Happy New Year!
I’ve been distracted for a few days lately, mainly due to some reliable Staff not being there which at the end of the day, tired us out picking up the slack. The great thing is, I am almost there, with only the printing of the Manuals and the tear-notch clipping of the packets. There are some stuff I need to post in here, which is more or less a reminder to myself.
The 50mm x 30mm labels
I am going to standardise the practice of putting the whole Lighting Systems into a pizza box. OK, let’s call it The Pack as it’s easier to say it out (Ha ha). The idea is to wrap the Pack with bubble wrap and then place a small sticker to ‘seal’ the bubble wrap. After searching about, I decided to go with a 50mm x 30mm sticker as the seal.
The seal’s size is ideal but what I did not count on was the printer’s inability to print at this size. I am not going to get another printer just for that. Once the label arrived, I took about two to three nights to test it. The design includes a QR code which links to a downloadable manual from the Website. So far, I was able to:
1. Re-arrange the Manual into a readable format (via Inkscape) and then using an Online PDF Editor to compress the 45Mb behemoth into a mere 2Mb file.
2. As QR Code Monkey is no longer working, I used QR Code Chimp to create the QR code link.
3. Then using Inkscape again, I created the design for the label and…
4. The result was horrible because the printer would not print anything before the 4.5mm gap from the edge. Thinking it was a software issue, i switched from Inkscape to the DLabel software. I had to re-construct the label because the only option was to import it directly as a .PNG file which created more issues such as resolution and sharpness. The print out was even worse. So, it was back to Inkscape and after much tweaking, I got a more or less perfect result but I would need to print it one by one. Anything with more than a single print would result in alignment problems or overlapping prints.
The Bubble Wrap
The Pizza Box I am going to use measures 15cm x 15cm x 5cm on the outside. The box is considered quite spacious because I have packed the whole electronics in a plastic bag no taller than 1.5cm. I hope to fill the rest of the space with bubble wrap to cushion the Pack during shipping. Assuming there is about say, 4.7cm height inside the box, minus the 1.5cm of the Pack, I would need to bulk up about 3.0cm or to fill the empty space.
20250103 The V-shaped Tear Notch
There are literally four items in the Pack which is separated vie the impulse sealer. To get them out, you can use a cutter or a pair of scissors but I want to do something different, which is to have 6 additional tear notches on the bag. Once you open the Box, you can just tear each compartment open with your hands.
Before Christmas, I did not know such tool existed but then, how do they get those notches on the bag in the factory? After searching for a bit, there are two versions where the ‘U’ version are for fabric while the ‘V’ version is the one I am looking for. Searching a little more, I got it as a hand-tool instead of a heavy-duty factory version. Using it is no different than that of a bus conductor’s hole puncher.
20250106 Printing the Manual
Finally, I got the Assembly Manual printed! After months of searching, I finally found the printer who is willing to print the assembly manual. Actually, I spotted the shop last month while we were looking for a place to eat our Sunday Lunch. Although he was quite busy, I got his contact number. Fast foward a month later, while I was on Leave, I went over to his shop. After some discussions, we talked like old friends as was more or less shared a lot of similarities and also Life’s experience. Within 25 minutes, the manuals were done as he insisted on doing it rather than me coming over the coming Sunday to collect them. All this was done while he was coordinating in getting his car towed and also, the opening of a Cafe next door.
Where to get what:
AndersFP (Anders Fogde Pedersen) PKD-2019 Blaster Download File
Duplex Designs Lighting Kit for AndersFP PKD-2019
