Forum for Melbourne user group

Hi, I would like you to setup a new user group for Melbourne Australia if you would.

Melbourne User Group.

Thanks

I think this is a good as any place to Leave you're details and interests.
If you're happy to have other members contact you leave a current email address as well or maybe set-up a Google account just for this purpose.

It would be great to build up a list of members skills or talents that would be of benefit to the rest of us. IE Programmer, electronics supplier, machinist, etc.

So everyone please get involved and lets see how many machines we can get up and running.

Oscar

Hi guys,
I am currently gathering the parts and working on the basic design for my RepStrap machine.

I am an Electronics Technician with basic metalworking skills.

cheers,
Pip

I should add me own stuff I guess.

I have worked in a variety of mechanical positions, automotive and machinery based. I worked on computers since the eighties and ran a small servicing business for too many years. I have interests in Mechanics/robotics/electronics and I is pretty well hooked on anything that makes noise, light, smoke and moves. I am truely Geek.

Oscar.

Greetings fellow Melbourne builders.

I am in the process of making a RepStrap machine. I have a working 3 axis machine controlled by EMC2. In theory, all I need to do is build a extruder head and off I go .

I have ordered the thermal barrier (hard to find a small bit of PTFE) and Nichrome wire (can't source insulated nicrhome in Australia) from MakerBot and they should be waiting for me when I get back to work next week.
The pinch wheel bracket I will machine out of Aluminium (unless someone local can print me one?)
For the temperature controller, I got the FETS's and Thermistor from Farnell. To control the temperature from EMC2, I will build my own controller based around the MSP430.
It seems my biggest hurdle will be finding 3mm ABS filament locally. Seems rod is more common rather than a continuous length. If anyone has some suggestion, it would be appreciated.
The fire cement is available from Bunnings but the smallest tub is nearly $30 and is a life time supply.

Pretty quiet around here guy's.

I must admit my progress has been slow of late, but I promise I will post some pictures real soon.

Keep Building

Oscar.

Hi guys,

I'm working on a RepStrap too. I've put together the electronics and got the lasercut acrylic parts from Ponoko. I am now sourcing the remaining parts for the cartesian robot. Any recommendations? Bunnings seems too expensive and/or low quality for fasteners and rods.

I'd also be keen to buy any leftover components.

Cheers,
Adrian

Ex-electronics Tech turned sys admin. Starting to amass pieces for a Mendel but still got a long way to go.

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--
Cef

Hi all,

Im currently building my CNC machine, based on the www.diylilcnc.org design. Once this is finished im going to buy in the extruder and electronics from Makerbot and then attach it to my Z-Axis and print some Mendal parts out.

Current CNC progress
- Panels are being cut next week at the laser cuter's
- Electronics are here and put together
- Belts, Pulleys and other parts hard to find have been ordered form the US

All I really need to do now is get my laser cut panels in, build the bed and the go down to the local bolt shop and get all standard style hardware.

The belts/pulley/shaft adapters etc were hard to find in Aus, So I ordered a full set from Mcmaster-Carr through one of my mates workshop's who has a branch in the US. They wont ship direct to Aus.

Looking forward to getting the machine going and printing out the reprap parts, also getting a nice little CNC router at the same time.

Great to see another machine on the go.

My build has ground to a halt over the past couple of months as we have had a few medical dramas at home.

Like you I am adding the extruder to a (mostly built) CNC which I have been making from my own design. So far I have sourced all the CNC parts from Oz and have been lucky to find the ground shafts, bushes and lead screw and nut on eBay.

I have had 4 large stepper motors waiting for a purpose for quite some time, so its just waiting on the final (re)assembly and some software setup to finish it off.

One of the first jobs I want to run on the CNC is the components for the extruder assembly and then hopefully we can start to run some plastic parts.

More details and fotos soon.

Oscar

FWIW: The CCHS (Melbourne Hackspace) have almost got their CNC up and running. Also, someone has loaned them a Makerbot cupcake with extruder, plus they're in the process of building a Mendel (which I have donated some extra parts to). Hopefully this will help kick-start parts appearing here in Melbourne.

I am interested in your progress guys, so keep the thread updated.

My location is in Gosford, north of Sydney and travel to the Gold Coast regularly. My interest is in the MakerBot but I liked the micro-mendel. I want to make my own electronics.

Hi all,
I have my makerbot cupcake working pretty well now. Located on the Gold Coast. Anyone found a local supplier of 3mm ABS yet?

Hi all,

Melbourne here. Completely new to RepRapping, just ordered the Mendel RP parts the other day. My background is professional game programmer (very low-level assembly through to high-end GUI apps and everything in between) but I've also done quite a bit with digital electronics and PIC programming.

The one thing I find confusing about the design of Mendel is the electronics. Setting up for SMD is neither cheap nor trivial, I've done a bit in that area but I'm guessing it's way outside what most RepRappers will be able to manage. Most people will be forced to fork out $300+ for something that IMO could probably have been home-made from scratch for less than $100. I've read the reasons for the switch but to be honest I don't fully understand or agree with them...how does generating the stepper signals from a PIC result in any more "rough action" than an Arduino? With good programming a $10 PIC18F4550 running at 45MHz should be easily able to control the stepper drivers and optos and still have enough free cycles for reading the SD card and/or communicating with a controlling PC over USB.

Anyway, if anyone here knows of good local suppliers for Mendel parts then PLEASE let me know. As far as bearings and fasteners go I haven't (so far) been able to find anyone cheaper than RS electronics.

Cheers!

Myndale,

Arduino-derived stuff tends to be winning the geek beauty contest these days.

Also, fabbing boards or figuring out what a "bootloader" is ... is fun but a significant barrier to entry to someone's who is say, a retired machinist who wants to play, but wants to push the 3-axis bot in a fun direction and doesn't know electronics. The Arduino-derived stuff will make it easy for him or her.

These are some of RepRap's "contemporary" electronics.
http://reprap.org/wiki/Pololu_Electronics
Cheap, easily sourced, and the SMD is in theory pick-and-placeable.

That said, we always need new electronics, and everything in the wiki is "official", so you are welcome to have a go if you like.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Myndale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi all,

Welcome!

> Melbourne here. Completely new to RepRapping, just
> ordered the Mendel RP parts the other day. My
> background is professional game programmer (very
> low-level assembly through to high-end GUI apps
> and everything in between) but I've also done
> quite a bit with digital electronics and PIC
> programming.
>
> The one thing I find confusing about the design of
> Mendel is the electronics. Setting up for SMD is
> neither cheap nor trivial, I've done a bit in that
> area but I'm guessing it's way outside what most
> RepRappers will be able to manage. Most people
> will be forced to fork out $300+ for something
> that IMO could probably have been home-made from
> scratch for less than $100.

No specific need to go SMD, unless you're building the Gen2/3 electronics. I'm going the Pololu route, currently assembled on a board from UltiMachine. Nothing SMD on that board apart from the Pololu drivers themselves, which come on their own boards and sit in sockets.

> I've read the reasons
> for the switch but to be honest I don't fully
> understand or agree with them...how does
> generating the stepper signals from a PIC result
> in any more "rough action" than an Arduino? With
> good programming a $10 PIC18F4550 running at 45MHz
> should be easily able to control the stepper
> drivers and optos and still have enough free
> cycles for reading the SD card and/or
> communicating with a controlling PC over USB.

The issues are mostly people are familiar with the Arduino. There is nothing stopping you from doing it with a PIC, but you'd need to write your own code to parse the gcode and spit out the right movements/response, which probably isn't a simple 1-man project. Love to be proved wrong though!

I'm actually getting close to completing my Mendel. Once I get a few more SIL headers, I'll have my Mega/Pololu driver combo finished. Also, the frame is close to being fully assembled now (just got to mount the X-axis carriage). Still got to align and calibrate everything though.

> Anyway, if anyone here knows of good local
> suppliers for Mendel parts then PLEASE let me
> know. As far as bearings and fasteners go I
> haven't (so far) been able to find anyone cheaper
> than RS electronics.

I got my bearings from Small Parts and Bearings in QLD (online), and fasteners from CostLessBolts in Moorabbin (close to my work). I think both were cheaper than RS at the time.

For motors, I don't think you can go past AusXMods - they may not be the cheapest, but they're close to it, and they've got lots of torque.

SebastienBailard Wrote:
> Arduino-derived stuff tends to be winning the geek beauty contest these days.

Oh yeah, the geek factor. I forgot about that aspect

Thanks for the link, Peer's electronics are very close to what I was thinking of. Maybe I'll have a go at designing a single-sided PCB for his circuit.

Cefiar Wrote:
> There is nothing stopping you from doing
> it with a PIC, but you'd need to write your own
> code to parse the gcode and spit out the right
> movements/response, which probably isn't a simple
> 1-man project. Love to be proved wrong though!

A PIC driver wouldn't be trivial, but it's well inside the scope of the type of stuff I work with. I guess the real issue is whether or not it would be effort well spent...no point wasting time on it if my energy would be better spent elsewhere.

> I'm actually getting close to completing my Mendel.

Any photos on the internets yet?

> I got my bearings from Small Parts and Bearings in
> QLD (online), and fasteners from CostLessBolts in
> Moorabbin (close to my work).
> For motors, I don't think you can go past AusXMods

Awesome! Thanks for those tips, I live just south of Moorabbin so that's real handy. Do you remember how much the bolts and fasteners cost you all up? I think I pegged the total RS price at about $170.

Thanks for the link, Peer's electronics are very close to what I was thinking of. Maybe I'll have a go at designing a single-sided PCB for his circuit.

iirc, Peer may be doing a redesign, I'd be honored if you join us in reprap-dev and ask him about it.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

Myndale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cefiar Wrote:
> > I'm actually getting close to completing my
> Mendel.
>
> Any photos on the internets yet?

Not yet. Things have been a bit mad of late. Will have to get to it!

> > I got my bearings from Small Parts and Bearings
> in
> > QLD (online), and fasteners from CostLessBolts
> in
> > Moorabbin (close to my work).
> > For motors, I don't think you can go past
> AusXMods
>
> Awesome! Thanks for those tips, I live just south
> of Moorabbin so that's real handy. Do you remember
> how much the bolts and fasteners cost you all up?
> I think I pegged the total RS price at about $170.

Not sure, but I've got all the receipts at home in a folder. I'll go dig them up.

Note: I've had to file a few bolts down to length, specially the stepper bolts, as they're too long otherwise. In some cases I've just used more washers, but in the case of the steppers, the heads would sit right in path of the belts.

I'm near Caulfield FWIW.

BTW: Do you know of CCHS in Camberwell? I've been turning up semi-regularly there, and I'll be taking my Mendel along either just before or just after I finish it, depending on when I next get there.

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in some help (mostly unskilled, but very eager to learn) in building their Reprap/ Repstrap? I'm very interested in this kind of tech. Honestly I have no background in electronics but I have some experience with 3D modelling and design. I'd be happy to help in assembly, testing, etc. I'm a quick learner and I'd be doing this to try and gain the skills required to eventually build my own machine.

I'm near Caulfield too, But I'm willing to travel around Melbourne (within reason lol.)

cheers

Richard

HI..

Starting to collect part for a Huxley reprap. I went this way to try and keep costs down but once done I will print parts off for the bigger Mendel.
Total noob on this but have played around with electronics for years.

Being based in Ballarat I'm only a hour drive down the HWY if we have a get together.

I will post some images once I start the build

Thanks
Auzze

glitchpop: CCHS is interested in volunteers to help build their Mendel. They also have part time access to a Makerbot to print parts. Worth checking out!

Ausse,

If your interested i have some extra's of the PCB's for the Pololu board. if you are interested in some soldering they are a prettyeasy way to get a board running.

Just send me a pm and im sure we can organise something if you wish.