Arduino

The Arduino was one of my first “modern” introduction into the world of open-source electronics. The original use case for my DIY IGUS Time Lapse slider, then got used in the Quantum Double Slit Experiment to build a true Random Number Generator, and was also a part of my SAP DemoJam session. It always seems to be a great “go to” tool for interfacing with physical sensors, wiring something simple up or testing out different electronics.

Repairing the Silhouette Cameo 4

I don’t use Cameo cutter much at all, so I was pretty disappointed to see it not working correctly when I wanted to cut some vinyl stickers for my bike project. The carriage would just slowly move to the right and stop. Turn it off and back on, and it would do the same until it hit the right side and make a terrible knocking noise as the position sensor did know where the carriage was.

Disassembling the unit and doing some online searching it seems the left stop sensor was bad. It is a Normally Open IR switch and after doing some extensive searching was able to find a replacement online. I mocked up the circuit board and cut a prototype on the Glowforge, did some very small soldering to wire it up, and it 100% fixed the problem. read more