Tools I Use¶

Atom Editor¶

After learning and using git from the command line for several weeks, I installed and have been using the open source Atom editor Atom has spell check and a awesome markdown-preview package that has really sped up my documentation. I setup git repo in Atom using the documention provide on the Atom website above. The Git gui in Atom to allows me to see what I am about to push to my repository and all locally updated files are show highlighted. Here is an image of what Atom looks like when used with Git:

USB Microscopes¶

OKIOLABS OKIOCAMs. There are several models of the OKIOLABS OKIOCAM. My favorite is the OKIOCAM T USB Webcam & Document Camera 11″ x 17″ since it allows 11x17” drawings and other larger items to be viewed, by using the included arm extension. The resolution of the OKIOCAM T is higher allowing for a native zoom in on things like circuit boards without as much loss in quality. Check out the OKIOLABS OKIOCAM models at: https://www.okiolabs.com/

Also note that all OKIOCAM models can eaily be used for your primary webcam, a document camera, circuit board microscope as well as a normal webcam. This is a a lot of functionality in one usb camera, for a reasonable price.

I no longer use the microscope and stand below since the camera above from OKIOLABS works for very close up views of circuit boards as well. A low cost microscope that has been working well for me in all operating systems is the Plugable USB 2.0 Digital Microscope. It works in zoom, cheese and other video software.

Stand for USB Microscope¶

A nice addtion to hold, raise and lower the microscope above is the Jiusion Aluminium Alloy Universal Adjustable Professional Base Stand Holder Desktop Support Bracket for Max 1.4” in Diameter USB Digital Microscope Endoscope Magnifier Loupe Camera (Aluminium Alloy) What a long name! Anyway, one issue with this stand is that it is not tall enough to have usable field of view for circuit board viewing. So designed and 3D printed the following:
Z Extension for USB Microscope Stand: Onshape CAD

Linux Webcam Apps¶

Guvcview: good for exposure and manual settings Cheese Webcamoid: Allows easy switching between multiple video sources To try out in future: https://github.com/econsysqtcam/qtcam

Image Automation Tools¶

XnConvert¶

Rico Kanthatham suggested XnConvert for gui based image resizing, renaming and compression.

Collage Maker¶

Mountain Tapir Collage Maker A software for making collages. I used snap to install Mountain Tapir Collage Maker as suggested at the above link. This software is a little clunky, but it’s pretty easy to use and it’s open source. When I need to make collages I will use this software.

gThumb in Linux¶

gThumb comes installed in Linux Mint. How to Perform Batch Resize of Images Using gThumb in Linux

You can also set your compression levels in gThumb by navigating to right Hamburger menu that look like this ☰, Preferences, Saving, JPEG, Quality, I use 60. Also note you may also set compression for PNG and other image formats here as well. You can also switch between .jpg and .jpeg default extensions.

Video Automation¶

QWinFF¶

QWinFF is a GUI for FFmpeg. To install in Liux Mint use the Software Manager and search for QWinFF.

ffmpeg¶

However I find the the ffmpeg command line is actually easier:

ffmpeg -i MoldMiiling02.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -level 3 MoldMiiling.mp4

or if you want to strip out audio:
ffmpeg -an -i Roughing.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -level 3 RoughingComp.mp4

For more info on ffmpeg visit ffmpeg Documentation

Video Scale Down Resolutions¶

I typically use 640x360 for Fab academy videos originally shot in 16:9.

Width	Height	Standard
256	144
426	240
640	360	nHD
848	480
854	480	FWVGA
960	540	qHD
1024	576
1280	720	HD

Issues with mp4 video codecs¶

I was having some issues with my mp4 files working. After talking to Neil he suggested testing by using mp4 videos already on the cba site. I did this and those videos worked. In my search for how to encode video for git hub / lab I found the following useful site: Encoding video for the web by: Vestride

Using the site above as a guide, I installed and used ffmpeg to allow me to convert my videos made in kdenlive to a codec that would work properly ffmpeg -i input.mov -vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v baseline -level 3 output.mp4

NOTE! That your video file names in the above command must be short (5-8 characters) and have no spaces. After using the above code I tested with the following videos to see if things worked.

I tried to post my images using markdown, but that didn’t go well. So I used the following HTML code:

<br>
<video width="640" height="480" controls autoplay loop muted>
  <source src="https://fabacademy.org/2020/labs/incitefocus/students/daniel-meyer/files/week06/video/3BridgeTestFocusFun.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>
<br>

It fraking worked!

Markdown and HTML 5 Notes¶

Markdown table tables generator¶

https://www.tablesgenerator.com/markdown_tables

HTML tutorials¶

www.w3schools.com is an awesome site to learn about and test html code!

SpaceNavigator¶

A 3D mouse that I love uisng with CAD software. I loved the serial spaceball that I used in the 2000’s on a SUN Sparc Station running UNIX and Unigraphics CAD.

Linux mint install for SpaceNavigator is as follows: See http://spacenav.sourceforge.net/

Alternatively you can get the latest source code directly from our git repositories on github. Use the following commands to clone a local copy of our repositories:

spacenavd: git clone https://github.com/FreeSpacenav/spacenavd.git libspnav: git clone https://github.com/FreeSpacenav/libspnav.git spnavcfg: git clone https://github.com/FreeSpacenav/spnavcfg.git

Then install via: apt install spacenavd

For PrusaSlicer latest version works due to install above and work done here: https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/issues/3388

I have had trouble finding a working driver for chrome to pass sapcenav info to onshape my preferred CAD software.

See discussion here:

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/10680/spacemouse-support-for-linux

3DConnexion SpaceNavigator in Linux https://janoc.rd-h.com/archives/74

for freecad https://wiki.freecadweb.org/3Dconnexion_input_devices
https://forum.3dconnexion.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=33539&sid=c24d317174b3b84afb9b56e01030a004&start=15

Linux Settings¶

Custom date formats I prefer Best one just below here %Y-%m [%b] -%e %a %l:%M %p

%a %Y-%m%b-%e %l:%M %p

%Y-%m-%e %l:%M %p %a %b

Linux commands¶

For startup journal listing journalctl -b -p 3