The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Laser Cutter: Streaming Camera Support

    If I’m making something with the laser cutter during a Zoomed SquidWrench meeting, switching the view to a camera inside the cabinet is always a crowd-pleaser. Having tried several locations with various degrees of success, the camera now sits atop a small chipboard box holding it as high as it can get over the front left corner of the platform:

    Laser camera support box - position overview
    Laser camera support box – position overview

    It juuuust barely kisses the head in that corner:

    Laser camera support box - near collision
    Laser camera support box – near collision

    The box is a simple ClosedBox from boxes.py with a jawbreaker URL full of parameters, minus two holes, plus a quartet of shims, all cut from chipboard:

    Camera Support box - LB layout
    Camera Support box – LB layout

    The holes fit a 1/4-20 button head screw for the Logitch C615 camera’s tripod mount and the hex wrench needed to tighten it:

    Laser camera support box - interior
    Laser camera support box – interior

    The box is held together with Genuine Scotch Tape, because I want it to fall apart if it gets hit by the laser head. It’s held to the cabinet with a finger-crushingly strong bar magnet.

    The camera has a reasonably good view of the entire platform:

    Laser Cutter - USB Camera view
    Laser Cutter – USB Camera view

    The camera’s closest focus point sits about halfway across the platform, roughly corresponding to the typical monitor-to-face distance the camera was intended for, but it’s Good Enough™ for the purpose.