The floating thin sections on layers, lack the flow consistency to maintain temperature regulation of the heat block. The heater cartridge in the print head is managed by a PID control loop. This will always have some overshoot and undershoot of temperature when the flow changes substantially. There are a number of contributing factors to this issue in the printer hardware design. I could go into a lot of depth here but that is an aside.

I would not use thin floating sections. Let’s say the whole backing was solid in a FreeCAD design body. I would then do something like an egg shaped ellipse pocket out of the middle. Another option might be a % like shape with the thinnest section offset so that the layer lines are still substantial.

My most advance approach would be to print the face of the frame on the bed, and the rear face of the backing plate also on the bed as a second part. If designed well from the start, and if the bed is large enough, you design the print to finish the backing plate before the face is completed. Then you add a print pause, remove the backing plate, insert it into the front plate, and continue the print to encapsulate it as a single part. This makes any 2D pattern for the backplate possible, and you do not need to deal with fasteners or whatnot. You end up with a perfect picture frame slot using this method.

A total aside, but this idea can also be used to make your own printed supports manually for perfect overhangs. You print the support to size, add a pause, and remove the printed support shape. Ideally, you add a ~0.1mm-0.2mm clearance gap, paying very close attention to how your slicer layers height and first layer correspond to the support dimensions, or rotate the support to utilize better x/y dimensional accuracy if possible in some designs. You can even create a printed alignment jig on the build plate just to hold this manually created print support. The trick is to then apply gluestick to the interface between the manually printed support and your overhang. This can produce nearly first layer like print quality on an overhang with dimensional accuracy too.

Another super advanced trick: let’s think if the picture frame standing vertically upright in Cartesian planes. It is facing forward on the X-Z plane (X = -><- = >< = left to right). Let’s assume the origin 0,0,0 is properly centered in the frame. Now if we look at a X/Y Top, section view, we are looking at the picture frame as if someone had used a hacksaw in the middle of the sides of the frame. In other words, we are looking at the frame’s profile view. Now typically, people approach this like a [. Now this takes a lot of practice, but it is possible to design a profile something like ɭ̅̅̅ ̅ ̅˻ ̅ ̷̅ – the print bed is ↓. If you design this just right, the left side is the frame and the right is designed with a small connection to the bed and an angle where this connection is close to the rest of the frame. The thin bridge overhang is going to contract and shrink towards the larger heat mass of the frame, especially because of the printed layers above the bridge. This contracting force will be set into the part like a spring, but will remain compressed due to bed adhesion. You may want to add a small first layer connection or inner skirt to hold this section in place firmly throughout the print. When the part is removed from the bed, the bridge spring will pull the right section back. This will create the slot for your picture and potentially a way of holding other types of backing, while not worrying about conforming to other types of manufacturing process constraints like a wood router or sheet metal profile.

Sorry if my lack of eloquence, verbosity, or tone come across negative at all. I wish to be encouraging and am just nerding out.

Checking out how to build an OS from scratch is also handy. It can be an interesting low risk way to explore building Gentoo, Arch, or Linux From Scratch.

The main appeal IMO, is that you have microcontroller like input, output, and serial communications already setup in the kernel with access in user space. As long as the kernel is supported by the Rπ foundation, (it is proprietary undocumented hardware that only they can support), you are getting the security updates required to keep the thing online automatically and safely. The best stuff to build is unique stuff for you that uses these aspects. Like make a little bathroom clock with a little TFT LCD display that tells you the local weather. Then set up some RSS feeds for local community stuff you do not want on your main mobile device, like maybe local political activity, library and community center events, concerts, clubs, etc.

For server stuff, I would stick with devices with purpose built hardware. Like, a micro SD card is slow and unreliable, and the lack of nvme is bad. In most cases it is cheaper to use other old devices that already have screens unless you want to share a hardware design that is repeatable, you need something secure to keep online, or you need serial or input/output. Those are the main benefits.

The thing is, the Rπ is what it is. It is the path of least resistance. The software support is approachable and great. The price is cheap. However, the non profit thing is a scam. The Rπ foundation is basically an arm of Broadcom. The Rπ is a chip from a set top TV box with 3/4 of the die unused. Broadcom uses excess fab capacity to make the Rπ chips and sell them at materials cost. This is not charity. It is controlling the grass roots market to make competitive scaling business ventures difficult. This is why Rockchip is not crushing them already. The Rockchip RK3588 chip is fully documented and open source. In this space, there is little to no innovation, it is only about price on ancient trailing fab nodes. This is the ladder to climb that leads to Intel, AMD, Samsung, and Qualcomm. The Rπ is the guy kicking anyone that tries to climb. So… use it for what it is good for, but in most cases, other hardware is better, and there is nothing wrong with saying so, or moving past the Rπ. I’m lying next to a RK3566 machine right now, sorting out issues with the ARM version of Fedora Workstation, looking at how to build the native WiFi module for it from source, and maybe try debugging an issue in that module’s code that is causing a memory race condition. Although that last one is past my typical pay grade. - So I’m not all fluff here.

That is just my $0.02.

As someone that is physically disabled and dealing with long term social isolation, curiosity is the key to finding balance in hard situations. Think of Stephen Hawking and how you’d deal with the limitations of ALS. Or think of others that have been in solitary confinement, or past times where people have spent decades alone in the wilderness. You should not need to deal with such circumstances in life. I do not want you to, friend. But if you find yourself in such a situation, firstly, never turn to permanent solutions to temporary problems. Secondly, social stigma is the source of most harm, and while it is easy to see the harm from others, our own internal dogma is harder to audit and can be just as harmful.

Like it was so hard to deal with never recovering my physicality and work capacity after a broken neck and back. The challenge for me was adjusting to my self expectations. I went from a bull of a 29 year old to an 80 year old man in an instant.

The trick is to just do stuff for yourself using your own curiosity. Read, write your own science fiction universe, learn to code, sew, knit, carving, paint, plaster, wood working, upcycle, people watch - write your own narratives of their lives in your mind and see where they go or who they interact with to see if your observations pan. Teach yourself CAD, learn Linux, learn vector graphics, KiCAD, FreeCAD, get some physics books, get a telescope and look at the stars, get into optics and discover its complexity, relearn math, dive into history, read old books on Gutenberg, run your own offline AI for someone to talk to at 3am when no one else is around, if you adequately learn to understand its limitations and caveats. Dive into fermentation in its fundamental form and not the commercialized nonsense of repeatability and cleanliness because none of that actually matters at home when preserving whatever that is about to go bad.

Anyways, that is just some off my list, so far. Conquering yourself is ultimately the biggest challenge. Only worry about the things you can change, because to worry about anything else is a waste of energy and time.

That is my best advice digital neighbor friend. You’re not alone. Sometimes it is just challenging to find your friends. One’s internal dialog can be a rich experience if developed well. Learn to love and develop that person, as that is your real best friend that can save you when nothing else can. – sincerely