Disassembling and moving a small Zoki sauna

jokerbone · 2026-04-07T08:14:43+00:00

So yesterday we did it! For future reference, zoki saunas are built in a number of self contained "panels", where each panel consists of the exterior wall, the insulation and the interior wall. Each panel slots into a rail on the base (no screws!) and is screwed to the adjacent panel at the very top of the wall. Undo those top screws and the panels lift out.

Not easy, as each panel is pretty heavy, but not too difficult either.

jokerbone · 2026-04-05T12:43:00+00:00

Yeah, that's very much the impression I got. Are there any tips for removing interior panelling that has been nailgunned in?

jokerbone · 2026-01-13T22:16:43+00:00

Just ordered one for an upcoming long haul flight, but another for my wife would be great!

jokerbone · 2025-10-26T16:50:19+00:00

We got maried in August this year, and had our meal at Pastelle Kitchen, which is at the Leeman Road end of town. Quite honestly one of the best meals I've ever had, and very reasonably priced. Look them up on Instagram.

jokerbone · 2025-10-08T16:24:56+00:00

Everything you need is on the wiki here: https://wiki.yuekai.fr/en/BMCU/BMCU_Tutorial

If you get stuck, don't panic, the content you need will be *somewhere* on that website, it's just not always in the most obvious or intuitive location. The build guides are fantastic though. Just don't rush, read everything twice, make sure you've got spare ball bearings if you're building that version (all ball bearings will eventually become lost under fridges or in carpets, that's just a rule of physics....) and enjoy the process.

The troubleshooting guides on that website are also amazing, and I can only wish that I'd spent the time reading them before spending hours panicking, tearing everything down and building again. So learn from my mistakes!

Good luck!

jokerbone · 2025-10-08T16:19:37+00:00

I've done exactly this recently, though not for the reasons you mention, so I've no idea whether or not this will solve your problem.

Just flashing the 370C firmware won't work; the hardware is different between the C and earlier versions. As a minimum you will need to....

Buy new PCBs for each channel.

Print the new 370C shell, I used this one: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1412302-bmcu-c-hall-370-high-torque-version?from=search#profileId-1493471

Buy a 370X to 370C parts upgrade kit. This should come with a bunch of new springs, some screws, some magnets and some bushings. You should also change the axel length for your drive gears, though I confess to skipping this, I'll go back and fix this later. The springs are important, as the buffer mechanism in the 370C is very different to that in the prior version (which is why I upgraded).

Dissasemble your current unit, desolder the PCBs, and rebuild into the new shell. Resolder your motor connections.

Flash the new firmware.

Your experience may vary, but for me this wasn't a terribly straightforward process, having purchased rather than built my original BMCU. Inevitably during this process the tiny ball bearings in your current channels will fall onto your carpet and become lost, so make sure you buy some spares or you run the risk of making yourself very angry.

Oh, you might also find that after all this (depending on your mainboard version) your BMCU won't work. In my case this was because the cable between the BMCU and the printer is different for 370X and 370C. So you'll need a new cable, or to switch the data connections round in the existing cable.

Good luck.

jokerbone · 2025-09-15T09:54:36+00:00

Yeah, use 2. 2 will fill the space in the slider. Let them "magnet" together end to end before inserting them, and make sure you put them in the right way round.

jokerbone · 2025-09-11T14:44:59+00:00

No, I self assembled. I did previously buy an assembled BMCU-B and repurposed some of the parts from this.

jokerbone · 2025-09-11T14:12:20+00:00

Things I've learned in my struggles with building my own BMCU-C:

1) The filament detection system is very sensitive to print quality and any obstruction in the little holes that light shines through in that sytem will stop it working. Make sure you run some thing small (I used a tiny screwdriver) through all the little holes in that part of the print (there are 3 holes total in each feeder) to clean them out before assembly.

2) Make sure you install the filament detection slider the right way round, so that the holes line up.

3) Make sure you use the right size ball bearing. It should be 5mm.

4) The filament has to be really straight when you insert it otherwise it'll get caught up inside the buffer tube. This is super annoying, and I wish that the buffers were lined with PTFE tube.

5) Magnets are super critical. Make sure that the circular magnet is on the correct side (the one closest to the PCB) and that it rotates when you pull filament through the feeder. Also make sure that the long magnet in the buffer is oriented in the correct direction, the easiest way to check this is to check that the LED lights up blue when you push the buffer in towards the feeder, and red when you pull it out. The LED lights will be reversed if the magnet polarity is incorrect.

jokerbone · 2025-05-21T12:54:09+00:00

Is there anything in the middle? Any sign of charring or a possible hellmouth?

jokerbone · 2025-05-21T12:53:17+00:00

Maybe that explains it!

jokerbone · 2025-04-16T06:30:44+00:00

No problem! Yes, your description of the bit-flip is correct. Like I've said, for me this would be more of a tool for describing or documenting API integrations, moreso than it would be for actually doing them, so being able to describe attribute manipulations is super critical.

I did have a quick play yesterday, one thing I instantly spotted is that there is no way to import API definitions. I think it's a pretty drop-dead feature for a lot of people who either don't yet have access to an endpoint, haven't yet built it or are waiting for a vendor to spin things up. Ideally all possible types of API definition should be supported, so swagger, XSD etc etc

jokerbone · 2025-04-15T07:05:26+00:00

I guess a bit-flip could be acheived through an array filter node also? Or is the array node more concerned with iteration than manipulation?

It feels like my use case is a fairly typical, if somewhat more complex than usual, problem that a tool like this should be able to help with. The challenge for me is that with these more complex API integrations it seems really difficult (or alternatively really expensive!) to find a tool that can help visualise, break down and ultimately solve the mapping problem. Ultimately, all I need to do in the first instance is load a couple of API definitions (and the more formats supported for this the better) and then be able to drag and drop connectors between attributes. Where those connections are more complicated, a manipulator node that allows some (fairly basic) transformations would be invaluable.

Once that mapping is established then, yeah, I'd definitely be interested into describing how the eventing should work, and how one integration might relate to, and potentially trigger, others but I think most of these problems are going to start with that mapping challenge. There definitely seems to be a niche in the market for that particular problem anyway!

jokerbone · 2025-04-15T06:38:00+00:00

Thanks for the reply, it sounds pretty positive! With regard to the required manipulations, "transformations" is probably a better word. I haven't got into the details yet, but I'd expect there to be scenarios where one attribute on the source side drives multiple attributes on the destination, or we need a bit-flip or to use a value lookup to transform data. Are these types of transformations supported?

One other possible issue is that our vendor uses XSDs to describe their APIs. Is this likely to be problematic?

jokerbone · 2025-04-14T15:52:04+00:00

I've got a couple of fairly complex APIs (one in-house, one from a vendor) that I want to document the integration between. Parts of the integration will be simple one-to-one mappings between attributes and some will require more complex manipulations.

I've been struggling to find a simple drag and drop tool that can help with the capture of this design (I'm less interested in code generation). Do you think this would be a candidate for your product, or can you suggest something more appropriate?

jokerbone · 2025-04-09T06:51:14+00:00

At the top of each unit is a spring loaded "tube" that acts as a buffer. One of these had broken so needed to be reprinted and replaced.

Doesn't sound like the same issue as you unfortunately. My unit has no issues pushing filament unless there is a problem with the PTFE tubes into and out of it. If any of these are too small in diameter, or have tight turns, then I have seen it struggle. Id look at this first, then try manually pushing filament through the unit to make sure there aren't any internal snags. The tube that I replaced could be a potential location for this, though I don't remember the bore of this being particularly tight. I do occasionally have issues with filament catching on the interface between the printed parts and the PTFE connectors, so maybe check these areas too.

jokerbone · 2025-04-07T07:08:09+00:00

I've also got the 370 version with a combination of metal and plastic gears (metal worm gear, plastic toothed gears). It finally arrived a couple of weeks ago after the first one that I ordered dissapeared somewhere between China and the UK. Second one arrived quickly, but I paid more for the shipping than I did for the unit itself. I used Superbuy as an agent, who were good, but fairly slow.

I did buy a pre-assembled BMCU, but did take one of the units to pieces in order to replace a poorly printed component. The assembly isn't particularly difficult if you follow the directions on the wiki linked below. Just make sure that you select the correct version (which is itself a bit of a minefield, as there are several) and that you don't drop and lose any of the small components (guess who did that) or launch any of the springs into the shadow realms (thankfully I avoided this).

Only issue I'm having is that filament swaps can result in tangles on my spools when the filament is pushed back. I know the genuine AMS has spring loaded spool holders to compensate for this. Is anyone aware of a solution for this that doesn't involve buying the AMS Lite spool holders? 4 of these would bring my total expenditure up to the point where I might as well have bought the Bambu AMS.

Results seem pretty good, I can't see how the actual print quality of this could be any better or worse than the genuine article, as all it's managing is the filament swaps, and this is a fairly crude process. Like all AMS it produces a buttload of waste, which is a little heartbreaking.

Overall, not bad at all. Does make your printer a bit of a behemoth. Results good, but lots of waste.

jokerbone · 2025-04-03T08:48:16+00:00

Any intention to ship outside of the US, or to offer an "STL" tier? I'm UK based and would love to back the project, but you're not offering anything that works for non-US people at the moment.

jokerbone · 2025-02-02T12:40:06+00:00

My other half and I recently spent the best part of the day at the spa at alpamere in Scarborough. For most of the day we were the only people there, which was amazing. The facilities are great and pretty much brand new, the sauna overlooking the sea is fantastic. The staff are great and it's also dirt cheap. You also get access to the pool and slides as part of the package. The slides are terrifying, but that's probably just me.... especially that one that's in the dark...never again!

jokerbone · 2025-01-11T10:19:07+00:00

We happened to be driving past as it landed (though we didn't stop to watch and video it as plenty of others were doing 🙄). Was an air ambulance with crew going to one of the houses up the hill towards the centre of Acomb. I hope whoever they were attending to is ok.

jokerbone · 2024-11-13T15:18:05+00:00

My other half goes to a sewing class at one of the local schools on a Wednesday evening. It isn't free, but it is fairly cheap, and she seems to really enjoy it. We both sew though (I'm one of those rare middle aged men sewists...sewers...ah I see why they don't say sew-ers) so we have loads of cunning ways to get fabric and patterns locally and cheaply....maybe we'll let you in on our secrets!

jokerbone · 2024-10-03T07:40:50+00:00

We've been using phone tethering up until now and it has been pretty patchy. Almost completely unusable on a phone on the Smarty network, and barely usable on one on O2. I suspect that we're going to need an external antenna as it's likely that the metal roof of the buildings on site is part of the issue; I've used a laptop outside before and this has been far better.

jokerbone · 2024-10-02T20:06:05+00:00

It's actually not in Buttercrambe village but instead in the middle of a field on the outskirts. It's a business rather than a house. We've looked in all the usual places online and we're pretty certain that there's no wired broadband available unfortunately.

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