I like my Sony MRD-V6 Headphones, but they have a weak point which I had to address somehow.  Fortunately I recently bought some TPU for other projects and used it to make this strain relief boot which works really well.  You can find it here.

This country and the world has lost so many this year, those of us lucky enough to have healthy families should not have a hard time finding something to be thankful for.  We can all be thankful for the front line healthcare workers who are giving up much more than their holidays to care for the sick in this pandemic.  And we can all be thankful that there is hope on the horizon, with several promising vaccines on the way.  We just need to keep focused on not letting our guard down, and avoid letting ourselves become a further burden on an already overwhelmed health care system.  Next year has got to be better than this. 

I hope you and your families are safe and healthy, and stay that way, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This is something that I thought of after I made the Audio Extender, and then found a slim USB 3.0 Hub which would fit just about perfectly with it.  I mounted mine, sandwiched between the desk and controller for my Uplift Desk (holes were made specifically for that), but there is no reason it could not be mounted by itself.  This uses the following parts, aside from the mounting screws.

• MillSO 3.5mm Headphone Extension Cable
  
• Anker 4-Port USB 3.0 Ultra Slim Hub
  

The cable boots were printed with Priline Black TPU, but I plan to add some parts that should allow the whole thing to be printed in PLA (or PETG).

You can find this thing here.

Seems like my printers only get stupid when I'm running ear protectors.  Saw this after dinner tonight, a big blob of PTEG stuck on the nozzle.  Fortunately it did not ruin the fan duct, but unfortunately it covered the block with it's taffy like evil.  There was also a dusting of white powder around the hot end and on the fan duct which I'm guessing is from the white pigment in the PETG.  On top of the problem with the blob, the failure stuck a bunch of plastic firmly to the PEI sheet which took a half hour to clean up by itself using a razor blade and scotchbrite.

To clean this mess I heated it to 200°C and carefully used a long nose pliers with some paper towel twisted around the end and got the bulk of the mess off.  Then I used a brass brush (again very carefully) to clean up the sides of the block - except for the side where the wires connect (too easy to short it there).  Then I went back over it with some paper towels wrapped tightly around the long nose pliers and wiped up anything left.  The silicone boot was a write off though, but I have some spares so when I got it back together it looked OK.  Both the pics below are after pics, I was too busy cleaning up the mess and forgot to grab a before, but it was not pretty.  Now trying this again, but with only one ear protector instead of a full sheet of them.

This is just a quick audio jack extender which I needed since the jack on my PC is hard to reach and routing the cable for my headphones makes things messy.  I printed it in PETG and the cable boot was made with TPU.  You can find it here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4653959


Update 11-20-2020: I'm working on another version which will mount between the Uplift desk controller panel and the desk (or could be used on a normal desk without the controller).  It will included a USB hub with cable boots and all the trimmings.  The design is done but I am waiting on the USB hub to verify the dimensions before printing it. 

The Gazebo LED project is about half done, but I have them completed on one of the Gazebos and they look great.  They are arranged as two "L" shaped strings and I'm running each of the strings in parallel from one controller.  The LED controller and remote work perfectly and hopefully, with the housing I designed for the controller, it will last a while.  The only thing that concerns me is heat dissipation from the controller case, but since these will only be on at night I think it will be OK.  The LED hangars place the LED strips at a level just below a fabric flap which hides the hangars and wires, so it looks pretty clean overall.  One more to do, but I have to print more hangars (which take about 4 hours each).

I was gonna swap a CCTV camera with a brand new one that has been sitting in the box for a while.  I tested it in normal light but did not notice when I bought it, that it has a problem in low light.  This camera has four IR LEDs which were reflecting off the clear plastic cover and causing the low light image to be washed out with a bunch of smudges (like the lens was dirty).  The problem was due to the IR LEDs and the camera lens not being tight against the plastic cover, so I made some hoods for the lens and IR LED optics which close the gap between them and the clear plastic cover.  They were printed in Priline TPU which is the first TPU I have printed, and it worked great out of the spool, but like all TPU it degraded with moisture since I didn't have my printer set up to use a sealed spool holder.  It's in the dehydrator now (130°F for 4-6 hours) which helped the first time I ran it through.  This TPU is really tough with just a small amount of flex, like hard rubber, seems like it is tough stuff and I plan to use some for outdoor projects.  I'm using it for another project to make some cable seals for the gazebo LED strips.

Biden did not win with a landslide, and Trump will not concede, but my faith that the (slim) majority of Americans would vote for their own self interest is somewhat restored.  Biden will be greatly hindered in most of is goals thanks to a Republican Senate, and what is sure to be an activist post White House Trump with plenty of time to tweet, and plenty of drones in Congress still willing to do his bidding.  But at least we can begin to start having the conversations in this country about things that matter, and that is the first step to the long work of making America truly great again. 

Of course nothing good will happen until 12:01 PM on January 20th, 2021.  On that day, at that hour, we will finally have a scientifically sound national strategy to emerge from 2020's cloud of COVID-19, which for many people has been a lost year, and sadly for some has been their last year.  We will have a President that understands that science is not "fake news", and that we have limited time to turn the corner and mitigate the worst impacts of Global Warming, which yes, is only get'n started - and we are already seeing the affects of in our lifetimes.  We will have a President who knows how to get things done in a contentious Congress, and may even be able to pass a long delayed infrastructure bill to help position the country for the future.  And finally, we will have a President who will try to do something about the old wounds this country has lived with for far too long, and which Trump has torn open again in his self serving and disgusting gambit.  

Nothing is ever perfect, and electing Biden and Harris will not be a magic fix for all the problems we have, but the first step in fixing a problem is to stop making it worse.  Thankfully America has spoken, and we can finally see the exit ramp where we can get off this highway to hell.

I received all the parts I need, aside from some nuts and bolts, to test the gazebo LED lights.  Nothing too complicated about these, but thought I would share some pics.  I'm really impressed by the 24V power supply and would rather buy this one time than buy 3 of the cheap ones as they go out.  This is also rated for outdoor use, and should be good for higher temps.  Meanwell is a reliable brand too.  I spent a bit more than a regular plug end and bought an IP65 rated GFCI plug end designed for a power washer which looks really well designed with several different size cable relief grommets. 

The RF LED controller works perfectly as well, and is easy to set up.  It is a good compromise between simplicity and functionality, and a good value at about ten bucks for a controller or remote on Ebay (and one remote can operate multiple controllers).  I've also been able to get my design for the LED rail hangers finalized, and tested one of them in place.  It is surprisingly sturdy though I'm not going to try to do a pullup on them.  The hangars were printed in PETG and I am really liking the eSUN Black Opaque PETG since it prints beautifully as long as you slow it down (which is required for all PETG I have tried).

I just need to print 16 of the small hangars and another 20 of the larger ones, as well as 2 controller boxes.  I also have some end caps I need to test which will be printed in TPU (16 of those needed).  I expect that this project will require almost exactly one spool of PETG.  It's going to be a long couple weeks for the printers.  I will probably need to put the Hydra + BMG install for my CR10S PRO on hold for a bit while I get this project done, but I may go ahead and post it to Thingiverse as a work in progress since it's as done as possible without testing it. 

Update 11/8/2020 - The LED controller box works great, however there is one little problem I overlooked.  I had planned to split the output from the controller and run two strings in parallel, but the enclosure I designed only has space for one output line.  That is now fixed, but I need to print it.  I did print the single line version which I will be using in a future outdoor project, so it's not a loss and I was able to confirm that the cable glands fit perfectly, as does the method of securing the controller without screws inside the case.  I do need to tighten up the screw holes for the M3 lock nuts which secure the cover and the dual output version will clip into a holder which will secure it out of sight but still attached to the gazebo.  Overall very happy with the design so far.

I also installed 1/4 of the LED's for this project and they look pretty good, I think.  The controller is flawless and the ability to save colors is very nice.  I would have liked to have the chasing effects but that would have easily doubled the cost on an already expensive project.  I expect the works to be done in a couple weeks since I am still printing stuff for it.

Once again I spent way too much time on a remix which should have taken a couple hours... but I wanted to get the offset for the inductive probe closer to the nozzle.  I tried side mounting it and was still off by 56mm to the left, and then tried a fan mount which looks like it could work.  I'm also going to use the heatfixer (need to slightly remix that for my microswiss hot end).  If the probe is too much of an obstruction to the airflow I may put a 40x20mm fan on there.  The sound is not an issue since it's enclosed anyway.  I just need to print this now, which will take about 15 hours, then test it out.


Update 10-31-2020: I posted it here as an UNTESTED work in progress. 
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4640040