William Neal Log
Thursday August 6, 2020 - Wednesday June 9, 2021
- Slow pace of collaboration due to pandemic
- Developed numerous lesson plans and approaches using Python and Blender
Monday June 22 - Wednesday August 5
- Further development of ALT-L Course.
- Delivered D3D to collaborator Bill Phelan from local company, Die-X.
Monday June 1 - Sunday June 21
ALT-L Introduction Video ALT-L is presented as a preliminary step in developing an entire school curriculum based on the idea of coherence and connection. There is a potential to link this project to a wider set of Open Source Ecology workshops that consider an entirely different approach to the education system.
Saturday May 9 - Sunday May 31
More work on ALT-L - "Alternative Learning" - Accelerated math and computer programming course for secondary school students. Youtube video on use of Spreadsheets in FreeCAD
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Wednesday May 6-Friday May 8
Open Source Collaboration Mini Course Call with Marcin - August Remote Camp. https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Andreas_Log#Thur-Fri_Apr_23-4.2C_2020 https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/Test https://wiki.opensourceecology.org/wiki/OSE_Collaboration_Protocol
Friday March 27 - Tuesday May 5
Worked on "ALT-L," an accelerated mathematics and computer programming curriculum for secondary school students. The course is under development here with two groups of students from eight countries meeting twice weekly over Zoom. Created a related training manual for the Guyana Prison system using open source technologies such as Linux and Python.
Sunday February 16 - Thursday March 26
Work on OSE Challenging due to work, community and global crisis.
Friday February 14 - Saturday February 15
Personal Build Wishlist - Continued
Friday February 7 - Thursday February 13
William Neal Personal Build Wishlist - Still under development
Monday, December 2 - Thursday Feb. 6, 2020
End of semester disruption; start of semester disruption - a huge amount of time and effort spent on paperwork instead of education. Start of FRC robotics season. Start of computer programming and computer engineering classes.
Saturday November 30 - Sunday December 1
Finished OSE Prusa Build in Guyana. Used Repetier Firmware and Repetier Host to control the printer.
Thursday November 28 - Friday November 29
Workshop with the Guyana Prison Service - 12 prison staff from five facilities in Guyana. Reactivated 6 discarded computers using Ubuntu and OSE Linux. Introduction to Python. OSE Prusa Build
Saturday November 23 Wednesday November 27
Workshop in Guyana with the Guyana Prison Service: The CSSP Project. This project aims to replace the current model of prison management with an approach based on human nobility, education and rehabilitation.
Thursday November 28
OSE Linux - we got six old computers working on Ubuntu using flash drives. Tomorrow will have an Open Source software workshop using OSE Linux on USB drives. We will use Python, FreeCAD, LibreOffice, etc. Showed the TED talk to our group of 12 prison officers from five facilities in Guyana.
Saturday November 2 - Friday November 22
Worked on the OSE Prusa in order to support the establishment of a STEM centre in Trinidad and Tobago and to prepare for a workshop with the Government of Guyana.
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Thursday October 24 - Friday November 1
- Tested printing on the London replication of the D3D printer for the first time.
- Team of 9 students from Western university preparing a project around OSE - D3D replication + filament extruder replication + Chinese Reprap Prusa i3 reverse engineering.
Sunday October 12 - Wednesday October 23
- Updated some files used in the simple extruder build here.
Friday October 4 - Saturday October 11
- Successfully tested D3D simple extruder based on Chinese Prusa i3.
- D3D challenge - Y axis end stop stopped working...
- Almost finished replicating first of two D3D printers in London Ontario.
- Preparing a D3D / Brushless motor workshop for the Guyana Prison Service.
- FreeCAD activity completed at Western University - varied response of individuals in the groups - the allocated time was too short.
Friday September 27 - Thursday October 3
- Continued work on D3D build.
- Experimenting with highly differentiated instruction unconstrained by government curricular concerns - our STEM club's three sections - Robotics / Computers and CAD / STEM projects have each gradually evolved over the last several weeks such that small groups of 1-4 students specialize on special tasks.
- Introduced FreeCAD to a group of junior youth from a local neighborhood. After about 40 minutes each group of two participants completed a motor rotor design.
- Second FreeCAD session with a group of 40 teacher candidate students at Western University's Althouse. Also used highly differentiated / interdisciplinary instruction with this group. After one hour and a half, most groups were able to generate several parts of a brushless motor and begin the process of parameterizing with a spreadsheet and creating an assembly. Some trained engineers in the crowd generated excellent "propellers" for the motor using advanced features.
Tuesday, September 1 - Thursday, September 26
- New School Year - over 40 students participating in our special STEM/Business/Arts program.
- Two sections of our program, STEM Projects and Computer Programming/CAD, include OSE-related topics:
- Building 3D printers
- 3D-printing
- OSE Motor design and fabrication
- Filament extruder
- CAD
- Building a 3D printer in collaboration with Bill Phelan, Vice President of Die-X Ltd.
- Remote collaboration with Branko Misovic in Holland.
- Preparing for a two-week 3D-printer build / open source hardware workshop in Guyana in November.
- Working on simple extruder for the D3D printer.
- Some 3D-printed parts for the D3D printer are not precise enough as they were printed with 1.0mm and 0.8mm nozzles. We are switching to a 0.4mm nozzle and re-printing.
Saturday July 27 - Monday September 1
- Preparation for STEM camps in China.
- Travel to China. Caught behind firewall - Internet was actually a large Intranet - difficult to post, communicate or access any useful sites.
- STEM Camp at Fujing Foreign language school - 10 days - 60 students, 1.5 hours daily - worked on FreeCAD and the OSE motor.
- Built OSE D3D printer with eight 9-11 year-old students (10 days, 3 hours daily) at EIC Education in Shenzhen. The students assembled the axes and helped design some custom 3D-printed brackets for the frame which had to be made out of linear rail. The students learned FreeCAD and were able to design useful parts. Ganesh Ramsahai provided support in completing the build and configuration process. Presented the OSE D3D Shenzhen to the EIC Education Group with a half-hour overview and offer to provide remote support.
- STEM Camp at Zhangjiagang Foreign Language School in Jiangsu province. 30 students, 3 days, 6 hours per day. Introduced FreeCAD and had the students design rotors and stators for the OSE brushless motor.
- Showed the TED talk to four different groups.
- Uploaded raw FreeCAD and stl files from the camps at Fujing Foreign Language School and Zhangjiagang Foreign Language School to Google Drive
- Uploaded custom files generated during the build of the D3D 19.08 Shenzhen.
Saturday July 20 - Friday July 26
LIA summer STEM camp continued with 38 different students from Shenzhen, China. The students discussed, in the context of Marcin's TED Talk, the concept that the human mind, focused and in collaboration with others, has the power to make positive changes in society. Design of covers and caps for the OSE radial motor. Photos from the STEM Camp activities are here. Trying to find the USB where we collected all the FreeCAD files. These will be posted ASAP.
Monday July 15 - Friday July 19
LIA summer STEM camp with 23 students from Vietnam and China. OSE Motor project part II - designing, printing and testing a radial motor. The motor concept was based on the following video: 3D-Printed Axial Brushless Motor for Drones Students were presented with the concept and asked to design such a motor from scratch using two rotors with eight disc magnets each and two sets of six wire loops.
Wednesday July 10 - Sunday July 14
Preparation for summer STEM Camps at LIA. Prepared 3D printers. Began replication of two D3D v19.06 units.
Friday June 28 - Tuesday July 9
Open Source Ecology Microfactory STEAM Camp
Thursday June 27
Titan Aero finally working better with 1.5 full turns + a little bit more for good measure - has not jammed all afternoon now - three parts printed. Logistics for Microfatory STEAM Camp - rented a vehicle and contacted a few participants. A prototype of the OSE extruder has been nearly completed. The extruder gear is scheduled to arrive at Factor e Farm by tomorrow. Then it will be ready for testing. OSE D3D Extruder - Photo AlbumFiles
Tuesday June 25 - Wednesday June 26
OSE D3D Extruder. Worked on attaching extruder to X-axis. Ordered extruder motor gears to arrive at FeF on Friday. Printed out bracket 1 successfully. Working on large aluminium block and designing x-axis adapter.
Monday June 24
Discussion about design of OSE Power Electronics. Problem - transformers are expensive and inflexible. Solution - research the feasibility of creating a 120V buck converter. Would it be sufficiently efficient and would it be feasible to build? Here are some potential parts to use: 1kV Recifier 650V MOSFET. One problem seems to be that there may be a high level of energy loss in the circuit....Optocoupler (to isolate the Arduino)Some background theory
Wednesday June 19 - Sunday June 23
DIY Buck Converter based on the following video (and others): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5oeY53pE0E&t=162s. Photos. All four 3D printers are down. A crucial piece of the extruder of the most reliable printer finally broke. CAD already done for the replacement part. Got the OSE D3D working again on Friday. Ready for printing on Monday - will print replacement part for other printer. Other 2 printers almost working...
Tuesday June 18
Thursday June 13 - Monday June 17
Buck Converters. OSE Power Electronics research. Arduino as controller of Power electronics - frequency issues / limitations. Scalability of Power electronics - can we add modular components to increase voltage, current, etc.?
Tuesday June 11 - Wednesday June 12
Completed and sent CAD Drawings for OSE 3D Printer. Spent most of Wednesday working through a jam on the Titan Aero - it has jammed more in a few days than our other extruder has jammed in over three years.
Monday June 10
FreeCAD Drawings for OSE 3D Printer. Note the use of parametric design in the CAD files - Spreadsheet values become variables used in constraint dimensions. The following is my most recent FreeCAD Parametric Part Design and Drawing Workflow:FreeCAD Workflow
Wednesday June 5 - Sunday June 9
Buck Converters Power Supply: Transformer + Buck Converter + Ripple Smoothing Circuitry
Tuesday June 4
- Arduino Controlled Power Supply - ordered many components.
- Many electronic components specified in DIY articles and videos are now listed as obsolete. Finding replacement parts is not easy. Case in point: LM338K Linear Voltage Regulators - Listed as obsolete on the Mouser website and selling for $91 or more on the Digi-key website.
- Article about obsolescence and demand and supply issues in the electronics industry
Saturday June 1 - Monday June 3
Reviewed OSE Design Guides Reviewed DIY Semiconductors Microfactory STEAM Camp Critical Path Arduino Controlled Power Supply Fabrication of aluminium blocks for hot end for OSE 3D printer extruder. Parametric modelling in FreeCAD.
Tuesday May 28 - Friday May 31
Monday May 27
How to Control an ESC with an Arduino Test of the OSE Motor.
Friday May 24 - Sunday May 26
Not all that much.
Thursday May 23
Thank you to Marcin and Catarina for a refreshing, enlightening and enjoyable visit to Factor e Farm and the Seed Ecohome. Returned to London.
Wednesday May 22
Skype appointment - 12pm Missouri time - friend in Colombia. Uploaded FreeCAD files for D3D v19.04 Power Plug Case to Wiki. Buck Converter
Tuesday May 21
Power Supply Design Tutorial Edited the Video Script Contacted STEM people in Nigeria and Pennsylvania based on the OSE STEAM Camp posted in this Facebook Forum Further communication with friends in Mexico regarding the STEAM camp. Contacted a friend of a friend in Kansas City - Baha'i Community.
Monday May 20
Posted Microfactory STEAM camp on several Facebook STEM/STEAM Education pages. The Living Curriculum Marlin Bed Temperature Settings Worked on the Titan-Aero extruder repairs. The two parts of the extruder tube must be fairly tight (but not too tight!) to avoid leakage.
Sunday May 19
Printing ABS using the OSE D3D - Set the bed temperature to 83 and the nozzle temperature to 255. After 5 minutes of printing, several layers were adhering well. Thermal runaway. Tried 80 and 244; thermal runaway again. Joined several online STEM/Education groups.
Saturday May 18
OSE Revenue Generation - Grameen Bank / Social Business - OSE Curriculum
Friday May 17
OSE STEM Camp Marketing Strategy
Friday May 10 - Thursday May 16
Preparation for trip to Factor e Farm - gathered supplies - PCB boards, glossy paper, wire, magnets, electronic components, hardware, etc. Arrival at Factor e Farm. Work on D3D v. 19.04: [Photos - OSE D3D v19.04 Build at FeF https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10161819908970597&set=pcb.1063740287151880&type=3&theater&ifg=1]
Friday April 12 - Thursday May 9
OSE Motor Completed - ready for testing - Open Source Chinese Prusa i3 Printer Extruder - Configured and began printing with OSE D3D - printing very well at the moment - Booked a flight to Kansas City - heading to Factor e Farm soon!
Monday March 4 - Thursday April 11
FRC Robotics - Ryerson University, Western University. OSE Motor - students have made some progress: OSE Brushless Motor Additional work on the Simple 3D Printer Extruder
Sunday March 3
Completed the first model of the most difficult part to CAD in the extruder - the X-Axis bracket. Will now print CAD files and measure their accuracy before making changes to the CAD parameters. Hopefully this process will result in more accurate parts.
Friday March 1 - Saturday March 2
Further work on open sourcing Chinese Prusa i3 3D printer extruder.
Monday February 18 - Thursday February 28
Began the process of open-sourcing our 3D printer extruder: Simple 3D Printer Extruder (see photos and CAD files in the 3D Printer Folder) Started a new unit in Computer Engineering Technology class. Two groups of students are working on OSE materials:
- The OSE Collaborative Contest
- The OSE Filament Extruder
Saturday February 9-Sunday February 17
Hosted a group of six STEM students from School of the Nations in Georgetown, Guyana. STEM Camp at London International Academy. Introduced the concept of the OSE collaborative contest. Introductory FreeCAD activities. Introduced Python computer programming. Printed out various parts for an open source brushless motor. Link to CAD Files (see School of the Nations sub-folder)
Article in Guyana Chronicle
Wednesday February 6
OSE Coopetition. Discussed wiki + part library + documentation of OSE Coopetition.
Monday February 4
Uploaded version 0.1 of the OSE Collaborative Contest Rules to OSE Collaborative Contest
Wednesday January 30 - Sunday February 3
FRC Build season. Team 6162 Cap Alpaca FreeCAD files
Tuesday January 29
Collected FreeCAD files in a Google drive folder: OSE Collaborative Contest Summary of Nanjing group's schedule: | 2019 Winter Camp Here is some sample work from the FreeCAD workshop:
Sunday January 27 - Monday January 28
Discussed record keeping, file sharing and other skills for collaborative literacy. Created a sample page stub: Brushless Motor Design. Asked students to reflect on sessions learning FreeCAD. Found that it is not necessary to learn a whole lot about FreeCAD in order to get students learning it. Demonstrated two sample FreeCAD 0.17 design processes:
- Design a part like a motor adapter: body - sketch a circle - pad - sketch on a surface - pocket
- Design a sketch with constraints - some straight lines and some arcs closed in a loop with particular dimensions and angles.
After that, students were directed to Youtube videos that covered specific additional skills:
- Threading - inner and outer
- Polar patterns
Through this process, I learned how to do these skills from some students and was able to show other students the same, especially with polar patterns.
Sunday January, 20 - Saturday January 26, 2019
Prepared for and welcomed 19 students from Jinling High School in China. Introduced the concept of the OSE Collaborative Contest. Marcin spoke with the group over Jitsi on Thursday and on Saturday and proposed that the students participate in the OSE Collaborative Contest. It was well received despite the students' fatigue from travel and skiing. Introduced FreeCAD and had students download and install it. Some computers do not immediately work with FreeCAD; hope that the problem may be solved. We plan to further discuss the students' participation in the contest tomorrow and 3D print some of their early FreeCAD work on Monday. Created a link to LIA students' FreeCAD work. Currently the folder is being used for FRC preparation. After the FRC robot is built, we are planning to transition to OSE-related work in this folder: LIA OSE Club CAD Files
Thursday January 10 - Saturday Jan 19, 2019
Heaviest schedule of the year - January and February; progress slower during this time. Working on STEM Curriculum for FeF STEM Camps - Summer School 2019.
Wed Jan 9, 2019
- Use a presentation - template - make a copy - pass this to Heydar - document the simple 3D printing extruder for a low cost 3d printer - [1]
- Homework: Complete STEM Curriculum
January 2, 2019
Ordered parts for a brushless motor to be constructed as part of the contest and part of the Computer Engineering Technology class at London International Academy. In order to make the collaborative contest work, we will need to create a kit of parts to be easily shipped to participating schools.
December 24 2018-January 1, 2019
Took a break. Reflected on plans for OSE London / OSE Club at London International Academy / OSE Collaborative Contest
December 23, 2018
Defined particulars of OSE STEM Camps.
December 22,2018
Conversation with Marcin. Research on OSE Club Activities. Planning for winter semester courses' links to OSE - Computer Engineering Technology and Computer Science. Plans to do the following in Computer Engineering Technology: build a brushless motor and ESC from scratch. Computer Science: Programming projects related to OSE - simulation program? Western University Introduction to STEM Class - offer the OSE Competition as a choice for a final project - help administer / judge / communicate / etc.
December 12-21, 2018
Exams and marking - excellent ways to hinder educational progress. Discussed Canadian bill of materials with Russ Purvis. Discussed the upcoming OSE workshop in Prince George, BC currently in the planning phase. Several phone conversations with Charlie. Worked on some particulars for the upcoming OSE competition in January. Contacted a teacher in Iran to invite her to join the competition with her students. Sent a letter of reference to Russ with respect to hosting an OSE workshop.
December 8-11, 2018
Spoke with Charlie about development of OSE workshops. Spoke with Marcin and Catarina about the same. Updated Marcin about development of OSE club at London International Academy. We now have plans to include at least four schools in our first design challenge - School of the Nations in Guyana, Fujing Foreign Language School in Shenzhen and Jinling School in Nanjing. Was approached by a friend to contact Makerspace managers in St. Thomas and Toronto. Arranged a meeting with the makerspace managers at Western University. OSE Marlin v18.10 works for printing with new printer. Successfully printed base layer of a file. It seems that the extruder may have jammed. Will check again as soon as possible. LIA students continue to develop their FreeCAD skills and are able to design parts in parallel according to a spacial plan and assemble them into a larger model. Installed OSE Linux on laptop now with a new old-school 1TcB hard drive. OSE Linux did not recognise the card reader; everything else seems to work very well. Note: Stepper motors on y axis of D3D became alarmingly hot after about 15 minutes of printing. Perhaps this is a configuration issue; may need to resolve this before allowing the printer to do a full print.
December 7, 2018
Using OSE Ubuntu on laptop with fried SSD. Internet has connection through ping but does not display pages in Chromium. D3D Marlin recent version from OSE website installed in printer. Autohome produces a collision of the z axis with the extruder as by default the z probe is off the plate. Tried to move the y axis using various commands such as G0 Y40 and G1 Y40 all of which cause the Y axis to move until it hits the maximum physically possible position. Spoke with Johann Wong about the possibility of combining an OSE Makerspace skills (Arduino, CAD, etc.) + 3D printer workshop with Human Innovation PIE's soft skills innovation workshop through the London International Academy Foundation. Was using wrong Marlin file for D3D printer - will try correct one asap. Suggestions for D3D: use zip ties and clothespin springs for tensioning belts. This has worked exceptionally well and reliably for our Chinese Prusa derivative; the belts have needed nearly no attention in three years.
December 6, 2018
Was about to test print on OSE D3D when SSD crashed. Did Ubuntu fry it? Researching this.
December 5, 2018
Introduced the OSE design challenge to OSE Club students at London International Academy.
December 4, 2018
Held an informal Introduction to Arduino Workshop at London International Academy to help two grade 11 students with a project. Spoke with Marcin about plans for the OSE design challenge, OSE club and possibility of a summer camp at FeF in May or June of 2019.
December 2, 2018
Created a document outlining a framework for OSL - Open Source London and shared it on Google Docs; visited Charlie to discuss the document.
November 29, 2018
Introduced OSE 3D Printer and Prusa i3 3D printer to parents and students at a local French Immersion school - PAFI. Designed and printed various models using Blender and Repetier.
November 28, 2018
- Updated OSECartCoin with letters.
- Call with Marcin regarding LIA OSE Club
- Build from last week - [2]
November 27, 2018
Wrote the suggested intro to Marcin's next TED talk: Marcin's Next TED Talk
November 26, 2018
Uploaded FeF Brick Press Fabrication video from July 29, 2011 - [3]
Uploaded video of the "Cluckaphone" - July 29, 2011 - [4] Call with Marcin, Catarina and Charlie - OSE Planning
November 25, 2018
Consultation about the establishment of an OSE Club at London International Academy and future directions for the development of OSE Clubs and Makerspaces.
November 24, 2018
We made an OSE Cart Coin with FreeCAD Here are the files for OSE Cart Coin v0.1: File:OSECartCoin.fcstd File:OSECartCoin.stl Attended Marcin's presentation entitled "Education for the Open Source Economy"
November 23, 2018
Built a an OSE 3D printer at London International Academy
November 23-25
Attended first OSE Professional Development workshop at London International Academy with Charles Freer, Pascal Gingras, Marcin and Catarina.
November 18-22
Prepared for the visit of Marcin and Catarina to London.
November 17, 2018
Conversation about OSE development with Charlie. In particular, discussion about education and its relationship to developing the capacity to lead a meaningful and productive life. Reference to overlap of Baha'i means and principles with those of the OSE - elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty, building capabilities in a population, individual agency and initiative within a systematically evolving framework, etc.
November 16, 2018
- Received US $5000 Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant
- Conference call with Marcin and Charles Freer regarding Marcin and Catarina's upcoming visit to London, Ontario
November 15, 2018
Engineering Club students designed and printed a part to add to the Lyman Filament Extruder repository - a bracket for a rocker switch
File:Switchbase2.stl
File:SwitchBracket.FCStd
May, 2012
Started project to build metric version of OSE CEB Press in Nanjing, China
April, 2012
Began 3D Printing project in physics class at London International Academy
July, 2011-October, 2018
Many things happened including severe neglect of the OSE wiki Some highlights:
- Regular incorporation of OSE concepts into classes and presentations 2011-present
- May, 2013 - started collaboration with Human InnovationPIE, a London non-profit organization focused on providing soft skills education for innovation.
- April, 2014 - Recognized in local paper for 3D Printer build with students
- July, 2015 - Asked to start STEM program at London International Academy further to success and popularity of 3D printer project
- September, 2015 - Began building Farmbot with students
- January, 2017 - Began teaching an Introduction to STEM course at Western University with significant OSE-based content.
July 16, 2011
Arrived at Factor e Farm with Haydar Neal
