Playing Tetris with Electronics

I'm almost ready to start putting the TALON's electronics back together. Over the years quite a few of the original components have been stolen to make other things, to get things working I might now have to salvage some parts from another one of my self-balancers, one likely sacrifice is sitting in the background of the picture.

Getting everything to fit inside always was a bit of a squeeze, haven't played Tetris in a while so I am expecting a bit of a challenge.

3D Printer on a boat

It's been a while since I last owned a 3D printer, a few year ago I decided to move onto a boat, with the boat not being the most spacious of homes my bulky Zortrax M200 had to find a new owner. At the time I worked as a researcher in the 3D printing lab of a local university so not having my own 3D printer didn't seem like such a big deal.

Fast forward to 2026, having been recently made redundant from the university sector, seemingly a common occurrence nowadays, it became time to once again own my own printer. 

My choice of printer? A Bambu Lab A1 Mini.

Living on a boat you sometimes have to get a bit creative as to where you stuff all your stuff, it gets even more interesting when that stuff is a 3D printer. Still, at least we have finally found a use for the bunk nobody wants to sleep in, haven’t tested it a sea yet though.

I know there are a lot of people currently extolling the virtues of owning a Bambu Lab 3D printer however this little £140 printer really is the best one I have ever owned.

One thing I never got around to back in 2018 was a cover for the omni-wheels on the TALON, it’s useful to have access to the wheels whilst testing but not the sort of thing you want rubbing against your legs.

When designing the TALON I tried to avoid 3D printing end use components as much as possible, instead using the CNC to make most parts, however considering how good the little Bambu printer is, I think for these we will make an exception.

Below is a fusion 360 snapshot of the TALON with its new omni-wheel covers, it has been a while since I last worked on this model and there were a lot a small details I had forgotten. It took me a couple of attempts to come up with something that fitted the aesthetic of the original design.

As the omni-wheel covers are probably going to end up receiving some pretty big knocks, another big consideration is part strength. With this type of printing, getting the layers to run in the correct direction is a major component of final part durability, print orientation can also have a big impact on the finish.

I have been trying the carbon fibre infused PETG filament made by Bambu Lab (PETG-CF), the matt finish has done a really good job at hiding the layer lines and aesthetically looks very much like the Onyx material that was fed to the Markforged printer I used to operate at the university. 

The PETG-CF material is rather abrasive and so the printer needs to be fitted with a hardened steel hot-end, swapping this over on the A1 Mini is one of the easiest jobs I have ever done on a 3D printer. The material can also be a bit sensitive to moisture absorption so I will need to get myself a filament drier at some point.

I am really happy with the results, I think I will be buying more.

Now that's all done, the next job for the printer will be new foot pegs and handle bars.