I have ordered some acryllic sheets that are hopefully compatible with the laser cutter.
I did try to use my copper coating technique with the sheets we did, but not as good as the initial set. The engraving seems not to have been deep enough.
An unrelated project: I have an idea for a solar water distiller that hopefully would have good efficiency. A billion people do not have safe clean water. Also on board boats, fresh water is at a premium. I have 3D printed some parts for the prototype. Just need to get some more items and assemble it, and wait for the sunshine!
Bought a new computer… an 8 bit one, of course! It has a proper 8 bit CPU but also an ESP32 to do video, sprites, sound, and keyboard. It’s got about 20 general purpose I/Os too. It presently boots to BBC Basic but can also run CP/M (apparently). And Forth.
It is amazing that the Z80 keeps going. My first experience of it was the ZX81. Programming in Basic, then manually coding assembler, and programming it via Basic.(I must have been keen.) A couple of years later I had an Amstrad CPC6128, and Hisoft C. The Z80 signals came out to the back, and I made various things to plug onto it.
improving the fish pass design. There are around 20,000 to 30,000 wiers and old mill sites in the UK, that could be micro hydroelectricity power stations. The main impediment is that fish passes also need to be installed.
doing some experiments with ion propulsion for aircraft. I am in email contact with Ethan Krauss, who is very helpful and knowledgeable. He had the first self-contained (i.e. with battery and HV generator) VTOL aircraft. Several years before the MIT ion propelled plane. VTOL is more difficult than horizontal flight. His website: https://electronairllc.org/
Further refining the boat propulsion thruster. Mk1 and Mk2 proved the concept. Mk3 is hopefully improving on that. Just now 3D printing the parts for a scale model.