Footleg
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drfootleg.bsky.social
Footleg
@drfootleg.bsky.social
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Maker, Caver, Scientist, Software Dev, electronics, robots. Keeper of Chickens. Director of Cambridge Makespace where I run a weekly RPi and CAD meet up on Tuesday evenings. Host of FootFest, our mini maker camping festival held annually in Suffolk.
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drfootleg.bsky.social
Pirate radio from @pimoroni.com c.2018 repurposed to play Swift bird calls in the morning and evening. Learned some crontab tricks to get the script to run and stop at scheduled times. Impressed the hardware works on a modern install of Pi OS Buster lite after all these years. #nature #RaspberryPi
July 19, 2025 at 4:25 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
All set up ready for my monthly kids coding session in the local library village community centre.
May 10, 2025 at 9:54 AM
drfootleg.bsky.social
I’ve now put my AA graphics library together with my C++ touchscreen and IMU hardware drivers to implement gravity in my balls simulation on the @pimoroni.com #Presto
May 8, 2025 at 5:50 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Even more fun in orbital mechanics mode. I can toggle on combining on collision too.
April 30, 2025 at 7:04 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
My @pimoroni.com Presto is full up. Can I get a bigger screen please?
April 30, 2025 at 6:47 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
An idyllic day in the Forest of Dean with all day not as forecast sunshine. We did a 10km family walk.
April 20, 2025 at 2:44 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Post a warning
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Child in swimwear next to a warning sign which says 'Crocodiles do not swim, do not feed'
March 24, 2025 at 12:17 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
I had a 75% scale McGybeer lizard 3D printed in stainless steel by #jlcpcb and it came out amazing! #3dprinting
3D printed flexible lizard with 1 Euro coin for scale
March 7, 2025 at 10:00 AM
drfootleg.bsky.social
It may have been a bit of a rabbit hole, but worth getting a fully detailed CAD model built for my new board. Here is it in SOLIDWORKS.
February 23, 2025 at 6:04 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
I needed a 12V load to test my board. This car spare bulb set I bought for a trip to France in 1994 finally had its day. 12V load with built in indicator light! Actually a choice of 3A and 4A loads in that headlight bulb. Worked really well to confirm the board works powered by DC input and battery.
February 23, 2025 at 10:46 AM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Major success today at Makespace. Reflow soldered the first of my newly made PCBs and despite some paste and reflow challenges I just confirmed it works.
February 22, 2025 at 10:02 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Our chickens are full of surprises!
(Egg for scale)
February 20, 2025 at 5:35 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
My first new PCB project in several years. Fresh off the fab line. Now I can build prototypes on breadboard with 14 different SMD package sizes, and practice some more fiddly SMD soldering.
February 20, 2025 at 12:50 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
This is huge! Touch is working in my C++ on the #Presto
February 16, 2025 at 1:56 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Progress with C++ on the @pimoroni.com Presto tonight. Settled on a 480x240 screen double buffer to avoid complex PSRAM shenanigans and wrote a graphics library method to scale my circles back to round. 100 bouncing balls at almost 24fps, butter smooth. Random seed off a floating ADC.
February 15, 2025 at 8:16 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
We had a great project photography training session at Cambridge Makespace last night. I took along a couple of my small robots to practice taking some beauty shots.

#maker #Robots #pcb #robotics #3dprinting #RaspberryPi
A small triangular tracked black 3D printed robot, photographed on a white paper infinity cove lit by a pair of wide area light sources A small triangular tracked black 3D printed robot, photographed on a white paper infinity cove lit by a pair of wide area light sources A small 4 wheeled robot made from blue transparent acrylic, photographed on a white paper infinity cove lit by a pair of wide area light sources Top down view of a small 4 wheeled robot made from blue transparent acrylic, photographed on a white paper infinity cove lit by a pair of wide area light sources. Showing detail of the Sentinel board PCB I designed.
February 13, 2025 at 10:46 AM
drfootleg.bsky.social
I made my first accessory for the @pimoroni.com Presto. It slides onto the base so the sensor stick is solidly mounted.
February 8, 2025 at 11:04 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Improved code published. Here is a 24 body problem running at 33fps on the Pico2 on the @pimoroni.com Pico Display 2.8”
January 30, 2025 at 8:39 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Excited and humbled to find I appeared in the #MagPi 150th special issue article for my coding outreach volunteering, alongside some much more famous names.
January 28, 2025 at 7:59 AM
drfootleg.bsky.social
I got my 3 body problem simulation running on the RP2350. So much better with a floating point unit and faster CPU. Running on a #Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 and their 2.8” display pack. I may have to buy a #Presto now! #Pico2 #RaspberryPi
January 24, 2025 at 9:08 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Final set of projects finished in 2024. Details in the ALT text. Surprised at how much I got done, considering the large list of started and in progress projects! #Maker
I built my first Death Racer, a 3D printed robot which is deactivated by knocking the head off. I used a body scan we had done at SMRRF23 to make the head have my own face. I won a bout at SMRRF24! I designed a mounting solution to fit a Dragonburner hot-end to my Sapphire Pro 3D printer. A much smaller solution that the HeroMe hot end I printed last year, recovering some print area and adding heat creep monitoring, plus nice LEDs. I did my first fine metals work, making a couple of rings in copper and brass, and a short chain from some copper wire. Not a new project, but as it gets broken at every event I finally got around to reprinting some of the parts of the lightsabre in PETG. Also replaced the broken USB charging port. It survived a full weekend event at SMRRF24! Just a few snapped cosmetic fins on the hilt, which I might redesign to make these stronger.
January 20, 2025 at 10:39 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
More finished projects from 2024. I gave my first EMFcamp talk: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZR...
More project details in the ALT text on these images. #FootFest #EMFCamp
As well as selling the LED Matrix HAT boards, Nat and I started selling 3D prints at events after getting asked if things were for sale at many education outreach events we do together. We sold lots of flexi lizard keyrings. I designed the hardware of my first planned robot kit to sell. So I'm counting it as finished for the hardware side. Documentation and code examples have held up going to market with these. I designed a set of Pi5 cases, including ones to fit the single and duo NVME bases from Pimoroni. Sold a few at events, but still need to sort out an online store (a project for 2025!) We hosted the 4th annual FootFest with the most epic Hacky Racers track yet.
January 20, 2025 at 10:37 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
I cleaned up and updated my #Maker projects Trello board and found I had actually finished a good number of projects in 2024. Some of these were more than a year in the making, but these were what I got over the finish line last year. Details for each in the ALT text #3dprinting #RaspberryPi #Robots
I built my first Voron printer. From the R0.2 kit from Siboor. I upgraded the AB motors to LDO steppers, and added light sticks and a Pi camera. Took 3 months to tune it, but since then it has run great. So fast to start up and get printing. I designed my first mechanum wheel robot. This was my Pi Wars competition entry. An entirely 3D printed modular design, using a Pi 5 for the first time on a robot. I came 3rd in the intermediate class. This is a CAD model, minus the cover for the Pi and the camera and barrel grabber. Also for Pi Wars, I worked on TerrorByte with my young persons team. I did the CAD and 3D printing for them based on their ideas. They did all the coding, assembly and the paint job. First robot we have done with cosmetic bodywork. Developed my first product all the way to sale! My 3 channel LED matrix driver HAT for the Raspberry Pi. I sold the entire batch of 8 boards at EMFcamp night market.
January 20, 2025 at 10:32 PM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Realising that AliExpress O-ring sizing refers to diameter and not circumference. #Maker #Fail
A 3D printed plastic part with a groove to take an o-ring seal. Around the part is an o-ring which is around 3.14x the circumference of the groove.
January 17, 2025 at 9:49 AM
drfootleg.bsky.social
Two for the price of one!
Two Bengal cats in a green furry cat doughnut
January 16, 2025 at 10:52 AM