Wow, service

Britt from UltiMachine noticed that I ordered the SDRAMPS module, and remembered that I'd asked about the DIY version a couple of days ago, and emailed me to see if I wanted that instead. It's only a $5 difference so when ordering I was thinking no, but then I figured five bucks is five bucks, and it only has like 4 parts to solder on so I changed my mind when replying to his email.
I also mentioned that I actually WANTED a 5 pound ABS spool but they were sold out. He came back and said actually they just got the 5 pound spools in this afternoon and just hadn't posted them to the site yet, so he's going to adjust the prices, ship me the 5# spool for just the difference and eat the shipping on it.

It's cool to find a place that's so responsive, helpful and actually remembers a quick emailed question from a couple of days ago.
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THIRD BASE!!!!

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

• +3 by Jason Mohyla, Todd Johnson, Marinna Martini
  

Accessories

Ordered some RepRap accessories from Ultimachine. A pound of ABS filament, plus a spare Pololu stepper motor driver and a SDRAMPS board for putting a microSD slot on the control electronics.

The spare driver is because it's apparently not at all unusual to burn out drivers due to bad settings or bad wiring, and they're cheap at $14 and besides, I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to do some work with steppers in the future, this will give me something to prototype with.

The SD card is because apparently you can get better prints by putting the g-code onto a card and putting the card directly in the printer than sending the g-code from the computer during the print (and also you can turn the computer off once the print starts - and they can take hours). Apparently there's not much buffer on the printer electronics and if the computer isn't keeping up with g-code uploading, it can cause things to stop and restart.

I wanted to order more filament but Ultimachine didn't have 5 pound spools in stock, and other places have ridiculous shipping or don't have any stock either.

I've decided against PLA for now. ABS looks better suited to my needs.

FWIW, the MakerGear Prusa that I have ordered, I have now seen about a half a dozen sites or videos say is "about the best copy of a Prusa that you can build today" and many people buy MakerGear's hot ends and extruders as upgrades.

• +1 by dermot dobson

Hmmm

2 watt blue laser diodes are about $50 on eBay, and at least one person has mounted his on a reprap and used it for laser engraving...
It's enough to give a person ideas.

Can't tell if good news or not...

This could be incredibly excellent news, or nothing, depending on fine points of the law of which I am ignorant. It's a federal appeals court FWIW.
Court says state law banning recording of police officers in public is unconstitutional
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