This is just a short set of updates for my weekend projects, meant to keep me in the habit. I’ll write up a more complete version of these projects going forward.

First of all, a new acquisition. My Anet A8 3D printer has proven to be, well, not the most reliable of gadgets. I still haven’t gotten around to fixing its heated bed, but should get to it shortly. But as it happens, a small windfall came my way, so I decided to get a Creality CR-10 which I caught on a good price for less than $400. Unlike the laser-cut, hours-to-assemble Anet A8, the Creality is mostly assembled. It has a 300mmx300mm bed, a much taller range of travel, and is constructed by aluminum extrusions that make for a nice, stiff, and easy to assemble printer. I mostly assembled it in a little less than an hour, but ran out of steam and decided to go to a movie with Carmen and then watch the Superbowl. I’m hoping to print a Benchy when I get home tonight: the only thing I have left to do is get the bed leveled.

I also spent some more time on the ISS clock. I added a new display mode that shows details of upcoming passes, including a diagram of the pass, showing its path across the sky and its maximum elevation. I also updated the epoch that the Plan 13 code was using so that it would be more accurate, and now it compares to within about a degree or so with what other, more sophisticated models have. There are still a couple of lingering glitches. Occasionally it looks for the next pass before the current pass is complete. I suspect that is because I used a number of global variables to communicate between processes, and something in the logic isn’t quite right. But as they say, any program worth writing is worth rewriting. I’ll try to get a version of the code up on github tonight, even though it’s kind of embarrassing.

Stay tuned for CR-10 print experiences and more on the ISS clock.