January 2026 Journal Entries

#0098 (2026-01-24): Matt DiPalma - manufacturing (misc)

Continued to work on the Voron 0.2r1 kit. Completed most of the frame, motion system, and toolhead. Probably only 1 more day.






#0097 (2026-01-23): Matt DiPalma - manufacturing (misc)

Started kit build of Voron 0.2r1.



#0096 (2026-01-22): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Laser cut some 03010-001 rulers.


Tested box layout. May need to reprint the white body piece with the OLED cutout slightly lower.


Attached rubber feet to bottom.


Tested various Ferric Chloride etch-resist options on a scrap piece of copper clad.


The finest and best solution is multiple coats/layers of the Ultra Fine Sharpie, or masking tape for large rectangular areas.


Used these solutions to repair minor issues in the toner-transferred copper mask.


Etched away the copper to reveal the traces.



#0095 (2026-01-21): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Toner-transferred the copper trace mask on the copper clad board. It actually turned out decently for the size and relative complexity. The edges peeled off a bit, but that always happens for me; I will redraw those areas with Sharpie or masking tape. I also scraped off the lingering bits of paper with a knife. For future reference, I used the iron on max heat, let the board cool briefly before setting it in the water, and let it sit in the water for ~20 minutes before rubbing off most of the paper backing, and 20 more minutes before rubbing off any remaining paper residue.



#0094 (2026-01-20): Matt DiPalma - web (misc)

Implemented "!editjournal" command in Mary-Bot to edit an existing journal entry. Date, project & author values are preserved, but text content and uploaded images are replaced completely. Intended to make it easy to fix small grammatical errors or replace pictures. The syntax is: "!editjournal 0094 Revised text content goes here." In fact, this journal entry was created and revised using this command.


#0093 (2026-01-19): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Successfully printed the box assembly from PETG. A little bit of warping on the large flat cover piece, though the screws should hold that in place, and a bit of discoloration streak on the top of the main box component, so I may need to sand/paint or cover with a sticker. Everything fits together well.






#0092 (2026-01-18): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Completed design for a prototype box assembly that should support all the components and the rubber feet I already sourced. Since the part is quite large, it will need to be printed on the machine at work. I will try that tomorrow. I might need to iterate on the main support body at least once to get the depth correct.



#0091 (2026-01-17): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Designed a 3-piece 3D-printed assembly for the project. One component to support the reed switches on the PCB, one box to mount the PCB assembly, and a lid. I still need to add a hole in the top face for the OLED screen. Everything is removably mounted with M3 screws.






#0090 (2026-01-16): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Looking into possibly pivoting away from laser-cut plywood box to a 2-piece 3D-printed box. It would be more robust, reproducible, and suitable for this container, though it will be roughly 230mm wide, which is approaching the maximum for the Prusa MK3S that I will print it on, which may pose problems.


#0089 (2026-01-15): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Finalized design of top and front/back of manipulative box. Still considering options for the bottom that are easy to remove for access to repair and replace components.


#0088 (2026-01-14): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Continued design of box lid, following the same ridged perimeter profile that worked so well on 03008.


#0087 (2026-01-13): Matt DiPalma - 03010 (xMM2)

Began the CAD for the box. Imported the PCB STEP file from Kicad to ensure a proper fit.


#0086 (2026-01-12): Matt DiPalma - 22001 (RP2040_AVR)

Added usage instructions and photos to the documentation linked by the product URL.


#0085 (2026-01-11): Matt DiPalma - 00001 (CNC Mill)

Trimmed roughly a quarter inch off the end of the ballscrew to make the entire Y-axis motion assembly fit in the frame interior (barely). Installed the stepper motor bracket in the proper location and then installed the stepper itself. Determined that 18mm of shimming will be required below the ballscrew support blocks. I have various aluminum stock thicknesses that together stack up to that value, and I can cut and drill those this week.






#0084 (2026-01-10): Matt DiPalma - 00001 (CNC Mill)

Calculated, measured, marked out, drilled and tapped holes for the Y-axis motion control on the X gantry plate. Installed the linear rails. Because space is tighter than I anticipated, I'll need to saw off a bit from the ballscrew and possibly even some from the drive shaft on the stepper. Not ideal but it should work. I'll also need a different stack of spacers between the ballscrew follower thingamajig and the XY gantry plate since the stepper mount is different, again since space is so tight.



#0083 (2026-01-09): Matt DiPalma - 22001 (RP2040_AVR)

Set up automatic redirect from https://www.marian-scientific.org/22001 to the corresponding folder of the GitHub project repository. Also updated the code and documentation to match.


#0082 (2026-01-08): Matt DiPalma - 22001 (RP2040_AVR)

Completed fabrication of serial number 002 and shipped to our sister facility for future product development. See video of it working during QC testing. it does look pretty snazzy.






#0081 (2026-01-07): Matt DiPalma - 22001 (RP2040_AVR)

Attempting to make an improved version to provide for internal R&D efforts. Updated the PCB design to improve the text spacing on the F.Silkscreen and add a spot for serialization. Etched another PCB and drilled thru holes, slightly nicer than the previous one in a few different ways. Attempted in vain to toner transfer the silkscreen onto the front face for the final time. Decided to just use a sticker for the foreseeable future, as it's not worth the effort for toner, and it's less robust anyway. Just waiting on some ZIF sockets before I can assemble.



#0080 (2026-01-06): Anthony Remark - 03009 (MM1 Minute Hand)

Yesterday, I burned a bootloader on the atmega328P chip, which is now removed from the board shown below.


I used an Arduino Uno to burn the bootloader and to upload the program to the atmega328P. This is the same program that was on the stm32 bluepill. Ofcourse there was a few things that were changed to accomodate the hardware change. Below is the assembled circuit without power.

Unfortunately, The circuit is not operational. We don't need to use the logic leveler with this configuration but the circuit is not operating as expected. There will be further tests using the digital oscilloscope to see if there's a signal output. Maybe the bit bashing isn't working or maybe another microcontroller should be used. Options will be assessed.


#0079 (2026-01-06): Matt DiPalma - 22001 (RP2040_AVR)

I re-soldered the RP2040-Zero board right-side-up, but the programmer still wasn't working. After a shameful 2 hours of debugging, I finally realized I must have fried some magic pixie gems inside the RP2040 by soldering it and running it the wrong way around, so I popped a new one in and it worked a treat. Project complete! See video of it working. If I make another one of these, I will try to do the toner transfer better. It might even warrant an investigation into the heat and pressure levels that give the best results.



#0078 (2026-01-05): Matt DiPalma - 22001 (RP2040_AVR)

I redid the toner transfer of the B.Cu mask. For the areas that didn't transfer properly, I put some blue masking tape,


and that worked surprisingly well. I drilled out all the holes and even cut away the rectangle for the RP2040-Zero board.


The toner transfer for the F.Silkscreen was not so successful even after a couple of attempts. I think it's because I sanded the fiberglass. I just retraced the parts that didn't transfer with black marker.


I soldered the components to the board, and it all looks great, until you realize I soldered the RP2040 board inside-out... I need to fix that tomorrow.






#0077 (2026-01-04): Matt DiPalma - 22001 (RP2040_AVR)

Sigh, apparently printing the PCB mask PDFs from my phone was a bad idea, since it automatically resized them down a few percent to "Fit to Page", and now none of the components fit, rendering a few hours of work yesterday and today completely wasted, except of course the practice etching and the lesson learned.


I reprinted the PDF with "Actual Size" scaling using the NokoPrint app and the settings below.





Before I realized I had the sizing wrong, I did retry the toner transfer of the front silkscreen, and it mostly worked, although the cross and some of the letters did not come thru. The areas of toner that didn't transfer properly, I filled in with marker. I can try again with the correct sizing tomorrow, which should help, although the cross probably didn't have enough direct heat applied to it to transfer.






#0076 (2026-01-03): Matt DiPalma - 22001 (RP2040_AVR)

Used Inkscape to put a bunch of the background copper and silkscreen masks onto a single sheet and printed that on glossy paper.

Transferred that over to a copper-clad board and scored and snapped it to size using a vice.
Etched the copper away,
and then drilled holes into the board. In the future I might remove the extreme 2 rows of pin headers on each side of the Atmega, as they are a pain to drill.
Then, because we had some shorts from the copper pads being slightly too fat, I cut them apart using a razor blade.
Failed the toner transfer of the foreground silkscreen. Will try again tomorrow.


#0075 (2026-01-02): Matt DiPalma - web (misc)

Hopefully successfully implemented a minimum set of functions for Mary-Bot. This post is the first test of the live software.