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Chris Lynas

@fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
20 followers 4 following 120 posts

Aerospace engineer, maker and terrible amateur programmer. I will probably toot when I've made something, mainly 3d printing and plotting; if you want to make what […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.social/@fastness, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026
Look at our cat She has been trained (not by me, I would have said it was impossible) to "shake hands" She got a dreamie after - she is a very good cat
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026
Looking to take my #penPlotter electronics into a more recent decade I've started looking into FluidNC with a FYSETC E4 instead of the EBB I have used in all of my plotters up to now Things I've learned: - my FritzBox WiFi router really, really doesn't want […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A portrait aligned photo of a pen plotter sitting on a table next to a window. The plotter is further away, near to the camera there is a piece of paper with some rectangles on it: the largest of these is almost exactly 200x100mm (yay!). The smaller ones are 10mm on a side. To the right hand side of the paper is a control board for the plotter with silver sockets on one end and a colourful, rainbow set of jumper cables connected to the stepper motor plugs that were connected to the old electronics fixed to the plotters baseboard
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
Next weekend I'll be at the BS5 Art Trail (bs5arttrail.co.uk) with my #penPlotter I'll be at one of the community venues: St Ambrose & St Leonard's, near to St George park, in east #bristol bs5arttrail.co.uk/venue/saint-ambro… Last year […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A white piece of paper with coloured lines made by a pen plotter. There are purple and pink lines, in wavy patterns made of horizontal lines that are twisted around. The lines don't quite line up so there are odd moiré patterns A white piece of paper with coloured lines made by a pen plotter. There are blue, purple and pink lines, in wavy patterns made of horizontal lines that are twisted around. The lines don't quite line up so there are odd moiré patterns A black and white pen plotter drawing showing a picture of an eye. The eye is represented by spirals of varying size, arranged in distorted grids laid on top of each other
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026
Expressing thanks for the service that old bag has given over the many, many years I've used it. I was trying to work out how many: it might be over 15 years, could be over 20 New bag is not the same style and much more posh but I predict I will miss the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A mostly black, and empty messenger bag sitting on a yellow tablecloth. The bag is some nylon like fabric (which might be nylon?) wth a slight sheen. There are wide nylon straps to carry it that have click fasteners, the big one of these that I sewed into the main 50mm ish wide black strap has a round sticker from EMFcamp telling the world that I made an installation. The flap that covers the bag opening has yellow letters that are faded and partly missing due to wear. When new it read "Gio Goi White Label" which my Liverpool relatives informed me was a "scally brand", I just liked the bag An almost entirely black bag sits on a yellow tablecloth. The bag is very new and unworn, it has a very wide padded strap and this is held together with a fixing that looks like (and might be?) an old fashioned seatbelt buckle. The bag is made by Chrome Industries and the word "CHROME" is visible on the bag flap
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/08/2026
We've had a little vacuum cleaner for a while that gradually became unreliable to turn on or off and then eventually fully stopped working, this was a shame since it's quite effective, with beater brushes as well as suction Based on the way it failed I had a […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A close to photo of the handle of a small vacuum cleaner. There is a hole where a round button used to be which exposes some PCB with green solder mask and a tactile switch in the middle. Yellow and blue wires have been soldered to one set of contacts on the tactile switch which lead to another tactile switch off a very similar type. The new switch is hanging in space on the end of the wires, not fastened to anythingThe handle of a small vacuum cleaner, close up. In this photo the round green plastic switch cover that would normally press on a tactile switch inside the handle has been reinstalled. Right in the centre of the switch another tactile switch has been hot glued in place partially covering the "1/0" glyph that's often embossed (inbossed? It's cut into the surface) on on/off switches. Two wires, yellow and blue, run down to the lower edge of the switch where a part has been cut away and the wires vanish inside the vacuum cleaner through the space that has been cut back
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2026
Commissioning my #EMFCamp installation in the Null Sector My #penplotter is now drawing the paths of aircraft it can see based on their ADSB transmissions - received live, not over the internet :) (Null Sector opens later this evening)
A CNC pen plotter on a dark coloured table inside a skyping container. The walls are white, the floor is dark coloured wood panelling. The desk has warning messages asking visitors not to touchClose up photo of a white piece of paper with messy pen lines in a pattern where groups are roughly in parallel but there are multiple groups of directions and some cross. The pen plotter that has drawn the lines is mostly out of frame A shipping container sitting on grass with others around it. Its doors are open and inside it the plotter from the other image is just about visible
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2026
For anyone going to #EMFCamp who likes badges and has stickers or other interesting small things to swap: we've seen the sticker exchange but would like to propose in addition a badge barter We'll work out more later and suggestions are welcome. I'll post […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
10 approx 40mm diameter badges, each with a different design, sitting on a grey fake granite pattern table. Some of the badges have colourful creatures with eyes and tendrils. Others are based on cells. There are cats and bugs and other things
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/06/2026
I'm now mostly able to decode ADSB data from dump1090 and interpret them into tracks on the screen - I had some fun getting the data management to work reliably (I have no idea what I'm doing) but it's been running for a few hours Next step: getting the plotter to work with it
A screenshot of a Linux Mint desktop with some applications open. In foreground is a window with the title "adsbPlotter" which has a light grey background with some grey and black lines across it. Behind this is a Processing IDE window, only a little of the code is visible, not enough to read. Behind that is a terminal window showing white text on a black background, the text is a table showing information on aircraft: IDs, squawk codes, flight numbers and in a couple of cases heading and positions. This is the output of dump1090 that is decoding ADSB signals. from aircraft overhead. Behind that is a Firefox browser, maximised. Around the bottom left quarter is a grey circle - this is where I am, the tracks are mostly oriented from approximately west northwest to east southeast and are not uniformly distributed around the building because of things blocking the signals north and south with better visibility to the east
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/06/2026
Passing on an invitation from my other half who is not currently engaged in Fediversal things: would anyone going to #emfcamp be interested in an informal session to learn about knitting a mitred square blanket? Also generally chatting about knitting? […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
An IKEA Poang chair in a sunbeam, with a cat on the chair enjoying the sun. The cat is black and white and sitting on her side, looking at the camera. The back of the chair is covered by a knitted blanket made from mitred squares of brightly multicoloured sock yarn, each square is different

The cat is called Parsnip and she particularly enjoys chewing the ends of bamboo double pointed needles of the type that are used to make blankets like this
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/05/2026
The first PCBs that I've designed has arrived :) I've been running my #penplotter with a high voltage brushless servo for a while but it was connected with an awful hacked-together nest of wires, perfboard and iffy sockets. This should both be better for me […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
Two green PCBs on a grey tabletop. The upper one is unpopulated showing only some pads and white silkscreen. The lower is populated with components. To the left there are two barrel jack sockets (for 12V in and a pass through to send the 12V on to the plotter board). In the centre of the board is a blue PCB with capacitors, inductors and other junk - this is a DC-DC converter which takes the 12V and steps it down to the voltage needed (it's not shown but I've been running the servo on 7V). To the right are two sets of three pin headers which allow the servo wire from the board to be attached and the output wire to the servo to come out

From the servo input we take ground and connect it to the output servo connector, we throw away the 5V from the board (the pin is soldered but not connected to any traces), and the output voltage pin is connected to the output from the DC-DC converter
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/04/2026
I do not want a meat tea bag Thanks for clearing up that worry for me, PG Tips
A moderately close up photo of a tea bag, sitting on top of a small pile of other tea and coffee related products in a clear plastic case in a hotel room. The tea sachet bag is green and red on white, "PG Tips" brand. In the centre of the photo the text "1 PLANT BASED TEA BAG" is printed on the packaging
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/04/2026
Parsnip found a sunbeam #caturday
A photo taken from above of a small black and white cat sitting in a sunbeam. The carpet the cat is sitting on is beige and she is carrying a shadow to the left of frame with light coming in from the right. At the extreme right of the frame the shadow of a plant can also be seen on the floor.  The cat's markings include a black domino mask shape over her eyes. She is a very good cat
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2026
Maybe it's working after all? #penplotter
A photo taken from above a pen plotter showing the machine drawing a scene. To the bottom left the design, made of dots, is garish blue, pink and yellow. However in the top right corner, separated by a 45deg line is an area where black has been added and the colours look a lot more balanced
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2026
Hmmm #penplotter
A view from the side of a pen plotter made from 3d printed plastic of varying colours and aluminium extrusion with a bright pink pen in an orange pen lift mechanism. The pen has been drawing an array of dots at an angle across a white sheet of paper. Other pens have been used to draw different arrays in yellow and cyan. The pink pen (that's supposed to be magenta) is about halfway done. The pattern being drawn is perhaps just about recognisable as some chimney pots standing against a wall but the colours are a bit garish and might not work
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2026
Trying some new plausibly CMYK pens in a halftone plot. Before where I've found the right colours the pens have had very large tips so they're not good for detail. These (Staedtler ball 4320, 10 pack assorted colours) are ballpoints so perhaps the better […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A view from one end of a pen plotter. The main structure is made of extruded aluminium rails in the shape of a capital H. A plastic 3d printed pen carriage holds a yellow pen vertically near the centre of the frame. To the back the driver electronics can just be seen. The pen has been drawing small circles and dots on white A3 paper being held in place by a black surface that's actually an electrostatic noticeboardThree pens sitting together on a mostly yellow tablecloth with white and dark abstract flower and plant patterns. The pens are pink, blue and black ballpoints, all three have their caps on
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/02/2026
Experimental 4 Colour CMYK plot with each colour being built with a different conversion technique: Yellow: fast marching method contours Cyan: strips where lines bunch up in darker areas Magenta: halftone dots made from spirals Black: large spirals where […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
An A3 piece of Bristol paper propped up on a beige IKEA Poang chair in landscape orientation

It contains a pen plotter drawing of a photo of a boy with longish hair wearing a red coverall, of which only the shoulders are visible
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2026
KLM have ensured that this trip to Montréal is the gift that keeps on giving: my flight to Schiphol today got cancelled so now I have to go to Paris then Amsterdam tomorrow. In the meantime I'm in a totally generic airport hotel armed with meal vouchers But […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A view over a snowy street in Montréal, there's a street light in frame, lighting up falling snow
Tall buildings rise up out of the photo which is taken from street level. Some of their windows are lit, others dark. The sliver of visible sky is grey, snow lit up by the lights of the city below
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/02/2026
So I'm in Montréal this week for a work thing and it's amazing. I'm in the ICAO building and it's got lots of fascinating art everywhere. It has also been the coldest place I ever went to, -22degC over last weekend However I made the mistake of flying KLM […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A view out of the window of a high rise building in Montréal, from the fifth floor. To the left of frame some tall glass fronted buildings rise out of frame, slightly lower ones of dark glass are visible too the right. Just left of centre there is a road, freshly gritted and plowed free of snow. The roofs of the buildings are dusted with snow and the sky has some blue sky and clouds
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/01/2026
I've debugged the fast marching method code i translated from Fortran and it's working now :) The problem was in the order that the calculations were completed and once that was fixed things seem a lot happier Now that it's minimally functional my terrible […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A screenshot of a Linux Mint desktop display. On the left is a partially covered Processing IDE window with some code visible. On the right and covering most of the screen is a view of an SVG file. The file is made of contour lines that have been calculated to be closer together in dark areas of the image and further apart in lighter ones. The photo being represented is an eye on close up.
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/01/2026
Starting a torture test plot for the new #penplotter brushless pen lift servo; or, as it's known in the household: "What the heck is that thumping noise? Oh. How long is it going to be doing that for?"
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/01/2026
[Lots of line art eyes] Our youngest just showed me this sketch. I like it but also I don't like it, which was apparently what was intended and I thought I'd share it here (shared with permission)
A photo of an artwork, a page from a sketchbook made with ink and fine liner pen. The paper is white, covered in blue ink tracery making blobs joined by strands. The outline of the blue shapes is black with marks moving in to the blob and in the centre of each is an eye with a range of different expressions over the collection
(The blue is PH Martin's concentrated watercolour with Sakura and Winsor & Newton black fibre tip pens)
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/01/2026
I have found the 333Hz high frequency servo signal where it should be on the third set of pins along (this shouldn't be surprising but this board does have some things done differently than the base design it's a clone of). This board came with only one servo […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A close up photo from above of a circuit board with wires looping over it. In the centre of the frame there is a black plug with three wires coming out (black, red and blue), they are braided together. Other wires are loose above and below the boardA photo from the end of a home made pen plotter, made from aluminium extrusions and 3d printed plastic parts. The plotter has drawn patterns on a piece of paper to test my new pen lift servo and its dynamics: tight spirals (to see how wobbly it is) and small circles (to see how fast the pen lift works)
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/12/2025
It appears that I didn't yet break anything, the big servo is working Verdict: heavy (can be seen in some more wobble in high acceleration parts of a plot) but soooo quiet I think that there should be a high frequency servo signal on one of the sets of pins […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
The edge of a home made pen plotter, two circuit boards are visible, I've y with green LEDs shining. Both are connected to each other with a rats nest of wires running all over the place. One board is sitting at an odd angle, the other is fixed to the white backing board of the plotter
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/12/2025
I've been planning on doing #penplotter brushless pen lift servo investigations for a while and it's nearly ready for a trial This is a cheap(ish) full size brushless servo which would replace the coreless micro servo I already swapped over to a while back […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
An image that shows the pen lift and pen carriage of a home made pen plotter. The carriage sits on a silver aluminium extrusion and is mostly made of white 3d printed plastic (PET-G) apart from a section that is orange. Right at the top a mostly black servo sits on its side ready to lift a pen that would be clamped into the orange part off the paperA terrible hand soldered circuit board (the true horrors are hidden underneath) with two DC-DC converters on top. There are three wires coming off, one barrel jack socket, one barrel jack plug and a servo plug
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/12/2025
My hacked together #Processing Fast Marching Method image converter is not working perfectly, unfortunately It's sort of doing the right things but there are artefacts either in the calculations or the isoline render - I'll need to do some more debugging before I know which
An isoline (contour map) render of an eye made using the fast marching method. The image is made up of lines that get closer together where the image should be dark and further apart where it should be light. There are artefacts in the image, at some points there are parts that are too dark that extend horizontally and vertically
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/12/2025
I've wanted to get the Fast Marching Method working in Processing for a while so I can avoid using Python (which I don't really understand) to make some nice line drawings from photos for #penplotter art I found this paper […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A screenshot of a Linux desktop showing lots of Firefox tabs in the background, the active tab is showing to the right of the screen and some Fortran 90 code is visible. On top of this is the Processing IDE to the left of the screen showing some Processing (Java ish) code but on top of this is a square window with a grey background covered in a regular array of black circles of varying size

The circles are small near to the centre of the array and smoothly increase in size radially until the outer one or two rows/columns which are all the same size and a little bigger than the others. This is the result I was looking for, the size of the circles represents travel time from the centre (ish) so it's smallest where I set the start point and largest as things spread out from there
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/12/2025
Second batch of mince pies of the year, some standard and some with crumble tops - which I can recommend
Mince pies sitting on a wire rack to cool, about half have egg washed star shaped tops and about half are topped with crumble (flour, butter, dark brown sugar, and oats)
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/12/2025
Had an idea for a concealed lithophane model that I thought I'd test. After I'd adapted some #OpenSCAD code from a more complex past project I realised I'd just rewritten something that can be done in one line with a standard function The code makes a […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A hand holding up a white rectangular shape with rounded corners in front of an orange Prusa Mini+ sitting on a wooden shelf. The white shape is featurelessA hand holding up a white rectangular shape with rounded corners in front of an orange Prusa Mini+ sitting on a wooden shelf. The white shape is featurelessA hand holding up a white rectangular shape between thumb and forefinger  in front of an orange Prusa Mini+ sitting on a wooden shelf. The white shape is held up to a light that's in the top left of the frame and a cat can just about be faintly seen, looking like it's embedded in the rectangle
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/11/2025
I'm attempting to use the 50p unicorn biscuit cutter I bought today in the hope of making it (and some biscuits*) part of an office secret Santa gift Can you tell which end of the series I started at? * These are not the biscuits, these are experiments. I'm […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
9 "unicorn" shaped biscuits arranged in a 3 x 3 grid. At the top left there is a bright pink unicorn cutter. The biscuits are sitting on a shiny steel wire rack which is on a grey kitchen work surface. The series of biscuit shapes starts, I think we can say, not well. The first one is a thing of nightmares, distended and missing the most basic of unicorn features. By the bottom right the outline is not that bad, the unicorn has a horn that doesn't look too much like a penis and the tail, legs and head are recognisable
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2025
I saw this while waiting for the bus in #bristol today and was very puzzled as to what it was until I looked up the website on the side of the truck pulling the trailer (not shown) So here's your Sunday challenge: what is this thing?
A photo of an odd thing on a trailer. It's like a box with internal folded up steel mesh walkways in an open side. It's about 3m high, 4m wide and 1m thick. The open side is a 4x3m side but the opposite side to this appears to be full of industrial fans that can blow air out of the box. On the sides there are centrifugal blower fans that seem to be positioned to blow air in from the outside, which is odd given that there are loads of fans aimed too blow air out. Around the open side there is a floppy grey fabric curtain about 0.5m long. The inside of the box looks dirty and very dusty
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2025
There was a spare ball of dough left at the end of the family's appetite for pizza and so, behold! The Cornish Calzone
A wooden chopping board made of end grain wood. It has flour and other marks on it after being used to cut pizza all evening. In the centre of the board is a folded over piece of dough making the shape of a semicircle with a crimped edge like a Cornish pasty. Inside (not visible) is tomato and mozzarella
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2025
I've been using the heck out of my 3d printed desk fan recently in the heat and an impulse buy of a cheap USB power bank yesterday means it's not tied to the mains any more :) I printed a bracket for the power bank and the nifty 4 pin fan speed controller […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
The back of a 3d printed desk fan that is only partially in frame. Some parts of the fan are made from bronze coloured, shiny "silk" filament, the rest is opalescent white. The part of interest is the white PETG bracket which holds a little black box with a knob on top (to control fan speed), usb c input on the right and a square 4 pin fan output that's connected to a grey noctua fan not really visible in this frame. The input of the black controller box goes via a short black usb cable to a grey square power bank that's sitting across the fan, supported by white loops of plasticThe side of a 3d printed desk fan that is fully in frame sitting on a grey kitchen with surface. Some parts of the fan are made from bronze coloured, shiny "silk" filament, most of the rest is opalescent white with only the handle at the very top being matt grey. The fan has a look like the top of a periscope or the flashlights/torches you sometimes see firefighters have clipped to their uniform where there is a vertical section that is joined to a horizontal part at 90 degrees to it. The outlet to the right is a bronze coloured nozzle with a centre plug supported by thin fins The business end of a 3d printed desk fan that is fully in frame sitting on a grey kitchen with surface. Some parts of the fan are made from bronze coloured, shiny "silk" filament, most of the rest is opalescent white with only the handle at the very top being matt grey. This is a view right down the outlet which is a bronze coloured nozzle with a centre plug supported by thin fins. Just behind the plug and fins the corner cascades that turn the flow through 90 degrees smoothly can be seen, these are of a kind found in many wind tunnels
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2025
This Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th I'll be showing my pen plotter and things I've made with it at the BS5 Art Trail in East Bristol: bs5arttrail.co.uk I'll be at the Greenbank (bs5arttrail.co.uk/venue/the-greenba…) and there are lots of […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A photo looking down onto a table. It's covered by a tablecloth but most of its surface is covered with A3 drawings made with a pen plotter: Concorde, a young boys face, two colour plots of an eye and some patterns made from different views of the Lorenz attractorA view from the side, nearly at eye level of a pen plotter made from a white melamine particleboard shelf to which orange and grey 3d printed plastic parts are fixed. They hold black and silver anodised aluminium parts made from extrusions
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2025
Heck yeah plum jam! The tree (mainly used for shade) hasn't been as productive this year as in the past but it's still more plums than we can eat so: jam it is
The bottom of a stainless steel pan, seen from the top. The bottom is covered with plums cooking, the liquid is dark, well, plum colour and the flesh of the plums is yellow. The side of the pan on one side has a scale rising up out of the liquid
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2025
Well it's out: I think it's cooked and probably isn't scrambled eggs underneath
A baked chocolate cheesecake just out of the oven. The top is beige mottled with dark chocolate patterns, dots and lines roughly concentric it from the centre. It's sitting in a dark grey tin that in turn is sitting on then aluminium foil that protected it from the water bath that it cooked in
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/07/2025
@Tusky I'm having trouble with the reading order setting: sometimes "load more" correctly keeps the old message in place and loads new messages above with "oldest first" selected. However sometimes something flips, the setting is no longer respected and it […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
1 - Original state, before loading more. When clicking "load more" the current setting for reading order (oldest first) should imply that message from the cat account stays in place but at the moment any setting of the reading order option will not do this2 - After loading more we can see that the top ACARS drama message has stayed in place and the bottom message has moved, requiring scrolling back to get to the oldest message that is not read (is this really something that people want to do? But why click to load more if you're going to scroll forward from this point? All you're doing then is loading messages that won't be read)3 - here is the setting which I think should imply that the behaviour in the other screenshots shouldn't happen, in fact changing the options doesn't seem to change the loading behaviour at the moment
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/07/2025
Today we are visiting Twiggy (foreground) and her brother Bowie #caturday
A pair of very large pure white cats. One is standing in the foreground, looking away to the right of frame, the other is sitting, loaf style, on a chair in the background, slightly out of focus
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/07/2025
Playing a little more with contour-based image generation: a bit more Python got me a 5Mb text file of the surface data and a line of #OpenScad got me an STL It's very cool that because edge lines are a different colour in PrusaSlicer they act as contour […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A screenshot of the PrusaSlicer software in Linux, the model loaded is being looked at from directly above and the slicer preview shows a low-contrast image of an eye. The eye is made up from the layer lines in the print, where the image is darker they are closer togetherA screenshot of the OpenSCAD software in Linux, a yellow surface is shown against a white background with a couple of lines of code to the left in the code window reading:
xyScale = 150/1024;
scale([xyScale,xyScale,1])surface(file = "d.txt", center = true, convexity = 5);
This code takes the data in the "d.txt" file and turns it into a surface where the numbers in the file (very many, it's a 5Mb file) represent the height. The surface is generally sloped up to the centre, rising sharply to a single high peak
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/07/2025
I've been trying to get this style of plotter image to work since before 2012: representing brightness with isolines of a function with higher gradients where the image should be darker so the lines are closer After getting something close but not very good […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2025
Back on my servo bullshit again: I found a brushless servo that was under £30 so I thought I'd have a go to see if it might be a #penplotter option for increased durability It has more firearms on it than I'd like (which is to say it has some, I'd like zero) […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A servo with a black anodised aluminium case. There are white and red highlights and text all over reading: "HV 0.1'/7.4V" (written inside a bullet which still has it's casing and speed lines around the front so if it's moving someone must have thrown it? Also it doesn't look like a rifle bullet?)
"Yipin servo Brushless" "AK70kg" (this is the model name on AliExpress)
A website www.yipinservo.com
On top next to the black plastic servo horn is a picture of two rifles, possibly AK47s, which I'm not super happy with but I didn't notice them before I bought it 
It's sitting on a yellow tablecloth, lit from behind. There are a couple of baggies containing accessories on the table to the right
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2025
Looks like our oldest had a good night last night
A brown rubber horse head mask sitting on a light wood ottoman next to some coats. On the light coloured carpet behind a couple of empty bowls can be seen (the cat's water and biscuits)
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2025
The (very old) pen ran out in a really weird way on this plot, it almost looks intentional. It wasn't, but I'm going to go with it because I think it might look interesting (The style of the plot is based on one I saw in the Drawingbots Discord, I really […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
Top down view of a DIY pen plotter made from orange and grey 3d printed parts with shiny silver and black anodised aluminium rails. On the black plotting surface there is a piece of A3 white paper. The pen holder has a blue pen which is working across the sheet but already laid down is a previous pattern made up from small magenta/pink lines at different angles making swirly patterns
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/05/2025
I'm behind on #mayke so here's a couple: cherry cake (because I wanted cake) and a #penplotter portrait of Parsnip the cat (which I suppose makes it also #caturday)
A cake with a browned, cracked top made in a loaf tin with roughly gathered greaseproof paper around the outside, sitting on a shiny steel grille on a dark coloured kitchen work surfaceA close up view of a pen plotter drawing that aims to represent a photo of a cat. She's black and white, looking off to the right. The photo is made of lines that are vertical (they look splayed out due to perspective here) and as the photo gets darker the lines spread out, making a wider dark stripA close up view of a pen plotter drawing that aims to represent a photo of a cat. She's black and white, looking off to the right. The photo is made of lines that are vertical and as the photo gets darker the lines spread out, making a wider dark strip. The photo sits against the back of a light coloured chair
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/04/2025
Excitement: new coreless pen lift servo arrived So far it seems much quieter than the cheap micro servos I've been using. I was never super happy that they're basically consumables either so hopefully this is a bit more long lasting #penplotter
An arrangement of silver coloured aluminium extrusions and orange and grey 3d printed plastic parts. This is the pen lift mechanism for my home built pen plotter. In the centre of the frame, attached to an orange bracket is a silver and burgundy new servo with brown, orange and red wire coming out, leading up and out of frame.
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/04/2025
I don't often do purely decorative prints but I was never happy with my previous attempt at a "suspended" model and I wanted another go This is the ship "Limiting Factor" from the Iain M Banks book "The Player of Games", the geometry comes from one of his […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A shiny 3d printed model, made from bronze coloured "silk" filament. It's a model of the ship "Limiting Factor" from the Iain M Banks book "The Player of Games". The ship is shaped like a kind of spindle, tapering to a point at the nose with a bulge at the waist and a bluff truncated cone at the rear. Leading up to the nose there are three long bulges, with five shorter ones around the waist. The model is printed inside a C-shaped holder, suspended by thin filament strands so it looks a little like it's flying
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/04/2025
Did some Monday evening plotting: very minor changes to the wave equation rendering code to experiment with a much denser set of lines than I've done before I had hoped for a less moody in-progress photo but the spotlight I have set up is better for eyes […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A close up photo of a pen plotter drawing on white paper. A Pilot V ball Grip pen is clamped in the orange pen holder at top left of frame. The pen is drawing a wavy pattern formed from closely spaced lines, it's supposed to look like ripples on a pondA wavy pattern formed from closely spaced lines, it's supposed to look like ripples on a pond. The lines are angled so the square "pond" is approximately oriented like an isometric drawingA close up part of a wavy pattern formed from closely spaced lines, it's supposed to look like ripples on a pond. The lines are angled so the square "pond" is approximately oriented like an isometric drawing but we see only a part of the pattern. Near the centre of frame is a thin spike, surrounded by regular waves interfering with others that reflect from the sides
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/04/2025
Belated #caturday - someone got excited and decided to jump up on the door but then was nervous about jumping down Will this be a lesson learned? Hahahaha no
Most of the frame is an open white panel door. On top of the door, near the hinge side is a small black and white cat who is looking nervous. The walls are light cream coloured and the ceiling just above the door is white with half circle patterns
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/04/2025
Bring me my fighting trousers! #CatsOfMastodon
A small black and white cat wrapped up in a pair of dark coloured cotton trousers. Her expression is wild and her rear legs are blurred where she's attempting to eviscerate the legs of this fearful trouser beast. Cat and trousers are lying on a beige tufted carpet, to the side is a cat scratching post with other items of furniture just in the edge of frame

The post is a reference to the Professor Elemental song "Fighting Trousers"
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/03/2025
Suddenly realised that I had all of the bits laying around from other projects to make a knife sharpening jig if I printed some parts The 2020 extrusion was a plotter offcut, the 1515 was a top/bottom rail of my old mini kossell 3d printer, the steel rod was […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
Yellow tablecloth lit brightly but indirectly by the sun

On top there is a knife sharpening jig made from two pieces of aluminium extrusion set at 90deg from each other by grey 3d printed plastic parts of boxy and utilitarian appearance. There is a grey part halfway up the vertical through which a shiny steel rod is pushed and on the forward end of the rod is a plastic holder for whetstones, two of which are lying on the table: one white and one dark, dirty pink
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Chris Lynas @fastness.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/03/2025
My contribution towards afternoon tea: focaccia with rosemary from our hyperactive rosemary bush and (sort of) cherry and almond cake (when I checked we only had 4 cherries) #cooking #baking #food
The background is a yellow patterned tablecloth. On the table nearer to the camera is a large flattened bread about 35cm diameter, 5 cm thick with dimples all over the top. The dimples are filled with sprigs of rosemary and the top has been sprinkled with large grains of sea salt. The top is browned and the left edge has been cut away (chef's perks - "testing" the bread). To the top of frame there is a loaf cake with a browned split top cooked in roughly gathered greaseproof paper. The cake is cooling on a wire rack and the bread is sitting on a bamboo chopping board
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