Experiences with Online Prototyping Services?

So, I'm now to the point where I need some plastic parts. I could:
a) Wait for molded / RepRapped parts to become available
b) Try to make some myself
c) Order some online

Option b is probably not viable.

As for c, I found a place called Quickparts [www.quickparts.com] . Might try to get a quote out of them.

Anyone had any experience with online prototyping services? Any recommendations?

Hi Steve,

... in the past (2002 or so) i had good experiences with [www.3dsystems.com] and with a company called '4D-concepts', which i didn't find online anymore ...

I send STL-data per email and received the finished epoxy-parts 3 days later.

My last try this year was with [www.dimensionprinting.com], here i received FDM-test-parts for free, so i didn't know, what's cheaper, epoxy or FDM ...

Viktor

Hi Steve

I'm collecting the final RP parts from Ed this Friday so should have a complete Moulded sets available in the next 2 weeks

Ian

Hmm, well, I suppose I could find something else to occupy my time for a couple weeks. :-)

Hi Steve

Just read your Blog at the pace you're setting I'm going to have to change up a gear looks like you've only been building for 2 weeks! Good work indeed

Ian

For me, the soldering was the easy part. Been doing stuff like that for 30 years.

All this mechanical stuff, though. That's going to slow me down a bit.

For now, though, I can try a few things with the extruder board. Interested in seeing how the whole heater/thermistor feedback loop works. That should keep me busy for a while.

Steve, what have you figured out? I'm poor at both soldering and mechanical, really helps to follow those in front who know more where they are going

I have most of the parts on order, trying to get someone local to help with the PCB assembly/soldering. So far, no other RepRap users in San Antonio. Entirely lost on the printed parts.

At this point, I've pretty much decided to wait for the moulded parts to become available. I figure RepRap distribution's still in the long, flat part of the exponential curve. I can be patient and wait for it to pick up a bit.

Yeah, but you're always in the long flat part of the exponential curve. Yesterday was really shallow, and tomorrow gets really steep, at least compared to today.

Personally, I'm waiting until I can afford to drop the money on the motors, then I'll pick up the boards.

Sean, in case you missed it, Zach says that the next generation stepper board will work with cheaper $30 motors.

[forums.reprap.org]

It caught my attention that one Zach cited at AutomationDirect - the price drops to $21 when purchased in quantities of 50. Group purchase opportunity, assuming a better (cheaper) motor isn't found by the time the new new stepper board is ready.

I caught it. This means I'll probably be waiting on 2.0 boards as well. Actually, I don't know which would be cheaper, the old steppers with the old boards, or the newer, cheaper steppers, with the new, single, board, based around what appears to be a more complex component.

I'm not asking for a price sheet, but I'm not sure it'd be cheaper to go with the cheaper motors if it requires a potentially more expensive controller.
Of course, if that controller is better, in reliability, in accuracy, in speed, heck, in wear and tear on the motors, it might be a better option anyway.

Sean,

I was of this mind for a time. However, as a "starving student" money is always tight and will be tight for many years to come so thinking up reasons to wait will simply lead to endless waiting. I got fed up with that and simply went out and bought a shit-ton of components and such and started. The money becomes available out of necessity just because we tend to acquire what we need out of habit. Why wait? Build!

Demented

i havent done any maths on it yet, but the cost between the two systems of electronics will probably be very comparable.

Roach_S Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I caught it. This means I'll probably be waiting
> on 2.0 boards as well. Actually, I don't know
> which would be cheaper, the old steppers with the
> old boards, or the newer, cheaper steppers, with
> the new, single, board, based around what appears
> to be a more complex component.
>
> I'm not asking for a price sheet, but I'm not sure
> it'd be cheaper to go with the cheaper motors if
> it requires a potentially more expensive
> controller.
> Of course, if that controller is better, in
> reliability, in accuracy, in speed, heck, in wear
> and tear on the motors, it might be a better
> option anyway.

I've not got that far yet, but I'm intending on using the standard electronics but replacing the existing output stage with a micro stepping stepper driver chip this will allow use of all standard parts and protocols with a small change to the firmware (making it simpler). I will then be able to use a 200 step (

hey ian,

if you are interested, i think we should consolidate/coordinate our efforts. most microstepping drivers seem to support the step/direction interface. this is the same interface the boards i'm developing uses. they do fullstep and half-step.

if you can make boards that do that, then it would be extremely simple to drive them with the arduino firmware i'm working on (and gain free compatibility with the reprap software as well) the only change you need to make in software is to set the number of steps your motor has (200 step motor in 1/4 step mode = 800 steps.)

granted, you would then be using an atmega, but the arduino is ridiculously easy to program (all you need is a USB cable) you can program them both in C, and avr-gcc has much better support for the atmega family than compared to sdcc and PIC.

Hi Zach,

... i used IMT901 1/8-microstep-drivers for my steppers in past - actually Nanotec offers IMT903 1/16-step-drivers ( [www.nanotec.de] ) for 8 Euros single-, 6 Euros in 25-bulk.

Or the ready-to-use 1/8-step-board SMC11 ( [www.nanotec.de] ) for 29 Euros single- and 25 Euros in bulk.

Maybe you can design own electronics with the 1/16-step-IMT903 and use coarser and chaeper steppers for better resolution for the same or lower price?

Viktor