November 2020 UFO Contents


Thank You to this month’s sponsors, contributors, and companies who didn’t try to shoot our UFO’s out of the sky for using their product in this month’s box.

Salute to our Veterans and all who have served or are serving, As an Army veteran myself, I thank all of you!

The colors of the filament samples this month are for the most part USA/Military themed, but for those reading this on stream or for unboxing videos before looking at the contents, I won’t spoil it lol.

I ALMOST went with another bogus Turkey themed project this month lol, but there’s actually a real project this year. I’ll give just a little hint - Corn Maze!!!!

As always, this time of year with the holidays can be rough for some. To top it off the months of isolation some of us who aren’t normally isolated already, may have even more of a rough time of it. I encourage anyone who may be feeling down, to please reach out to friends, family members, the community, or even me. Feel free to DM me on Twitter, email me, or reach out to the following hotline: 800-273-8255

Thanksgiving will have already passed before the next UFO arrives, so I do wish you all an amazing turkey day!

Finally, I want to thank everyone who donated to the 24 hour charity stream this past weekend. We raised over $3000 for Children’s Miracle Network!!! You’re all amazing! If you didn’t hear about it and would like to donate, please see me on social media =) Love you all!
Josh ~Alien3D

Congrats to Adam L.
for winning the November 2020 Mothership Box!

Adam's mothership prize this month is an Elegoo Mars resin printer!

SWAG & CODES

  • Sticker for AlkeshOne
  • Gingerbread Man Cookie
  • Discount code for Alien3D
  • Discount code for GreenGate3D

Please login to view codes if you received this months UFO.

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Collection Image

Month 4 of 12

On the ends of each UFO for 12 months you'll find a 1/12th piece of a puzzle. At the end of the 12 months they can be combined for a larger image.

Looking forward to your guesses =) #UFOPUZZLE

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Filament Samples

All filament samples are at least 20 meters in length (actually more, I increased the length to eat up the extra filament being left behind on the rolls)

GreenGate3D

This month has been in the plans for a while. Rich from GreenGate3D really wanted to do a salute to our Veterans for Veteran's Day. I had already used American Blue, but I still hope that the colors included this month are sufficient =)

Recycled PETG:

American Red
American White
Olive Drab Green
Prime Time Slime - (Slime you can get right here on Alien3D.us!)

Extrusion Temp (°C): 205-245
Bed Temp (°C): 60-90
Speed (mm/s): 45-90
Cooling: None or Low

 

Visit GreenGate3D
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Bonus Accessory!

SD Card + Adapter + Stick!

With our 3D Printers, there's no telling what kind of memory it uses... is it a Normal CD, Micro SD, USB device thingamabob? Does your PC/Mac even HAVE a card reader? Well, here are options! And we can never have enough memory!

So this month you get a 32 GB MicroSD, with an Adapter to plug it in to and make it a standard SD, and a USB stick adapter to plug it in to as well.

Now stop slacking and get to printing!

Get More MicroSD Cards! (Amazon)
Shop USB Adapters! (Amazon)

Bonus Project!

It has been brought to my attention that the Bluetooth modules I sent out in the UFOs were Bluetooth interface boards and did not include the actual Bluetooth chips on them *sighs*

I've come up with a solution, but the Nano will need to be pluggin in to your PC at all times during playing with it.

BlueTooth Controlled Ball Maze

Parts included in UFO:

  • Arduino Nano w/ Power Cord
  • 2 x 1/4 Ball Bearings
  • 2 x SG90 Motors
  • Wires
  • 9v Battery Clip
  • Power Switch

Download the files from thingiverse and follow the instructions on how to assemble it and make the maze from the instructable below. But do not follow the instructions for connecting the Bluetooth Module, or download the arduino files. Read below for updated instructions.

View Instructable
...

1. Download Arduino IDE - > Download Here
2. Download Processing -> Download Here
3. Download the project files -> Download Here

 

Wiring:

  1. Cut the wires on the 2 servo motors.
  2. Cut 4 wires off the included set of wires to about 6 inches or so, leaving the female ends on one end. Strip a length of bare wire from all of the wires.
  3. Twist the Brown wires from the servos + 1 of the free wires together and either, tape solder or shrink wrap the wires to protect them. Plug the female end into the GND on the Arduino
  4. Twitst the Red wires from the servos + 1 of the free wires together and secure. Plug the female end into the 5V on the Arduino
  5. Twist the Orange from 1 of the servos to a free wire, secure it, and plug the female end into D6
  6. Twist the Orange from the remaining servo to a free wire, secure it, and plug the female end into D7
  7. Connect the arduino to your computer via the USB cable included.
  8. Open the maze_control.ino file, and upload it to the Arduino Nano, close Arduino.
  9. Open the gui.pde file in the Processing Program.
  10. In Processing, Go to Sketch > Import Library > Add Library and search for ControlP5 and install it.
  11. At the top of the Processing app, with the gui.pde file open, you should see a Play and Stop button. Press the Play button.
  12. A GUI will pop up, it's very basic that I created with Up, Down, Left, Right buttons. Each button should now move your Maze motors.

Feel free to modify the code for the Arduino or the Process GUI. I thought maybe it'd be possible to move the Servos just by moving the mouse as well... can you make it happen?

Community Reaction


Comments 2

  1. Josh, this month’s project has been a challenge for me so far (but I enjoy challenges). I went ahead and purchased the correct Bluetooth controller and intend to get it working using that because I think it will be really neat! I have modified a couple of the original parts (the base for the nano and the gimbal center because the original was 1mm to small and I wanted to make sure the servo had no extra drag on them). I also went ahead and printed the 30×40 maze without first checking to make sure the ball bearing would fit (silly me!). 6 hours later you can image my dismay when the ball bearing didn’t fit into the maze. The ball bearing is 1/4″ (6.35mm) and the walls of the maze were only 4mm apart. No worries, just got through modifying the 10×10 maze for the correct spacing and it should be done printing soon. That just leaves the wiring and nano programming! Thanks again for choosing this project. I look forward to them each month!

    1. Post
      Author

      The maze I downloaded from the thingiverse page linked to in the instructable is the one I used, file named Maze_Generator08.stl and the ball fit – not sure the 30×40 one you’ mention. Also, yes the motor mounts are a tiny bit off, I broke 1 leg off of each haha. I thought it was my printer as I hadn’t calibrated the e-steps.

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