Management & Software Management

Management

Team Charters Getting Your Team off to a Great Start

This article explains that a team and its members perform better if they were given  proper documentation about the task ahead before starting it.

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_95.htm

Reward Your Best Teams, Not Just Star Players

It is suggested, that the concept of team-cohesion should be preferred over favouring individualism and competition as it makes people form better relations between them which, in their turn, create stronger team bonds and eventually increase the overall team performance!

https://hbr.org/2015/06/reward-your-best-teams-not-just-star-players

A team’s psychological safety

The following two articles were selected to introduce the concept of psychological safety in working groups and address the negative impacts a team of low-psychological safety may pose in both its performance, its member’s satisfaction and their motivation.

https://hbr.org/2017/08/high-performing-teams-need-psychological-safety-heres-how-to-create-it

Five questions about psychological safety, answered.

Region-related charts

greek-charts

This page depicts some very important charts about the Greek crisis…

http://greekcharts.tumblr.com/

The 6 dimensions model of national culture by Geert Hofstede

Prof. Geert Hofstede and others have established a model formed by six key dimensions which is used to demonstrate a country’s national culture. In other words, how do employees feel and act depending on which country they work. The following urls may be visited to learn about the six factors as well as to compare countries between them. For Greece, specifically, it is indicated that the dimension of “Uncertainty Avoidance” is pretty high which may serve as an indication about why do employees working in Greece avoid to challenge situations, avoid to face long-term problems, and generally, avoid or prolong innovation! The second dimension, “Masculinity“, accurately represents the competition which the modern employees face between them which should also deeply concern us. Finally, the last dangerous indication is that “Individualism” is pretty low which aligns with the current state where many employees refer from forming and expressing personal opinions or ideas in the work environment which in many cases could have been of value and should be encouraged!

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/models/national-culture/

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/greece/

Software Management

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

The agile manifesto, written by many software professionals listed over its page, emphasises that modern software should be written by following a social and humanistic approach based on communication, resilience and iteration rather than on following processes and executing commands!

http://agilemanifesto.org/

What Can Agile Methods Bring to High-Integrity Software Development?

In brief, this particular article has been selected, to counter the argument which claims that agile development is only meant for non-spiral projects. Roderick Chapman and the other two authors believe the opposite as each spiral project may face ambiguity and therefore,  a software project, one way or the other, becomes agile either we want it to be agile or not! For this reason, it is suggested that it’s better to establish and embrace the agile methodologies for development sooner rather than later!

https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2017/10/221329-what-can-agile-methods-bring-to-high-integrity-software-development/abstract mirror2

Continuous Integration

https://www.martinfowler.com/articles/continuousIntegration.html

GitHub Survey: Open Source Is Popular, Plagued by Poor Docs and Rude People

The following survey was selected for the obvious reason that, we, developers should acknowledge our bad manners and habits and embrace a true form of collaboration between us!

https://adtmag.com/articles/2017/06/05/open-source-survey.aspx

Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2017

https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2017

Self Development

forming good habits, memory/learning tips and workload/time management tips

24 daily habits that will make you smarter

http://www.businessinsider.com/24-daily-habits-that-will-make-you-smarter-2015-6

Make Time for Growth Assignments in Your Daily Work

https://hbr.org/2013/07/make-time-for-growth-assignments-in-your-daily-work

Why Procrastinators Procrastinate – How to Beat Procrastination

Even if you are not a full-time procrastinator, in some point of your life you may have felt this way. The following articles were meant to shed some light to the situation and help the reader face the problem!

https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html

https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-procrastination.html

Finally, that’s all for now! This list may get bigger over time, have fun exploring!

Patents from 0 to Hero!

This article is a collective a series of lessons, resources and educational videos from different individuals and organizations in order to help the reader form a round and comprehensive knowledge about patents. Many thanks to the people shown in this page who have offered their insight freely on the Internet for other people to see! Also, if anyone does not want his material shown in this page please let me know.

General Intellectual Property material

Intellectual Property Law | Coursera

Intellectual Property Law and Policy: Part 1 | edX

One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs: Live Your Dreams and Create Your Own Profitable Company : Key, Stephen: Amazon.de: Books

Introduction to Patents

Patent Basics (1) – Understanding a Claim

patent claim | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute

Patent management searching/filing for EU

Patents in the EU: Protection and registering – Your Europe

EPO – Home

Lifecycle of a patent

Espacenet – search results

Provisional writing and composition

The other side of patents…

How to survive a demanding Master’s degree course – Masters Doomsday Survival Guide

It’s very fun to start something new in life, especially when it comes in taking the decision to participate in a Master’s degree. Participating in a Master’s degree programme is something fun and worth the effort doing it not only for the result which is the degree as for the process itself which grows you as a scientist, professional but more importantly as a person. If you have decided to participate into one and since I’ve been there, the only thing I can at least do, is to share my insight from my collective experience and the key-points which I have come to value the most in order to help you shape a more fitting culture for what is to follow.  Therefore, here is my Masters Doomsday Survival Guide to pass successfully a Master’s degree .

1. Always arrive prepared to receive the first hit!

With little to none exception, all master’s degrees start with a demanding challenge to either pitch up the participating students in order to start an energised term or to even classify them to other more fitting programmes. Good programmes run as good as a ticking clock mechanism and they won’t hesitate to challenge you even in the first days! Here, my suggestion would be to study your programme as much as possible before its start and reach prepared. It is noteworthy that, whatever the course subject may be, your linguistic skills must be in top notch shape and you ought to keep them fluent before you set foot on campus.

2. Don’t get socially miscarried, stay focused on your goal!

Don’t get miscarried by bachelors having fun! You are not there to have that kind of fun. Your fun is “I want to beat a strong game” kind of fun. It is a good idea to not subscribe to any external groups, cults or other parties that appear to be close to the university’s field but have no absolute relation with it. In fact, it’s better to not have or pause any out of university relations and socialise only with your classmates if possible. If you are not focused to the programme’s very core and you tend to get miscarried by other social groups, they are going to drain your most valuable resources which are your time and your attention. Due to a university’s vivid life there are many side groups that are in dire need to steal some of its light and miscarry students into their activities, for this reason you have to have a keen eye and to politely avoid them if you need to.

3. Never miss or skip a single lecture.

This point as obvious as it may sound, is fundamental! There will be a time when you will be fully stressed and will be in an internal bargain of skipping some of the lectures in order to find some extra time to finish an essay with a strict deadline that you have to submit. Under this context, it might seem as a good tradeoff, however, let me say that it is never a good idea as the essays are frequently the carrot you are chasing, they have a very smaller outcome in the total grade which is likely to be depended mainly from your written exams! Cannibalising your lectures is never a good idea as the professor, in between the term, is sure to throw some easter eggs about the exams in some totally relaxed lectures that you never thought would be of such importance.

4. Have an abstract sense of the total programme’s process and what the whole class is currently doing.

A degree throughout its process will have student common events. Days where professors explain the programme’s flow or processes like the exam period. It is good to always participate and keep track of these events, receive and read your emails every day and, in general, know where the whole class is going. This will help you keep a sense of tracking and where do you fit in in all of this process and if you need to improve anything in your approach.

5. When you are faced with uncertainty or ambiguity for something it’s better to discuss it with your fellow classmates and your supervising professors rather than taking a decision on your own or seeking advice from out of university persons like friends or family members which are, in general, outside of context.

6. Always trust your developed experience. Do not change in the last minute the way you study because one classmate had a shiny study strategy, trust the strategies that are yours and that you are experienced with from your years of studying. In general trust yourself!

7. Keep track mentally on which courses you spent your time and effort with and watch out for Vampiric ones.

Naturally, inside a term, all courses will demand your attention. However, there will be some particular courses which either due to their credit or due to a professor’s determination will require more attention than others. Their essays may either be more in number or there may be a really big project to finish. Such courses may cannibalise the total available time and capacity you have available to deal with all the courses leading other courses to progress starvation. If you happen to catch yourself working on a single course that demands more and more of your attention while the other courses are getting behind then you have found yourself a vampiric course! In order to face this common difficulty:

1. Face the problem from the beginning: If there is the option to select courses for the semester always pick a balanced combination of 2 to 3 time cannibals along with 5 to 6 other courses, seek out advice from your classmates about a course’s effort and difficulty
2. Acknowledge something is wrong by catching yourself in the act: If you happen to catch yourself study too much for a specific course while others are starving, then acknowledging this fact may be just enough for yourself to spread time evenly among all courses. From another approach, asking yourself frequently “do all of my courses spend my attention as they should?” will get you to produce this thought.

8. Be social and foster an inclusive spirit with your fellow classmates when it comes to team essays.

Frequently, during the term, many students make the thought that a course project does not produce the same percentage in the total course’s final grade. Therefore, out of strategy, they might conclude in spending less time in it and more time in something else. As beneficial as this may be for a one person project, it becomes the exact opposite for a team project where your fellow group members depend on you to complete it. If it comes under this, do not abandon your group as the other group members may not feel the same way as you do and they are sure to be upset by your absence or your lack of commitment in the common effort. In cases like these it is not a good idea to act out of strategy while it is far better to stick to your group, work with your fellow group members, support the weak members and get on with it even if the course does not give back in grade! The other team members are sure to not forget the way you acted and since you are in the same class you never know when you might be the one in need of help.

9. Work your personal essays in privacy! Never share files! Share insight only by discussion preferably with classmates that you are familiar with and are trustworthy. Never participate in group study sessions if it involves working personal essays with other students.

This point may be the most severe of all the mentioned in this guide. Pay close attention as in some point in the term you may be asked by fellow students to participate in a pool effort to explore and write a one person essay for a course and then share it among the participants. Unless, you are not a mediocre student who struggles to survive the programme my suggestion would be to avoid even the idea of participating in sessions such as this. Not only for the obvious reason that universities have plagiarism detection systems, the ethical reason that it is not fair for reasons that we will not advocate here but also for your own emotional protection and shake as inside these groups, your personal contribution or personal ideas that you may have thrown effort to produce, have a special importance to you and may be the key reason to give you an extra grade to signify that, tend to get shared over all the other participants, their friends and the friends of their friends. For you, if you are a good student, to face something like this, is sure to not only upset you, make you feed manipulated but also produce other negative emotions and emotional stress to you that something which was yours got to get shared among other people who could not understand its importance and your effort. If you need to share some technical knowledge to help someone warm up and begin writing that is a good thing but you should always have a sense of where you are in the zone from the point I am helping someone to the point I am letting him manipulate me. Finally, keep your personal essays and your final year’s project as private as possible, by prefering to work in your place, avoiding working on public places where someone can watch your screen and avoid sharing any kind of text over social media!

10. When you study or when you compile a long essay place Process over Progress

-What makes a successful writer over a beginner?

-While both of them never write something in the whole week, a successful one may devote 2% of its time to write a paragraph in the weekend.

That’s it! You may not see a big difference out of them in a month but the difference is evident in a year!

Many experts as Barbara Oakley argue that in order to achieve a difficult task that requires time and continuous effort like a final essay you won’t be able to do it at an instance. After all… Rome was not build in a Day! Many students, even professionals, tend to focus on progress rather than process with example cases as to place difficult milestones like “to have the results ready by tomorrow”, “you have one week to finish” which have the only purpose to stress the student even more than what he is. Instead, a psychologically safer way to deal with big projects is to place process over progress. Spread a time-sheet find the days that you will be working and mark a starting hour that you want to start each day. Instead of stressing yourself you can say I am going to work at minimum an hour today and at maximum as much as I feel working for the day. Eventually you will see your essay build up gracefully over time while you are not getting stressed in the last minute to prove yourself that you can do it under the last 48 hours!

11. Reward yourself when you achieve something on the spot either by eating something, going out, for a walk, cheering, or all of the above!

When you complete something it’s a good practice to celebrate it! Stop what follows next, take a moment and get under the process of understanding that you have finished something that was difficult and give credit to yourself! Try to remember what you did and how you did it. Take a walk outside and say “I did it”, spend some time relaxing to build up stamina for the tasks to follow. This will give you great confidence and will maintain your patience if you have lots of tasks to complete. On the other hand, it is a good practice to avoid the very opposite, to do one task after another without taking a break as this will leave you exhausted.

12. Find time to relax (or better to say) Relaxing is not to be skipped

If you have managed to work as the bullet 10 suggests, you are in a good path! The only thing you are lacking is finding, in between, some time to relax! If you work a lot you might have the mood to relax by exhaustion, by draining yourself with parties or by playing computer games that release a lot of dopamine or doing things, in general, that require lots and lots of energy and leave you crushed and exhausted in the end. Instead, it is a good approach to try and resist this impulse by doing activities that do not leave you mentally an physically exhausted, like going out with friends, going to the gym, taking a walk!

13. Eat healthy, Eat healthy, Eat healthy!

It is always a good idea to eat healthy. Eating healthy ensures that your body will have enough energy and nutrition to beat the complex challenges of academia while you will feel much more relaxed when working. Eating healthy consists of eating in general all types of foods like: fruits or fruit juices, vegetables, pasta/rice, fish, meat, legumes and dairy products. If you happen to have a specific diet that prohibits certain types of foods or whatever other the reason may be, it is a good idea to seek for a professional opinion from a nutrition expert. The message here is to have a healthy diet, to find out which suits you best rests in you. For this subject, it is a good thinking to decide not from an ideological perspective but rather to check if you happen to catch yourself collapse or have enough stamina throughout the day. If that happens, it is an indicator that your nutrition is not right. Finally, for this section it is noteworthy to watch out for the type of snacks that you consume as many companies now tend to increase the sugar in their products as this makes them more addicting. It is, in general, a good advice to avoid sugar for the health problems it causes, as for the affore mentioned fact that it is addicting and that it provides unsustainable and short-term lasting energy.

14. Sleep the 8 hours!!! Never skip them! Never sleep under 6 hours!

A lot of your brain’s functions like memory and the ability to interpret depend on your sleep, again the same rule as bullet 3 applies here. Do not cannibalise your sleep. Sleeping less than 6 hours per day ensures that is highly unlikely to be able to cope with the extensive demands throughout the day. Sleeping 4 to 5 days in a row with less than 6 hours per day may affect your emotional behaviour and increase the chances to have a conflict with someone.

15. Keep in touch with your family and close ones for support!

Always remember to get in touch with your close persons like family or partners to talk. A discussion with them may be in benefit by relieving you of stress or give you the courage to continue. On the other hand, if you find a person discouraging you or not having the proper emotional understanding over what you are dealing with, it is a good thinking to set boundaries by expressing in clear terms what you don’t like and if it cannot be avoided, minimise the discussions by setting a time limit for them.

That’s all! Have lots of fun and remember no peak stays untrodden unless you are determined!

The half truth about the Internet – Η μισή αλήθεια του Internet

Published @ Hellenic MENSA magazine 43 Nov 2017

Translation in English is in progress!

 

 

Scale-Up your Tevo Tarantula 3D printer from a basic to an advanced setup

This post is an upgrade guide for improving a TEVO Tarantula 3D printer both in its precision in order to produce better prints as in its usability in order to provide convenience to its usage.

Let’s start with the basics as why the Tarantula model was selected. There are currently many 3D Printers available on the market which might be more precise and usable than the tarantula model. In fact, Tarantula is an assemble-it-yourself 3d printer when there are ever pre-assembled 3d printers capable to produce prints out of the box. So what does it make this model worthy of attention? As it was stated in another one of my posts about how to maintain this printer, from the one side, the benefit of being a significantly less expensive printer to purchase and from the other, once properly set up, to become a very precise system, is an essential trade-off and one of the reasons many makers have selected it. Another reason is that since it is an assembled model, it can be maintained, customised and upgraded which is a feature that pre-assembled printers may prevent as they arrive in the form of a more complete and protected product.

How is an assemble-it-yourself printer being upgraded?

The benefit of assembled 3d printers, from a system’s perspective, is that they are literally self-upgraded! In more detail, a 3d printer may be used to print parts which may be used to upgrade the 3d printer itself! Currently, there is a large community of makers who contribute to this kind of 3d printer models, with upgrade parts,  and host their designs in online databases for 3D printed models as:

https://www.thingiverse.com/ and

https://www.myminifactory.com/

The benefit of having such a community driven interest and contribution is that in most cases a person may find a ready to be printed object which already solves a problem someone else previously came across.

How is this guide useful?

From all of these parts, some of them are essential to the overall printer’s setup while others may not produce a significant impact, some may be faster to be printed and have an immediate effect while others may be important but may require more effort and might not be the best option for a given moment. This guide acts as a guideline for someone who just got a new Tarantula with the goal to spare him from getting lost to all of the available parts and strategically increase the system’s precision and usability from a fast yet effective route. In other words, in each step, the guide takes into account factors as the current system’s setup, its weak spots and its needs!

Scale-Up!

1. Adjustable Belt Tensioner/Tightener and Belt Tie (Tevo Tarantula) – precision

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1780636

The first printer’s need is to tighten the X and Y belts. By tightening the belts the printing precision is increased. This ingenious piece is as small as it can be and still provides the required precision needed. One for the Y-axis may be printed as well!

this is a: fast print – to be later replaced

2. Tevo Tarantula X Axis Idler – precision

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2418924

From the printer’s setup, it may be observed that the X axis has loose belt wheels with no support from the opposite side, this great part is fast to be printed and provides the desired solution for this problem until something more precise but with more printing effort is printed.

this is a: fast print – to be later replaced

3. Tevo Tarantula in front Z axis endstop holder – precision/usability

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2587618

This part, as the previous ones, is fast to be printed, yet very effective. It’s goal is to bring the z-endstop in the front of the setup in order to increase its usability when calibrated but that’s not all, in addition, it increases the endstop’s precision as now a screw may be rotated to provide far grater precision when adjusting the z-axis home level height.

this is a: fast print – is not to be replaced

4. Tevo Tarantula bed level knob – precision/usability

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2330042

The specific knobs were selected over others as they have a grater radius. In circular motion the bigger the radius, the greater the precision and thanks to the upgrades so far as shown in the guide, the knobs may be printed in great precision!

this is a: fast print – is not to be replaced

5. Z-Axis Stepper Bracket for TEVO Tarantula – precision/protection

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2269993

The next piece is for the z-axis as the original one is not very sturdy, shakes a lot which is something that reduces precision and may easily break in case of a non-responding z-endpoint. The particular piece was selected due to its great design which provides support from edge-to-edge!

this is a: slow print – is not to be replaced

6. Belt tensioner pulley for Tevo Tarantula

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1704100

As the previous step, this phase is slow and needs five parts to be printed but produces an effective solution for adjusting the Y belt. From now on this piece may give a millimetre scale precision when setting the Y belt.

this is a: slow print – is not to be replaced

7. A Sturdy Simple Spool Holder – usability

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-a-sturdy-simple-spool-holder-43701

Up until now there wasn’t any support for the filament’s holder and it was let to the user to improvise and create a spool holder himself! This piece may provide the ability to easily manage filament cylinders and may give some elegance to the setup!

this is a: slow print – is not to be replaced

8. X Belt tensioner for Tevo Tarantula

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1730521

Similarly with the Y belt tensioner usage, this part tensions the X axis. The first two parts did their work up until now and its time for them to be stored for fail-safe!

this is a: slow print – is not to be replaced

9. Enclosure for TEVO tarantula display – usability/protection

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1878931

So far, the LCD’s transparent case may not be best suited to isolate and protect the LCD case. This model may just satisfy this need and allow the user to properly interact with the controller.

this is a: slow print – is not to be replaced

10. Wooden surface with shock absorbers and handles – precision/protection/usability

One wooden surface may be used in order to mount the 3d printer over it, and thus, to make it become more shock resistant as well as to easily be carried around. The surface can be 64x64cm with a thickness which should be between 1 and 1.5cm, 1.2 might be a good value as a thick surface may significantly increase the total weight while a thin one might easily break! In addition, metal handles may be placed left and right of the surface to lift the platform while 8-12 rubber bumper feet may be placed below the surface to absorb shock.

Secure the 3D Printer on the surface by using the following parts

XY Squareness corner for Tevo Tarantula 3D Printer

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1748591

this is a: fast print – is not to be replaced

Corner Brackets For System20 2020 / 2040 Extrusion

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2841415

this is a: fast print – is not to be replaced

Tevo Tarantula bottom-left brackets

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2611549

this is a: fast print – is not to be replaced

The above models may be used to secure the 3d printer on the surface. This step might seem a bit troublesome but may significantly increase the precision as well.

11. Tevo Tarantula Power Supply Covers – protection/usability

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2365003 

The last piece would be to secure the power supply to the wooden surface. The produced outcome will both satisfy the need for protection against an electric shock and make the 3d printer totally portable. After this step, the user will be able to conveniently move the printer around!

By this step, Tarantula will be much more precise, portable and usable. This was the list hope you liked it!

12. A second detachable surface on top of the heating bed

Sometimes to remove a single finished object may require a significant effort. To have one detachable surface may be more practical while it may protect the bed from accidents while removing it. When choosing a second surface it must be kept in mind that it should be heat conductive, as aluminum, which is a good choice while a surface from wood of plastic, as seen frequently on the web, may not be the best alternative!

Reaching this step you may find your Tarantula to be much more precise, portable and usable. This was the list hope you liked it!

This is my TEVO Tarantula so far where most of the above parts were used!

 

Lessons learned from TEVO Tarantula

At this point I believe this 3D Printer model has reached the highest of its potential. In other words, further upgrading it means to actually change it to something entirely different. For this reason, the final weak spots may serve as an advise for other 3d printer models to be aware of!

The first lesson is about bars with a single mount point, when a bar is hooked only form one side like the corners on the base of the Tarantula, similarly with other models as the CR-10 and Black Widow, no matter how strong a corner is, the bar may demonstrate angle deviation on its other edge!

To effectively solve this problem the best design for a 3D printer, by my point of view, is a cubic grid where all the moving parts are inside as the following setup shows.

 

 

 

In addition, if uniform temperature is needed for a 3d print, a cube may serve as a grid where surfaces may be attached to cover the inner space in order to trap heating, if it’s taken into account that all the parts are inside the cubic setup and it’s allowed to close.

 

The next observation is about the problems related with the X and Y axis movement. The concept of bearings which guide the moving parts over extrusion profiles has some serious negatives. The first one is that the setup may be easily loosen by the passage of time which creates wobbling, decreases performance and requires tuning once now and then. In addition, this kind of setup requires a lot of space and many pieces: 4 bearing cylinders, one bracket to hold them and one bar to guide the movement. A far better alternative to move a surface would be to have two linear rails with cylinder rods.

By using these type of rails, the movement is totally guided while friction is significantly reduced!

Regarding the extruder, there are many solutions available on the web which present over-weighted extruders with lots of fans over them, for me having all this setup was not essential. Having one fan was enough to cool the parts from heat, on the other end, cooling the filament on its exit point might result into better 3d prints with no support but may also prevent the filament from properly sticking together with the already printed surface, as well as, prevent the smoothing effect when the nozzle touches an uneven printed ‘hilt’ on the surface!

 

 

 

Maintain and repair your TEVO Tarantula 3D printer for the next 200 years!

Hello, I’ve decided to make this page in order to give the advantage to individual makers who have bought a TEVO Tarantula 3D printer to be able to maintain, repair and restore it in the future in cases of broken or burnt parts by giving   insight both in software and on hardware specifications.

Why have I selected the TEVO Tarantula?

The killing argument here is that Tarantula is an assemble-it-yourself printer which can be bought in a fairly lower price compared to other 3d printers on the market in combination with that it can be scaled-up in precision/performance by improving its setup with new parts! In other words you have a good starting basis to learn 3d printing and you may gradually improve your setup as you go on!

The next argument is indirectly related with the 3d printer and it has to do with the taxes applied by the post offices. In some countries, an extra importing fee is applied when importing goods from other countries relative to the imported product’s price when they pass a limit ex. 100, therefore buying a printer worth of 200 may result in paying 300 on the post office! On the other hand, buying individual parts to upgrade your printer may result into reducing post-office taxes as they may require a lower price. Buying a good 3d printer basis and then upgrading it may be better suited rather than buying a ready-assembled and far more expensive 3d printer.

Which are the negatives concerning Tarantula’s service?

Tarantula’s company, TEVO, may often sometimes refrain from providing full support on user manuals or provide detailed specifications for its parts while it may demonstrate ambiguity in some spots like for example giving a full list of parts or maintaining its firmware source code on github. Everything is ok as long as everything is working but what happens when something is broken? Exactly! since its self assembled you don’t want to throw away the whole setup, all that it’s needed is to replace the broken part.

Which are the positives concerning Tarantula’s service?

Since it’s an assembled 3d printer everything can be replaced when it’s needed when a part’s exact specifications are known!

How we will be doing this?

Regarding service, there is one major rule, there are parts which may last longer than others for example an aluminium extrusion vs a stepper motor! In other words there are parts which are very resistant and hardly affected from their environment and parts which tolerate more electrical or mechanical friction and are subjective to greater damage over time. For this reason, the parts where sorted based on the above thinking by keeping in mind ‘rainy-day’ scenarios of what could go wrong with the overall setup. Finally, not all the printer’s parts may be listed on this article but the ones with a greater risk.

Can your 3d printer be maintained for the next 200 years?

Typically, this is three times the lifespan of a person! You may not be living but your printer might be still maintained by your grandchildren! So, as an advice make sure to include 2 parts of each in the list for your printer’s personal repair kit!

 

List of parts with high friction

Brackets / Acrylic Parts / Surfaces

The Tarantula model comes with acrylic surfaces or commonly known as brackets which are used to connect the printer’s functional parts together. Although they may not easily be broken if they are not broken by mistake, some parts do break easily such as the z-axis-bracket especially if there is an endstop problem. Because of that it is suggested to have one extra z-bracket ready and if it is assumed that your printer is still working, you could print some backups for the other parts as well! Better safe than sorry 😀

This list offers the basic brackets to support your setup, (remember this is not a upgrade guide so no improvements may be listed here)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2362103

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2031660

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2249021

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1614204

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1963910

One extra tip here is that if the z-bracket is broken, it might be replaced with the Y-axis bracket opposite of the motor as the holes are nearly identical 😉

 

Timing Belt

Type: GT2

Pitch or Transmission distance: 2mm

Width: 6mm

Length: As long as you need, typically sold in lenghtsof 5m

Codename: GT2 2mm Pitch 6mm Wide Timing Belt for 3D Printer CNC Dedicated I7T6

Breaks-on: the timing belt might typically break from over stretching it or from non-responding stepper motor.

 

Filament tube

Material: PTFE

Outside diameter: 4mm

Inner diameter (hole): 2mm

Length: As long as you need, typically sold in lengths of 2m

Allows 1.75mm filament to pass through

Codename: 2M PTFE Teflon Tube 2mm ID 4mm OD For 1.75mm Filament 3D Printer RepRap HM

Breaks-on: when it gets close to the extruder it may melt, it may stuck to hot-ends and may need to be pulled off

 

Power supply

AC Input Voltage: 110-220V

(There is typically a switch to select the voltage which applies to your country’s AC current)

DC Output Power: 300W

DC Output Voltage: 12V

DC Output Current: 25A

You may use any altenative, which can strictly match the above specifications, as a power brick or an ATX power supply as long as you know what you are doing.

Codename: Universal 12V 25A 300W Switching Power Supply Driver may be found as Lighting Transformer or 3d printer power supply

Breaks-on: Might burn from an electric shock coming from the power network. Might burn over time from electric friction.

Take care, this is a very dangerous part to replace, always take safety measures first and never be alone while replacing it.

 

Mainboard

Model: MKS BASE V1.4

Codename: MKS BASE V1.4 Control Mainboard Circuit Main Board PCB for 3D Printer

 

 

 

Breaks-on: Might burn from electric shock, might burn over time from electric friction. Replacing the board won’t be enough to fix the problem, you need to upload firmware to the board tailored for tevo tarantula’s setup and set the voltage properly to the embedded stepper drivers.

Alternatives:

may also be replaced with:

Model: MKS GEN L

Codename: MKS Gen-L 3D Printer Control Board Replace Ramps 1.4 & Mega 256

 

 

 

 

which requires 5: A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Modules

Codename: 5PCS A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Module 3D Printer Polulu StepStick RAMPS RepRap

The benefits of this setup is that if a motor driver is burnt it may be easily replaced

 

 

 

When you have collected the parts:

1. Tuning the stepper motor modules and 2. Installing the firmware is needed

Typically in Tarantula the A4988 modules should be placed around 830mV

 

LCD Controller

Codename:

LCD display 2004 Smart Controller RepRap Ramps V1.4 3D Printer

or RepRap Discount Smart Controller

View more at: http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRapDiscount_Smart_Controller

LCD Display details:  4 rows, 20 characters per row

Includes on board: an SD card slot, a speaker, a reset button and a controller

Breaks-on: might burn if improperly connected, the lcd screen is very sensitive and may easily break if it’s moved from its position

 

Stepper Motors

Model: Nema 17

Starting serial code in my tarantula: 17HD4…

Height: 41mm (or 40mm)

Step angle: 1.8 ° 

Type: Stepper motor,

2 Phase (or bipolar),

with 4 Leads (or 4 wires)

Allowed rotation direction: forward and reverse

Rated current: from 1.3 to 1.7A

Typical A4988 calibration voltage: 830 mV (Needed when setting the A4988 driver modules)

View more at: http://reprap.org/wiki/NEMA_17_Stepper_motor

Learn more about stepper motors at: https://learn.adafruit.com/all-about-stepper-motors/types-of-steppers

Codename: CNC 1.8 Degree NEMA17 1.7A 40mm 2 Phase 4Lead Stepper Motor For 3D Printer New

Breaks-on: Incorrect voltage, mechanical/electrical friction over time

 

Fans

Type: 12v Brushless cooling fan

Voltage: 12V

Dimensions: 30x30x10mm

Codename: 30x30x10mm 3cm 30mm Small 12v Brushless Dc Cooling Fan

Breaks-on: over time from electrical/mechanical friction

 

Thermistor

Resistance: 100KΩ

Operating temperature range: should be greater than 260 ℃

Codename: 100K NTC Thermistors Sensor w/ 2 Pin Female Connector for Reprap 3D Printers

Breaks-on: may melt from electricity/heat

 

Heater Pipe Heating Tube

DC Input: 12V

Power: 40 to 60W

Tube Diameter: 5mm

Codename: 12V 40W Heater Pipe Heating Tube Wire Length 1 Meter for 3D Printer

Breaks-on: friction from electricity/heat

 

 

 

Heatbed springs

Type: Compression spring

Length: 30cm

Outside diameter: 7.5mm

Total number of circles: 13

Coil thickness ~= 1mm

Codename: 2x 3D Printer – Bed – Extruder – Compression Springs Spring

Breaks-on: permanent distortion over time

 

Coupling

Inner/Shaft/Axis diameter: 5mm to 8mm (may get tightened from the screws)

Outside diameter: 19mm

Height: 25mm

Codename: Flexible Couplings 5mm to 8mm NEMA 17 Shaft for RepRap 3D Printer or CNC Machine

(typically sold in pairs of two)

Breaks-on: the part’s flexible middle may face permanent distortion over time

I hope you enjoyed the article, have lots of fun repairing your 3D printer!

 

Why IoT has failed the end user up to this point

A lot of discussion has lately showed up about the Internet Of Things devices or IoT in short. Devices which aim to help the user autotomize some of his every day tasks by micromanaging his home devices via his home network or the Internet and thus facilitate his everyday life.  The general idea is to let the user save some time and effort by checking or triggering something in the physical space but without necessarily be there like for ex. to see what’s inside the fridge in order to buy what’s missing before returning back home. At least that’s their intended purpose but is their real behavior and function close to this thinking? In order to answer this question, I decided to become the end-user and evaluate the Internet Of Things trend in the present everyday life usage by looking into my home first.

So let’s begin!

 

Last time I checked my oven… no IoT there!

Last time I checked my fridge… no IoT there either!

Lamp? No IoT there as well… I could have bought one but they are expensive, hard to replace and the wall switch functionality is lost as the trigger has to stay always on. More on this later…

Fan? Not yet…

At least my camera is IoT but it was expensive, not everyone needs it and why only the camera from all of these devices anyway?

 

So why is this happening and why IoT devices are not actually being used in the every day life from the consumers despite the fact that it’s a really popular technology and trend?

 

Hooking up users in finance plans rather than solving their needs

People are not to be taken for fools! They are aware that companies which make devices such as these might attempt to financially hook them up,  as target consumers, in a service plan either with a monthly or an annual fee. Right now the goal is to try and hold some ground on the market with retail devices where they may appear to demand less but a user knows that in the future, if for example he had to buy many IoT devices for his home and in some period he could not afford to pay the monthly cost for them, these devices could freeze and become operationally idle until the consumer has fulfilled his payment obligations. The user noticing this might just say that he is okay to just open his fridge once now an then to see what’s inside rather than having to pay for a commercial service. In the present, most IoT devices are ‘cloud-based’ which is an obvious trait for such a possible outcome and the fact that retail devices may have a life span such as the IoT lamp which when burned may not be replaced with a simple bulb from the market but rather only with another smart lamp encourages this thinking.

 

Shifting or Destroying good user habits

Now, let’s go back to the aforementioned IoT lamp or otherwise known as the smart lamp and why it hasn’t been a good solution up until now. Most IoT lamps similar with this one http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F5Z0489/ are expecting the user to plug them in as a usual lamp but in order to manage them from the mobile phone they expect the wall switch to be always in the on state in order to keep the power circuit open. Now let’s think about that for a moment. The good old user has been hitting that switch for his entire life in order to open and close the light and in fact it may be the easiest thing he knows how to do best. Now, the smart lamp comes to take the control away from the switch to give it to the mobile phone. For me destroying a well-developed user habit is not a valid solution for this problem and in fact, creating a problem in order to solve another is not a good approach. The best solution would be to let the user open and close the light both form the wall as well as from the mobile as you should not sacrifice the one for the other. Now, when someone comes up to this problem, he may think that companies could not work this problem out. What if they do not want to work it out? You see when you swift a habit like this from the physical world to a platform you have more chances to keep the user as stronger bonds towards a system are being enforced by habits. For more information over the subject you could read this book: Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products So finally is it a case of can’t or won’t and in what extend are we willing to let the devices swift our well-developed habits for their own benefit?

 

IoT is mostly in benefit of the researchers and of the enterprise but not of the final user.

From a motivation analysis, it seems as if everyone have something to gain from the IoT movement, all but the user. From the one hand, researchers post new ideas about innovative devices were during this process have the chance to fulfill and advance their careers while they may not be directly concerned in any form with the appliance part for the end-users. From the other hand, the enterprise, which is mainly responsible for the appliance, is looking at the final user as the target consumer in order to hook him up and gain funds. But where is the user in all of this? Can someone properly negotiate for the user’s real needs? In all of this process, the user’s needs may only be treated as the pressure points whereas no significant effort may be made in order to solve them under his best interest.

 

Companies are unwilling to co-operate and make common protocols.

To complete the user’s cycle, the IoT is failing as it’s really complex to be used for the every day despite the fact that it is being promoted for the opposite reason. Each newly bought device has its own app in the store and each device needs a new account to its respective company if the user needs to access it remotely.  So every new device ends up with different software, different credentials, different rules. In my opinion, the fun thing would be to have a common interface to operate all of these devices ex. close all the lamps, look inside the fridge and pre-heat the oven, all at once, from the same place! If a user has to switch the one app after the other to do these things there is no fun in the game! (its not useful). Even though some interfaces may support this behavior, they have been built mainly for research and are definitely no end-user software. Protocols are basically people agreeing together, and if we had to experience a universal behavior for these devices, the companies who make them have to agree to follow some common terms. Until a common discussion is made between companies and a universal access model is set to be followed, IoT has no significant future over the end-user.

 

The IPv4 and NAT technologies are not enough to support the IoT.

For the readers who do not know, the IPv4 and NAT (N to 1) are the current technologies we are currently using in a large scale on the Internet in order to identify the connected devices online. Although this set of protocols has some major setbacks which might be analyzed in another article, one of them is that the Internet devices, apart from the servers, are not uniquely identified with a unique IP address each time they connect to the network (often commonly referred as dynamic IP address versus static IP address for servers). This setback creates the need to access a device through an intermediate server, probably owned by the device’s company, which would track the device and let the user access it by logging-in to their cloud. Therefore, direct device access is not something feasible without an account in the company’s cloud even though the Internet was built to allow such functionality in the first place. Eventually if the IoT had to be really established, the Internet should advance on protocols in order to allow the connected devices to be uniquely identified every time they connect.

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You can view this project along with other three raspberry pi projects developed for 2017 in the following video

Top 10 Intelligent games which I have played so far

Hello! In this article, I have decided to introduce some of the really intelligent games which I have played so far. First of all and more importantly, this list does not contain just plain puzzle games, as to be honest, when I had tried to play games with just puzzles, they just did not add-up and I eventually stopped playing somewhere in the middle. By my view, real intelligent games, as ex. portal was, which succeed to capture the user’s attention should include more interesting attributes apart from just the puzzles like a proper storyline, characters and the emotion aspect as, at the end, everything needs to exist inside an appealing context. Therefore, for the following list, my expectations would be to include exciting intelligent games which I hope that you will enjoy playing and as you do, have a lot of fun and work your brain out a bit.

 

9. Hacker Evolution – PC

In hacker evolution the gamer takes the role of a hacker and faces a 2d interface which may help him penetrate remote systems. There is a virtual command line for in game commands, an objectives log and a system’s performance panel. The game has a good and complex storyline where the more you advance the tougher it gets to solve the stages. Moreover, the game gives you the proper dose of excitement you would have expected from a hacking game and in the end, it leaves you with a feeling to play some more.

8. Tomb Raider anniversary – PC

The game is from the Tomb Raider series where Lara Croft is an Archeologist trying to solve riddles of the past. It is a 3d person action based and by my view might be the biggest and toughest of all the series to solve. The game has plenty of puzzles and moves through themed stages like aztecs, ancient greece, rome, crusades, egypt and other. The riddles are challenging and demand a good gaming background to move and solve them, merged together with enemies hunting you. The good part is that they have separated the enemies from the puzzles to let you solve them in peace. The bad part, as in all the tomb raider games you never know what’s happening in the story as in every game of the series the storyline does not add-up with the previous games. The puzzles require from the player a good ambient and three-dimensional understanding. Finally, you can always advise a walkthrough if you get stuck. I used a walkthrough once to get ahead of a gate… but don’t be rushed to read the puzzles though as you will miss all the fun.

7. The magic circle – PC

The magic circle is about a game which hasn’t finished as its team argued and broke up! So how is the player playing the game? Well, you play a half-finished game where its being ruled by arguing admin AIs who never get anything done in the game. However, the player pretty soon understands that he has the power to rewrite the game and starts to change its environment properties. The storyline is a bit tiring in some points as there are extensive dialogues (you can skip them if you like) but it’s mostly fluent and exciting with puzzles based on the creature properties that you find. Plus, the player gets to exist inside multiple environments which look like a different game.

6. World of Goo – PC, Cross Platform

This indie game, might be considered as a pioneer for all the touch-puzzle games we find in tablets and mobiles and should not be misjudged for just another puzzle game. The player hast to take control of the Goos, spherical creatures with various properties which can connect together and form grids. Goos are trying to survive in a harsh and hostile environment and have to work together in order to reach their new home. The game has a very delicate sense of humor and through its storyline it and tackles some of our modern live problems as privacy and consumerism. Moreover the player should not forget to read the game’s signs written by the Sign Painter in order to complete his overall humor experience. The game is a 2d mouse or touch game whether you play it on pc or tablet. Finally, the game promises to keep you excited while solving its puzzles.

5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s mask – Nintendo 64

From the Legend of Zelda series, my favorite would be Majora’s Mask. Inside the game the player takes control of Link in a quest to undo evil. I have selected this game from the series as it is the most dark and the most positive and hopeful game all together which only creates the feeling to keep up and push onward. The game  has an excellent storyline, it is action based third person and its riddles may vary from social riddles by talking to other characters to complex puzzles in temples where the player has to solve by his own and not look them in a walkthrough. Finally, the game presents a perverted and distinct sense of humor which argues about subjects concerning life, death, power with a higher purpose to give lessons about the negative outcomes of revenge.

4. The Stanley Parable – PC

The Stanley Parable is a game which its purpose is to argue about whether our life actions are predetermined or if we have control over them. The concept of determinism may place the player in thoughts as there are many argumentive riddles which may prove that the player’s actions were determined despite his belief that they weren’t, similarly to the last picture which shows two open doors but the narrator’s voice challenges the player that the right door is the “correct” to pass. Another interesting concept about the game is that it has so many endings as the choice patterns taken from the player. Due to the fact that the game endings grow exponentially as with every new choice their number doubles, all the possible story lines are being kept small and brief in order to show in each one a different story-lesson to the player.

3. Portal – PC

Moving to the top 3 of the list, have you ever wondered how would it be to bend space by opening two portals in the same space and move objects through one another without loosing their momentum? That is the world of portal. The player is a female test subject where she is forced to pass the ambient puzzles in a lab controlled by a not so friendly AI. The game is a first person shooting and the player has a function-gun capable to open the two portals inside physic-based puzzle rooms where she has to move either objects or herself through the portals. The game has an excellent storyline and brilliantly passes concepts of experimentalism ethics through it. Last but not least, the puzzles are not so easy to solve.

2. Antichamber – PC

Upon viewing the last picture you may observe that there is a red room where in it there is a window showing to another blue room which is longer than its container. In addition when looking in the second image you may observe some 3d cubes which demonstrate different content regarding the side that the player is looking at them. This is the top second game of this list and its called Antichamber! Let’s just sat that the world of Antichamber is just a world with different properties from our own. However, I can assure you that all the puzzles are based in logic and logic only. Through the game the player will experience some of the strangest, challenging and most interesting puzzles he could solve. The game is first person shooting and the player can control various function-guns to help him solve the puzzles. Finally, the game has a distinct character about the flow of life and tries to pass some life-lessons along the way.

1. Minecraft – PC, Cross Platform

On the top one of the list lies Minecraft. A game which may be considered as a groundbreaking of its kind. The game is in a first person camera and it’s action based, its world is discrete, cubical and the player has to survive inside it, defeat monsters, build shelter and stay alive. If the player manages to endure he may start to find resources and evolve, build a better house grow food, build machines and mechanical solutions to automate some tasks. Moreover, the game can be played with many people co-operating either trying to satisfy their needs or combine their power in order to build massive structures of wonder. Moreover, Minecraft has a good storyline which is literally evolved as the player evolves in the game, where he discovers that there are lots of creatures around him and other worlds to visit as well. In addition, for the puzzles, the player can actually build puzzles of its own fiction and challenge other players to solve them. Finally, the game passes many life-lessons and the practical message that people can achieve more when working together and less when they are competing each other.