Dave Akerman
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daveake.bsky.social
Dave Akerman
@daveake.bsky.social
Campervan owner. 3D printing shop. High-altitude balloonist. Radio ham M0RPI. PC/mobile/embedded programmer using Delphi, Lazarus/FPC and C.
As a lone engineer, having chatgpt by your side is like being surrounded by a large team all of whom are willing to answer questions, with answers from perfect down to completely wrong, all delivered with equal confidence.
August 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
I asked chatgpt to design a printable funnel for me. It was doing so well and then ...
April 23, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Designing for printing, minimizing or eliminating supports or the need to print in parts, can be a challenge with the solution not always being obvious at first. But it is rewarding.
April 17, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Dave Akerman
April 8, 2025 at 12:03 AM
My investments vs Trumpconomics ...
April 7, 2025 at 7:57 AM
New toy. Er, I mean, vital workhorse.

As always, the first things to print are models designed by users to fix design issues left by the manufacturer.

That said, it's a lovely piece of kit.
March 29, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Loving this "easy nylon" from Overture. Nylon has a rep for being hard to print but this was my very first attempt, using the recommended settings, an enclosure for the printer, a heated container for the reel, and a PTFE tube from there to the printer.
March 23, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Alexa is in literal mode today ...
March 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
I've managed to connect a pair of BM6 vehicle battery monitors to Home Assistant, via an ESP32 running an ESPHome script to poll them. So now I can tell when I need to charge the motorhome batteries :)
March 20, 2025 at 5:04 PM
March 8, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Dave Akerman
Go to Google
Search "Gulf of Mexico"
Click the 3 little dots next to "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)"
Choose "Send feedback"
Click "Gulf of America"
Click "Inaccurate content"
Click "Incorrect"
Tell Google the correct name
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of...
Gulf of Mexico - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
February 12, 2025 at 1:05 PM
This is the fireball that I saw last night at 23:08:50 ... it was out of range of my meteor camera, but I forgot that I also have a PoE camera watching out west over our field, and that did capture it!
January 8, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Saw an amazing meteor at a few minutes past 11 this evening. Totally at random when I popped out to get something from the shed. Bright green and broke up. I'll check the meteor camera network in the morning!
January 7, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by Dave Akerman
Skew-T Log-P xkcd.com/3032
January 2, 2025 at 10:30 AM
After a few days of coughing with a chest cold, I've lost my voice.

No, it's not where I last left it.
a penguin standing next to a red bag with a white cross on it
ALT: a penguin standing next to a red bag with a white cross on it
media.tenor.com
December 27, 2024 at 2:46 PM
I use a web "to do" app which lets me type in the day/month/year for when it needs to be done by.

The year box accepts up to 6 digits.

I guess it's future-proofed but hey, even my list doesn't reach that far out!
December 20, 2024 at 8:56 PM
I think that the sign is underplaying this ...
December 14, 2024 at 11:26 PM
1 - Design novel rotatable fitting.
2 - Try to explain to other half. Fail.
3 - Print it then show her.
4 - "Oh, like that thing on my vacuum cleaner?"
5 - Oh. Yes. Like that.
November 24, 2024 at 6:21 PM
All the filaments are MINE ...
November 24, 2024 at 11:45 AM
3D printing is a constant learning process, and my current thing is to print complex (for me) ABS parts in several pieces and solvent-weld them together. This can help with avoiding overhangs and supports, both of which are problematic with ABS.
November 24, 2024 at 11:28 AM
This is less Artificial Intelligence, and more Artificial Social Desirability Bias: chatgpt telling me what it thinks I want to hear:
November 21, 2024 at 12:30 AM
3D printing peeps - I have 2 models of the same printer (Creality Ender 3 V3 SE, so pretty basic), one much newer than the other, and the newer one is printing the same gcode file and same filament rather more quickly than the other. What's the reason likely to be?
November 19, 2024 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Dave Akerman
Spending hours with ChatGPT can save you minutes of reading the documentation.
November 18, 2024 at 12:45 PM
Achievement unlocked: my mini 3D print farm running at full capacity 😁
February 7, 2024 at 4:58 PM