Mastodawn

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 15

Hello friends, family, supporters, and maker community. I've had to make the incredibly difficult decision to shut down Alpenglow. Even though we had a great fall and holiday season, the short story is that we aren't making enough continuous sales to cover our shop space and employee costs, and it's too much of a gap for any short-term solution to cover. So it's time to call it, and just send out a huge thank-you and hug to everyone who has supported us. More info: https://www.alpenglowindustries.com/blogs/all-blogs/closing-the-business

Closing the Business.

As you've likely read on our home page, in a newsletter, or on social media, I'm shutting down Alpenglow. Here is more information about what to expect over the next few weeks, and what this means for the future support of our products. General Product Support There are a lot of legal and financial considerations that

Alpenglow Industries

@alpenglow Damn, I boosted the sale post without seeing this one, thinking it was a regular sale. I’m sorry. I’m looking forward to to your non-shop builds.

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 18

@oscherler Thanks, I’m hoping to be able to do more of those in the future! And all boosts are very much appreciated, thank you!

@alpenglow I saw your resistor benders (that look like tiny Christmas trees, I like it,) and it gave me an idea. I’ll mock it up and let you know, if it turns out not to be silly.

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 18

@oscherler It bothered me that the molded plastic ones have slanted sides, you just don’t get that satisfying feel of a perfectly right angle bend. 😆

@alpenglow So here’s my idea: it’s a tool to bend jumper wires for breadboards, from 2 to 60 holes distance. It measures 170 × 64 mm, whereas the same in the Christmas Tree configuration would be 170 × 180 mm.

It’s a quick sketch, it needs to be made more like a safe tool and less like a shuriken, and it needs labelling, but you get the idea.

Carrie (of Alpenglow)

@oscherler This is a really cool idea, and I dunno, I kind of like that it can double as a weapon!

@alpenglow Thanks. A while ago I was thinking about a ruler with a row of 1/10 inch holes, and a notch on the edge, and you insert the wire into the hole corresponding to the desired length, bend it, and bend it again at the notch, but I wasn’t completely satisfied, because I also wanted help knowing the cutting and stripping lengths.

With this one, I think you can insert in into the hole, bend it, turn it to N + 6 for cutting, N + 4 for stripping, and N for bending.

@alpenglow Seeing your ruler made me think of my initial idea, and that’s how I came up with this one.

The only thing I’m still missing is that if you use two types of jumpers, those that lay flat on the breadboard, and those that are elevated, you need two different depths for the hole, and I don’t know how to do that yet.

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 20

@oscherler So I’ve had this idea for years, that slightly rounded jumpers that stick up from the breadboard just a little would be way better than the flat staple-style ones. They’d be less prone to stapling (when the leg buckles when you try to push it in) and easier to push in and pull out because you could grip the middle. I’m trying to get @ArchiteuthisFlux to make them because the irony is too good.

@alpenglow As a kid, I had the Kosmos electronics experiments kits (I still have them in the basement,) and it used raised jumpers. The wires came pre-cut, but you had to bend them using the jig you can see in the bottom left corner of the breadboard.

I guess when I bought my first breadboard, I made the same jumpers. It’s only when I bought a set from AliExpress that I discovered the staple style. I think they’re kinda OK for very short distances, but annoying when longer.
@ArchiteuthisFlux

@alpenglow Ah, I got the irony, now. 🤣
@ArchiteuthisFlux

Kevin Santo Cappuccio Feb 20

@alpenglow @oscherler I bet someone who's really good at designing 3D printed machines could make a thing you stick onto a box of solid core silicone wire that bends, cuts and strips adjustable lengths of wire.
(If this is you, please accept this nerd snipe and send me the link when you're finished)

Kevin Santo Cappuccio Feb 20

@alpenglow Or you know, have China do it

Jon Gilbert Feb 20

@ArchiteuthisFlux @alpenglow (this is like the "I'd wear that on a tee shirt" method of getting someone to make a thing from a tweet 😆)

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 20

@jgilbert @ArchiteuthisFlux I’ve been sowing this seed for a while. 😆

Kevin Santo Cappuccio Feb 20

@alpenglow After like 2 years of you mentioning this, it's about to pay off.

I'm about to release Jumperl̶e̶s̶s̶ (Jumpered? Jumperful? idk I'm calling them Barnacle Boards) luxurious breadboards, they might as well come with some really nice jumpers too.

https://github.com/Architeuthis-Flux/Barnacle_Board

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 20

@ArchiteuthisFlux 🎉🎉🎉

Bill, organizer of stuff Feb 20

@ArchiteuthisFlux @alpenglow beautiful!

Tony Papoušek Feb 20

@ArchiteuthisFlux @alpenglow jumperlessless?

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 20

@tonyp @ArchiteuthisFlux 😆 dejumperless

Tony Papoušek Feb 20

@alpenglow @ArchiteuthisFlux Van Halen’s might as well jumpboards

Kevin Santo Cappuccio Feb 20

@jgilbert I love how mastodon's version of that is humans with autism that can be weaponized to make amazing shit.

Kevin Santo Cappuccio Feb 20

@jgilbert @alpenglow omg I just remembered the peak of the t-shirt bots era.

Jon Gilbert Feb 20

@ArchiteuthisFlux @alpenglow omg

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 20

@ArchiteuthisFlux that would be my solution but you’d still be the one producing them.

@ArchiteuthisFlux I can picture it all except the stripping: feed, bend, feed, bend, feed, cut.

With the stripping, that would have to be: feed, close stripper, unfeed, open stripper, feed, bend, feed, bend, feed, catch from the other side, cut, close stripper, pull, release. That’s much more complicated.
@alpenglow

Kevin Santo Cappuccio Feb 20

@oscherler @alpenglow I would accept just cutting the insulation in the right place and leaving it on there.

@ArchiteuthisFlux Right, that’s how the wires in the Kosmos boxes came (except you had to bend them yourself.)
@alpenglow

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 20

@oscherler @ArchiteuthisFlux There are machines that do this, but they’re made for much larger wire than 22AWG and don’t make as tight bends as needed for jumpers.

@alpenglow @ArchiteuthisFlux And they’re amazing.

I think what we need is one a tad simpler than this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-gabeEJ7EE

CNC wire benders | BLM GROUP

YouTube

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 20

@oscherler @ArchiteuthisFlux Ten years ago I came up with a custom hook design for my yarn-twisting machine and was super stoked to find those machines existed. I have them made by a company that specifically does CNC wire bending, but yeah, super cool to get a pile of 1/4” wire diameter stainless steel custom shaped hooks in the mail.

Carrie (of Alpenglow)Feb 20

@oscherler oh thanks interesting, I hadn’t really thought about also using the ruler for cutting and stripping. Nice!