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Working with PETG for the first time.

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Improvement in quality I decided to try 3D printing with PETG since PLA has limitations when it comes to heat resistance and strength. People in 3D printing forums suggested PETG and ABS, but they warned me that PETG is difficult to print. I had scoured the internet trying to find out what perfect 3D printing profiles would result in good quality prints. Almost all of them emphasised that a hot-bed was needed. Now I have two 3D printers, one with a hot bed and one without. My 3D printer with a hot bed has a Bowden Tube, and some people warned that PETG does get stuck in Bowden Tubes sometimes, which scared me a little bit. So, for my first PETG filament test print, I used a 3D printer with a direct drive extruder but no hot bed. I was initially scared that it wouldn't stick. But my first test print went well. The print was a 3 mm cube, and the resulting brim stuck well. Next, I decided to print a more complex image to see how it would fare. I had set the recommended PETG profiles;
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Replacing lost parts with 3D prints

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  So the other day, I lost two essential parts from a STEM toy kit. Not to worry I can always print a replacement , I thought.  I opened up OnShape and got to modelling. Using Vernier callipers, I measured their sizes and made exact dimensions on my CAD model.  Now, 3D Printers aren't usually very precise. You should account for a 0.03-0.05 mm tolerance when making a CAD Model. Because when I would print the part, and measure it with Vernier Calipers the holes would be smaller by about 0.03 mm. This meant that the part wouldn't fit in the holes. You can offset this by using the Hole Expansion setting in Cura, which works perfectly fine. But when it comes to the parts that need to be fitted, changing the settings in your CAD model is the way to go. I printed many versions of the hexagon shaft part, until I made one that fit perfectly with the other stem toy parts. Looks pretty nice, doesn't it?
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Fixing the "A software problem has caused Meshmixer to close unexpectedly" Problem

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Anyone who works in the 3D Printing sphere can attest that Meshmixer is an amazing software when it comes to mesh repair, cutting up prints into smaller parts and for adding some last minute digital sculpt alterations to our models. But how would one even get to enjoy what Meshmixer has to offer if it crashes every time you open it? Well, luckily I have found a solution for this! Firstly, make sure you have tried the solutions given in the official Meshmixer FAQ page. If it still doesn't work, then you can try solution number two! From my limited understanding (and scouring of internet forums), the problem could be that we do not  have a graphics card that has built-in OpenGL support. Thus, we need to place the opengl32 library file in Meshmixer's file location. Here is the link for the opengl32.dll file. But a google search for opengl32.dll will help you find another link as well. (Note the size should be 25MB so be mindful of that when installing the file.) This video  helped
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Making an 8DOF Quadruped

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  I tried my hand at making a Quadruped Robot; an 8-DOF one as opposed to the typical 12-DOF ones. It is still very much a WIP, but I just couldn’t wait to make a post about it. In the top most photo you can see how it is taking serial inputs from a GUI application. The application itself was made using Processing. The GIF below shows how I send the servo values using the interactive knobs and pressing the respective servo buttons. For instance, HLF would mean Hip Left Front and KLB would be Knee Left Back. So if I set the HLF knob to be of a certain value, and then press the HLF button, it will send a command to move the front left servo connected to the hip, to the desired position. The GUI establishes Serial communication with the Arduino.  Spent so many hours 3D Printing the body. (The STL files were obtained from this Instructables page ). To provide sufficient current to all my servos, I also bought
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Guess what this is...

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  Guess what these are ? And what they're made from. (Hint: Check the post's tags!) I can't share the details yet, but if you are curious you'll have to come down to our company in Multan to figure it out! 
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Digital Sculpting with MeshMixer...

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Those of you who have used MeshMixer for mesh repairing purposes must be aware how this software can be used for digital sculpting as well. Well let's just say I went a little crazy with it. The pointy finger hand was obtained from f ree3d.com. Thoughts? You may think it's weird. I call it avant-garde.  Cowboy hat obtained from source      No... I will not be entertaining criticism. 😏 Alright, I did cave in and try to make something more public-friendly. Daddy bear has a lovely pout! To conclude, I had fun working with MeshMixer. I'm definitely going to keep making organic models using the digital sculpting tool, and keep 3D Printing them. :)
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PoV Display? Well I tried making one but...

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There comes a time in every Maker’s journey where they feel a strong urge to create a PoV Display (Persistence of Vision Display). I am, of course, generalizing here. But odds are that if you are a Maker or an electronics enthusiast, you may have come across a PoV Display project. Perhaps on Youtube, on hobbyist forums, blogs or Facebook Makers’ groups. Part of the reason why these projects are so popular is because of how simple and cheap they are to make. You need very few materials, programming is (somewhat) straightforward and you have flexibility in your choice of sensors. To sum it up, it is very easy to make a PoV Display, yet so easy to get it wrong. Unfortunately, my experience was in the latter. I’ll go into that later in the post. So let’s briefly go through what PoV (Persistence of Vision) actually means: Persistence of Vision refers to how your eyes (more like your brain) perceives objects that move faster than 1/12th of a second. If they move fast enough, the image “pe
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