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extend openautolab blog post

Thomas Buck 11 months ago
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@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@ title: Blog
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 post: 'OpenAutoLab' by Kauzerei
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 description: Open-Source automatic film development machine
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 date: 2023-12-29
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+update: 2024-01-02
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 comments: false
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+github: https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab
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 ---
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 My good friend [Kauzerei](https://github.com/kauzerei) has built [the automatic film development machine OpenAutoLab](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab).
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 %-->
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 Please also take a look at [the OpenAutoLab documentation](https://kauzerei.github.io/openautolab/) for detailed build and usage instructions.
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+
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+## Background
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+
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+I haven't really participated in the construction of this machine in any way.
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+But we went to 37C3 together, where I fully saw the machine in action for the first time.
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+While socializing we noticed that it is (or was) really hard to find the project by googling.
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+Neither 'openautolab', 'kauzerei', 'github openautolab kauzerei', or any other combination of these words and quotation marks, no results at all came up.
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+
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+Therefore I decided to do some "SEO" in the hopes of making it easier for people remembering the name to find the project.
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+I also wanted to play around a bit more with GitHub Actions, or CI in general, and GitHub Pages.
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+So I came up with [the OpenAutoLab documentation](https://kauzerei.github.io/openautolab/).
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+The job was actually pretty easy, because the hard work of writing most of the documentation was already done.
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+I just had to find a suitable way of converting these markdown files to html, and host them on GitHub Pages, preferably automated.
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+The result is [this GitHub Actions workflow](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/blob/main/.github/workflows/deploy.yml) using [mdBook](https://rust-lang.github.io/mdBook/).
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+
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+While thinking about making it easier for "normal users" to use this project, I decided to also test out making a web flashing utility.
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+The main board of OpenAutoLab contains an Arduino Nano, so it can be updated via WebSerial using a [compatible browser](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Serial_API#browser_compatibility) (only Chromium based ones, unfortunately).
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+To do this I used [avrgirl-arduino](https://github.com/sudevkrishnan/avrgirl-arduino) for the update process, and [zip.js](https://gildas-lormeau.github.io/zip.js/), and wrote some JavaScript to fetch binaries from GitHub releases or GitHub actions.
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+The result it [this web flashing utility](https://kauzerei.github.io/openautolab/web_update.html).
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+
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+Of course I also had to add a [workflow to build the firmware hex](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/blob/main/.github/workflows/compile.yml) on each commit push and upload the artifact for new GitHub releases / tags.
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+And I did the same for [generating the STL files from the OpenSCAD sources](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/blob/main/.github/workflows/scad.yml).
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+
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+![Firmware](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/actions/workflows/compile.yml/badge.svg)
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+![STLs](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/actions/workflows/scad.yml/badge.svg)
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+![Documentation](https://github.com/kauzerei/openautolab/actions/workflows/deploy.yml/badge.svg)
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+
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+I'm quite happy with the results.
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+So this was my small share of hacking on 37C3.

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