An offline voice assistant for the makerspace that answers how-to questions from club guides and reports live 3D printer status. Built on its own Arduino VENTUNO Q. No experience needed to join.
New members wait for an experienced member to answer printer and tool questions, and manuals are scattered.
Answer 80% of common member questions correctly from club documentation and report print progress for the Klipper printers, with no internet. How it uses the VENTUNO Q: a push-to-talk button; Whisper for speech; Qwen 3 with retrieval over club guides and printer manuals; Piper for speech output; live printer status from Klipper's Moonraker API; the MCU drives a status LED ring. No audio is stored. Safety: low risk. Push-to-talk only, no recording, sign posted at the kiosk. No experience needed. If this sounds interesting, join anyway: every role pairs newcomers with someone who can show them the ropes, and learning as you go is the point.
Rebuild and modernize an Ender 3 printer by upgrading the MCU/control board and extruder components, installing Klipper firmware, configuring the printer, and tuning it for faster and more reliable printing. Additional mechanical or electronic upgrades could be explored after the initial conversion.
Repair a large-format 3D printer with a damaged build-plate carriage. Identify an existing replacement design or measure and design a new component, fabricate/install it, and recalibrate the printer.
Replace the main control board on a large-format printer. Determine hardware requirements, select/configure a compatible controller, connect motors, heaters, thermistors, and end stops, install firmware, and test the rebuilt system.
