The Bud Toaster - (currently: Model 14, version 3)
- Thread starter Hippie Dickie
- Start date
nothing new to share yet. i plan to take all my work into some maker space. i think i have some useful information to share.
couple of days ago i was vaping on the balcony and thought of a new way to fabricate the cube body. i realized that my cnc router makes it possible to revisit the lessons learned on the cylinder model, with a channel milled for a metal midbody. it eliminates some boring steps and buying new woodworking equipment ... or working with a woodworker. and needs fewer milling steps. 2 or 3 times faster to fabricate.
so, i have to do some drawings, generate some GCODE and make some samples.
i have been consumed by studying biology for the last 5 years - as it turns out, a life or death pursuit. and i MUST wrap up some computer projects.
current cube is still going strong. use it 5 to 6 times per day, every day. but this new idea for the cube is burning a hole in my mind. soon, he says, soon.
couple of days ago i was vaping on the balcony and thought of a new way to fabricate the cube body. i realized that my cnc router makes it possible to revisit the lessons learned on the cylinder model, with a channel milled for a metal midbody. it eliminates some boring steps and buying new woodworking equipment ... or working with a woodworker. and needs fewer milling steps. 2 or 3 times faster to fabricate.
so, i have to do some drawings, generate some GCODE and make some samples.
i have been consumed by studying biology for the last 5 years - as it turns out, a life or death pursuit. and i MUST wrap up some computer projects.
current cube is still going strong. use it 5 to 6 times per day, every day. but this new idea for the cube is burning a hole in my mind. soon, he says, soon.
ApatheticEuphoria
☣Fuck_Combustion☣
I have been following this for nearly a decade... 
thank-you for your interest. two decades for me.
update time ...
my cube was starting to act wonky (technical term - meaning some type of operator assistance (i.e. whack on side with knuckle) was needed for functional operation). so for the first time in several years i took it apart and found the copper connector holding one end of the heater coil had unsoldered from the pcb - must have been a cold-ish solder joint when fabricated - and a thousand heat/cold cycles let it loose. resoldered, reassembled and now running as expected.
i was happy to see there was no infiltration of cannabis, or even dust, inside the cube. ordered and received some 1.7mm router bits for the CNC router for the next iteration of the cube design. this is very exciting - eliminates some drilling steps, wood working steps, detailing steps - could be a game changer.
ordered some 6mm x 6.5" x 15" cherry sheets to try the new cube design. getting back into doing design updates, writing a lot of documentation, and some prototyping.
sometimes X is useful. the AI showed me a new knot: the constrictor. i have been waiting for the perfect knot to appear. it is necessary to bind the two wires of the power cable. zip ties are too cumbersome - bad esthetic. i use WS Deans 16ga ultrawire - 720 strands and wonderful silicon insulation so it is super flexible. but this makes tying the two wires together, well, impossible until the X post ... appears to be problem solved.
how the AI knew to show me this knot, now, i don't know. it's a tease - could have shown me this years ago.
details to follow.
my cube was starting to act wonky (technical term - meaning some type of operator assistance (i.e. whack on side with knuckle) was needed for functional operation). so for the first time in several years i took it apart and found the copper connector holding one end of the heater coil had unsoldered from the pcb - must have been a cold-ish solder joint when fabricated - and a thousand heat/cold cycles let it loose. resoldered, reassembled and now running as expected.
i was happy to see there was no infiltration of cannabis, or even dust, inside the cube. ordered and received some 1.7mm router bits for the CNC router for the next iteration of the cube design. this is very exciting - eliminates some drilling steps, wood working steps, detailing steps - could be a game changer.
ordered some 6mm x 6.5" x 15" cherry sheets to try the new cube design. getting back into doing design updates, writing a lot of documentation, and some prototyping.
sometimes X is useful. the AI showed me a new knot: the constrictor. i have been waiting for the perfect knot to appear. it is necessary to bind the two wires of the power cable. zip ties are too cumbersome - bad esthetic. i use WS Deans 16ga ultrawire - 720 strands and wonderful silicon insulation so it is super flexible. but this makes tying the two wires together, well, impossible until the X post ... appears to be problem solved.
how the AI knew to show me this knot, now, i don't know. it's a tease - could have shown me this years ago.
details to follow.
wonky again ... so i did a deeper dive into the internals to really locate the problem ... sometimes, when looking at this 1.75" pcb though the magnifying light on my desk i swear it seems so much bigger - like the Tardis ... anyway, upon removing the nichrome80 ribbon coil one of the copper mounting clips fell right out of the pcb. and was very oxidized - as opposed to the nichrome80 ribbon which is pristine - so filed all the oxide off, resoldered to the pcb and now the heat up is much, much better going 72°F to 400°F in 10 seconds. it was only hitting 30°F per second with that cold solder joint.
and this cube has been used for 1000s of sessions and the battery pack has been recharged probably 3000 times. LiFePO4 for the win! (Tesla calls it LFP).
and this cube has been used for 1000s of sessions and the battery pack has been recharged probably 3000 times. LiFePO4 for the win! (Tesla calls it LFP).
now, some interesting new performance results ...
i am thinking the cold solder joint has been there for a long, long time. now, i am getting about 20°F overshoot on warm up. and the temp climbs about 2 degrees with a strong inhale. haven't seen this since earlier units. looks like the PID parameters need some tuning. these are stored in a table so trivial to adjust.
i am hoping i can get AI to help with this. in my simple minded view, showing the AI a video of the temperature change with time during a session and giving the table values should figure it out. i wish. copilot in Visual Studio Code is only a little helpful. they sell it as providing so much more - but that's a bit off topic.
generally, the parameters are too large. trial and error adjustments works, too.
i am thinking the cold solder joint has been there for a long, long time. now, i am getting about 20°F overshoot on warm up. and the temp climbs about 2 degrees with a strong inhale. haven't seen this since earlier units. looks like the PID parameters need some tuning. these are stored in a table so trivial to adjust.
i am hoping i can get AI to help with this. in my simple minded view, showing the AI a video of the temperature change with time during a session and giving the table values should figure it out. i wish. copilot in Visual Studio Code is only a little helpful. they sell it as providing so much more - but that's a bit off topic.
generally, the parameters are too large. trial and error adjustments works, too.
2tiki
Well-Known Member
You may want to try the currently free google AI for that. You can show it things on your screen and then ask it questions, like you described.