Greetings from Denmark!
Posted by volunteerlabrat
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Greetings from Denmark! October 17, 2011 02:54PM |
Well hello everybody!
I've finally managed to get some spare time to create a profile on the reprap forums, and I just thought that I would present myself.
The name is David. I'm a Ph.D student in.... ...guess what?.... 3D printers. -Or to be concise. Additive Manufacturing which we all know is the standardized term for all additive manufacturing methods. The only problem with that name is that my grandmother has no clue of what I'm talking about whereas if I say 3D printer she's got a slight idea of what it is.
My research has nothing to do with repraps, and to be honest. -don't troll at me now- I've always found the reprap platform and the entire community a bit of a laugh. Mostly due to the fact that the platform at it's current state of development is by far a reproducing platform, and that the printing quality is unsatisfactory when you work with micron resolution machines on a daily basis. Well That has now changed.. Just about a year months ago that is, when the department invested in a shapercube. Mostly to be able to demonstrate for the mechanical engineering students what an FDM process was.
When I saw the attention a low-cost platform drew amongst our undergrads I realized this was the way to hijack a lot of students to do project work for me. (read "minions") Hence I've started to plan a "reprap summer school" at the university, which will be launched next summer, and this is the reason why I've built myself a prusa mendel. I've spent the last few months to figure out how much you can cut off the price tag since that matters a lot for possible attendees. As for now I'm at 275 dollars for a fully working system.
I've redesigned the electronics platform. That for two reasons. I hate the Arduino. Mostly because of it's price tag, poor compiler and primitive development environment. Secondly because I think that a monolithic reprap board will be WAY cheaper. (at the cost of flexibility) Actually I've dumped the Arduino in favor of a good old 4-6$ PIC18 series MCU. This along with other small tricks has resulted in a monolithic board the size of a business card with 4xbipolar stepper outputs, 2x60A 38V PWM outputs, 3xmicroswitch based endstops and 2x100k thermistor inputs. The production costs of this board is less than an Arduino 2560 Mega. Actually just about 55 USD. The board is fully compatible with repsnapper, and perform better than both the firmware and hardware of our 1'th gen shapercube platform. Assembler FTW.
As for now I've got two italian girls. -Yes! You heard it! ITALIAN GIRLS- to do a redesign study of the prusa mendel for molding the parts in silicon rubber molds. Basically one big prusa icecube tray. The tray is being produced on a zCorp 3DP platform that builds parts in plaster of paris. We cast rubber negatives over plaster parts, rinse out the plaster under the tap, and voilá! A silicon rubber mold is born. The platform will be a molded prusa with a collapsable twist. It can be folded for storage. That so our undergrads attending the summer school can put the reprap on their desk when they want to print, and afterwards collapse it and store it underneath their bed in their tiny dorms.
Anyways. A brief summary of whom I am and why I've taken interest in the reprap project.
Should I panic during my reprap endeavors, then look for my posts and laugh at me.
All the best!
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2011 02:59PM by volunteerlabrat.
I've finally managed to get some spare time to create a profile on the reprap forums, and I just thought that I would present myself.
The name is David. I'm a Ph.D student in.... ...guess what?.... 3D printers. -Or to be concise. Additive Manufacturing which we all know is the standardized term for all additive manufacturing methods. The only problem with that name is that my grandmother has no clue of what I'm talking about whereas if I say 3D printer she's got a slight idea of what it is.
My research has nothing to do with repraps, and to be honest. -don't troll at me now- I've always found the reprap platform and the entire community a bit of a laugh. Mostly due to the fact that the platform at it's current state of development is by far a reproducing platform, and that the printing quality is unsatisfactory when you work with micron resolution machines on a daily basis. Well That has now changed.. Just about a year months ago that is, when the department invested in a shapercube. Mostly to be able to demonstrate for the mechanical engineering students what an FDM process was.
When I saw the attention a low-cost platform drew amongst our undergrads I realized this was the way to hijack a lot of students to do project work for me. (read "minions") Hence I've started to plan a "reprap summer school" at the university, which will be launched next summer, and this is the reason why I've built myself a prusa mendel. I've spent the last few months to figure out how much you can cut off the price tag since that matters a lot for possible attendees. As for now I'm at 275 dollars for a fully working system.
I've redesigned the electronics platform. That for two reasons. I hate the Arduino. Mostly because of it's price tag, poor compiler and primitive development environment. Secondly because I think that a monolithic reprap board will be WAY cheaper. (at the cost of flexibility) Actually I've dumped the Arduino in favor of a good old 4-6$ PIC18 series MCU. This along with other small tricks has resulted in a monolithic board the size of a business card with 4xbipolar stepper outputs, 2x60A 38V PWM outputs, 3xmicroswitch based endstops and 2x100k thermistor inputs. The production costs of this board is less than an Arduino 2560 Mega. Actually just about 55 USD. The board is fully compatible with repsnapper, and perform better than both the firmware and hardware of our 1'th gen shapercube platform. Assembler FTW.
As for now I've got two italian girls. -Yes! You heard it! ITALIAN GIRLS- to do a redesign study of the prusa mendel for molding the parts in silicon rubber molds. Basically one big prusa icecube tray. The tray is being produced on a zCorp 3DP platform that builds parts in plaster of paris. We cast rubber negatives over plaster parts, rinse out the plaster under the tap, and voilá! A silicon rubber mold is born. The platform will be a molded prusa with a collapsable twist. It can be folded for storage. That so our undergrads attending the summer school can put the reprap on their desk when they want to print, and afterwards collapse it and store it underneath their bed in their tiny dorms.
Anyways. A brief summary of whom I am and why I've taken interest in the reprap project.
Should I panic during my reprap endeavors, then look for my posts and laugh at me.
All the best!
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2011 02:59PM by volunteerlabrat.
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Re: Greetings from Denmark! October 17, 2011 03:20PM |
About the electronics.
I kinda am. The board is a nasty SMD board you cannot solder by hand. The firmware is written in assembler. It's not really "community friendly". Finally I'm quite hung up on my Ph.D.
That said I would not mind to give the reprap community the controller board "as is" sometime in the spring. That after I've had two guinea-pigs test the board. See I've found two students who's volunteered to assemble my revised Prusa design this winter. During christmas and new year's eve. Those poor lads. What undergrads don't do for a freebie reprap. ;-)
So yea. Sure. Let me contribute to the community. Already now I wonder if I can get yet another student to put it up on the reprap wiki for me. Mwahaha!
About the collapsible design. Usurpatur idem ius. Sure thing. I might get a student to put it up.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2011 03:23PM by volunteerlabrat.
I kinda am. The board is a nasty SMD board you cannot solder by hand. The firmware is written in assembler. It's not really "community friendly". Finally I'm quite hung up on my Ph.D.
That said I would not mind to give the reprap community the controller board "as is" sometime in the spring. That after I've had two guinea-pigs test the board. See I've found two students who's volunteered to assemble my revised Prusa design this winter. During christmas and new year's eve. Those poor lads. What undergrads don't do for a freebie reprap. ;-)
So yea. Sure. Let me contribute to the community. Already now I wonder if I can get yet another student to put it up on the reprap wiki for me. Mwahaha!
About the collapsible design. Usurpatur idem ius. Sure thing. I might get a student to put it up.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2011 03:23PM by volunteerlabrat.
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Re: Greetings from Denmark! October 17, 2011 08:44PM |
You know what I find a bit of a laugh? People that come into my house, tell me I'm stupid and then want to stay over. :-P
Jokes aside, I don't want us to get off on the wrong foot here, and if my assumptions are wrong please correct me. But what I read from your post is you're giving some undergraduates a reprap (which you have no interest in, or like), in exchange for bullying them around and do your work for you?
I'm looking forward to seeing the designs and ideas though, and I'm sure you and your students will be valued members of the community.
Velkommen til RepRap.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2011 09:32PM by Nudel.
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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic
Jokes aside, I don't want us to get off on the wrong foot here, and if my assumptions are wrong please correct me. But what I read from your post is you're giving some undergraduates a reprap (which you have no interest in, or like), in exchange for bullying them around and do your work for you?
I'm looking forward to seeing the designs and ideas though, and I'm sure you and your students will be valued members of the community.
Velkommen til RepRap.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2011 09:32PM by Nudel.
--
-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic
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Re: Greetings from Denmark! October 17, 2011 10:58PM |
Until a product is actually being sold, the costs are almost always under-estimated, and performance over-estimated. Especially if it is the first project of it's type for the involved person(s). Just ask the minds behind the sumpod
In god we trust, all others bring data.
www.Fablicator.com
In god we trust, all others bring data.
www.Fablicator.com
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Re: Greetings from Denmark! October 18, 2011 01:29AM |
Andrew Diehl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Until a product is actually being sold, the costs
> are almost always under-estimated, and performance
> over-estimated. Especially if it is the first
> project of it's type for the involved person(s).
> Just ask the minds behind the sumpod
>
> In god we trust, all others bring data.
Too right I have been building a non standard Prusa, has taken quite a few hours of redesigning time as well as build time and the cost has gone up by about a 1/4.
I have never build a Prusa before as I have a Sells Mendel
__________________________________________________________________________
Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand
-------------------------------------------------------
> Until a product is actually being sold, the costs
> are almost always under-estimated, and performance
> over-estimated. Especially if it is the first
> project of it's type for the involved person(s).
> Just ask the minds behind the sumpod
>
> In god we trust, all others bring data.
Too right I have been building a non standard Prusa, has taken quite a few hours of redesigning time as well as build time and the cost has gone up by about a 1/4.
I have never build a Prusa before as I have a Sells Mendel
__________________________________________________________________________
Experimenting in 3D in New Zealand
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