gord!

[@gpTeacher]

Very nice craftsmanship Ralph. I was trying to design a knob in Fusion 360. Then I did it in tinkercad in about 15 minutes and it turned out perfectly. Don't always need to " split atoms to make toast". Best wishes!

[@RalphBacon]

Sounds great! Certainly, for simple stuff (that you won't need to amend too much) TinkerCad seems fine. I've deliberately avoided it and gone with FreeCAD; it's much more capable than TinkerCAD (a true parametric design tool) but not as pedantic and finicky as Fusion 360 (which I tried for a number of manufacturer-supplied lessons, but eventually gave up). Fusion 360 reminded me strongly of KiCAD PCB CAD tool - capable but built by geeks for geeks. 🤷

[@gpTeacher]

@@RalphBacon I've been using Fusion360 for the most part. I'll be exploring FreeCAD once I retire and no longer have the free access.

[@RalphBacon]

The good news, Gord, is that you still get free access for Fusion360 as an individual for free (non-commercial use). You do have to register and jump through a couple of hoops but after that it knew all about me and I could use it.

[@phakalanep7241]

Oh yea I am going to copy this one for sure

[@RalphBacon]

It does work very well, even if I have to say it myself. Well, no-one else is 😔 Full PlatformIO code in the GitHub.

[@arminth]

When you use a 0.6 nozzle, you need to change it in your slicer as well. You might need to recalibrate your Esteps. Otherwise you will get underextrusion! And after any work on the nozzles, check your Z offset again!

[@RalphBacon]

Now that I've had a bit of success printing a few things I think I might give it another go. Did you know the "standard" nozzle for new Prusa Mk4 printers is now 0.6mm so it seems a safe bet. After all, we don't have to print the max line width all the time.

[@scottstevens7569]

I think adding in the DAY of the week is a great idea! I suffer from the same dayname haze, likely for the same reason of stayin more than going.😁

[@RalphBacon]

I got the idea from Banggood who sell a date display "for seniors" - not a phrase we use in the UK but it means pensioners, who are past it.

[@gazzacroy]

yer that looks really nice well done sir :)

[@RalphBacon]

Thank you kindly!

[@andymouse]

Looks great Ralph !....cheers.

[@RalphBacon]

Many thanks, Andy. Yes, it is working great and now sitting on some custom, 3D-printed brackets! 😮😁

[@chnillapoil0150]

Hi Ralph. The problem with the knob is that it was at a tiny angle offset instead of flat on the bottom surface in your slicer. You can see it by the fact that the surface has 3 different patterns instead of one. Thanks for your work.

[@RalphBacon]

Ah, so maybe I didn't turn it over a full 180 degrees, you mean? This was early days and was running on enthusiasm rather than knowledge. That would make sense, so that when I re-imported the file and turned it over (correctly this time) it was all OK.

[@objection_your_honor]

Do you have any videos dealing with ESP32 modem sleep mode? I searched your channel but couldn't see one. I need it to keep the Wifi off most of the time, but the connection to the router on. Can you recommend a video?

[@RalphBacon]

You need to explain what you mean by turning OFF the Wi-Fi but keeping the connection to the router ON. Mutually exclusive? How does the ESP32 "connect" to the router? By using Wi-Fi. I have done a video on how to turn off the ESP32 (Deep Sleep) but not just modem sleep. Something I should look at.

[@objection_your_honor]

@@RalphBacon Modem sleep wakes up at set intervals to keep the connection alive and then goes to sleep. I think every 250ms is the default, but info on this mode is hard to come by. This one is the better of them all but still cryptic. "To accomplish this, the ESP32 connects to the router in station mode using the DTIM beacon mechanism. The Wi-Fi module is disabled between two DTIM beacon intervals and then automatically enabled just before the next beacon arrives. This results in power conservation. The sleeping time is determined by the router’s DTIM beacon interval time, which is typically 100 ms to 1000 ms."

[@RalphBacon]

Yes, that is my understanding too. Your router tells all the connected devices that it will be checking in every X milliseconds. In modem sleep mode, the ESP code is clever enough to switch Wi-Fi back on, just in time to catch the next "ping". Then it (the Wi-Fi subsystem) goes back to sleep. Thus the router won't disconnect the device. But even if the connection all happens in 100mS (or less) it is still going to cause some drain on the battery. Consider whether you can shut down the ESP in Deep Sleep but connect back to the Wi-Fi only when you actually need it. Yes, it takes longer but doing this once per hour will save your battery.

[@objection_your_honor]

@@RalphBacon That's the thing. I don't know how to put the ESP32 into modem sleep mode. Do you have a video showing how to do that? Since my ESP32 is running as a radiation monitor WiFi server, it can't really sleep. it gets wakened about 70+ times a minute as the interrupt "ticks" come in from the GM tube. I was hoping to put the WiFi to modem sleep to save more battery power, but I think I would just power it from a 1A USB SMPS charger with a 1000uF cap in parallel to the input, to deal with power surge demands of the ESP, and forget about batteries. Thanks.

[@ForwardGuidance]

Heeeeeeeeyyyyyyy Ralph, great video as always.

[@RalphBacon]

Hey, thanks! Glad you liked it, it's running well and now supported on 3D printed brackets!

[@theonlymudgel]

Hi Ralph, am I first. Wow! Files on their way.

[@RalphBacon]

OMG you really are 🥇today. Well done, Mike! Thanks for the files (again).

[@yogeshitaliya473]

❤❤❤

[@RalphBacon]

Yogesh, where have you been? Sleeping? 😮😂😁 Lovely to see you here.

[@yogeshitaliya473]

@@RalphBacon 😅😅😅 sorry uncle 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@yogeshitaliya473]

@@RalphBacon uncle my English not good but i try tiyp my best

[@RalphBacon]

Don't worry about your English, Yogesh, it is more than good enough for me 👍

[@flashcorp76]

BTW, the time is from some NTP serveur, how did you integrate the DST, for us in Europe, Winter and Summer time ? Automatically.... or did I miss something ?

[@RalphBacon]

Completely automatically. The ESP32 has a mechanism for working out the time in _any_ timezone - you just supply a particular format string of when the clocks change (DST) in that country. So the string says something like "put the clocks 1 hour forward on the first Sunday in March at 1am, and back 1 hour on the last Sunday in October at 2am". It looks like "GMT0BST,M3.5.0/01,M10.5.0/02" but there are example formats in the ntpHelper.h in my code and a link to the website that covers this 101%. The complete code is in my GitHub for this video so you need to download and peruse, cogitate and learn! I use this technique in _all_ my ESP32 code (that requires the time).

[@flashcorp76]

@@RalphBacon I shall peruse..... And learn, I was just about to Make my own DST routine.... 😎. Reinventing the wheel 😁Would not be my first time....

[@martin87865]

Hi Ralph, Fantastic am hoping to start playing with LED matrix soon. Was the wooden box a DIY project of yours ?

[@RalphBacon]

Yes it was, made from various strips of wood, glued together (it doesn't need a lot of strength, after all.

[@martin87865]

Hi Ralph, you mentioned A Bornes rotary encoder ? Why this one and is it different from standard rotary encoders ?

[@RalphBacon]

This particular Bourns rotary encoder (version: PEC11R-4215F-S0012) actually gives TWO pulses per full cycle. This is probably not what most of use want. The algorithm I used here (from Marko Pinteric) deals with this wonderfully well, just ignoring the extra pulse. The standard (cheap) KY-040 only gives one pulse per cycle and is easier to deal with using standard techniques (software or hardware).

[@martin87865]

@@RalphBacon Thank you for your reply. I was using a WH-040 which gave me the wrong count.

[@AJB2K3]

How did you make the 3d view footage?

[@RalphBacon]

... of that lovely PCB by PCBWay? It's just a 3D view built into the design tool that gives me this. I just screen captured it. Very useful when designing a PCB, not just eye candy. You can visualise the finished product and realise it's too messy, or not lined up (as if).

[@brettb.345]

How hot do these LEDs get? Mine get pretty warm. Do you have something to cool them?

[@RalphBacon]

Nope, nothing to cool them. But then again, not all the LEDs are on at the same time (probably 10% with that display I showed) and the brightness is only set to level 2 (max), sometimes level 1.

[@cattflap1447]

Hi, I keep getting an error where littlefs cant be initialised, do I need to modify the platformio file ? I changed the port to match my board which is an esp32dev module in Arduino 2.0

[@RalphBacon]

LittleFS is now included as _standard_ for the ESP32 (part of the ESP32 Arduino framework) so it should "just work" without doing anything special - well you will probably need to #include (not sure of the capitalisation) but that is it!

[@cattflap1447]

@@RalphBacon Hi, Thx for the reply. It turned out to be my PC not seeing the port of my board so was unable to upload the FS. All working now thx. Brilliant project 😁

[@hansdegroot652]

3d bacon ❤

[@RalphBacon]

Sounds good to me... well, it would, wouldn't it! 😁😂

[@hansdegroot652]

@@RalphBacon it's just good to see you manage every day problems. I am still tring to find the best way to align my holes for a printed project box with the holes on my pcb. Sounds easy but right now I just print adjust and print again which feels so stupid. Can wait to see you do this.

[@RalphBacon]

You don't use calipers? Then I might make a dummy PCB from a bit of paper printed full size. Worked ok for me!

[@yvesinformel221]

for that button with the bad top surface, the nozzle was too high. First layer is the most critical one

[@RalphBacon]

It does seem that it was too high but someone else has suggested I had not flipped the part over exactly 180 degrees so it was at an angle (maybe just 1° off true) which caused the issue. When I reimported it, and flipped it correctly, it worked a treat.

[@yvesinformel221]

@@RalphBacon Don't know what slicer you use but normally when you rotate a part, it goes in 15 degrees increment, that is the default but that can be change of course. since most peoples use .2mm layer height (200 microns), an offset of only 50 microns will show. teh room temp will affect this or when you have an enclose printer you have to wait until it stabilize.

[@ariyanmasoumi8627]

I think you should try out Arduino GIGA WiFi. Should be awesome.

[@RalphBacon]

Yes, I would like to but I bet it will cost an 💪and a🦵.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Oh Ralph don't advertise for prusa for free please. They're a horrible company

[@RalphBacon]

Why do you say that Joey, bad experience?

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@Ralph S Bacon long story man. You could buy 3 ender 2 pros for the price of a mini and ita just as good. The guy who has his name on every part of the printer like to make fun of people on Twitter and them all his lackeys pile on. Its not very professional.