My Adventures with The Biqu BX 3D printer.

The Biqu BX 3D printer was apparently a kickstarter project in August of 2020, and delivered in early 2021.  I was unaware of this printer, until I saw it at Microcenter on deep discount.

It's Oct of 2025, I bought the printer maybe a year and a half ago, maybe a little bit longer, as I said it was on closeout - and marked down to $60 dollars.  At the time I was in the market for a Anycubic Kobra 3 - but I couldn't pass up this printer for that price.

Actually, Microcenter was closing out another Biqu printer which I also bought - The B1 for $50. That one is still sitting in the box, brand new.

The printer features a 250x250x250 mm build volume, direct drive feed system, a 7" touch screen, is Rasperry PI compatable, can print PLA, ABS, TPU, PETG, Nylon, mine came with a Auto Bed Level system, power loss recovery, an optional filament out sensor. I'm not sure what print head they used, but I like how easy it is too load/remove filament. I'm sure there are other features. The biggest problem with it seems to be that they used HDMI for controlling the hot end, sensors.  It had Marlin 2.0.6.1-BX (Mar 19 2021 10:07:47) firmware pre-loaded (This will be important to know later).

Sorry for the blurry picture.

A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to hooking up the BX, and I just could not get the Auto Bed Leveling to work, it failed to bring the hot end temperatures up, it just wasn't working.

After doing some searching, I found that the HDMI cable could be the problem.  And I reset it, sure enough that was the problem.  

I still couldn't get the bed to level correctly, but I was able to print the benchy boat. And it was a wonder print - took about an hour and ten minutes (which seemed very reasonable).  I was able to get a few other prints, but for some reason each of the other prints failed if I tried to print them again.

This printer is very frustrating to say the least. I spent a lot of time manually leveling the bed, only to have the ABL to still fail. I unplugged the z limit switch (knowing that when I added a BLtouch sensor to my Ender 3 I needed to remove that.)  Only to have the printer fail to home to the print bed at all.

So what does that mean (?) I wasn't sure, plug the limit switch back in - and it would home no problem.

Without using the ABL I was able to print benchy boats without any problem. As soon as I tried ABL it would fail.  I spent hours/days on this only to have the same problem no matter what I tried.

It became a running joke in the house - I have a printer that can print nothing but benchy boats - if I was in business doing nothing but benchy boats - this would be the printer for that.

I came across this firmware - https://github.com/looxonline/Marlin/tree/BIQUBX_ALMOST_STOCK in one of my searches for answers to the problem.  But from the readme file, it looked (at least to me) to be the same version that was already on the printer (2.0.6.1) so I didn't try it. 

I walked away from the problem, and left the printer sit for a few days, I didn't think about it, didn't look at it, didn't do anything.

When I came back to the problem, I decided to look at this firmware again, sure enough I was right the z limit switch - only I didn't go far enough the readme file says to remove the switch completely. So I did.  

And the printer failed to home.... wait it's the same firmware right?  Right?  I attached the wire back to the z limit switch but didn't put the switch back in place.  Well, now the head crashes in the print bed - but the firmware says it uses the ABL probe....  it's the same firmware right?  Right? I spend probably another hour or so thinking it was the same, why isn't working. 

Turns out, no it's not the same firmware, doing the firmware upgrade was super easy. I even missed a step, and it worked without an issue.  I did have to invert the X endstop, and turn the machine off a couple of times - I cleared the settings as suggested. And now it will complete the ABL.

I tried a couple of other prints - all of them small, they all worked, and I was even able to repeat those prints. 

Something that I found was that when G-Code tell the printer to home, it turns off ABL, so I modified the G-code to tell the printer to turn it back on.

I'm using Cura 5.9.0 - and the original G-Code for the printer had some called "Z Dance" that seemed to cause a lot of issues with the new firmware, I'm not sure what that does. It also attempted to do ABL and not use the stored ABL data.  I modified the Cura code, so that it doesn't do ABL, Z Dance, and turns on the ABL with the stored data. (Was this the right thing to do? I'm not sure, but it seems to work for me.)

M117 Waiting for probe to warm! ; Wait another 90s for the probe to absorb heat.

G4 S90

M117 Post warming re-home

G28 ; Home all axes again after warming

M117 Enable Automation Bed Leveling

M420 S1 ;Enabled the saved mesh

;M117 Z-Dance of my people

;G34

;M117 ABL Probing

;G29

Adding M420 S1 after the 2nd G28, and putting ";" in front of "Z-Dance" message G34, and ABL Probing G29

Finally I adjusted the "Baby Steps" to -0.50, and ran the ABL saving both, this seems to be working at least for small prints.

Next I need to try a larger print, I feel like printing the Octopus is going to give me a problem no matter what, I did get one good print of this model but I think it was a fluke more then anything else.

(I also have problems with the Octopus on the Anycubic, thou it works more then it fails on that machine).

Here are some boats that I was able to print.

Three boats.

Castle Benchy Boat

Steam-Punk Benchy

Original Benchy Boat

Steampunk Benchy boat by volfera https://makerworld.com/en/models/1661324-steampunk-benchy-boat#profileId-1757478

Benchy Castle by 3DJunkie https://makerworld.com/en/models/1325661-benchy-castle?from=search#profileId-1362810

The original benchy boat by CreativeTools https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:763622 (but this model can be found in a lot of different places)

Now this isn't a fast printer but as you can see the prints it makes are great.

The biggest issue is getting the first couple of layers to stick (which is a fairly common problem with this type of printer)

Automation Technology Club South West Ohio - a brief history (from my view point.)

 The Automation Technology Club is a small group of people, mostly located in South West Ohio.

We are interested in various technologies, hobby robots, industrial robots, AI, ham radio, Arduino, ESP32, and other micro-controllers. 

The club has been around in one form or another for over a decade, I personally joined in 2014 - and the group was around before that. 

Meetings were held in person, every week on Thursdays, unless there was a holiday in that week.

It was all good fun, and I learned quite a lot about Arduino and micro-controllers. 

Some how during that time I became 2nd in charge of the meeting - I'm still honestly not sure how that happened. But we had one official leader, and it wasn't me.

But during that time, I created a repository for shared code on github. Started to record our meetings. Tried many times to get our members to use social media to help get the word out about the meetings. And I'm sure there was more, that either got added, or changed.

We even did a few group projects (we had a display for Star Wars Day 2015 that the library hosted).

Sometime between 2016 and 2018 the library started to loan out Arduino boards, they stopped doing this shortly after they started. And the group started to grow slightly.

In late 2019 the library added a maker space, this didn't affect the group, but we all liked the idea of having access a large format printer.

In 2018/2019 I even tried to get a spin off hobby robotics group started, and it was starting to take traction - then....2020. 

Things went good for a long time, making and recording videos, learning the ins and outs of streaming, getting people to join virtually. I think it was all preparing us for 2020.

2020 - Changed everything, thou not all at once.

Of course when we were all home bound, we switched to a virtual only meeting. 

And we tried Google hangouts, teams, and a couple of others, we finally landed on Zoom.

The library where we meet at changed how often people can book a meeting. And even getting a room was pretty hard to do after the pandemic was over.

Our leader left the group, but this was later - maybe sometime in 2021 Early 2022. And I took over as best as I could. I'm not even going to pretend that I know anything, but I didn't want to see the group just go away.

We lost some members of the group due to Covid, and during 2020 a few just didn't realize we were meeting virtually.  

During the time we were having a hard time booking the room, we found a 2nd library in Mason Ohio that could host us.... And did have a couple of meetings at that location, but Midpointe Library has always felt like home.

We now try to meet at least twice in person, and twice virtually (actually, even in person you can meet with us virtually).

We are trying to build membership back up, and trying to do a few projects again.

So if you are in South West Ohio, Westchester or Cincinnati area (even Dayton area) and would like to learn more, you are welcome to join us at Midpointe Library Westchester typically the 1st and 2nd Thursday of the month. (Subject to change, so reach out to me and I can get you the information needed for the meeting).

https://github.com/automation-technology-club

https://www.youtube.com/@automationtechnologyclub

Memories of my first video game console

 First I'll start with I was born in November of 1970. By the time I was 7 or 8, home computers, and video consoles were starting to become a normal thing. 

While I don't really remember our first console, I have a vague impression that we owned an Atari Pong, more specifically I remember something called a Tele-Games Pong console, sold by Sears.

While this is my first memory of a video game, I wouldn't really call it a console. The first true console I remember was owned by my friend who lived down the street from me.  He had an Atari 2600, another friend of mine had a Magnavox Odyssey 2. For some reason my family saw Pong and thought, that is good enough. I doubt we bought it when it first hit the market, thou we could have. It much more likely we got second hand when the new shiny Atari 2600 came out. 

So I was stuck with Pong, I honestly don't remember playing it much, I remember hanging out at my friends house and playing on the 2600. This started my love for video games, honestly, it's the first console I can remember, the sounds, the controllers, etc. He even had the Atari Basic cartridge. 

As far as me, I remember when the Apple II came out in 1977, and how the high school had some. They started to offer free basic programming classes. And I begged to go and learn, there wasn't an age limit, anyone could go learn.  I happened to be the youngest in the class thou, but I picked it up programming faster then most of the other people. 

I started to ask for a home computer, and keep getting told that we just couldn't afford one. I keep it up asking daily, while my friends and neighbor all started to get computers. My neighbor that lived across the street got a Commodore Vic-20, my friend who's family really like Atari, got an Atari (something), another friend got a Timex Sinclair. I was able to keep up with all of that, I would go to a local book store and buy Compute Magazine, and read books about programming.

Finally one day, I was able to get a computer for Christmas. By this time I was asking for a Commodore 64, it happened to new on the market, and from everything I remember reading, and hearing about it was just so much better then the Vic 20.  I remember finding the box that I was sure was the Commodore, only to open to find a TI-99/4a, another package had a bunch of TI Cartridges, and another had the TI tape drive, and joysticks. That feeling of sadness that I felt - but my parents tried. Honestly, I know what happened - As Commodore took more and more market share, TI lost more and more - finally discounting the systems to the point that they were affordable.

I was sad, but I hooked it up and started playing with it, I started looking at the Compute Magazines, and typing games in, I started playing the games, I remember fondly Wumpus, Alphiner, Miner 2049, TI-Invaders, Munch Man, and so many more.  This was my first computer, this was my first "real" video game console, and it only took 5 or 6 years to get one. I worked around the house for money to go buy books written for the TI, and subscribed to Compute Magazine. 

I learned what I could about it. While it's not really a video game console, this is what I consider to be my first console, the games were good, and fun. The graphics were descent, the bonus of it also being a computer made it more special to me.  I could spend my time programming my own games (or at least games found in magazines and books), I could learn how to debug errors, and figure out how to make graphics and sound.  And because this was near end of life, Cartridges were cheap, and stores has a lot of them.  Things like the disk drive, and memory upgrades were not as easy to find, nor were they cheap when you did find them. 

By now thou, my friends and neighbors had all upgraded. Commodore 64 here, Atari (something) there, NES, Atari 7800. I think even a master system or two. I was starting to get to the age of being able to get a job, and I made it my goal to get a Commodore 64. Finally I did. By the time I could get one the prices had dropped, I finally had the Computer I wanted, with games, disk drive, modem, and printer.

My time line maybe a little off here because I'm sure I was in high school, but the next memories I have is going to Radio Shack, and marvel at the size of the pocket computers, and the TRS-80 Model 100.  One day I would finally get my hands on those as well.

Now as far as a game console only, I have no real memory, I'm sure it was a NES, and I'm sure it was 2nd or 3rd hand by the time I got it.  I'm sure that by the time I got it, the Sega Saturn and Playstation was already on the market. 

But by the time I reached my mid twenties I had acquired, mostly from making trades, A Sega Genesis, SNES, PS1. And over the years, I've owned many consoles, 3DO, CD-i, Atari Jaguar, N64, Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, XBox, Xbox 360, WII, WIIU, PS4. And finally a Nintendo Switch.

I have bought and sold video games both as a hobby and as a business. I've sold all my consoles, and bought it all back more times then I care to admit.

My love for video games started early in my life, and has never really ever left me.

I still own many systems, and many games. One day I may even get around to playing them all.

My current collection, NES, SNES, N64, 3DO, Saturn, PS2, Dreamcast, PS4, WII, WIIU, and Switch. I recently gave my Xbox 360 and games to my grandson because he loves to play the "classics". His Xbox Series X stopped working and he was driving everyone nuts to get him a new one (I remember those days.) I guess he got my hand me down, just like I got a second hand Pong console. 

Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that I am a Nintendo fan. As I have far more games for those systems then any other I own. 

I still own a TI-99/4a and a bunch of cartridges, thou it's not my original TI. I'm not sure what happened to that. I also picked up an Apple IIc, and recently sold my Commodore 64. I live in a small apartment, and just didn't have the room to leave it hooked up, it needed to go to someone who will enjoy it. Beside in todays world, emulation is a thing, and works pretty good. And I also own a retro-games Commodore Maxi console. I can still enjoy my C64 if I need to, only now it's just a little different.

At the time of this writing I'm 54, since I already am having a hard time with the time-line of my life. I thought it better to write out what I think I remember and when I think I remember it. Thou this is not to say it's at all a complete time line - or even close. I have owned many other computers and terminals, and have worked on and played on machines like a Digital VAX/VMS, and unix boxes. But those were/are owned by large universities, and don't count as a home video game console. 

The 1.8" IPS Capacitive touch ESP32-S3 Round Display (JC3636W518C)

This display costs about $20.00 U.S. has an ESP32-S3. Generally the specs are QSPI IPS 360x360 1.8inch, 8M PSRAM, 16M Flash. It has a capacitive touch display, I2S digital microphone, I2S analog-to-digital conversion circuit, TF card interface.

The display is a ST77916 with a CST816 touch controller. At the time of this writing I've only found two display packages that work with this. LVGL and Arduino-GFX (The latest version 1.4.9 by Moononournation https://github.com/moononournation/Arduino_GFX).

Can be programmed using Arduino, and various other IDEs. (I've only tried Arduino so far)

It was apparently designed for AIDA64 as a 2nd display. The seller only provides a LVGL example.

Doesn't provide the firmware that is currently installed on it.

However there is a 1.8_demo.bin provided - this appears to be the original demo code that is installed.

It would be safe to say, they don't provide the source code to this demo. But the original demo can be reloaded if you want it back.

They do provide just enough information to get the display working using LVGL. 

Moononournation provides more examples found here:

https://github.com/moononournation/JC3636W518 I could really only get a couple to work, and one of those I had to modify the code to read the SD card. 

It appears to me (at least at the time of this writing) this is a work in progress.

But provides a nicer way to display pictures, and mpegs (off the SD card).

My next step will be to see if I can get MP3 to play, and use the on board microphone for something.

Below are some pictures of mine: (NOTE: I don't recommend opening this, I broke a small piece while attempting to get the cover off. There is heat tape and a temperature sensor (I think), I got mine back together, but it's night quite as tight as it was and it does seem like it gets a little hotter then it did)

The inside

Using LVGL

Using Arduino-GFX

Microcenter Inland MK-87 TKL Mechanical Gaming Keyboard a good keyboard?

It's been a while since I made any type of blog post, and this one is being made on my new MK-87 TKL Inland mechanical keyboard.
A little background, over the past month or so friends of mine have been talking about their mechanical keyboards. Features, and other things about them. Yes I said keyboards, they have spent upwards of 200 per keyboard, and own three or four, they buy replacement keycaps, replace the switches, make macros, change the LED patterns. And just in generally really really like the keyboards.
Last week I finally broke down, and started to look for one - I found a few Keychron keyboards on eBay for a reason price. See for the most part I'm cheap, and I don't want to spend much on a keyboard even thou it is something that I use all the time. $20 to $30 seems like an ok price, with $30 certainly being on the high side for me. (*Spoiler*) it turns out, I probably should have spend a little more and got something a little different.
Enter the Inland MK-87 TKL keyboard, while I was looking on eBay, I came across an Inland keyboard - it looked ok(ish), the seller wanted almost retail for it thou. So I looked at the Microcenter website, turns out a brand new keyboard was cheaper then what the seller on eBay wanted. I know shocker, sellers are always going to try to get more then they should.
The keyboard is actually an ok keyboard, it works surprisingly well for a $30.00 mechanical keyboard. It comes with brown switches, that are NOT hot swapable. The case is (I believe ABS), but feels good. And has a good enough weight to it. It doesn't slide around while typing, the keys feel good in my fingers, I am still getting a little use to them, but I've only had the keyboard for two days.
Unfortuntally I knew the day I got it, that I should have spend a little extra and got one of the used Keychron keyboards I had found. Yes, you can find pre-owned Keychron keyboards on eBay for a decent price.
I do feel like I type faster on my old membrane keyboard, but the online typing tests don't support that. In truth I type about the same on both keyboards. I have noticed I error a bit more on this keyboard. But I think that has more to do with how the keys are spaced and how I'm use to the other keyboard. And not anything this keyboard is doing.
This keyboard has "RGB" lighting, which is true and false. It has multi-color LEDs, each in a zone, so you have a "GREEN", "ORANGE/YELLOW", "RED(ISH)", "BLUE" and "PURPLE" Zone. It has I think 10 different animations, some of them are pretty good, others not so much. The speed of the animations can be changed, but I don't really see much point to that. The brightness of the LEDs can also be changed. They are top lighted LEDs, I've read various reason why this wasn't a great choice, but I think it's fine with the keycaps that are currently on it. Speaking of the keycaps - the font used on them is a little strange, I'm not really sure what font it is, mostly I notice the 4, 6, 8,9, 0, @, #, % and the Q, R O, P A, D, B all have little gaps in them. It's fine, just weird to me, and something I'm sure I would get use too.
OH I forgot the LED under the "R" key is barely visable, I'm not sure what is causing it - but it looks like the led maybe facing the wrong direction. I don't mean in the wrong place (Like it is at the top like all the other LEDs) I mean it kind of looks like it might be upside down. I need to explore this later if I decide to keep the keyboard. Or I just need to live with it like this. (Picture below)
The user guide, which is short and too the point, included with the keyboard does say you can program macros into F1 - F12 keys. I haven't tried that yet but I'm sure it will work fine.
The only weird quirk is that sometimes there seems to be latancy between a key being pressed and the input on the computer. I really only have noticed this when you do a double space, sometimes the next character doesn't register. Is this a problem? Well, yeah kind of. When you are typinging and use a double space, you think you hit a letter, but it doesn't register that is a problem. At first I thought maybe it had something to do with the animation pattern of the LEDs, so I turned them off, and it didn't change anything.
That is really the only "problem" that I've seen so far with the keyboard. And I guess if maybe you might get use to it, but it shouldn't do that.
The brown switches have a nice tactile feel to them, and there is a noticable "clunk" it's not really a "click" - but it's close. I have noticed that some of the letter will register quicker then others, so maybe not the best switches used? I mean after all this is a $30.00 keyboard.
The keyboard uses a SINO WEALTH controller, and from my understanding is either a 8051 or emulating a 8051. There are a couple of github projects that will let you flash new firmware. BUT I wouldn't do that with this keyboard, first you have no idea how the controller is hooked up to the leds, or how it is scanning the keyboard. Maybe you could dump the current firmware and figure out that information. It's my understanding Sino makes the controller, but OEMs can wire it however they want, the controller IDs the same for every keyboard "Device 020: ID 258a:002a SINO WEALTH Gaming KB" so it is really impossiable to tell what keyboard you might be using. So using something like OPENRGB or Via would NOT be possiable or advisable for this keyboard. As a number of people have reported a bricked keyboard after using OPENRGB.
I actually tried OpenRGB before I knew this, lucky for me OpenRGB took support for Sino controllers out of it's scan, so, that probably prevented problems.
In short, this is an ok basic mechanical keyboard, I would say it's ok entry to the world - but if you have the money get a Keychron. You can find Keychron keyboard for reasonable prices. As far as the switches goes, every one has a switch they like, the fact that I like brown or blue switches, was a bonus for me with this keyboard. But not being able to swap switches easy was kind of a bummer. I have to remember this is an entry level keyboard. And not all Keychron keyboards have hot swappable switches either. For just a little more then the cost of a membrane keyboard, this is an okay keyboard. It's a good replacement if you need a new keyboard.
It is probably a gateway to other mechanical keyboards. As I've said I've have the keyboard for less then 2 days, and already know that I should have spent a little more for a slightly better keyboard.
I'm now looking at getting a Keychron C3 Pro QMK/VIA with brown switches and hot swappable keys for $46. Which is probably what I should have done in the first place.

Using Keyoxide for Mastodon Proof of who you are.

 I'm writing this because I found the documentation to be a little confusing, the process turns out to be not so bad.  So this is an attempt to clarify some of the things I was having problems with. Hopefully it doesn't make matters worse.

My system (why is this important, it will become clear below).  My machine is an AMD Ryzen 5 5625U, with 8gb ram, and 512gb SSD running Linux Mint 21 (Mate). The machine in itself isn't that important, thou if you need to generate a new key pair it might take a few minutes on a older (slower) machine. The important part is I use Linux (Mint is based off Ubuntu so Debian based, this is important because GPG comes preinstalled.)

So if you have Windows - you'll most likely need to install GPG which is beyond the scope of this posting.  https://gnupg.org/download/  ** Be sure to check the download signature.
*** I think the commands will all be the same no mater which version of GPG you are using.

To start with the documentation is using the command line (CLI), don't worry if you aren't familiar with the CLI, everything you'll be doing is pretty easy. PS in Linux the command line is called Terminal.

The other thing to note is I'm using a signature proof, which are marked as being experimental feature. 

I'll be using the documentation found at: https://docs.keyoxide.org

1) The first thing you need to generate a key pair - this step can be skipped if you already have one (Goto step 2). The keyoxide docs are pretty good for this step, and I don't think I can add anything.  But you will want to make a note of your fingerprint (The public fingerprint, NOT the private fingerprint) 

https://docs.keyoxide.org/using-cryptography/openpgp-gnupg/

2) You need to upload your public key to the keys.openpgp.org keyserver. And again the above URL walks you though that pretty well. The only thing I can add here is even if you already have a key pair you'll probably want to make sure it's on the openpgp.org keyserver because unfortunately it's a bit hit or miss if a keyserver shares with other keyservers.

 ** I didn't use the WKD server option. There is also some other information on this page that tells how to sign a document, and how to verify a signature. All is good to know if you are not familiar with GPG/PGP.

3) Next We need to create a signature file that will become part of the proof for Mastodon - this is where I started to have some confusion so I'll try my best to make it a bit easier. https://docs.keyoxide.org/signature-profiles/overview/

   a) Using GnuPG (GPG) we need to create a profile file, this is just a text file that we will sign with the key pair we just created.  The most important thing is using the correct syntax for the PROOF line. (This same file if I understand correctly can be used to provide proofs for other sites that Keyoxide supports. We are currently interested in Mastodon, so let's just start there. Other service providers can be found on the left side of the website at the bottom of the documentation)

  b) Create a file that looks like this:

Hey There Here's a signature profile with proof I am @kd8bxp@mastodon.radio

verify this profile at https://keyoxide.org/sig

proof=https://mastodon.radio/@kd8bxp

     Change my username to your own of course, it wouldn't do much good to try to verify you are me. Save the file with a name somewhere that you can find it. Next we are going to sign this file.

  c) It's simple, you just need to use the command: gpg -u EMAIL_ADDRESS --clear-sign FILENAME 
Where EMAIL_ADDRESS is the email address you used when you created your key pair, and FILENAME is the name of the file you just created.  This will create another file with the .asc file extension, it's clear text. This will be the file that you will share with others that will end up becoming the proof after they verify the signature of the file.  I decided to share this with a github gist. https://gist.github.com/kd8bxp/bfd9d9b1379cfc42e96d0c1e0dbe55ea

* There is no clear way that you should share the file, email it, github, a link to it in a post?  The person you share it will need to goto the https://keyoxide.org/sig site and copy and paste it there to verify you are your.
** IF you add or change this file, you will need to sign it again, and upload the new file (or share the new file making sure you also delete the old file).
*** If you move from this instance of mastodon to another, you'll want to delete the current line and replace it with your new username/instance  - and remember to sign it again, ect.

We are almost done....

4) Adding a link to your fingerprint (created above) to mastodon.radio https://docs.keyoxide.org/service-providers/mastodon/ (This is the step that I got the most confused about - turns out the simplest way (URL) is easy, thou I wonder if I shouldn't be hashing the URI which I didn't understand how to do at all if I'm honest here)

   a) log in to your Mastodon instance (mastodon.radio) click on Edit profile
   b) You will need to add a line to your Profile metadata

   c) After you label one of the metadata areas, just add the URL  https://keyoxide.org/FINGERPRINT  to the content side.  Where FINGERPRINT is the key pair FINGERPRINT from earlier. 

That's it, you should be able to go to https://keyoxide.org/sig copy the contents of your proof file into the site, and click on generate profile - if everything worked you should see a green check next to your mastodon proof.

Hopefully this helps someone else who was having a hard time setting this up.

keybase

================================================================== https://keybase.io/kd8bxp -------------------------------------------------------------------- I hereby claim: * I am an admin of https://kd8bxp.blogspot.com * I am kd8bxp (https://keybase.io/kd8bxp) on keybase. * I have a public key ASDmzCZJug4yHxlceM_8A1wFJ1rOx4Ppj6drMOVkkCT8bAo To do so, I am signing this object: { "body": { "key": { "eldest_kid": "0101273e3d5ba8114ef784c369a29f12dc463e2f7567102ce2e6b69a350d12250d760a", "host": "keybase.io", "kid": "0120e6cc2649ba0e321f195c78cffc035c05275acec783e98fa76b30e5649024fc6c0a", "uid": "b4ecb3e33f2fa9c54e6c94b6e1aede19", "username": "kd8bxp" }, "merkle_root": { "ctime": 1667857200, "hash": "2138c546f57ca2ac5538827a33cb13e3480b18648a494809a892567a206ecede72d4432ff610104895ebb7aee572b75755d4e51b7b2a1f6a48256898ffe88ece", "hash_meta": "d9c80f31b813fd0c6a3d0a8b9d508a0dd213178afcdc84d725bc2eb45c3226b4", "seqno": 23507539 }, "service": { "entropy": "eX2THmJuI1Su4hhKoV9zXfSL", "hostname": "kd8bxp.blogspot.com", "protocol": "https:" }, "type": "web_service_binding", "version": 2 }, "client": { "name": "keybase.io go client", "version": "6.0.2" }, "ctime": 1667857209, "expire_in": 504576000, "prev": "1df5c44958883338cd511509872c0b8c14060352c4cc97135bd1f209be82ae44", "seqno": 56, "tag": "signature" } which yields the signature: hKRib2R5hqhkZXRhY2hlZMOpaGFzaF90eXBlCqNrZXnEIwEg5swmSboOMh8ZXHjP/ANcBSdazseD6Y+nazDlZJAk/GwKp3BheWxvYWTESpcCOMQgHfXESViIMzjNURUJhywLjBQGA1LEzJcTW9HyCb6CrkTEII99sks8b3LVyoL1ULq5B3Lltto/o9+XzvnjdWV6BL0MAgHCo3NpZ8RA6RntQEWDxwZnBiqOtSrGbikYkTfZe8lX5ex+tFsh/9PKlkizJfRF/mLajoYZM+Z0f7coqVo0cMThKBDZ7kTBBqhzaWdfdHlwZSCkaGFzaIKkdHlwZQildmFsdWXEIKJ9yvFk1ennOp+qVcfxoH8CtLhegMz3/eoCeLeJKlJTo3RhZ80CAqd2ZXJzaW9uAQ== And finally, I am proving ownership of this host by posting or appending to this document. View my publicly-auditable identity here: https://keybase.io/kd8bxp ==================================================================