Any reprappers in Ohio or Wisconsin?

Hi,

I have been checking out various reprap projects and wanted to know if there was anyone in Ohio (Columbus, preferably) or Wisconsin (near Madison) with a Darwin so I could see one in action, and perhaps participate in some of the self-replication aspects of the project.

I'm an experienced hardware technician and systems programmer, so I'm equally comfortable with a soldering iron or microcontroller code. If I can get some nearby assistance with repstrapping a Darwin, I'm very likely to jump right in with both feet.

One of the reasons I find this technology to be so full of promise is that I spend winters at the South Pole, where we have to made do with spares and supplies on hand from February to October - no resupply possible. We have a (non-CNC) machine shop and soft metals, as well as extensive amounts of woodworking equipment, but something like a reprap for being able to fabricate small replacement parts for broken items would be an incredibly useful tool. One of my goals, if the current state of the reprap hardware is up to it, is to have a working device at the South Pole by next February when the station closes for the winter.

> I spend winters at the South Pole ...

Wow! (I was tempted to say "Cool!" for a moment)! I was wondering a couple of days ago if we'd ever get a Reprap into Antarctica (thinking about worldwide replication of Repraps, and when we'd be able to say we have "at least one Reprap on every continent") :-)

Do "jump in" -- your skillset seems a good fit. Let's see how far we can get by February 2008! "Reprapping at the South Pole" would be a neat news article :-)

But, I'm in California, not OH or WI, and I don't have Reprap or Repstrap hardware yet anyway.

Jonathan

> I was wondering a couple of days ago if we'd ever
> get a Reprap into Antarctica (thinking about
> worldwide replication of Repraps, and when we'd be
> able to say we have "at least one Reprap on every
> continent") :-)

I'd love to help that happen.

> Do "jump in" -- your skillset seems a good fit.

Thanks. I did think so when I saw photos and descriptions of the state of the project.

> Let's see how far we can get by February 2008!
> "Reprapping at the South Pole" would be a neat
> news article :-)

With a photo op!

> But, I'm in California, not OH or WI...

Ah, well.

> ... and I don't have Reprap or Repstrap hardware yet anyway.

This month, I really only have access to hand-tools (soldering irons, hacksaws, screwdrivers). By next month, I may be in a position to get some time on a milling machine if I had to machine any Aluminum or Delrin parts. I guess I should start with the BOM and see what I can pick up now - there's a *great* wholesale fastener company across the parking lot from where I work, and a plastics supply house (for Delrin or ABS) down the block.

I was just hoping there was a Darwin nearby already so I could at least start off with the replicable parts, such that they are right now.

Cheers,

-ethan

> I was just hoping there was a Darwin nearby already so I could
> at least start off with the replicable parts, such that they are right now.

Grin! There are quite a few people who would love to have a set of those parts :-) As of today, you can get them made via a commercial RP company, but you're looking at about US$2300 or so for a full set. If you have friends at a University with a Stratasys machine, you may be able to get them made that way at cost, which is believed to be around US$400 or so.

This "getting started" issue is why there is much work on building "Repstrap" machines happening and being discussed on these forums -- people are creating one-off RP machines using CNC routers etc. and being very creative, to bootstrap themselves into Darwin ownership.

As of right now, Darwin itself doesn't replicate all of its own RP-able parts. There is (at least) one remaining significant bug in the host software to kill before that can be attempted. Basically it uses way too much RAM by keeping every little segment of extruded CAPA as a separate 3D graphics element, so on more complex parts it runs out of heap space in the Java VM.

There may be other more "physical" reasons too, but that's one reason I know that we're not (quite) able to claim that Darwin replicates yet. The stated project goal is to announce that we've reached replicability (for the RP-able parts) "sometime in 2008". I'm not a prophet nor an expert, but I think that is looking like a realistic goal.

Jonathan

Hmm... another thing to add to the pile of why Java isn't my favorite modern language; but that's a topic for another time.

I can check around UW-Madison for a Stratasys machine, but for my project, I know all we have is decades-old traditional (manual) machine tools, along with a staff that knows how to use them.

I'm much more comfortable in the wild, open spaces of firmware than the tight, constricting environment of a JVM sandbox. I like my pointers untyped ;-)

Thanks for the detailed explaination of the state of things. I'm still interested, but it sounds like a lot of hand-fabrication is still required, and will be for a while.

-ethan

not exactly true. most of us are trying to go the lowest budget route possible, using wood and such. however, if you have access to any sort of 3 axis machine (or even cnc), you should theoretically be able to attach the motors to it, but the extruder on and be good to go.

if all the machining you have to do are the mounts and the extruder (super simple) then you are basically ready to print.

Welcome to the RepRap community, ethan!

I just gotta say this... If I can get my repstrap (Lamarck) to print all the parts in time, I'd be happy to build you a set of the extrudable Darwin parts in exchange for a picture of the completed Darwin operating in Antarctica.

Hmm... Reprap 'Antarctic Edition'... That would be cool....

Doh! I meant 'really neat'.

If you've got woodworking tools you can probably make a Tommelise in Antarctica easier.

I finished and tested all opto stop boards, mine aren't inverted so blocked is 0VDC, so I guess I'll add a !maxsensor and a !minsensor to the C program. I also assembled and tested one stepper and onr extruder board. Quite a feat because the universal board had no silk screen. I am in Engleood, Ohio near Dayton right off I70. I found the perfect strip timing belt, now I have to splice them!

sorry again about the silkscreen. if you download the v1.2 universal board on sourceforge, you can print it off and/or do a toner transfer to get an actual silkscreen =)

I just wanted to alert people so the board house won't do that again. Am I the only one who got a board with no silkscreen? What size holes do you drill on the opto stop boards? Since the stepper motors take less than 2 amps, why 14AWG wire? 18 would be sufficient, unless we are doing an add on!

thanks. i'll contact the guy and see if we can get a partial refund. also, i'll be shipping a pre-printed toner transfer sheet so that when people get their boards, its a simple fix to iron it on, soak, and then have the silkscreen on the board.

> Am I the only one who got a board with no silkscreen?

No. Mine came that way too. They were a gift, in my case, which makes it seem churlish to complain! I suspect an entire batch of UCBs from the PCB makers came that way. My PowerComm board arrived silk-screened, though.

Jonathan (who now needs to locate his soldering iron in the mess that is called his garage!)

I live in Englewood, north of Dayton, Ohio. I am having communication issues with my UCB. I think we should have regional contact to help each other out.