My machines

[teoman]

It is indeed a thrilling experience when one of your students shows up the next week having further resarched the topic of the previous week. What is even more exhilarating is to discover that they have truly done their work and have exceeded your knowledge on the subject and you have to say i'll get back to you next week.


Unfortunately this only happens once a year or three.



Being a professor is sometimes a miserable experience. Having explained what a PID controller is, and the progressed to coding it with the kids, having them start from P, feel the shaft of the motor, tune it and proceed to the I, D values....then next week I ask what was a PID controller? No response. What does the p component stand for ? Some one reples in an insecure voice "Parallel?"....




And the you just want to kill yourslef.

[Eaglezsoar]

Forward or Aft ET? For the record I was AFT. Hope to show the progress on my printer soon. Mostly stock, but there are a few probably useless additions I have made. This thread is my prime example of how I would like mine to look. Kudos.

I missed this message, but found it! I was forward ET (Navigation) and if you remember the computers were the size of refrigerators and we were taught to troubleshoot down to the bad transistor of component. I was on the SSBN616 USS Lafayette which has been long
decommissioned and scrapped. So you were a Nuke? Which boat? Brings back many memories. I apologize for hacking this thread!

[knabo]

I was on fast attack subs out of San Diego. SSN 680, SSN 594, SSN 716 I only remember the good stuff now. Visiting ports on West Pac, good times with friends.

[DeltaCon]

Professors, Navy Techs, Students... What a miserably simple life I lead as an IT guy...
Although, having been employed as aluminium construction designer, graphical designer, China stuff importer, automated cash register engineer, and having run my own signmaker shop and textile print business, I do like to say that my life's experience is rather broad (instead of deep)... The world of 3D print is just another broad interest in the worlds technology, and someday I hope to contribute to this forum as much as the above mentioned persons who's assistance is very much appreciated indeed!

[Xenocrates]

Welp. Rambo is misbehaving, and re-flashing the firmware made it worse. Even completely isolated (Other than moving to USB power, since I couldn't find a jumper at that moment, and I doubt it's the power supply as it's new, and other portions are working properly.) I'm going to see if SeeMe has anything to say about it, or if they just shrug and tell me to send it to Ultimachine. Either way, it appears I'm moving to duet. After I have the Duet in and working, I'll print FSR mounts and get some. I suppose I'll be working without the Paneldue at first as well. I do plan eventually to get one, and the 4.3 inch screen. I'll also be testing out the PT100 support on the Duet. Hopefully the documentation on that is better than E3D's documentation on setting it up for the Rambo. I'm also interested in M141, as that should give me a dedicated code for the heated chamber (Which I have been remarkably lazy about actually finish control for, thanks to finals and such)

Other than that, things have been going Ok. We got an extend period of function out of it, and managed to rescue the final project of a Robotics 4 class with new grippers for it. We also have been pushing somewhat hard on it.

[Span24]

Professors, Navy Techs, Students... What a miserably simple life I lead as an IT guy...

As an IT professional myself; or, as I like to refer to us, "Adult Day-Care Service Professionals" I too appreciate the sometimes overwhelming human bandwidth available within the virtual walls of these forums!

Michael

[Xenocrates]

Honestly, having done some tech support for instructors (The joys of being a technical student at a school that splits between trade programs and liberal arts fairly strongly), and having found people who don't know how to use 3.5MM speaker jacks, I would say that Span has the right term, and that you folks in tech support are under appreciated most of the time (Especially if you have to deal with people who smoke near computers). Don't count yourself out on the interesting experiences front.

[Windshadow]

I was the only IT person on an island with a winter population of 10,000 and summer 30,000.. It was my part time job when my flying job was only about 30 hours a week and I have to say I learned why phone support folks always asked "are you sure it is plugged in?"

some of the problems boggled the mind:
When the Apple computer added the post it notes feature to the OS I had one person call because when he stuck a post on his screen (a real physical Post it note) it was not saved.... he had a Windows computer as well... I found him a TSR that would let him have the feature but he still wanted it to accept his actual written Post it notes.... so I sold him a scanner and he was happy. This was the sort of user that actually thought the CD tray was a cup holder.... and guess what he was a retired professor of philosophy

Ne pecces nothis permittere te terere

[Span24]

At the risk of getting too far off-topic; I have been in IT for more than 25 years, beginning as a communications developer. I have been branded with such titles as 'Fiber Installation Technician', 'Systems Administrator', and 'Sr Network Engineer'. (BTW: IT Titles are about as useful as an ejection seat in a helicopter) Currently, I manage Information Technology for a manufacturing and distribution company with multiple divisions. Essentially, my IT experience has taught me that Forrest Gump figured it out from a shrimp boat, "Stupid is as stupid does"...

[Xenocrates]

Span, I think we already jumped the shark. No worries though. I'm entirely fine with being off topic, since it looks like a bit of a wait before I have any news on the printer front, and the laser is rather boring. It just soldiers through whatever we throw at it. We have ordered a Duet, Paneldue with 4.3 IN screen, and a PT100 digital breakout board. The challenge now will of course be pre-configuring things, and making a mount (Without a working printer) to drop it into. If I really need it, I can probably borrow printer time on the Taz 5's the college is getting, or the Dimension they already have. But I'll probably work with the laser mostly for it.

[Span24]

Span, I think we already jumped the shark. No worries though. I'm entirely fine with being off topic, since it looks like a bit of a wait before I have any news on the printer front, and the laser is rather boring.

Very sorry to see that your printer is down.

We have ordered a Duet, Paneldue with 4.3 IN screen, and a PT100 digital breakout board.

I look forward with confidence that you will provide us with access to your experiences in bringing the Duet up!

The challenge now will of course be pre-configuring things, and making a mount (Without a working printer) to drop it into. If I really need it, I can probably borrow printer time on the Taz 5's the college is getting, or the Dimension they already have. But I'll probably work with the laser mostly for it.

My printers are ready and willing to assist if you find a need! As the one who has consistently been there to answer my questions it is the least I could do. <sniff/sniff> Sorry, don't mean to go all sappy on you...

Michael

[Xenocrates]

Thanks span. The Duet is on back-order at Filastruder currently, and the PT100 breakout may take a while to ship, so I've got plenty of time to work the problem. I mostly plan to try to get a drop in replacement for the Rambo mount designed, with the ability to have it either laser cut or 3D printed. Once I have that figured out, I'll move onto a good solution for the Paneldue (I will likely roll my own, as I want to accommodate both a USB and a Ethernet keystone in it, which isn't a feature I've seen before, and most of the mounts appear to be designed for the 7 inch screens). Of course, I need to get the firmware all figured out. Thankfully, DC42 officially released the new firmware with support for the hardware I plan to use. I will have to look at getting some other things ready as well, such as running a shielded signal wire set for the PT100 to the top (I had previously re-used the thermistor wiring, but only post amplification. with a digital amplifier, I will want to keep the signalling distance rather short, so the PT100 will need a lead that it can connect to that is low resistance, and shielded by preference. Which will also allow me to have a seperate tool predefined for the Seeme hotend, and not need to re-flash the board to change hotends. Which is goodness)

I tell you though, the Duet documentation is pretty darned excellent. Despite the PT100 option being brand new, there's already nice documentation. I think that my setup will be mostly trouble free, other than calibrating it initially (I will not be going for FSR's yet, as I have a limited budget, and the Rambo issue blew through much of it)

[geneb]

As an IT professional myself; or, as I like to refer to us, "Adult Day-Care Service Professionals"

This. A million times this.

Xenocrates[*] You might want to wait on the FSR update and see when SeeMeCNC is going to release the z-probe hot end upgrade for the Rostock MAX.


[*] For some reason, every time I see your nick, my brain pronounces it as "Zeno-crate" (Which I know is incorrect, but slightly related to the "So-crates, dude!" joke from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.).

g.

[Xenocrates]

I had planned to wait on it, but I think fsrs are a cheaper solution for multi-hotend work, and I know they work for duet. Plus they are compatible with the original hotend, while the probe is not. ( this is according to the stl of the board from part daddy.) I would have to go undermount or overmount the board, which would require an adaptor plate or a new retention mechanism. I do like that it seems to accommodate yellow jacket like function, which may make it worthwhile if it's well priced.

[barry99705]

I was the only IT person on an island with a winter population of 10,000 and summer 30,000.. It was my part time job when my flying job was only about 30 hours a week and I have to say I learned why phone support folks always asked "are you sure it is plugged in?"

I drove 2 hours one way to find a bank of laptop chargers in a library were plugged in. To a power strip. Plugged into itself.

[geneb]

...and people wonder why most IT support staff look suspiciously like homicidal maniacs.

g.

[DeltaCon]

Haha, love the IT story waterfall I seem to have unleashed!
Sorry for the hijack though...

It is not only clients that are unmeasurably stupid... I have been working on an Ipad for 2 hours now trying to reset it to factory, for a client that doesn't know his own Apple ID. Seems to be impossible. Since IOS7 the old ID is an absolute requirement to be able to get access again, even when it's wiped. Wonder how that is going to be phrased on the bill...

Now, is that saying something about my IQ or about Apple's?

[DeltaCon]

...and people wonder why most IT support staff look suspiciously like homicidal maniacs.

Uhm... Thanks! I guess...

[Xenocrates]

Haha, love the IT story waterfall I seem to have unleashed!
Sorry for the hijack though...

It is not only clients that are unmeasurably stupid... I have been working on an Ipad for 2 hours now trying to reset it to factory, for a client that doesn't know his own Apple ID. Seems to be impossible. Since IOS7 the old ID is an absolute requirement to be able to get access again, even when it's wiped. Wonder how that is going to be phrased on the bill...

Now, is that saying something about my IQ or about Apple's?

All of the above, plus the client. You are attempting to find a work-around to a hardware feature implemented to an anti-theft feature implemented by apple, which is intentionally hard to get around. Apple designed it to address problems that cropped up real world. The client is the one that really could use a LARTing. As for phrasing it on the bill, I would phrase it as "ID-X-T error workaround" or something similar. (The X stands for 10, but is less obvious on a bill for people who have been previously introduced to the glories of ID10T errors)

[Span24]

(The X stands for 10, but is less obvious on a bill for people who have been previously introduced to the glories of ID10T errors)

HA! You have smarter users than I do! Ive explained that acronym to many and most think its flattery! Seriously, had a user request that Excel be installed on his computer. The fix? Copy the Excel shortcut icon from Programs Menu to the desktop. You just cant make this stuff up and most users cant see past their own desktop!

Michael

[Span24]

...and people wonder why most IT support staff look suspiciously like homicidal maniacs.

Ha-Ha, CLOSE!

1375051_10201671222854682_1277779446_n.jpg (15.4 KiB) Viewed 45545 times

[geneb]

Yep, looks like a typical IT staff photo. They're a bit cleaner though.

"BOFH and Proud!!"

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

Cool looking IT staff photo, but they need the pen pocket protectors.

[Span24]

Yep, looks like a typical IT staff photo. They're a bit cleaner though.

HA-HA-HA! Actually, this was from a local pub run last Halloween (I'm the goon on the left). We got plenty of looks and free drinks all night!

Michael

[barry99705]

(The X stands for 10, but is less obvious on a bill for people who have been previously introduced to the glories of ID10T errors)

HA! You have smarter users than I do! Ive explained that acronym to many and most think its flattery! Seriously, had a user request that Excel be installed on his computer. The fix? Copy the Excel shortcut icon from Programs Menu to the desktop. You just cant make this stuff up and most users cant see past their own desktop!

Michael

Heh, "The internet is down!"
Finds the Internet Exploder shortcut was deleted from the desktop....