Questions about a Reprap

Hello all,

My name is Richard and i am a 4th year mechanical engineering student from the university of auckland New Zealand. This project has sparked interest in me so much so that i have decided to go ahead build myself a reprap or repstrap machine.

I have had a look through a fair amount of the information and have a list of questions now relating to the repraps construction and operation. Basically i am trying to understand the project in its entirety before i being ordering parts and planning construction.

Ok here goes

1.Are there any parts to the chassis which i cannot produce via lasercut? (i work part time at a lasercut/waterjet facility

2.What is the most up to date version of the reprap i should work from?

3.Since i am a mechanical major my electrical knowledge is limited are all electronics needed provided in the electronics kit? I would like to know if documentation is also provided on the assembly of the boards.

4.Does the controller require any flashing like a PIC? (Arduino im talking here) or is it all uploaded via the usb connection.

5.What are common problems in the contruction and troubleshooting that i should perhaps plan for.

6.Is there any plans yet for a granule type extruder system? At the composites centre we have loads and loads of composite fibre reinforced plastics and wood materials in mulch and granule form so i would certainly be looking to perhaps implement a hopper feed system here.

Thanks alot guys, cant wait to get started!

Richard

I can't help much being fairly new myself but you might enjoy this link about the granule extruder idea: [blog.reprap.org]

Richard,

You need to get in contact with Vik Olivier. He made the first working prototype reprap machine and is a major player in the project. He's also right there in Auckland with you.

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Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

1. To go with the laser cut parts you will need some, mostly standard, hardware;
[www.bitsfrombytes.com] Lists in detail all the parts for the main structure and
[www.bitsfrombytes.com] Lists on the first page the parts for the extruder.

2. Are you asking for replication or for building?
If it's for building then there is only, AFAIK, one released version of the BitsFromBytes Laser Cut RepStrap.
If it's for replication then someone else will have to advise on which are the latest 'production' STL files etc.

Richard B Wrote:
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> 4.Does the controller require any flashing like a
> PIC? (Arduino im talking here) or is it all
> uploaded via the usb connection.

The Arduino comes with a boot loader programmed in. You can upload new programming easily via USB and don't need a separate programmer.

(For those that need the space taken up by the boot loader they can use the flash programming interface, like on the PIC, to write over that area of flash memory. You can download an Arduino program to program the flash ram of another ATmega processor, including the flash of another Arduino.)

Thanks for the replies,

Yeah forest ive spoken to Vik already in emails and hopefully he can get back to me with the .DXFs for the laser cut parts so i can do them here at work.

No im not after a replicated machine , im building a new one .

As far as the extruder goes , is that also included in the lasercut parts sheet nesting? ive seen the way the parts are nested on bitsfrombytes in a .PDF but was unable to tell what majority of components were meant for.

My aim is to cut everything in one program if possible , so i dont take up too much time on the laser here