Aldi 3D printer

I picked up an Aldi "Cocoon Create" 3D printer this morning and spent a bit of time trying it out. It appears to be a rebranded Wanhao I3:

The unit was packed really well and included a few goodies including a really comprehensive printed manual:

Putting the unit together was really simple, here's the unit after following the quick start guide:

It's using Jinsanshi Motor stepper motors, they seem to be fairly quiet:

The earth pin is connected:

Here's a photo I took during bed levelling:

This cord was pinching a bit, so I pulled it upward to resolve the issue:

First print:

All done:

Improving the machine already:

I'm really quite impressed with this machine especially given the price point. I was up and away printing a job within 15 minutes of opening the box.

The only thing I can whine about is the power supply fan which is unnecessarily loud. You certainly wouldn't want to have the thing running all day in the same room in an office environment.

First play with the BitScope Micro

I picked up a BitScope Micro to teach myself a bit about oscilloscopes. So far I've only used the first analog channel to monitor the wave generator, but it seems to do what it says on the box:

The test leads aren't the best quality, but otherwise this looks like a useful tool. You can't expect it to be in the same league as the professional gear, but for the money it's great for learning.

Fluke 17B+ multimeter review

This is just a quick and honest review of my Fluke 17B+ multimeter.

Pros:

• Excellent build quality and decent/safe input protection.
• Nice large screen with good backlight.
• Continuity tester seems fairly fast and the latching works well.
• Has a diode tester, frequency, thermistor input and can measure in the microamp range.

Cons:

• Hold function is not Fluke's auto hold (as you would get on the 87V), it simply freezes the current display.
• Only 4000 count with 0.5% +3 accuracy (DC volts).
• Not a true RMS meter.

The included TL75 test leads seem sufficient and seem to be of a reasonable quality.

As a hobbyist, this multimeter should serve me well. If you need more precision or you do AC measurements you might want to consider something like the Brymen BM257S.

I had assumed the 17B+ would have featured auto hold, so I was a bit disappointed about that (in fact it probably would have swayed me toward the BM257S) but I'm certainly not disappointed in the overall product.

Learning more about EFI systems

I've been interested in the inner workings of cars and engines for a few years now, in particular engine management systems. One project that has my attention is MegaSquirt which is an Electronic Fuel Injection controller intended to teach people how EFI works. I've decided to get in on the action, but since my soldering skills are a bit rusty I'm starting with the MegaStim kit (much easier to build) which is a small diagnostics device used to test out MegaSquirt hardware. I purchased the kit from DIYAutoTune.com and I was impressed with the service, I'll get the rest of my MegaSquirt gear from them for sure. Even if I don't end up using MegaSquirt for anything, I'm sure it will still be worth it for the experience.