Humane Husky Bark Stopper? With JLCPCB and the New Ender-3 Max

Hey everyone! I’ve been busy learning to use my CNC machine this month, it’s got a bit of a learning curve so while I’m almost there I’m not quite ready to show you my new skills yet. But with all the time I’ve been spending on it, I haven’t had the time to make any new gadgets for Momo and she’s been getting a little bored. So today with the help of my friends at JLCPCB I’m going to whip up something a little silly for her, and while I’m at it unbox a new 3D printer Creality sent over- the Ender 3 Max. Lets get to it! Momo, down, go down. Go down, I need to unbox the thing. Momo, bye! Go down, I need to unbox the 3D printer. Momo, Momo down. Momo down. Thank you. Momo, down. I need to unbox the 3D pinter. Okay, all right Momo.

01:15 - I am going to Thank you very much, Miss. Get out of the way, Momo. Thank you. Now get off the printer Momo. Get off the printer. Come over here, Momo. Good girl! No, no, no! Alright, alright, alright. Let me see what we’ve got. That’s much easier. Because usually I have to lift up the bottom and then put the screws from the bottom. And now you can just bolt it down like this. Ok spoiler- it’s an Ender 3, but bigger. That’s basically it. For those of you who don’t know, the Creality Ender 3 is the best selling 3D printer in the world, it’s known for being a great value, and having great out of the box prints.

04:44 - As always, I am sponsored by Creality so don’t take my word for it ask around and check with other review channels. One downside to the original Ender 3 is the bed is just a tad small. The Ender 3 Max addresses that with a 300x300x400 print area, it also has a metal extruder which is nice because the plastic one is usually the first thing to fail. Now I’d like to test this out and make a little something for Momo. Momo is the sweetest dog and never makes a fuss unless you leave her alone for more than a few minutes.

05:24 - If you do, she’ll just howl with all her heart until you come back. Now, there are no bad dogs of course, just poorly trained ones, or ones with traits that are inconvenient. Momo is a pack animal, she gets separated from her pack- well she’s got to howl so they can find her right? She’s doing her job as a husky. She’s trying to help me find her. But…if I have to go visit a factory for a couple hours and can’t take her with me, I need her to be not quite so good at being a husky, and not howl quite so much. So I’m going to try and invent some silly things to distract her while I’m away.

06:08 - As we all know positive reenforcement is best. Please remember, shock collars are not just cruel, they are also not effective and should never be used on your pet. What I’m going to do is give Momo something to chew on and play with- but not if she barks. I had an idea for how the circuit is going to work and my friends at JLCPCB sent me over the board and components that I asked for. I’ve also drawn up a mount for the device in TinkerCAD.

06:41 - While it 3D prints, I’m going to solder the parts to the board and make sure everything works. Alright, I have the circuit on the wall and I got Momo’s favorite treat- beef trachea. This is beef trachea and the idea is if she starts barking, the motor is going to lift the treat up. Hopefully out of her reach. But no matter what at the end she’s going to gether treat. I put the pulley all the way up there and when I turn it on, turn the power on If I talk, it goes up slowly like this.

09:32 - The pulley is pulling the treat up but if I stop talking, the pulley lowers the treat down again. Okay, I am going to get Momo in and see how she reacts to this device. But then I am going upstairs to turn on the IP camera to monitor her from there. Obviously this is a little bit dodgy. If Momo starts to get a little stressed, I will run down stairs right away and just take off the treat and give it to her. You know, I love Momo more than anything in the world so I don’t want her to be upset or anything. But let’s test it.

10:21 - Momo Hello! She’s looking around and doing circles. I think it got stuck for a minute. Almost, almost, almost. Come on, Momo Oh, wow She almost got it but it bounce back Oh, come on, do another spin. Oh, again. She kind of walks like a human now, you know, when she put her paws on the wall. She must be thinking when will the treat come down? Okay, I think that’s enough for her. I am going down to just give her the treat. Okay, Momo, that’s enough fun for you. Okay, you can have it now. Look, what is this? Unfortunately, the motor burned out and this is not the safest setup if I’m not in the same room with her but I think it proves the concept that it’s fun for her and if I wasn’t in the same room, sometimes I need to work in the other room.

12:29 - This will keep her busy, keep her entertained. I think I can make something else, improve this design, and then try another test on her. But today that’s enough for her. Now she can enjoy her beef trachea. How do you like that, Momo? You like it? You like it? I hope you enjoyed that- don’t worry, Momo loves these little projects and gets a bit sulky if too many days go by and I don’t have something new to keep her entertained. The great part is that between 3D printing and low-cost PCB prototyping from JLCPCB, playing around with ideas like this is cheap and easy- and if you do it often enough, usually, eventually you come up with something that works. As for the Ender 3 Max- not a whole like to say, it prints exactly like an Ender-3, it’s just larger, and like the Ender-3 it’s a great printer for the price. I can certainly recommend it.

13:32 - Thanks to everyone for supporting me and Momo, and for your patience with my update schedule. That’s it for today, I’ll see you all soon- and remember if I can do it, anyone can do it. .