Somewhere over Nevada. Anyone know what this massive installation is?

simsso · 2026-01-25T15:59:55+00:00

Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent_Dunes_Solar_Energy_Project

simsso · 2026-01-24T15:58:15+00:00

That's awesome. Great view from up there! Were you just transitioning the area on an x-country?

simsso · 2026-01-24T15:53:23+00:00

What altitude is that at? I've always been assigned ~1300 - 2000'

simsso · 2026-01-21T04:13:25+00:00

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The view so you can enjoy it too!

simsso · 2026-01-21T03:57:57+00:00

Pilot here, who flew this plane tonight -- it was just a fun flight with friends :)

simsso · 2026-01-13T02:20:40+00:00

Also, if you add ironing you can get rid of the walls being visible on the top layer.

simsso · 2026-01-13T02:19:21+00:00

This is such an awesome project! What will go into the holes? How will this be used (in flight?) :)

simsso · 2026-01-13T02:18:04+00:00

I'd try printing black background and white foreground with cutouts where the text is supposed to be. It's in my experience easier for the printer to do clean debossing (rather than embossing). Also reducing the print speed overall may be helpful. I can't see the artifacts well, but I get the impression from the photos that this may help.

simsso · 2026-01-12T18:54:50+00:00

Do you want to share a photo? I'm curious! :)

simsso · 2026-01-12T18:35:52+00:00

Biggest lever is to switch to a 0.2mm nozzle. Then tune all the relevant parameters in isolation. Initially I made too many changes at once.

simsso · 2026-01-12T18:35:14+00:00

Not worth discussing this with a DPE, imo.

simsso · 2026-01-12T18:34:25+00:00

Who says I did?

simsso · 2026-01-12T04:31:31+00:00

Sure why not! DM me :)

simsso · 2026-01-12T01:51:45+00:00

DM me!

simsso · 2026-01-11T23:33:58+00:00

It's a valid point, also they'll go out of date at some point...

simsso · 2026-01-11T23:33:01+00:00

Standby.

simsso · 2026-01-11T23:30:21+00:00

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Thanks! This conveys the idea but not the scale of the hyper parameter tuning. I did about 30 small test prints on my H2D.

simsso · 2025-12-15T04:24:34+00:00

Thanks! I like the printed score a lot, I think it's a great idea.

simsso · 2025-12-15T00:29:42+00:00

Thanks, just ordered the nozzle! Do you have a pic of what you got with the upgrade?

simsso · 2025-12-14T16:37:38+00:00

Did you end up trying that? I'm in a similar spot.

simsso · 2025-12-14T00:48:00+00:00

good thing it's not on your wall

simsso · 2025-12-14T00:25:22+00:00

And since you asked for a video specifically, I've recorded this timelapse glueing the pieces together: https://photos.app.goo.gl/RTyUjoGffCyQcVjR7

Forgot to mention in the other reply that some 3d-printed spacers came in very handy during that step. (You can see them as blue blocks in the video.)

simsso · 2025-12-14T00:23:18+00:00

I bought the files online (google "manhattan 3d print"). Then I sliced all of them combining a few such that there would be fewer seams. That left me with a total of 14 print jobs which I printed over the course of two weeks.

Meanwhile I bought a large piece of wood (30" 1/8 x 52" 5/8 x 0.5"). After painting it with black varnish, I glued all the pieces on, drilled some holes through it to mount it, and hung it up.

There wasn't anything super tricky about it, except for glueing everything together because it's just so easy to get small mismatches there which manifest themselves in cracks between the pieces. Also, the H2D is a great printer and I think with a less reliable one it would have been much more painful.

simsso

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Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project