Sign an APK using Jarsigner

Sign an APK using Jarsigner

Recently, I was working on visual regression testing for an Android application. In other words, I was working on testing an app on a range of different devices to make sure the design displayed and functioned correctly on devices with different screen sizes,...

Six Figure Crowdfunding Book Review

Six Figure Crowdfunding Book Review

TL;DR Six Figure Crowdfunding is a succinct yet comprehensive dive into just about everything you need to know to create, run, and survive the aftermath of a successful Kickstarter campaign. It has just a little NSFW language, quite a bit of humor, helpful worksheets,...

Re-Flash Tinker to Reset your Particle Photon

Re-Flash Tinker to Reset your Particle Photon

The Particle Photon is a powerful and easy to use platform for building WiFi-connected projects. However, as you work on different projects, you may occasionally run into issues that cause the Photon to get "stuck." Here's the problem. You normally flash...

Monoprice MP Select Mini Glass Bed Upgrade

Monoprice MP Select Mini Glass Bed Upgrade

The Monoprice MP Select Mini Build Surface The Monoprice MP Select Mini V2 3D printer comes with a BuildTak-like (it is not branded so I do not believe it is genuine BuildTak) surface on the build plate. Out of the box, this surface works great. It offers...

Creality CR-10 Mini 3D Printer Photo Gallery

Creality CR-10 Mini 3D Printer Photo Gallery

For quite some time, my daily driver for 3D printing has been the Monoprice MP Select Mini V2. I've had a great time with that printer. It was extremely affordable yet it provides great printing quality. However, the MP Select Mini is also quite small with...

Getting Books Made by Print Size Productions

Getting Books Made by Print Size Productions

For the past couple months, I've been working on a book that introduces kids to the world of computer-aided design, a subject that is covered quite extensively on this site. The book is titled 3D CAD for Babies. One of the challenges I faced while...

Design Sheet Metal Parts in Fusion 360

Design Sheet Metal Parts in Fusion 360

Sheet metal parts are extremely common in products of all kinds. There are likely dozens or hundreds of individual sheet metal parts inside various products around the room you’re in right now. From the interior structures of electronics, to the chassis of...

Minimum PCB Design for the Particle P1

Minimum PCB Design for the Particle P1

The Particle P1 is an electronics development platform consisting of two major parts: a Broadcom WiFi chip and a 32-bit ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller. The module is designed to speed and simplify the transition from prototype to production consumer...

A Directory of All Hitec Servos

A Directory of All Hitec Servos

Hitec is one of the most well-known and popular servo manufacturers, with a reputation for high-quality, reliable products. The company sells a vast range of different servos. Their servos are available in all different sizes, gear train designs, torque...

Using the Moment Macro Lens for the Pixel 2 XL

Using the Moment Macro Lens for the Pixel 2 XL

Introduction to the Moment Macro Lens One of Google’s goals with the Pixel 2 XL was to create a smartphone with the best camera around, like the company did with last year's first generation. As many reviewers will attest, the Google Pixel 2 XL is indeed...

Using Fusion 360 and Eagle CAD Together

Using Fusion 360 and Eagle CAD Together

A couple months ago, I wrote a tutorial on taking PCB designs created in Eagle and building 3D models in Fusion 360 based on those designs. The process was not a difficult one, but it did involve generating DXF files, manually building the PCB model, and...

Building Machines with Vention.io

Building Machines with Vention.io

Imagine what you could make if you could build industrial machines the same way you build with Legos, by rummaging around in a big bin of parts where you could find any component you wanted. That is the basic idea of Vention. Vention.io is a web-based CAD...

Which Emojis Can I use in my Kickstarter Story?

Which Emojis Can I use in my Kickstarter Story?

Recently, while working on the Kickstarter (or actually Quickstarter) campaign for the Plinthi wall mount, I made the frustrating discovery that adding Emojis to your Kickstarter story is much more difficult than you would imagine. I wanted to add a few...

Disable Double Opt-in for Divi Email Optin Module

Disable Double Opt-in for Divi Email Optin Module

The development setup for all of the websites I run, including this site, a couple other blogs, and a few sites used for business purposes, consists of a WordPress installation running a highly-sophisticated theme called Divi. If you are reading this post,...

Hexapod Inverse Kinematics Simulator

Hexapod Inverse Kinematics Simulator

The Mathematics of a Hexapod Robot Controlling a hexapod robot is really just a big math problem. A three-degrees-of-freedom hexapod uses a total of eighteen servos to move, three on each of the robot's six legs. In order for the robot to move, the...

Google Pixel 2 XL vs. Entry DSLR Photography

Google Pixel 2 XL vs. Entry DSLR Photography

The Google Pixel 2 XL has been grabbing all the headlines lately for its possibly less-impressive-than-expected-for-a-company-as-well-regarded-as-Google display quality. The display has already been discussed ad nauseam elsewhere. If you are currently...

Creating Assembly Animations in Fusion 360

Creating Assembly Animations in Fusion 360

We've all purchased products requiring assembly or installation at home; we've all probably purchased many such products. Flat-pack furniture, kid's toys, shelving kits, smart home products, small appliances, and many other products are delivered in pieces to be put...

Controlling Philips Hue with a Particle Photon

Controlling Philips Hue with a Particle Photon

There is one control system used long ago, in the olden days before Internet-connected home automation technologies existed. Before we all equipped our houses with WiFi, Bluetooth, and Z-Wave hubs, and controlled everything from our smartphones, in the...

Using the Particle Android SDK

Using the Particle Android SDK

Add the Particle SDK to your Android Project The very first step in getting your Android app to interface with the Particle Cloud is to add the Particle Android SDK to your Android project. This is done the same way that you would include any other dependency in your...

Fixing Unstiched Models in Fusion 360

Fixing Unstiched Models in Fusion 360

The Source (Literally) of the Problem When designing 3D models for 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC work, or almost any other purposes, there are a number of great resources for downloading models of common parts other people made. For example, McMaster Carr provides...

How to Run Octoprint on a Raspberry Pi Zero

How to Run Octoprint on a Raspberry Pi Zero

Introduction Using Octoprint running on a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 is a setup many Makers have to enable remote use and monitoring of their 3D printer. I have been running Octoprint on a Raspberry Pi 2 for quite a while because I like to put my printers in a separate room...

A Bit About the E3D Titan

A Bit About the E3D Titan

This post is a high-level overview of the E3D Titan extruder, featuring a compact and light-weight design that manages to squeeze a 3:1 geared drive mechanism into basically the same footprint as a typical direct-drive extruder. How does the E3D Titan benefit the typical 3D printer?

Use SVG Nest to Minimize Laser Cutting Cost

Use SVG Nest to Minimize Laser Cutting Cost

Creating compact designs is critical for saving both time and money on laser cutting projects. But how do you optimize your designs to minimize their size and maximize your laser cutting dollars? In this post, I will show you how to use a free, open-source tool called SVG Nest to automate the process of packing your laser cutting files into the smallest possible space.

The Ultimate Guide to Customizing Cura

The Ultimate Guide to Customizing Cura

Chapter 1:  Introduction If you've spent much time at all working with 3D printing technology, you've almost certainly heard of Cura. Cura is 3D printing host software created by David Braam. The software is currently maintained by Ultimaker who hired David to...

Hexapod Inverse Kinematics Equations

Hexapod Inverse Kinematics Equations

Hexapod Leg Layout and Leg Parts Controlling hexapod robots requires the use of a type of mathematics called inverse kinematics. This post contains all of the inverse kinematics calculations for a hexapod robot consisting of a hexagonal body with six legs spaced...

The Ultimate Guide to Customizing AstroPrint

The Ultimate Guide to Customizing AstroPrint

Chapter 1: Introduction Getting Started Prerequisites Required Software Chapter 2:  Setting up FileZilla Set AstroBox Root User Password Connect to the AstroBox over SSH SSH on Linux or Mac SSH on Windows using PuTTY Set the Root User Password Configure the FileZilla...

OctoPrint vs. AstroPrint

OctoPrint vs. AstroPrint

Introduction Hardware Installation Software Setup User Interface Printing Conclusion Introduction All 3D printers need host software to function. Host software is responsible for sending the actual commands to the 3D printer that tell the printer how to build an...

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