Notes for January 01-07

I think it worthwhile to reboot this series for the new year, so here goes:

• Spent the day zoning out and playing around with OnnxStream on both the Pi and an Orange Pi 5+.
• Began prototyping and investigating how to get data out of my power meters again.

• First day back at work, but ended up using my breaks to beta test a couple of iOS and TV OS apps.
• Finally got the replacement belt for my KP3S Pro, so I took the opportunity to replace the main board fan (I think overheating was the reason for my layer shifts at high speeds), clean it up and re-level the bed.
• Looked for a decent case for the Orange Pi 5+ I’m reviewing and chanced upon this one, which is functional but designed for a fan I don’t want to use. So I decided to get the STEP file and modify it to be entirely passively/convection cooled instead.

• Broke out my BitScope Micro signal scope and resumed my power meter hacking, again without much success.
• Printed out a first draft of the modified case, which doesn’t look half bad:

• Worked late, so didn’t have much free time.
• Tested some cheap Chinese AirTags knockoffs by dint of getting my kids to carry them around. They’re surprisingly functional, and may come in useful yet.

• Printed out the side panels for the Orange Pi 5+ case in Eryone Wood PLA, which didn’t turn out half bad. I’m still not sure about the color, but it’s a nice change from the usual black/white dichotomy of computer cases (plus I only had black screws, so they would look awful on a fully white case).
• Decided to jot down some notes on my power meter quest and call it a day.

• Finally put together a MIDI IN interface for my MiniDexed DX7 clone. Only took me a year to get around to it:

Now, of course, I have to redesign the case to accommodate the new TRS jack (I’m trying to standardize on TRS for MIDI, since it’s the smallest, most practical connector).

• Re-acquainted myself with the OpenSCAD code for the MiniDexed case, added a MIDI IN port opening and tweaked some of the details to hopefully make it print better.
• Printed out a few other things that were in my backlog, including more Gridfinity, because you can never have enough organizers.
• Upgraded my M8 Headless to the latest version and fiddled with it a bit.
• Investigated PocketBase, which is an interesting all-in-one Go back-end that I may end up using for some of my own stuff.