The Sandbox

I’ve got a number of things I want to get built or coded in the next year or two (unless event intervene).

For the last year or so things have been far too busy to get much done. I’m expecting that this will clear up in the next month or two and some of this stuff can get rolling.

I’ll probably create sub-menu pages under this item once a project gets up some steam. For now they’ll just live together here…

  • 3D Printing, RepRap and other related items

    I’ve had the basic electronics and stepper motors for a RepRap Mendel sitting around for several years now. I just put money into the M3D Pro kickstarter and I’m expecting (hoping) to have mine in hand around the beginning of 2017.

    I’m looking at this as both a bootstraping device for finishing my RepRap build and as a way to print parts for other projects of interest. The RepRap will give me a platform that I can modify, break and improve without too much risk while the M3D Pro will leave me with a fall-back position should I mess things up too badly.

  • File archiving helper tools

    I have a huge number of pictures, scans, documents and other files spread across my hard drives and archive media (CD, DVD and BD). Currently I expect I have far too many copies of some things and other data that is in danger of being lost to a hardware hiccup or software accident. I’ve been thinking about building (and at one time had a partial mock-up written in perl) a set of tools to help maintain a database of file information and locations to help me ride herd on this stuff. There are likely commercial solutions out there, but I know what I want and expect that I can meet my own needs better than one of those tools.

    This also gives me an opportunity to experiment a bit more with SQLite and perhaps MySQL for data storage and some other related tools. Who knows, there might even be a snazzy VR tool in the distant future here :). Expecting this to get kicked off once work on the house dies down in the mid-fall time frame.

  • Virtual Reality Stuff

    I have been keeping an eye on VR hardware for some time now. I just saw reviews of the equipment out there and I expect that I’ll likely order an HTC Vive set sometime in the next few months. I need to get my OpenGL up to speed I expect and then get my hands dirty with their APIs to boot. I’d love to start playing with this stuff and the hardware appears to have matured to the point where things are becoming possible that weren’t just a short time ago.

  • Internetted Board Wargame

    I have loved hex grid based board wargames since college. Also since I graduated college I’ve had a hard time finding the time and the people to play with.

    I would very much like to put together a simple wargame in the style of the Metagaming MicroGames with a game rules engine and back-end on ninecrows.com (presumably written in PHP with the data in MySQL here) and a front end likely implemented as WebGL or canvas code (could still go with other options…or several). Much to be decided on this front before I have anything to even start working on.

  • Android Coding

    I’ve got Java and I’ve got a basic familiarity with Android. I want to put some more complex android code together and get serious about playing with the platform. A front end for games stuff might happen or I may put together some tools that meet other needs I have on my phone and tablets.

  • Laser Cutter

    Given one or more working 3D printers, a logical next step would be a two axis gantry with a laser diode and some optics to implement a light stock laser cutter. I actually can see more use cases for a laser cutter than for a 3D printer right now (aside from being tools to make other tools with) but given that the printer can make parts for the cutter, the printer comes first.

Engineering execution and creativity mixed for the best results…