Its Been a While! Update Time

It sure has been a while!So lets go over what has been going on this year so far.Giant wall of text abounds so please bear with me.

Its Been a While! Update Time

It sure has been a while!
So lets go over what has been going on this year so far.
Giant wall of text abounds so please bear with me.

To start I have gotten myself licensed for amateur radio operations!
I have been working on a few things, Lets go over stuff I have finished first.
I fixed my Cocoon create touch by giving it a new hotend. Still not quite sure what was causing prints to fail around 5cm in but that has not presented since I swapped the hotend so that's good! I also managed to find another of this printer at the local Savers and snatched it up immediately.
While I was at it I also added in a new part cooling fan that I am less likely to break and a removable PEI spring steel bed which has been a DREAM for all of my PLA+ prints.
I have also just gotten ahold of an Anycubic Photon Mono 4k printer and as of writing this have just put out my first test print, have a look at it

A bit of a tricky pic put heres my first attempt at resin printing


I have also for the most part completed my new desk, I worked on that over the holidays with my dad. It was nice to hang out with him for the weekend.

For projects that are in progress we have the Hexaplane folding 1/4 wave ground plane antenna. This is very close to done, Current prototype has an excellent 1.01 SWR in the VHF part of the armature spectrum which makes it great for my portable station plans. Only thing keeping me from calling this one done is that I would like to try printing it out of something a bit more weather resilient such as ASA.

Also a WIP that is close to done is my portable 18AH solar power station.
This one is intended for powering up my IC-705 and other camping equipment. So far all that's left on that one is a little more wiring and some clean up and cosmetic parts to hide the visible wires. I got to test it briefly during a blackout we had and it powered my USB-C devices wonderfully. the solar panel I got to use with it is somewhat lacking however.

Less project related is my health stuff.
I had some rather gnarly pain in my chest for a few months which was causing some issues. Had a minor procedure to look into that and it seems to be too many pain killers, So I am now treating migraines with massage and heat packs.
I bought a neat reclining massage chair to help me with the daily aches and that does seem to be helping with reducing the frequency of pain.
I have also gone through a rather nasty bout of hip bursitis which after some time trying to treat it with physiotherapy we went the corticosteroid route. So far it seems to have vastly improved as a result of that. Hoping it stays that way.
Sleep remains an ever present thing that I just dont seem to get enough of, Though I am currently working through that with the doctor.

I have also begun a general cleanup and reorganization of my entire work area, which has involved a fair bit of printing the lovely Gridfinity system designed by Zach Freedman, It has been really nice to see my workshop become cleaner and much more workable. (Pictures of that to come in a separate post once its all done.)

I have been collaborating with my new friend Drekk on some firmware for a protogen head, I have lots of WIP pictures of that and it has been a really fun project that has put me into some unfamiliar yet somewhat fulfilling territory

Plans for the future
I would like to get my hands on a caravan to setup as a sort of permanent workshop/radio shack.

I am currently planning to build a few more antennas so expect some fun posts on those soon

I have loads of other projects that are in various states of planning or work, I will need to organize those before I go through them for posting here.

I have also booked some fun fandom conventions with some friends! Including one that will involve a road trip to Queensland. I am super looking forward to that one!

With all of that out of the way here's a bunch of photos! (some of which are a bit old...)