Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Sepakura
It was a cold, wet weekend and we found ourselves down the internet rabbit hole of paper-craft after looking for something completely irrelevant. Coming across a guy who cleaned up all the weapon / armor models from Skyrim, we found our choice, the Daedric dagger - complex enough to be challenging but finishing it casually over the weekend wouldn't be a problem.
One thing we learned relativity quickly was that scoring the folds for both directions on the same side of the cardstock made it difficult to fold together. Making reverse fold cuts on the opposite side of the cardstock the pieces just folded together without issue. This probably should have been obvious...
While we tried normal PVA glue what really seemed to work best in our collection was Gorilla - wood glue. It set quickly when spread thin and created an excellent bond.
Everything finally assembled, we used 67lb card-stock which once everything was all glued together was stronger than I had imagined it would be. Most people use fiberglass resin to harden their models but we didn't have any on and it isn't something I was about to do indoors without a garage. There are a couple of other solutions people use to harden them up, one being a 50/50 mix of PVA and water. I decided to do a sample on another piece to see the result. Applying it thin, applying it thick the results weren't too impressive really the strength added was minimal and water seeping into the card-stock caused warping.
I also tried a piece with just Gorilla wood glue, it added some strength but the finish was almost latex feeling and remained quite flexible, but always popped back in to place. Interesting result none-the-less but acrylic paints didn't stick to it very well so it would need primed for sure.
My girlfriend is an art geek at heart so she has supplies all over. She recommended just using some Gesso which she conveniently already had and I have to say it worked the best, it added some nice strength and left the perfect surface for painting. Looks like we have a winner.
So what do you do when you want to airbrush in a small apartment? Create a make-shift portable paint booth of course!
I decided to try out my hand painting skills for the detail work, I probably should of spent my time creating some stencils and just airbrushing it but it will do. The dagger was never completely finished but good enough for now.
While we tried normal PVA glue what really seemed to work best in our collection was Gorilla - wood glue. It set quickly when spread thin and created an excellent bond.
Everything finally assembled, we used 67lb card-stock which once everything was all glued together was stronger than I had imagined it would be. Most people use fiberglass resin to harden their models but we didn't have any on and it isn't something I was about to do indoors without a garage. There are a couple of other solutions people use to harden them up, one being a 50/50 mix of PVA and water. I decided to do a sample on another piece to see the result. Applying it thin, applying it thick the results weren't too impressive really the strength added was minimal and water seeping into the card-stock caused warping.
I also tried a piece with just Gorilla wood glue, it added some strength but the finish was almost latex feeling and remained quite flexible, but always popped back in to place. Interesting result none-the-less but acrylic paints didn't stick to it very well so it would need primed for sure.
My girlfriend is an art geek at heart so she has supplies all over. She recommended just using some Gesso which she conveniently already had and I have to say it worked the best, it added some nice strength and left the perfect surface for painting. Looks like we have a winner.
 |
| I painted the blade with a light gray and let it dry, then painted over it with a darker gray and roughed over the edges with a wet paper towel to make it look aged. |
Photo Gallery
Make-shift portable airbrush paint booth
A 18x18x16 cardboard packing box from Home Depot, salvaged 80mm Thermaltake case fan complete with rheostat, small push button, 12v AC/DC wall wart and a lot of duct/packing tape.
This is pretty straight-forward, I needed a place to airbrush indoors in a small apartment and avoid getting over-spray everywhere and so the portable cardboard airbrush paint booth was born.
A diagonal cardboard slip acts as the intake vent capturing most of the over-spray into the high tech air filter (single ply paper towels held from being sucked through with cheesecloth).
The cardboard sides have packing tape *wings* at the bottom to slip underneath of the bottom to avoid painting my dining room table.
It all folds up nicely into itself so it can be tossed in the closet, with enough room to hold the compressor, brush and paints / supplies.
This is pretty straight-forward, I needed a place to airbrush indoors in a small apartment and avoid getting over-spray everywhere and so the portable cardboard airbrush paint booth was born.
A diagonal cardboard slip acts as the intake vent capturing most of the over-spray into the high tech air filter (single ply paper towels held from being sucked through with cheesecloth).
The cardboard sides have packing tape *wings* at the bottom to slip underneath of the bottom to avoid painting my dining room table.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Logitech K750 wireless solar keyboard mod
I've had a few Logitech K750s now and while they usually work great for about 2-3 months, they're notoriously bad for recharging and keeping a charge. Tired of dealing with this obvious flaw, I decided to "upgrade" mine to be a USB-charged battery-powered keyboard with a heftier battery.
There's plenty of room for improvement but it serves it's purpose for now. It could use a bit of work in the aesthetics department and I originally planned on adding a LiPo charger with a microusb connector but it's been 3 months now and the battery voltage has only dropped ~0.05v, I'm probably not going to be needing it anytime soon... Maybe 1000mAh was a little overkill.
Like any wireless keyboard, "secure" or not, encryption on these devices are a joke. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who sits at their PC in a Faraday cage right?
 |
| Peeling off the glued front cover. (I salvaged my solar panels for another project since I wasn't going to need them) |
 |
| Removing all the screws and popping the clips reveal the insides of the K750, an Atmel ATXMEGA32D4-AU and a Nordic NRF24L01. |
 |
| On the reverse side of the PCB Logitech was nice enough to break out power & SPI to pads for us. |
 |
| Without any disassembling, the original battery holder is removable with a little bit of prying and wiggling. |
Taking some measurements with calipers and a little time in SketchUp, I recreated the battery insert with channels for some stripped solid core 22AWG wire to slide through. This provided a nice contact to the battery terminals inside without requiring any disassembly and a case for our new battery. Out with the old 65mAh coin-cell, in with the new 1000mAh LiPo (that should last a little longer and I had one laying around already...)
 |
| The 90 degree block was made as a separate piece due to too much friction while inserting the wire. |
 |
| The first prototype, printed @ 230C/105C HBP. 0.2mm 50 travel/80 feed, 2 shells. |
The original ML2032 is a 3v whereas our new LiPo is 3.7v. This shouldn't be a problem since the old solar cells output 4v to charge the coin-cell on the same circuit, so the regulator should be able to handle 4.2v. Testing a few points around the board, it appeared everything was powered by the regulated 2v "V_MAIN".
 |
| Plugged in and functional. |
Like any wireless keyboard, "secure" or not, encryption on these devices are a joke. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who sits at their PC in a Faraday cage right?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)