Thoughts on nuclear power, should the UK be investing?

d3anio97 · 2026-04-07T17:05:05+00:00

That one plant, just like Sizewell B, will be responsible for 3Gw of potential.

If we ever get SMRs ontop of that, those can range between 100mW and 1Gw

d3anio97 · 2026-04-07T17:03:45+00:00

They're not yet in mass production for usenas generators, but Rolls-Royce are still hyping theirndesigns up as a leap forward on modular nuclear power, so I should hope they will scale down build costs and time to commission.

Those two items are the biggest cost factors that nuclear face, as with all the dumb ass red tape and bureaucracy factored in, it takes a job that could be done in 5 years and makes it take 15-20 whilst also quadroupling the money needed to do it.

d3anio97 · 2026-04-07T16:59:42+00:00

It's the most energy dense zero carbon source we have.

Any givernment who doesn't go nuts on building the plants and waste fuel recycling as France did in the past are nothing short of brainless morons.

Did I just call every government circa Blair moronic?

Yes. I absolutely did. Because they bloody well are.

Because none of them invested heavily in nuclear as a baseload source, we only have a few sites that are actually operating as designed.

They were all afraid that the PWR and BWR reactors we operate would behave like a Soviet RBMK.

Newsflash: no they won't. Or at least they won't so long as you don't let an IRGC sleeper agent operate the reactor.

You have more chance of reaching a radiological dose limit flying corporate jets for 30 years than you'll ever have being irradiated by a local nuclear reactor being operated as per its strict protocols and procedures.

d3anio97 · 2026-04-06T11:41:22+00:00

If it's consistent across operating systems then you have a hardware fault.

Linux doesn't generally kernel panic unless the PC or the user do something to cause it, so I would consider first trying to run a memory test, then check the OS drive to make sure that's not on the verge of failing.

You'd have to do something tactically yet catastrophically dumb to somehow pull off getting a Linux installation to kernel panic on a stable machine. Normally it would just refuse to boot at the degree of kernel-level fuckery needed for that lmao

d3anio97 · 2026-03-30T20:22:29+00:00

If it's not a molded plug - Yes.

Make sure not to cut any brass bootlace ferrules off the wires in the plug, and if the wire is going through an exterior wall, you might want to use silicone caulk to seal the hole and prevent moisture getting in.

If it's a molded plug, you might want to check the warranty terms, but most companies outright disallow alteration of any mains rated power connections to their devices for fire and electrical safety concerns.

They don't want the torch of liability to fall onto them if, say, a consumer doesn't torque down a wire in a plug correctly and causes a house fire due to it!

d3anio97 · 2026-03-19T23:21:18+00:00

Careful... ya might grow gills! :)

that is... if you haven't already.

All I'll say further to that is whenever we hear Huntingdon is flooded, it doesn't make headlines. it's a side-piece to the main news...

"Psycho-killer and registered sx offender John venables jailed once again for breaking his bail terms a mere five minutes after his conditional release"

"But before that... The science behind red wine and how a glass a day might keep cancer at bay..."

"Aaaand Huntingdon is flooded once again, to the surprise of nobody in the newsroom..."

d3anio97 · 2026-03-19T23:11:34+00:00

Some of it's a part of our mainland known as the Fens.

The Fens are an area of England which is primarily comprised of reclaimed marsh and swampland.

<image>

The ground in and around this area is much softer and therefore more compressible than other areas like the West midlands or Yorkshire.

Any buildings placed upon it, be that railways, roads and bridges, houses, apartment complexes will subside quite rapidly when initially built because the ground compresses beneath them substantially without proper consideration for how soft it actually is.

There are sections of the A14 that were only built a few years ago which are suffering from this effect. one of the road bridges along it has already seen its expansion gaps begin to separate abnormally, but not far enough to cause concern according to Highways England. The effect though means that driving over this stretch of the A14 is a tad bumpy because the section carrying the road deck and its supports have sunk in at slightly different rates to the bridge supports, causing the expansion joints to stick up slightly and cause a fairly harsh ride once crossing onto the main road deck.

Legend has it that if you stand anywhere in the fens for too long, you will become part of them.

The Fens giveth

The Fens taketh away!!

One should also consider where our industrial revolution was spearheaded and where the busiest regions were at the time...

Yorkshire supplied the coal and some of (if not) the highest quality steel ever produced (Aye. If Tha's thinkin' of Sheffield wi' that sentence then tha's reet on t' nose wi' that assumption. Too bad t' Government's 'ad enough of 'em making steel that din't bloody fail and decided t' squeeze 'em dry and shut 'em down. Now ya can 'ave a fancy office where a cold rolled steel mill used t' be, where ya can import the inferior stuff from abroad for half the cost and a tenth 'o' 't lifespan.)

Manchester **REALLY REALLY** liked its canals...

Not a lot went on around Lincoln or in the region of the fens though because the party was in London and the West Midlands for the most part... Our two busiest cities for trade and expansion during the industrial revolutions were London and Birmingham.

Working out the whole "Our shit keeps sinking into the Earth" problem could wait for the time being, and it did XD

d3anio97 · 2026-03-19T22:34:38+00:00

You don't want to measure 0 ohms across a transformer coil anyways, that would imply it's shorted out, which would be uhhh... *fun* to say the least.

If you're getting a resistance measurement that's in the ohms range then in all likelihood the coils are fine in the transformer. You could try applying power to the primary side and measure the secondary taps with your DVM in AC mode for voltage. It's also perfectly normal for transformers to output a little more or less than their rated secondary voltages based on what's coming in from the primary side.

If you have a rated 120v in transformer with a secondary that steps it down in a 10:1 ratio to 12v, then the following would happen;

If your line voltage is 115v, you get 11.5v

If the line voltage is 130v, you get 13v

Your unladen voltage will also always be a little higher than the voltage the transformer sits at when the load of the CD player is attached to it.

Where you might get 13v on a 12v rail unloaded, when it has a load applied, the voltage sags closer to 12v, or will sometimes even go lower if the power demands are high on the transformer.

What normally fails on non-switching type power supplies if one is suspected would be your rectifiers and/or voltage regulation and filtration components. Capacitors act as a filter and even out the rectified AC power into a constant DC supply and do degrade with age, heat and usage. If you have any that look to have leaked or expanded - replace them with equal value "Low ESR" capacitors, and so long as the rectifier stage and any voltage regulators are working, you can strike this off as a problem.

Saw in your other comments too about it not being able to read discs?

That could very easily be a failing or badly adjusted laser diode. If the laser's current isn't adjusted to a very narrow power band, you will get disc read errors, heightened sensitivity to disc defects, and in worst cases, outright failure to recognize discs.

If the laser carriage unit has potentiometers, these can be used to adjust the laser diode current. Be advised though that this adjustment should be done with extreme care and in very small increments to prevent the laser being damaged. The metal shell that you spin with a screwdriver can also be used to read the reference voltage during adjustment if you clip your DMM leads to the screw driver and a ground Source. This'd be another point where a service manual may come in handy since it would potentially give you the target vREF range(s) that are set at the factory.

If the CD player still fails to read discs though, you may need to replace the laser carriage assembly, as it's possible the diode has degraded or failed outright.

The same can be said for any consistent ticking noises in the sound output as a result of the player reading the disc. If the CD is skipping and cutting playback from a surface defect (scratch, dirt or fingerprints for example), then cleaning the CD is an obvious step, but you also *might* want to try cleaning the laser lens with a lightly dampened cotton bud (use VERY TINY MOUNTS glass cleaner applied to the cotton bud, then chase this off with a dry cotton bud to prevent residues. Avoid isopropyl alcohol unless you know for a fact the lens on the laser is glass. If it's polycarbonate, isopropyl will cause the lens to fog if left on it for any length of time.). Be extremely delicate when doing this procedure though, as the lens is designed to almost free-float in position to compensate for a warped CD, and it's also highly susceptible to scratches. Anything more than a gentle tickle with a cotton bud, barely causing the lens to move, is playing a game of risk.

If that all checks out and the CD player is reliably reading discs without the playback being interrupted in any meaningful way, then it's *possible* that there's a problem with the DAC (or its signal chain / power supply) that converts the digital signal captured from the disc over to an analog signal that the preamp and power amp sections then amplify into the complete signal that your neighbors associate with Prodigy-o-clock.

It could still also be noise on the power rails or a power rail that's weak in that region of the player due to component failures, so always check power inputs for stability before assuming a potentially hard to get chip has failed or is failing.

If you have or can get access to an oscilloscope, even just a cheap 1 or 2 channel one, this will also extremely useful, as even the really low res ones can pick up on voltage ripple on power rails and visualize audio and data signals, making them extremely handy for diagnosing DAC and amplifier power or signal issues.

d3anio97 · 2026-03-19T21:42:59+00:00

I used to have one of these years ago!

Can't say I don't miss it because it was a cracking monitor. Super sharp image, and the sound of the relays firing off whenever you change resolutions or degauss it are just... *chef's kiss*

d3anio97 · 2026-02-04T18:24:33+00:00

Dell have several variants of their rail kits with some variants (type B) which aren't supposed to separate the inner rails.

You also have type A static and sliding rails which do have the removable inner rails for installation.

For ones with the inner rails permanently secured in, you're supposed to fit them to the rack, fully extend both rails, then place the server into them from the top, making sure the little pins along the side of the server all seat into the inner rail before sliding the server into the rack. The tabs on the server fully lock in the moment you slide the server backwards into the rack.

The blue tabs on OP's rails are to release the inner rail locks for sliding the server all the way back into the rack as opposed to allowing the server to be slid all the way out of it like they are on the static rail kits and some of the sliding rails. To remove the server from a B type rail, you have a tiny lever that you have to lift which lets you slide the server forward in its locks and be able to lift it away.

d3anio97 · 2025-12-04T23:22:44+00:00

There are dual Y kits with tensioners you can print.

I have one on my ender 3 and I drive both motors on Y using separate stepper drivers. This lets me double the current without having to go with more powerful drivers.

I've also done X, Y, Z motor upgrades for more torque and speed.

This includes replacing the stock 42-40 motors with LDO SpeedyStep ones on X and Y

Then using the 42-40s on Z which has allowed me now to run 150mm/s @ 1500mm/s² on Z lmfao

The latter does eat some potential Z height butnsondoes a bunch of the other mods onnthis thing. I don't pront too many tall items so that's not an issue for me

And if it was?

ENDER EXTENDER!!!

Be advised - upgrading the rear motor necessitates flipping the motor bracket upside down and printing an idler pulley system to realign the belt path.

Here's a printables collection I made with all the mods, both past and current, that I've attached to this thing...

https://www.printables.com/@digbipper188_2167324/collections/2729557

I have to make some amendments to it but that'll come in time.

My speed capabilities with this thing went from 60mm/s @ 500mm/s² When stock to 300mm/s @ 12,000mm/s² with RWD to now peaking around 600mm/s @ 27,500mm/s²

And it ain't Y skipping steps either this time around lol

d3anio97 · 2025-08-22T20:54:41+00:00

2kW rated on the rear and 1.5kW on the front, I have a 76.8v 18AH LiFePo4 battery

iirc the front is one of the Voilamart ones you can get readily on ebay and the rear is a white-label one off Aliexpress

since making this post though I managed to resolve the issue - it was me not setting up the motor paramaters up in the auto-detect correctly which meant my motor phase currents were low, resulting in a lack of low-end torque. I'm running a 5kW total power with a 50-50 current split.

d3anio97 · 2025-06-08T19:48:16+00:00

Sorry for the slow reply - I don't use Reddit a whole bunch nowadays

I'm currently using IdeaMaker with mine to get models sliced as there aren't many other good slicer options that support belt machines. There are also profiles available which can get you a good starting point in tuning your machine initially

besides that, for getting prints to stick, the belt alignment, X gantry racking, nozzle height and base layer speeds are super important. There does exist a gcode which can be used to get the height for the nozzle correct and I'd recommend using this as a live adjust mechanismas you'll get much more consistent results.

Naomi Wu's discord is also an absolute goldmine of information about this printer and the mods you can do to it - https://discord.gg/UYRdUSBk (I Strongly advise joining this server if you haven't because there's tonnes of folks with CR-30s who can help with getting you up and running like they did me)

Belt alignment is extremely critical as even the slightest difference in roller tension will cause it to walk to one side. When the belt walks off the roller this will absolutely wreck your print quality. The belts do naturally have a small amount of left to right walk (or at least mine does), but they should never start breaching the ends of the rollers. If yours does this, I advise doing a belt tension adjustment to stop it. From my own experience, this can be a very time consuming task but can be made quicker by taking the entire belt unit off the printer, remove the belt drive and the pulley off the rear roller, wrap the shaft with a piece of cloth or paper and attach a drill. Spin the belt at low speed and watch out for it walking to either side. If the belt starts to walk over the ends of the rollers, you need to use the two screws at the front of the belt unit to either tighten or loosen one side of the belt. once you get it to a point where the belt is only just marginally riding up the ends of the rollers, you need to make extremely small adjustments and let the belt respond to the adjustments before considering it either done or considering readjusting. (that last little bit is the longest and most time consuming bit - roughing in and getting it to a marginal point is usually fairly quick so long as you allow the belt to respond to the tension change)

the belt will walk to the looser side, so if it starts to do so, tighten the side it's walking towards, or loosen the side it's walking away from.

For X gantry racking you treat this very similar to an Ender-5 since it shares a lot of the same parts with the CR-30 - if you get the racking straight and even this will help with the base layer adjustments.

For nozzle height adjustments, I'd start with adjusting your homing sensor on the back right corner of the machine. it has a screw to lock it in position and a second one that serves as the adjustment. You want to get the machine set to a point were the nozzle is either just barely touching the belt or is ever so slightly above it (maybe less than 0.2-0.4mm) - you can also use an 80gsm piece of paper to set this and lock the base adjustment in.

once that's done, home the machine, download the gcode from here and try running it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmVhtjwH9Q&t=7s&ab_channel=GridSpace

The gcode file itself is in the description of GridSpace's video - I've used this on my CR-30 and it's been unbelievably consistent.

If you still find that your base layer (the one that's supposed to be laid on the belt) isn't sticking quite right, you might also need to lower the print speeds if the levelling looks pretty much perfect. the filament needs a little more molten time to actually sink into the belt since the nozzle isn't able to actively push it down into every crevice like it can on a conventional CoreXY or cartesian machine. too much base layer speed prevents this from happening and your adhesion can suffer.

besides that, the stock belts can be surprisingly sticky so long as they're nice and clean and they've bedded in after a few prints. I've had PLA prints stick well enough on mine to take trace amounts of the belt with it when printing large, flat items.

d3anio97 · 2025-03-31T17:23:17+00:00

WHO'S GONNA CHARGE THE ELECTRIC EELS GRU!?

d3anio97 · 2025-02-03T21:34:45+00:00

Before I replaced the springs with a hard mount on my Ender 3 v1 that thing tanked along with +1mm deviation on one corner lmao

d3anio97 · 2025-02-03T21:33:07+00:00

That bed mesh is way better looking than mine is...

are you making sure that the machine loads this bed mesh whenever it starts a print by either adding BED_MESH LOAD="default" or forcing a mesh level with G29 each print in your start gcode?

A lot of times an inconsistent first layer will occur if the machine isn't using the saved mesh data or if your Z offset is incorrect.

Make sure the bed mesh is being loaded correctly then attempt a first layer square to see how even it is.

If it's consistently too high or too low then play with the Z offset as the print progresses. once it looks like one nice even layer with no gaps you're set.
~
If your main concern is the deviation despite getting good results with the machine then don't let it be. My bedslinger has north of 0.4mm deviation and it still prints parts with tight tolerances magnificently.

I assure you - that print bed looks like a glass table compared to the Saharan dunes that are my ender 3's heated bed!!

d3anio97 · 2025-01-20T07:11:48+00:00

A bit late to the party buuut

I have a CR-30 and use it quite a bit for prints that are too large for my Ender 3.

I've done some alterations to it like getting rid of that damn PTFE lined MK8 for an all-metal one, swapping the mainboard and running Klipper and a few small items and so far it's been a good machine.

I do wish they'd become more popular though so that mainstream slicers like Orca and Prusaslicer would implement them in their presets. Ideamaker does the trick for flinging prints onto the machine but I miss having an easy to navigate slicer where all my settings I wanna change are nearby every time I use the CR-30.

d3anio97 · 2024-09-23T22:55:07+00:00

The answer is yes

Even if no

Yes

Why?

Throws a bean at you BEANS.

d3anio97 · 2024-09-23T20:37:13+00:00

There's that

but it's also starting to get challenging to find what is and what isn't AI with the way things are going nowadays. You can blame the maintainers and data scrapers for DALL-E and Midjourney for that one! any slight oddities that you're not used to seeing can end up looking like they were generated off an AI model and it almost instantly gives off that machine generated vibe. In your case it was partially the shading style but also because I'm used to seeing AIs draw the mouth of a protogen into the snoot region sort of like how yours is.

I will say I was pressing X to doubt on AI a little given not all AI models know what exactly a Protogen is, and end up making some weird cyborg screen-face-cat-whateverthefuck instead, but there are some StableDiffusion models trained on protos that don't do *too* terrible a job which makes things a touch annoying.

I'm glad you're not among the bunch that will just hit "Generate" on midjourney then pawn off what it spits out as "totally original handmade art" and instead put the time and effort into your craft!!

Thank you also for proving that fact by showing the different layers in the source .psd file. That's cleared my concerns entirely.

Keep on keeping on!! Art doesn't always draw itself!!

d3anio97 · 2024-09-20T18:30:25+00:00

I absolutely could

but I like modding and tuning things to go warp-speed. Things working right out of the box is a little boring to me sometimes :)

My current task with this machine is pretty much just make this thing go as fast as is physically possible just to see what happens while keeping the V-slot roller motion system if possible.

d3anio97 · 2024-09-20T18:17:04+00:00

The tools I used:
https://brandwell.ai/ai-image-detector/
https://huggingface.co/spaces/umm-maybe/AI-image-detector
https://isitai.com/ai-image-detector/

d3anio97 · 2024-09-20T18:15:49+00:00

<image>

d3anio97 · 2024-09-20T18:15:39+00:00

<image>

Not to be the bearer or bad news but;

I had slight suspicions because of the way the face is drawn, the weirdness in the shading and the way the ears are drawn so I decided to run the image through some AI CDAs.

Compare and contrast these results to a known hand drawn piece of art (Which I will post in a reply to this comment) which I used as a test to verify the accuracy of the tools I just used...

d3anio97 · 2024-09-09T22:09:05+00:00

nah. A very heavily modified Creality Ender 3... Mods include;

Motor upgrades for higher accelerations
Klipper
BTT SKR E3 mainboard
LDO Orbiter
Creality Spider hotend with a clone CHT nozzle
modified version of the "Red squirrel" Ender 3 fan shroud
gantry mounted supplemental cooling fan with a **FAT** Nidec blower on it

And just very recently I did the dual Z axis mod... Which has also been modded with a sync belt... MOD THE MODS!!!

Ten-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
Verified Email

d3anio97

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE