For those of you interested in programming, this Saturday, April 16th, is Utah’s annual Code Camp. It’s a free, day-long convention with sessions on a lot of programming-related topics. They even have some sessions on Arduino, and some kid-oriented sessions. A free lunch is provided, and the whole thing is sponsored by local software businesses.

You need to register and RSVP if you plan to go, since they need a head count for lunches and swag bags. If you don’t register, you can probably still attend, but you’ll need to bring your own lunch. Visit http://www.utahgeekevents.com/, sign up, then click “Event Registration” and mark yourself as planning to attend.

I found 3D files on Thingiverse.com for a Lv1 Sentry turret from Team Fortress 2. Printed out the parts, spray-painted the black parts black, and assembled a new toy.

Here are most of the parts being printed:

John and I spent 3 or 4 hours Thursday night getting the printer up and running to where we could start the first print.

On Friday, John spent most of the day getting it calibrated and doing test prints, and some more time on Saturday troubleshooting a problem with the filament feed.

But the hard work paid off! We’ve got it successfully printing usable parts at up to 200% speed.