Skip to content

1. State of the art, project management and documentation (Edited in the 7th week)

Initial note: Due to have zero experience with gitlab, markdown and no documentation system, I made a version in the first weeek that wasn't very clear, but mostly of my experimentation and approach on that week is conserved in the home page, where I upload videos, audios, images, tables an collages, that became the editorial style for my documentation.

At that time wasn't very clear to me the purpose of this section, so I made a mess, In the presentation of the next week and throw the work of the following weeks I understand that this section can became the guide for me in the future, and maybe a guide for other people in the next fabricademy editions.

Motivation for study Fabricademy

From up and left, to right and down: Snap!, Microblocks, The Tinkering Studio, Lifelong Kindergarten Group, SCOPES-DF, future fabrics México, shemakes.edu, makefashion edu

In general my main motivation for study fabricademy is related with my main R&D area in Fab lab Yucatán, Education and learnning with digital fabrication and other close technologies.

During this working time there, I've choose try to work closely with some particular technologies and projects:

Also this year I could know people involved ib other interesting projects related with textile and education:

Documentation workflow

Finding editorial design ideas

Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich book: The art of tinkering

I love the book as an object, so one of my motivations on this documentation, is to have practice and knowledge on how to work with web design closely compatible with printed/editorial design. Since this is not necessarily a main task of the course, this can be worked on a trial and error aproach, and as a base for the documentation style.

My principal visual reference is the book from Karen Wilkinson, and Mike Petrich "The art of tinkering"

Another important motivations, is to continue working and learning with LyX-The document processor. It is a friendly software based on another not so friendly technology called LaTeX, the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents.

LyX is the open-source tool for kind of parametric editorial design, in some aspects is similar to markdown or html sytems for web, but with another objective and parametric advantages and limitations compared to web languages.

A first idea was trying to work with LyX or LaTeX protocols here in GitLab, so I decided to make a fast web searching and review. I found some options for working with similar or derivatives LaTeX systems in Gitlab, and also I found options for universal document convertions, but at the end, all the options appear to be complex solutions and time-consumer in getting the set-up.

In conclusion, I wil try to mantain some style elections for keep compatibility, for example,try to use images with caption instead of videos when is possible, and maybe in future also try to get a Lyx version of all my journey and finally got an editorial version of it.

Photos and images system

Even there are some automatic cloud services for pictures managment, due to some technical characteristics and elections, I use a step controlled process for gettin the images for uploading:

  1. Take the photo and upload into google photos without loss of quatlity. I prefer use an iphone due to his camera and algorithm system, in my opinion, it is the more functional for take and upload photos with nice quality and easy use. And I use an obsolete iphone almost only for that.
  2. From the taken photos files, I choose part of them, and upload to goggle photos.
  3. In the google photos cloud service, I create an specific album, organize and download the images in my windows laptop
  4. Decompress the images and save in a local and remote system of explorer folders

  5. Edit and prepare the images for upload to gitlab:

    • Option 1: Change the characteristics with GIMP and Batch editor plug-in

GIMP Batch editor process
  1. Once you've installed GIMP and the batch file convertions plug in, restart the program and go to File>Batch Image Manipulation
  2. Click on add images, in the emergent window and add picture files or folders
  3. In the manipulation set window area, click on the add button and select the Resize feature
  4. In the emergent window, choose the right resize features, the values there work good for having a small size of the file and for the dimensions of the web template

  5. If you convert many files, I do recomend also add the automatic rename feature for a good order of yout files, ther you can automate with numbers, original name, and date.

  6. Option 2: Change the characteristics and make picture collages with PhotoPad

Photopad collage process
  1. Once you've installed PhotoPad, open and click on Collage creator feature
  2. In the new window, you have a lot of edition options organized by tabs
  3. In the page tab, you can set the size and proportion of the whole collage image
  4. On the design tab, you can set the shape of the collage, the number of pictures, some templates, and many other features.
  5. You can drag and drop your images on the working area and play with the possibilities. Finally you click on create button and in the PhotoPad initial window, you can make another types od edition and save the final result as .jpg or .png file.

Web edition

For the writing and editorial design I work in the Gitlab Web IDE. Since this is my first time working with this system, I choosed work with the fabricademy template, which is very clear for using the main features,

  1. Writing in markdown: For beginer users like me, I do recommend to have near the Markdown Cheatsheet, there are many version in the web, and most of them looks like good reference, for me, the important thing is bacema familiar with thw options and memorize the most common instructions, after that you can save your sheet for future reference.

Fablab processes

Hazards and Precautions

Laser cutter

  1. Laser light

    • The invisible high energy laser beam can cause severe eye damage, including blindness and serious skin burns. The doors are interlocked such that the laser beam will be disabled when the doors are opened. This will completely contain the laser beam under normal use.

    • Improper use of the controls and modification of the safety features may cause serious eye injury and burns.

    • DO NOT modify or disable any safety features of the laser system.

    • DO NOT operate the laser unless all covers are in place and interlocks are working properly.
    • DO NOT look directly into the laser beam.

  2. Fire

    • The high intensity laser beam can produce extremely high temperatures and significant amounts of heat as the substrate material is burned away while cutting.

    • Some materials can catch fire during cutting operations creating fumes and smoke inside the device.

    • Dirt and debris may cause fire and a poor quality cut or mechanical component failure.

    • It is important that users remain with the laser during operation to ensure that any flare-ups/flame are properly contained and extinguished.

    • Obtain the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) from the material’s manufacturer when handling or processing the materials.

    • DO NOT use materials that are highly flammable, explosive or produce toxic byproducts.

    • DO NOT remove material from the cutting bed before it has cooled.
    • DO NOT leave a laser cutter operating unattended.
    • ALWAYS clean up clutter, debris and flammable materials in the laser cutter after use.
    • ALWAYS keep a properly maintained fire extinguisher nearby.

  3. Air contaminants

    • Laser cutters will generate fumes, vapors, particulates, and metal fumes from substrate that can be highly toxic (plastics and other combustible materials).

    • All laser cutter systems must be equipped with a fume exhaust system and filtration system that meets manufacturer specifications.

    • These fumes or air contaminants can damage the machine and harm your health. If the air filter or exhaust system is malfunctioning, immediately stop operating the laser cutter and notify your supervisor.

    • Filters must be changed regularly according to the frequency of use or as specified by the manufacturer.

    • DO NOT cut a material that has not been approved by the manufacturer.

    • DO NOT use a laser cutter with a malfunctioning exhaust system or clogged air filter.

CNC Machines Main Features

From Left to Right: Xtool M1 Laser and knife cutter, Kingroom KLP1 3D Printer, Brother PE810L Embriodery CNC Machine

  1. Laser and plotter machine

    • Laser output power: 10W
    • Light spot size: 0.08*0.08mm
    • Security level Class I( CE)
    • Maximum laser cutting capacity (under laboratory conditions): 8mm Basswood board
    • Maximum cuttable material thickness: ≤ 1.5mm (theoretical maximum, the specific thickness varies with the material, adhesive strength, knife head shape, etc.)
    • Maximum engraving speed: 250Mm/s (bitmap processing); 160mm/s ( vector processing)
    • Working area: 385 * 300Mm (laser working); 365 * 300mm (knife cutting)
    • Engraving accuracy: 0.01mm
    • Focus mode: Auto focus
    • Connection method: Wi-Fi/USB
    • Operating system: Windows/macOS/Android/iOS
    • Noise level: <60dB
    • Weight of the whole machine: 9.8KG
    • Machine size: 557453230mm
    • Outer diameter of smoke exhaust pipe: 74mm
    • Supported file formats: SVG, DXF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIF, CR2, etc.
    • Power supply: 100~240V AC,50/60Hz
    • Machine power: 121.5W

  2. 3D printer

    • 210x210x210 print size on a PEI print sheet
    • Metal and acrylic enclosure with a 400x420x420mm footprint
    • MGN12 linear rails for X and Y axis and dual linear rails for Z axis
    • All metal hotend with a ceramic heater
    • 3,5" touchscreen
    • Aluminum direct drive extruder with 5:1 gear ratio
    • High sensitivity inductive bed level probe
    • All-in-one custom Klipper mainboard based on MKS SKIPR with built in Wi-Fi
    • HDMI port for connecting a KlipperScreen supported HDMI touch screen such as BTT HDMI5/7 Makerbase IPS50 or RPi display
    • Heated bed, up to 100 C
    • Filament runout sensor
    • Built in ADXL345 input shaper sensor ball bearing 9000rpm 5015 part cooling fan

  3. Embriodery machine

    • Up to 650 stitches per minute
    • Electronic system for raising and lowering the presser foot
    • Automatic thread cutter
    • Sensor and thread cutter
    • Flat embroidery unit
    • Embroidery editing function
    • USB input
    • Led light
    • PES and DST matrix format reader
    • Includes: 1 embroidery presser foot, 2 hoops measuring 18x13 and 10x10 cm

Tools