Diytao #8, vlog: Fixing with Sugru

Hi,

After a long while I made a new video of fixing things. This time it's about using Sugru and paper clip to repair the broken zipper of the winter shoe.

Onward with video..

Video #8

As a side note, I tried to make a new intro video. But I have to admit I'm not sure if it's a good or not. Feedback is well appreciated. And, yes, no money was harmed on shooting. ;-)

Happy new year: 2012 summary (+ meta-meta)

Hi, and welcome to my last post at 2012. This blog entry will be mostly a summary of things happened at 2012 while making some announcements and vague promises of the upcoming posts.

Ir controlled 4 channel mini helicopter, opened for modding.

Firstly: I know that I have not been nearly as active as I should have been, and I have not even bothered to write a decent Meta about it. Sorry, but I thought that it would be too distracting of the main material to start ranting about things that had not happened. For that, I have now (finally!) decided that I revive my older, long-died blog channel Some quick notes , which I have been neglecting since late 2008. I will post a longer explanation there, and try to limit Meta at this channel to minimum.

One of those 720*480 keychain video cameras.

At these pictures you'll see one of the meny non-finished projects from 2012. It's an remote controlled (4 channel) mini helicopter and miniature video camera, both taken apart for modification. I got this idea of combining these two for couple years back. All this said, I'd expect to get them together someday early 2013 for the first test flight footage.

Of other projects, the Pic based thingy I mentioned back at this entry has not moved a bit since last March or so. Overall it's still valid thingy, and I have not seen similar anywhere. So, with some luck, I'll be getting it ready too, someday.

Besides these two, I have had some practical 'Fix-them, don't trash them' articles in mind with practical real world ideas of renew/recycle. Like repairing everyday items with the materials one could expect to find from electronics-tinkerer's workshop. Also more uses of Sugru, for example repairing and tuning shoes, zippers and coffee mugs.

Also, I still have the unpublished hour-long interview of @Jeri Ellsworth , which I shoot with my mobile phone a year ago (Alt Party, Helsinki). The raw video footage is quite ok, but the sound quality were bad since I didn't have any external microphone with me and the site was LOUD. I have not yet decided what to do with it, releasing it at youtube could be one option.

So, all in all. I do hope that 2013 will be more active year for me with this blog. I'll hope I will get some backlog cleared and the new projects going.

Surgu, part 2, the first fixes. Zi-10 and Huxley

Zi-10 next to sugru bags

To start with Sugru, I decided to hack something easy and useful. I have been using this Kodak Zi-10 1080P pocket video camera for making my youtube videos for some months now, and all in all it's really nice thingy. And for the price (about 60€ on Ebay) you can't really expect it to be professional quality or having all bells and whistles.

Perhaps the most important feature of this camera is 3.5mm stereo microphone connector, which allows me to use either Headset or other external microphone to record the audio with a improved quality. This may not sound much, but it's really difficult to find any inexpensive digital camcoder with external mic connector. Of image quality, it can't really be considered as a real 1080P system since the lens and imager element aren't really good enough. But it works nicely at 720P resolution, and that's what I use for my videos.  On the negative side (besides optics) is the mechanical design and ergonomics (lack of). The camera is made of shiny slippery plastic and don't have any kind of grip, so it's a bit hard to handle.

Five grams of blue Sugru

So, I decided to add some Sugru at the front side of camera. But there was the hard decision of colour to be used, since Sugru comes in five different colours (Black, White, Orange, Green and Blue) and for those more adventurous.. it's possible to mix them. In the end I decided to go with blue, black while obvious would been a bit too modest and shy.

 

Stylish? Not much, but it works.

One thing to remember with Sugru is the package type. Those small 5 gram aluminium foil bags are individually sealed and when opened, you don't have many hours to work with the material. So it's better to keep one or two smaller side projects ready in case you happen to have some excess Sugru after the main project is done. After all, why waste the good stuff?

Firstly I cut the aluminium foil bag open with scissors. Then I took the plastic and kneaded it a bit on my hands and made two balls out of it. First ball (2-3grams) I spread at the front side of the Zi-10 video camera. For texture the sugru at the camera, I used plastic comb and pressed criss-cross patterns for improved grip.

Feet of my Emaker Huxley 3D printer.

As a spare project I used Sugru for adding some flexible padding to the feet's of my 3D printer. The printed plastic legs tend to slid a bit at the tabletop, so the silicone-rubber like Sugru may keep the printer more steady.


While writing this post I once again remembered that I should really start taking proper high grade pictures for these blog posts. One of the near future posts I should write about using digital SLR-camera with home made light-tent / soft box. Otoh, I'll need to make it first. I know that some cheapish Chinese photographing tents are available at 30-50 Euros, but I think I'll rather use the materials I have here at home.

PS: If you notice typos at my text, please send send a comment. As a non native speaker of English, I know my lingo aint' 100%. 

Sugru: So, what to do with it?

Some time ago I decided that I'll need to look and test this relatively new material called Sugru. In simplified terms, it's yet another kind of moldable plastic. I would say it is kinda like self curing silicone, freshly out from the bag it's soft to handle and sticks well to various materials. During some hours at the room temperate, it will dry and Sugru become rubbery like material. There are no resellers at this part of the world so I ordered my first 12 minipacks directly from manufacturer.

Packing is functional, and in a way these aluminium bags do look kinda stylishly futuristic and flashy. Outermost was the normal brown envelope (with address label), inside it a single bigger aluminium bag with ziplock. Inside this bag were twelve 5gram packages of Sugru (assorted colours) and short instruction and inspiration booklet for helping one to get started.

I really like their slogan "hacking things better", it tells a lot about the attitude this startup company works. Their website has plenty of user posted pictures and stories how this new material has helped these people. 

For myself, I have not yet decided what to build/hack with this first, but I allready have some ideas so I'm quite sure I'll be able to use all these packs while the material is fresh. Even though the Surgru is well packed to those individually sealed aluminium foil packs, it will stay fresh only about six months. So, expect to see something more interesting coming with Sugru on it.