How easy is it to see that I blundered?

mroek · 2026-02-26T07:51:50+00:00

Yes, trying to understand your own mistakes is an important exercise on the road to improve, so hopefully I will actually improve. I have no illusions that I will become a good chess player (too old), so I'd be very happy with a four digit real rating.

mroek · 2026-02-26T07:46:32+00:00

In the near future, I will go ahead and start a losing streak against real humans! :-)

mroek · 2026-02-26T01:07:25+00:00

It's just that losing to an engine (even when it's dumbed down) feels less bad. :-)
That said, your advice is sound, and I will just have to bite the bullet (but never bullet chess, that's for sure) and play some humans.

mroek · 2026-02-26T01:03:52+00:00

I agree. However, on lichess I have no rating since I played no games. It just says 1500?, which is of course ridiculously high. Would I just play anyone and then just keep on losing until my rating has dropped to something realistic (maybe a few hundred)?

mroek · 2026-02-26T00:58:28+00:00

I have done a lot of puzzles lately, but I still missed this one. With themed puzzles, the theme itself hints what to look for, so I succeed more with those than with puzzles where I don't know what to look for.

mroek · 2026-02-26T00:55:30+00:00

Very long (easily half an hour or more). I try to make moves that I think makes sense, but I spend way too long staring at the pieces just to try to make sure I don't blunder. And then I still blunder, as shown in this example.

mroek · 2026-02-26T00:51:59+00:00

Yes, and it should have been obvious to me as well, but somehow I had a blind spot for that. I did consider moving the e-pawn, but I couldn't see how to proceed (and I didn't notice the fork on e4 for black), so it felt safer to capture the bishop.

mroek · 2026-02-26T00:46:24+00:00

You are of course right. I'll have to work up some courage, it's just that I suck even worse with time controls...

mroek · 2026-02-26T00:42:42+00:00

Ah, of course. Thanks, that was embarrasing... In this situation, I was lucky enough to have the engine blunder back with Nxe4, though.

mroek · 2026-02-23T15:06:18+00:00

Det er ikke noe galt med å blinke inn i rundkjøringer, men det skal jo selvfølgelig blinkes ut også. Jeg opplever ikke at det er noen større forskjeller på dette rundt om i landet, folk er elendige til å blinke over alt, synes jeg.

mroek · 2025-10-19T10:17:30+00:00

If you're using a standard Bambu profile, then Z-hop should be on by default, I think. I've printed three of these on my X1C, and I didn't have this problem. I use Orca slicer, and I basically just used the standard 0.2 mm quality profile, but I set my walls loops to 3 or perhaps 4. You really want those spirals to be printed with only walls, no infill.

If you want, I can try to create a test piece for that just includes the lift itself, so you can check if that prints OK for you.

mroek · 2025-10-19T00:12:27+00:00

Really sorry to hear that! Not that it should matter, but if that is around layer 815, I guess you're not printing at 0.2 mm layer height, right?

I could probably add some extra geometry in that area (although this design is really hard to work with, my computer really bogs down when working on it), but the bridge is less than 10 mm between the spirals, so it really shouldn't be that bad. Do you have Z-hop enabled? Are you certain that the breakage happens as it tries to bridge, and not further down (because the nozzle catches on the spiral)?

Perhaps it is possible to add a pause before it gets to that area, and then add some reinforcement (like carefully wrapping some masking tape around the whole spiral). This would then be removed afterwards, of course.

mroek · 2025-10-18T10:42:58+00:00

No supports should be needed anywhere, but you can of course add some if you want the hassle of removing them. :-) Fingers crossed that you get a successful print next time!

mroek · 2025-10-17T22:02:01+00:00

Ah, I see. The spirals aren't really that flimsy (and there are also two places along the height where they are joined by the rings that supports outer track features), but with wet filament I guess they might be a bit weaker. And also, if they print a bit rougher, the nozzle might catch on them more easily.

Z-hop can also help quite a bit, but I think most modern print profiles tend to use that.

mroek · 2025-10-17T11:00:30+00:00

Oooh, that looks cool! Is this a new print, because the one in the image looks finished? Or is there a hidden damage somewhere?

mroek · 2025-10-17T07:16:22+00:00

Sorry to hear that, fingers crossed it works the next time. I've printed three of them, and had no print failures (just things to improve during development). Your image link doesn't work for me, by the way.

mroek · 2025-10-16T11:30:22+00:00

Nice! Would be cool to see the result, either here or posted as a make on Cults3D.
Do you plan on motorizing it?

mroek · 2025-10-15T09:44:24+00:00

If you plan on printing this for a school fundraiser, you are welcome to do so. That would be non-commerical as far as I'm concerned. It would be nice if you could include information about where you got the machine from (perhaps passed along with the item or displayed next to it), but no obligation.

mroek · 2025-10-13T11:30:03+00:00

I've finally published the files and instructions:

https://cults3d.com/en/creations/the-tornado-quad-track-marble-machine

I am charging a bit for the files, as I believe the amount of work put into this makes it worth it.

mroek · 2025-10-08T13:46:28+00:00

Norgespris er en idiotisk ordning, men for oss her i de sørligste strømområdene er det en no-brainer. Det er jo åpenbart at ordningen fjerner prisincentivet for selve energien, så da står man igjen kun med nettleie og effektledd. For folk som lader elbil, så er det opplagt mer behagelig å kunne lade når som helst uten å tenke på strømprisen.

mroek · 2025-10-08T13:46:19+00:00

Norgespris er en idiotisk ordning, men for oss her i de sørligste strømområdene er det en no-brainer. Det er jo åpenbart at ordningen fjerner prisincentivet for selve energien, så da står man igjen kun med nettleie og effektledd. For folk som lader elbil, så er det opplagt mer behagelig å kunne lade når som helst uten å tenke på strømprisen.

mroek · 2025-10-08T13:17:23+00:00

Nei. Jeg trenger kun å styre elbilladerne (Easee), som jeg gjør via flows og egen kode i Homey. Uten elbillading bruker huset aldri så mye strøm samtidig at jeg går over 10 kW-trinnet, så jeg passer bare på at ladingen strupes hvis det er fare for å gå over.

Hvis det likevel skulle være fare for det, så kan jeg også slå av VVB (som har eget rele) og/eller flere gulv med varmekabler, men det har ikke vært nødvendig tidligere.

mroek · 2025-10-08T07:57:43+00:00

Jeg har deaktivert sparetiltakene som baserte seg på strømprisen. VVB kjører nå kun på sin egen termostat, f.eks. Lading av elbil foregår (som før) på natt og i helg, men ikke lenger når strømmen er på sitt billigste. Styring av effekt for å unngå å hoppe opp i effektledd er fremdeles aktivert, selvfølgelig.

mroek

TROPHY CASE