tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10437405579587825052024-03-12T21:05:57.996-07:00Gizmo's, Gadgets & LifeMatt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-72341403180688545032014-05-26T02:53:00.000-07:002014-05-26T02:53:29.651-07:00Home ESXi Server - Part 3Okay so it's been quite a while, I'll admit it :-)<br />
<br />
However something I have still been thinking about is a home ESXi server. Since I last posted on this topic I've setup my existing hardware as a FreeNAS server. The primary reason for this is that getting some stable storage was the most pressing need I had at the time. The FreeNAS box has been brilliant - super stable and exactly what I was after.<br />
<br />
More recently I've had some other hardware available at home for a while so I've been experimenting with VMWare ESXi 5.5u1 to see how it would play out in practice. I've been pretty happy so far with how easy it is to setup. I'm currently running a Windows Server 2008 R2 instance which is running iTunes for the sole purpose of serving my Apple TV with media from the FreeNAS box (Since the Apple TV can't pick up files off a share by itself ><).<br />
<br />
Now that I'm kind of getting a feel for what I can do with it I'm just starting to think about what the final structure will look like.<br />
<br />
At the moment I'm thinking I'll want the following:<br />
<br />
1: An external firewall/gateway<br />
2: VPN access<br />
3: A DMZ for webservers, etc.<br />
4: A second firewall to interface between the DMZ and the internal network<br />
<br />
I can achieve all these things on the same ESX host. Yes I'm aware of the security limitations of keeping everything on a single host, however for home-purposes I think this will suffice.<br />
<br />
In addition to these key items I'll be wanting to run the following server:<br />
<br />
- directory server<br />
- the aforementioned AppleTV supplier<br />
- a Windows instance to run Repetier Host for my 3D printer (this will require USB passthrough)<br />
<br />
I've got to sit down and work out a design so that I know what hardware I'll need (number of physical NIC's, etc.) Once I've got that sorted I can get the hardware and then start the configuration and build process :-)<br />
<br />
I'll try post regularly here as I go.Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-22086533265122339032013-06-15T00:42:00.000-07:002013-06-25T03:22:39.663-07:00Home ESXi Server - Proof of conceptSo I decided prior to shelling out for new hardware for an ESX host that I'd try to get ESXi running on my existing hardware (a Core 2 quad process Q6600 based system). Turned out to be easier than I expected!<br />
<br />
I decided to go down the route of installing the ESX image onto a USB drive (using the ESX appliance OS rather than installing ESX on a full host OS). I downloaded the iso, put it on a disk, stuck a USB in the back of the machine and I was away... The install failed when it came to detecting a NIC - which is understandable given it was a Atheros onboard network controller - not exactly the sort of hardware I imagine an enterprise OS would expect to encounter.<br />
<br />
This temporarily stumped me and I got busy on other things for a week or so... Anyway last night I decided to do some more investigation. I found that there were a surprising number of other people trying to use the same sort of hardware, and fortunately someone had put together a VIB for the driver for the Atheros network controller that was on my motherboard. With some handy instructions (which I'll find again and post up here) I was able to create a custom ISO with the injected driver and have another go.<br />
<br />
Long story short - great success.<br />
<br />
The install no longer failed at the point of detecting a NIC and went on to let me start the install to the USB drive - below is a picture of the install screen where you can set the relevant install device (Remember that if you are installing to a USB stick you'll need to make sure that it's set as the primary boot device in bios before you try to boot off it).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsO524sK-f6gRn_qetDrwXyxYt5AfRM20807Ug2vRGOdN7Df5WIWYSkD-7lO1XF6v52Xvn95i3N0fBK7fWhek9YYlvRVsaPVvJoilNHs7ZwCzJiv-gTdNXKfaUn72xgRVkkxDlwdWTdI/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJsO524sK-f6gRn_qetDrwXyxYt5AfRM20807Ug2vRGOdN7Df5WIWYSkD-7lO1XF6v52Xvn95i3N0fBK7fWhek9YYlvRVsaPVvJoilNHs7ZwCzJiv-gTdNXKfaUn72xgRVkkxDlwdWTdI/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I selected the flash drive and continued - during the install I got a warning that Hardware Virtualisation is not a feature of the system or enabled in bios - it lets you continue the install though.<br />
<br />
First time during the install it had an IO error at 74%, second attempt and it installed... I rebooted the system and booted off the flash drive, all was going well until it had a "buffer too small" error loading one of the system files. A quick google indicated that this was likely to be an error with the install media - I checked the MD5 checksum of the original ISO and that was fine, then I recorded the injected version of the iso and then went through the injection process again. Interestingly the MD5 of the new ISO was different to the old one. I'm not sure whether this is because the injection process doesn't necessarily do things in exactly the same way every time or because there was actually an issue the first time. Anyway I burnt this new ISO to a CD and tried again. I also swapped to a new USB drive as I wasn't sure whether it was possible the drive failing and causing random IO errors. Anyway - this time the install went faster (so I suspect the first USB stick was bad) and everything ran a dream - a few minutes later I was booted into ESX host :-)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtokt2JvXgLU9daO3IpJEt67FvSCwhKnToeLjHdueHSTbSsLCn7BqafFmO9hBOGdXj9oQAvCXCScgB1kcLiSvtyGXDgmHT2yAoJQ-A0r-GHWGZ_i05Hk6-o13sGPNraN5n-oJVpL5zirM/s1600/photo2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtokt2JvXgLU9daO3IpJEt67FvSCwhKnToeLjHdueHSTbSsLCn7BqafFmO9hBOGdXj9oQAvCXCScgB1kcLiSvtyGXDgmHT2yAoJQ-A0r-GHWGZ_i05Hk6-o13sGPNraN5n-oJVpL5zirM/s320/photo2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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As you can see here I didn't actually have the machine plugged into the network at this point - anyway - today I plugged it in, booted it up and accessed it across the network. I downloaded the vsphere client and installed it (after putting a Windows 8 VM on my Macbook Air) and what do you know - everything seems great. I've got to buy some new disks before I can go installing clients etc, but this is definitely looking like a great option.</div>
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I know that using the free version of ESXi I miss out on a lot of the enterprise features but given that I don't want to run or manage multiple ESX hosts and given I don't really have any desire to do any fancy pass-through type stuff I don't think it's going to be any major limitation for me...</div>
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Anyway - more to come :-) </div>
<br />Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-52327209965516296562013-06-04T00:46:00.002-07:002013-06-04T00:46:26.814-07:00Home ESXi serverSo,<br />
<br />
I'm currently pondering the idea of building a home ESXi server. When I first had the thought it sounded like total overkill - however the more I think about it the more I think it might be a good idea.<br />
<br />
<br />
The primary driver is having had 3 data disks die in the last 4 years. The yearly stress of recovering data off dying disks is kinda getting to me, so some sort of RAID'd / High Availability storage is a key requirement for me... This is all very well, however it's a pain to have some other aspect of hardware kark out as well. In the last few years I've had two motherboards die - and rebuilding servers is a bit of a mission. So why not solve both of these issues with ESX. High availability disk + VM servers which can easily be brought back up on new ESX hardware (I'm not wanting high-availability servers so I don't need multiple ESX hosts, it's more about the ability to easily stand the virtual environment back up once the hardware is fixed).<br />
<br />
I've been looking at a few sites that have articles on the topic - namely:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thehomeserverblog.com/esxi-lab-specs/">http://thehomeserverblog.com/esxi-lab-specs/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.techexams.net/forums/virtualization/78434-bulding-esxi-home-server.html">http://www.techexams.net/forums/virtualization/78434-bulding-esxi-home-server.html</a><br />
<br />
Now to be honest some of what they are doing is more than I really need - I don't plan on virtualising user machines - only server instances, and they really aren't going to be hardware intensive enough to require some of the more advanced features of ESXi, so I'm going to keep things simple and cost effective I think.<br />
<br />
The server's I'll want to run are:<br />
<br />
- File Server + iTunes Server<br />
- Open Directory Server<br />
- Web Server<br />
<br />
Plus the ability to easily stand up VM's for development etc. So definitely not anything hardware intensive. I'm planning on using something along the lines of the following for hardware:<br />
<br />
CPU: Midrange i7 processor<br />
RAM: 16GB<br />
MB: Something that has onboard LAN and SATA Raid that is supported by ESXi<br />
HDD: Lots of standard SATA disk (2TB 7200rpm probably as that seems to be the best price point at present)<br />
Network: the onboard LAN plus Intel NIC's (which I'll get second hand off ebay as it's about a trillion times cheaper than buying new in NZ)<br />
<br />
I've tried installing ESXi on my current server hardware (an old desktop) and it only failed on the lack of an Intel NIC so I'm not forseeing any major issues.<br />
<br />
Anyway - as you can probably tell I'm in the early stages of considering this - much planning still to be done.Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-64238379831683260232013-01-29T13:09:00.000-08:002013-01-29T13:09:10.296-08:00MendelMax 1.5 (Part 6) - It's Alive!!!I've got a bit of a confession to make...<br />
<br />
IT WORKS!<br />
<br />
Given I've been working on the reprap in my spare minutes and hours it's proved a bit difficult to blog and document as I go along, particularly as I've spent a lot of time figuring it out as I go. What I'll do is now go back and document how the process went. My learning and observations etc.<br />
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Anyway - I got the first print on the weekend, stoked with how well it all came together! Here's a picture of the first print!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHAKM50HgXHPodHOuySVjag2w8BKOsb9fQVlAA9pYvjw4DO02zjhLp-aF24oGrxUZteUts7YAg7DGgOo6j_no_DPMvVU4I7EqyGoU68o7XsMkyrb0GGAM_V0umHmtRz0xnkRnu2_qL_ao/s1600/IMG_0373%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHAKM50HgXHPodHOuySVjag2w8BKOsb9fQVlAA9pYvjw4DO02zjhLp-aF24oGrxUZteUts7YAg7DGgOo6j_no_DPMvVU4I7EqyGoU68o7XsMkyrb0GGAM_V0umHmtRz0xnkRnu2_qL_ao/s320/IMG_0373%5B1%5D.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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Yes, that is actually the first ever attempted print, so as you can see it's working amazingly well for having had no calibration! To be fair I did spend a fair amount of time calibrating the device mechanically with rulers and levels etc.<br />
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Anyway - I was able to straight away print some brackets for mounting endstops on (the initial printing was done with no endstops! (I was extremely careful).<br />
<br />
I'll start updating the backlog of progress soon :-)<br />
<br />
Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-21362861156998919312012-12-05T23:58:00.004-08:002013-06-04T00:57:22.605-07:00Draytek Vigor 120 & Apple Airport Extreme (PPPoA to PPPoE passthrough)So something that I've been working on for a while, and finally have acquired and completed is linking up my AirPort Extreme with a <a href="http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor120.html" target="_blank">Draytek Vigor 120</a> ADSL2+ modem. If you are familiar with the concept the idea is thus:<br />
<br />
The AirPort Extreme is a wi-fi/LAN router, and, although it is not a modem itself, it has the ability to establish a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pppoe" target="_blank">PPPoE</a> connection via a modem. This is advantageous in that it lets the AirPort handle everything from the internet connection, to NAT to DHCP. The problem in New Zealand at least is that pretty much all our DSL connections are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pppoa" target="_blank">PPPoA</a> not PPPoE. This is where the Draytek comes in.<br />
<br />
Unlike the sort of modem your ISP probably sent you the Vigor 120 has the ability to carry out PPPoA to PPPoE passthrough when in modem mode. This means that the AirPort Extreme can use the Draytek to establish what it thinks is a PPPoE connection to the ISP.<br />
<br />
Good, good.<br />
<br />
The whole thing is surprisingly simple to setup. Only thing is, you may wish to have an alternate internet connection handy in case you manage to stuff things up and need to do some investigative work to get things going again.<br />
<br />
Steps to setup are as follows:<br />
<br />
1: Plug in your Draytek to power and DSL. Connect a network cable from the Draytek to your portable computer of choice.<br />
<br />
2: By default the Draytek device lives at 192.168.0.1, so set your computer to have an IP address of anything else on the 192.168.0.x subnet, go to your internet browser and go to <a href="http://192.168.0.1/">http://192.168.0.1</a><br />
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3: Hopefully you get a login prompt for username and password. Now the Draytek manual that came with by device stated that by default you should not enter anything in either field and just press ok. Usefully this isn't the case. I needed to enter "admin" as the username and leave the password field blank.<br />
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4: you should end up with a screen looking something like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtdcWjC1aKc2uQ29rv-iO9RebKPDbqRT_LViZYTEErACnUbW2DtnuaIj2hCQLbQkwXM-ufJc39Ff1uxLYowu3B070NV3MM7Bm1oAd8s0AG_NpmLYRnFKW_11Q4duBqurMV4L_JCMO5-go/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtdcWjC1aKc2uQ29rv-iO9RebKPDbqRT_LViZYTEErACnUbW2DtnuaIj2hCQLbQkwXM-ufJc39Ff1uxLYowu3B070NV3MM7Bm1oAd8s0AG_NpmLYRnFKW_11Q4duBqurMV4L_JCMO5-go/s320/1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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5: Click on the "Internet Access" link on the left hand side, and then click on the "PPPoE / PPPoA" option. you should get a screen similar to below:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzq_Btu6IRBvueqegP-cBYEmnLCajsjycPvESwNmhvFWXB4SO9koOuYBLjyiNV7BuYVedpPjML1W9oZWwnJjwrYvSl4Mf8i2bBOnEsFHYMwj8MVU-IoOv3lLTrPIxINlmVukUCli7zhX0/s1600/2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzq_Btu6IRBvueqegP-cBYEmnLCajsjycPvESwNmhvFWXB4SO9koOuYBLjyiNV7BuYVedpPjML1W9oZWwnJjwrYvSl4Mf8i2bBOnEsFHYMwj8MVU-IoOv3lLTrPIxINlmVukUCli7zhX0/s320/2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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6: All you need to do is tick the little checkbox that is labeled "For Wired LAN" in the "PPPoE Pass Through" section. This configures the Draytek modem to operate in PPPoE passthrough mode and disables all other features (like NAT etc, which we are going to get the AirPort Extreme to do anyway).<br />
<br />
7: You can now unplug the Draytek from your computer and plug it into the WAN port on the back of the AirPort.<br />
<br />
Now we get into setting up the AirPort :-)<br />
<br />
I'm assuming here that you're using the AirPort Utility on a Mac.<br />
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8: Open up the AirPort utility, select your AirPort and hit edit. You should get the screen below:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3-uFc1R120V_6jVbJ_pENcd4HBbp9GueSKrTKS04TlvGEp3RgdrzCS9C8xuU8eWfSnxOdxxWw4YtDES0j_4EGEJzp54-_VsoaKOcGQNDOVo8tmUWsY1_g2HbvKC0HsbFw21k75X4FXQ/s1600/a1.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3-uFc1R120V_6jVbJ_pENcd4HBbp9GueSKrTKS04TlvGEp3RgdrzCS9C8xuU8eWfSnxOdxxWw4YtDES0j_4EGEJzp54-_VsoaKOcGQNDOVo8tmUWsY1_g2HbvKC0HsbFw21k75X4FXQ/s320/a1.tiff" width="320" /></a></div>
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9: Hit the "Internet" tab at the top, you should get the screen below:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbT568ztWMFOR15s8AX68_FVojxDbs-lXFoEQKD8M8KuZK_Oy3MRrzJmZa5Hq1vs5A7zSPwLZoJ6a_ebowWpb2ZP-GyhXw7esGS31_PdwjUKWrAWStK7hPifqN5ghcW2T2FsDVBpA8xgM/s1600/a2.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbT568ztWMFOR15s8AX68_FVojxDbs-lXFoEQKD8M8KuZK_Oy3MRrzJmZa5Hq1vs5A7zSPwLZoJ6a_ebowWpb2ZP-GyhXw7esGS31_PdwjUKWrAWStK7hPifqN5ghcW2T2FsDVBpA8xgM/s320/a2.tiff" width="320" /></a></div>
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To set the AirPort up to handle your internet connection via the Draytek Modem you need to do the following:<br />
<br />
Connect Using: Set this to "PPPoE"<br />
Account Name: Your ISP account name<br />
Account Password: Your ISP account password<br />
<br />
Everything else can be left as-is.<br />
<br />
10: Go to the "Network" tab and you'll get the following screen:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjPSLST5QVX6AeTF8Yvi2dEwwH9HGvHmDQ4pWH6ssKOoeUaEiAJTVnyKRHwZW9zDKW0HtT8lrl6YSfMHjXHb58mizta1S1xoZYMJxlIU5YtJzBtx33Sl7yVposwCVOpsUGqUql7qSFQkI/s1600/a3.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjPSLST5QVX6AeTF8Yvi2dEwwH9HGvHmDQ4pWH6ssKOoeUaEiAJTVnyKRHwZW9zDKW0HtT8lrl6YSfMHjXHb58mizta1S1xoZYMJxlIU5YtJzBtx33Sl7yVposwCVOpsUGqUql7qSFQkI/s320/a3.tiff" width="320" /></a></div>
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11: You should see that the Router Mode is set to "DHCP and NAT", if not you should set this. You can also configure additional options, DHCP reservations, port settings ,etc. but that isn't required at this point.<br />
<br />
12: Hit "Update" and your AirPort will reboot to load the new config. When it comes back up you should be able to connect to it and see on the "Internet" tab that it has an ipv4 address listed (This is the external ip address of the AirPort now that it is connected to the internet.<br />
<br />
At this point all should be working and your AirPort serving internet access to your client computers :-)<br />
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Hope this is of some use to people.Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-61499692989179789722012-11-19T13:26:00.000-08:002012-11-19T13:26:13.594-08:00MendelMax 1.5 (Part 5)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I got the additional hardware I needed from Anzor and have subsequently completed construction of the main frame. It's now looking like this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsCfgmu2L2kNCaNlVx_IqvRB3guGwavCrI7ECljAmCSVhOu4oz2xFTKjku4gzybnAYmr5PszQWhiY0oyMt7_1FbXPNq1XddwqZXkBA9sXLoL_F2MhTI31lIG9QaReBKmFNLN_zUpvOew/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsCfgmu2L2kNCaNlVx_IqvRB3guGwavCrI7ECljAmCSVhOu4oz2xFTKjku4gzybnAYmr5PszQWhiY0oyMt7_1FbXPNq1XddwqZXkBA9sXLoL_F2MhTI31lIG9QaReBKmFNLN_zUpvOew/s320/photo.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which is awesome. The great thing about the design is how easy it is to assemble and swap parts in and out. I realised that for the way I am going to build the y-axis I needed a couple of extra t-slot nuts in the lower ends of the frame. So you simply unscrew the particular aluminium extrusion and slide it out. No need to disassemble the whole rig or anything.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I'm stoked with my colour choice as well. It cost $25USD extra to get the aluminium in black, but I think black with the sky-blue PLA looks really awesome.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Since I took the above picture I've attached part of the y belt tensioner and the y-axis motor mount.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been talking to James about the y-axis carriage and I think I'll go the same route as him. Hardwood with 4 PLA holsters (one for each bushing) cable-tied, or similar to the hardwood. This seems like the simplest way of constructing it. Maybe later I can look at a printed carriage or something, but at the moment my main goal is to get the printer up and running, optimisation can come later :-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">James is currently printing the z-axis components that I need to continue construction. I'm also getting him to print the y-axis rod supports as well. Will get him to print the wade's extruder components later on.</span>Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-58277035373146836482012-11-12T16:14:00.000-08:002012-11-12T16:14:25.669-08:00MendelMax 1.5 (Part 4)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right, so last week I commenced assembly of the lower portion of the frame. My aluminium extrusions finally arrived looking all nice and shiny :-)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9xfQajnOFIkr9j0vCBforEG-qjbfbTXVz2odLezvwPBc6dufqA2OweW4EqcLdiB9smTkbcn7Bzv6FsBdKUg5LFGoaiZz_eeYSrmNoBRtxIZR7u7sOUEpnn1ZcbjL3ZOg5gixZFL8Qd94/s1600/photo4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9xfQajnOFIkr9j0vCBforEG-qjbfbTXVz2odLezvwPBc6dufqA2OweW4EqcLdiB9smTkbcn7Bzv6FsBdKUg5LFGoaiZz_eeYSrmNoBRtxIZR7u7sOUEpnn1ZcbjL3ZOg5gixZFL8Qd94/s320/photo4.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The assembly is really easy and I soon had the lower portion of the frame looking like this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7GUz2PP7Yh_j5x5Crkg7wDE8LDm5gZXTw6hHzNENTZvqJUrxUg-RtuMd07ZNUwPyJygd9z_iHZUYxmTMdf81AlM9InW1TDWxBgOpKDeq21gD4Y2TwhdCoZlGO8iXHXJPqXe8lGonbbGU/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7GUz2PP7Yh_j5x5Crkg7wDE8LDm5gZXTw6hHzNENTZvqJUrxUg-RtuMd07ZNUwPyJygd9z_iHZUYxmTMdf81AlM9InW1TDWxBgOpKDeq21gD4Y2TwhdCoZlGO8iXHXJPqXe8lGonbbGU/s320/photo.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I started assembling the upper portions but I ran into needing some countersunk machine screws to attach the upper portions to the base frame. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So I sent off an order to Anzor which is hopefully arriving this afternoon. I was also able to order my 8mm threaded rod and a bunch of other minor hardware that I need.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Ooohhh also - my budaschnozzle arrived :-) looking very shiny.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTLztwfUq3MseAyznVMc-1IvXY0Q4IbmQAngC1tvoZdt9MfKKtxwT3AISOBeJvIhWBjk1XrHuQqduQ64jrKbx7MNazPf4qX6rrP064PJrT65tYipqma04ajWvq9XmZ3gSIns2kUKyds0/s1600/photo5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOTLztwfUq3MseAyznVMc-1IvXY0Q4IbmQAngC1tvoZdt9MfKKtxwT3AISOBeJvIhWBjk1XrHuQqduQ64jrKbx7MNazPf4qX6rrP064PJrT65tYipqma04ajWvq9XmZ3gSIns2kUKyds0/s320/photo5.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hopefully the Anzor order will be waiting for me when I get home from work and I can continue on the frame construction. My next task after that will be to work out what exact equipment and printed parts I need for the y-axis (I'm going with a standard Prusa y-axis) rather than the rolling carriage type axis that the Mendel 1.5+ uses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span>Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-82608312778211348022012-10-24T15:26:00.000-07:002012-10-24T16:49:16.459-07:00MendelMax 1.5 (Part 3)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, goodies started arriving yesterday - which, in the case of the PLA, is particularly awesome as I needed it in order for James to be able to start printing my parts :-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Here's a lovely picture of PLA in a coil in a plastic bag.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This particular colour is Sky Blue - and it looks awesome when printed :-) Big shout out to Vik Olliver who got this to me super-quick over a holiday weekend!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My electronics kit also arrived yesterday. This is the 3D Gadgets kit that I got off ebay. It arrived EXTREMELY well packaged - direct from China. I'm very pleased with the quality of the kit - I've included a bunch of photo's below:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All packaged up (all of this came in a FedEx bag)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unwrapped</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Limit switches in a handy dandy little case :-)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlEf8OgcHZUPGrVdW7VuDnIyJhVJzzcVZZtjNwCiVrhCNHareZN-yOEalgTCdPVgeDUeaDI0jKtSWXckio7dCWkxeUQoUJTTzNJlFfSZsPOFkzJeelMBKXa1Koec89bXtqYV4z6M9ILQA/s1600/121024+-+LCD.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlEf8OgcHZUPGrVdW7VuDnIyJhVJzzcVZZtjNwCiVrhCNHareZN-yOEalgTCdPVgeDUeaDI0jKtSWXckio7dCWkxeUQoUJTTzNJlFfSZsPOFkzJeelMBKXa1Koec89bXtqYV4z6M9ILQA/s320/121024+-+LCD.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">LCD and SD board</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arduino, RAMPS, Motor Drivers and fan</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I said I'm very happy with all of this - buying it in a bundle saves a heap on shipping to NZ - plus it means you're less likely to not be able to get hold of that crucial something.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which brings me to the exciting part of this post!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last night I went round to James's place to commence printing of my parts on his Prusa. He only got it extruding a week and a half ago and already it's printing parts beautifully! We got the STL's all ready to go and set the printer up with my PLA. We printed the first couple of top vertexes last night and he's printing the rest of the plates over the next week. Below is a picture of two of the vertexes being printed:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here is a video of the printing :-)</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzZdvHRIUAb9pyxOPbMlJOBsDJrhksrn9YXLP2QxueRa49IupSzODGRN5hV2zliMawFq5KBfktOOGtXsp4E4w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Very cool :-)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So now I'm basically just waiting for more parts to arrive so that I can commence assembly. I guess I also need to get my hands on a soldering iron!!</span></div>
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Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-4750465197773476922012-10-23T12:52:00.000-07:002012-10-24T16:49:01.848-07:00MendelMax 1.5 (Part 2)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not much to report as yet - I've been receiving shipping updates for all of my goodies that are winging their way around the world to me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I got some miscellaneous hardware yesterday from Anzor (most of the stuff that I was originally going to get from McMaster) so that's all ready and waiting and I'm expecting my first roll of PLA this afternoon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Which leads me to the exciting bit!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I'm going round to my mates tonight to sort the print plates for all the printed parts I need for the MendelMax. The whole print process is going to take a while, but we're going to get everything sorted and run the first few pieces through :-) I'll be sure to take lots of photos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Incidentally here (<a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/download:64101">http://www.thingiverse.com/download:64101</a>) is an awesome 3D PDF model of the MendelMax 1.5. You can spin the drawing round and zoom in and have a look at everything - quite handy to see how it all fits together.</span>Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1043740557958782505.post-424634677593055432012-10-22T15:15:00.004-07:002012-10-24T15:30:33.629-07:00On going from not having a 3D printer, to having a 3D printer<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is all about 3D printers. If you aren't interested in 3D printers I suggest you stop reading now. Otherwise you're just going to regret wasting precious minutes of your life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Still here? Sweet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">My first experience with a 3D printer was in about 2004 when the Engineering Department at my University purchased a rapid prototyping machine. This machine cost about $800,000 and could manufacture all sorts of cool stuff overnight - it was very awesome and unfortunately I never got to play with it :-(</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Fast forward 8 years. Thanks to the wonders of technological development anyone with a technical mindset can build their own 3D printer for a few hundred dollars (or more if you live anywhere other than the USA and have to pay ridiculous international shipping rates).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">There's a number of different "streams" of DIY 3D printers, the stream I'm going to be focusing on in particular is the REPRAP project (<a href="http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page">http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page</a>). REPRAP, I believe, being short for "Self-Replicating Rapid Prototyping Machine". In that you can use one to print the CAD parts to build another one (once you add in things like steel rod, screws, electronics, etc.). Anyway - I chose the REPRAP project because it's large, well supported in the community and, not insignificantly, my mate is also building one (<a href="http://jct250.wordpress.com/category/projects/reprap/">http://jct250.wordpress.com/category/projects/reprap/</a>) and is a well of knowledge on the subject - I owe him for my decision to build one in the first place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">If you have a look on the REPRAP page you'll see that there's a number of different major designs - after much thought and research I've opted for the MendelMax 1.5 design. It was either that or a Prusa, and it came down to basically nothing in it, so I just picked one of them to go with. The Prusa has more customisability (in my opinion) and the Mendel is possibly easier to assemble - anyway, not too much in it as far as I can see. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So I'm right at the start of this project at this point - in the research and acquisition phase. I'm stoked to have pretty much everything I need on order - a feat that might seem easy, but given I live in New Zealand - it complicates everything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">There's an awesome BOM (Bill Of Material) for the MendelMax 1.5 listed here (<a href="http://mendelmax.com/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=MendelMax">http://mendelmax.com/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=MendelMax</a>) which has been of great use to me, however I haven't been able to utilise all of the suggested suppliers - due to being in NZ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">McMaster have been the most frustrating. I thought I'd order from them since they are the suggested source, and also because they have a handy-dandy online ordering system that allows international orders, also to New Zealand. I placed my order, it calculated shipping and all that and successfully submitted. I was happy. Until I got an email from them this morning stating:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Due to the complexity of U.S. export
regulations, McMaster-Carr accepts international orders only from our
established customers. This decision also applies to orders shipping within the
United States, because it is based on the final destination of the items. We
cannot accept this order or future orders."</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Which is all very well, but leads me to 2 key questions:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">1: If you </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">are based overseas how do you go about becoming an established customer? Do you have to live in the States, become a customer, and then move overseas?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">2: Why on earth have a web ordering system that allows you to place overseas orders as a guest if you have no intention whatsoever of honouring it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Anyway - short story is: if you live in New Zealand don't bother getting your hardware anywhere other than Anzor (<a href="http://www.anzor.co.nz/">http://www.anzor.co.nz/</a>). Very highly recommended. I used the online system to choose my hardware and request a quote. Got a phone call 4 minutes later to discuss and a quote emailed through 10 minutes later - I'm picking the whole lot up this afternoon, for cheaper than McMaster were without shipping charges added.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">VXB.Com and SDP-SI.Com have been all good for international ordering - very reasonable shipping (they also don't seem to have the same problems with "US Export Restrictions" that McMaster apparently do....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">lulzbot.com have also been fine, although I've used NZPost's "YouPost" service to ship to a US address and then forward to me in NZ due to lulzbot's prohibitive international shipping rates.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">For the electronics I got the whole lot in a bundle on ebay (worked out the cheapest) with the bonus that the pack also included the heatbed and motor drivers :-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The motors I got on Trademe from a guy in Dunedin - he seems to put stuff up regularly so worth checking there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">That just leaves some random hardware and the steel rod (which I'm still to source) - so I'm pretty much there in terms of having everything to get started.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I'll post up pictures etc. as stuff arrives.</span>Matt Phttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14839204726138575017noreply@blogger.com0