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To answer my own question, Ian gave me some info yesterday -
Yes, the Z axis drive pulley is used as the coupling, and the pulleys are installed in alternating directions so you don't need extra pulley rims. Nice!
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Wade
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Mechanics
Hey Reeece, thanks for the live cd - I'm posting this from it right now!
However, the computer I want to use with my reprap doesn't have a CD drive; it's an Eeepc, cheap and easy to transport to the workshop via bike. Do you have any tips on getting this live CD on to a USB stick or SD card? I've had luck getting Hardy Heron running on a SD card via the following script:
sudo /cdrom/mkusbinst
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Wade
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RepRap Host
How strong is that conduit? When I've used it in the past, it seemed to be really weak, very easy to bend accidentally. Seems like that might be a problem on a Reprap.
I've already had problems with my 8mm stainless steel threaded rod bending inadvertently on my Darwin, despite being pretty careful with it. The 8mm smooth rod I found is extremely tough and strong though; I found a box of ol
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Wade
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Mechanics
Another question for today - with Ian's cast parts kit, one of the Z axis pulleys had a pair of tapped set screw holes, and different sized holes in either end - 8mm and 1/4". So I used it as the motor coupling, giving me a bit more vertical work space in the process. But, my home made three mm (sorry, three key is broken) grub screws are not so great, and I'm wondering if this setup will hold
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Wade
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Mechanics
This last week I've been making great progress on my Darwin, thanks to the excellent Reprap instructions, Ian's cast parts kit, and the awesome folks at Interaccess for loaning me some workshop space. Got the Z axis almost finished, just need to splice that belt and test it out.
I'm thinking ahead to feeding the extruder - from Nophead's progress, it looks like ABS is the way to go. ABS is cer
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Wade
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Mechanics
Heh, I too often have the problem of answering my own question 5 minutes after I post it. Cheers!
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Wade
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General
Hey Tom, yes, clearly this is not a proper clanking replicator in the science fiction sense. Yet. But, it's getting closer, and the salient point is that it can make the parts that you can't easily find elsewhere. The rest is just nuts and bolts and electronics, the ubiquitous parts you can get anywhere with Digikey and Mouser.
Economies of scale are great, but they don't work the same for ev
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Wade
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General
Ok, I'm assembling the cartesian robot, and I have a question about the x axis. When I attach it to the frame, the little bearing blocks don't touch the rails (they're below the rails); in my setup the x axis rails are resting directly on the upper frame rails. I imagine that will work, but it seems like it'll add some friction and wear as the y axis moves back and forth with a steel on steel s
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Wade
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Mechanics
Guys, I'm building one up currently. Thanks to Liav, I found some workshop space at Interaccess.org - now I won't be burning any more holes through the kitchen table!
So far I've got the electronics more or less done, and I'm starting on the cartesian robot. Got the X axis together yesterday, but today I've been busy with other priorities. Will be spending most of tomorrow on it though, so sw
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Wade
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Canada, Toronto RepRap User Group
I like the idea, but I'm wondering if I want to run a reprap, how many of those hand soldered joints do I need to solder? 4000? Or 4,000,000? Cause if it's 4,000,000, I think I'll stick with $7/W silicon cells. Which may soon be $1/W anyway, check this out:
Also, is working on printing solar panels. Probably a bit beyond Reprap's scope at the moment, but a few years down the road, who kn
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Wade
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RepLab Working Group
I like the fact that the first printed metal object Mr Ribeiro shows in his study is a 3kg steel pint glass - obviously, great minds think alike.
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Wade
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Plastic Extruder Working Group
Viktor, what kind of overall efficiency do you think you could get out of the Seebeck elements? IE, with 1 kW/m^2 solar radiation, how much power could you reasonably put out? Even more importantly, how much is it going to cost to build up per watt?
I had a quick look at the wiki page on Seebeck effect, but I didn't see an easy way to calculate power output. In general, it looks like solid
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Wade
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RepLab Working Group
Maybe call it a "Pay it forward" scheme, as pyramid scheme immediately brings to mind scam artists and criminals for most of us. It would save a lot of explaining in the future.
Or just set up a waiting list - I'll be quite happy to send parts along to the next guy once I get my Darwin running nicely. I'm stuck at the moment waiting for the plastic parts too. We could rank the waiting list
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Wade
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General
I think this might have been answered elsewhere, but Zach mentioned that the thermocouple board was experimental, and cheap, so you might as well try it. I bought parts for all 3 temp sensors; I'll want to use the thermocouple for accuracy or higher temps, but the extra thermistors will be useful I'm sure.
I used Zach's Arduino PCB kit, and it was great - I used to design pcb's professionally
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Wade
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General
Yeah, I just plugged my Eeepc into my multimeter, and it only uses about 35 watts, 28 with the display off. I haven't got the reprap software running on it yet, but I haven't bothered yet, still too busy doing other things. Should be relatively easy, but what do I know.
I think having a lot of memory on the reprap would be great - you could just shut off the PC and let it run. But there's no
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Wade
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Controllers
Actually, I was playing with some of that "Multi Purpose Modelling Plastic" yesterday, the kind that melts around 60 deg C. It sticks to itself just great in a pot of almost boiling water, stuck to the pot, even stuck to the spoon I was using to collect it with. Once it cooled a bit I could get it off the metal parts, but it stuck just fine to itself.
Since the density of plastic is so close
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Wade
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Plastic Extruder Working Group
Hey Ian, I had the same problem initially, but I'm now at the point where my stepper driver boards are done and spinning motors, and I'm just waiting for some plastic parts. What I did was clicked the "Darwin" item, saw what it contained, and then replicated it on the first page. If you click the Arduino electronics, you really only need one of each of the other parts, except of course Darwin.
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Wade
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General
Interesting! My reason for switching to lead free was to minimize my toxic exposure, but it sounds like the flux is worse. Not good, as I don't have any sort of fume extraction yet, other than an open window. Maybe I'll make a little exhaust fan pipe combo to suck the fumes out the window.
I'm used to hand soldering surface mount parts, very fine pitch, and I had no trouble at all using the l
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Wade
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Controllers
So, all the RoHS labels on my parts got me thinking, do I really need to use solder with lead? I tried a sample of some lead free stuff. So far it's pretty good, some small whiskers occasionally, but it looks nice. You need to set your iron a little hotter - my cheap butane iron is doing it without too much trouble, even the bigger diodes, but I have no idea at what temperature the tip is runn
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Wade
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Controllers
Something that I've found very useful, as I don't always have internet access, is a snapshot of the documentation wiki. Very handy when you're offline. It gets to be a large file quite quickly though.
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Wade
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RepRap Host
True, very true. Something about organizing one's thoughts I imagine.
Hm, I do think that the Arduino BOM builder leaves out the Arduino itself - it's listed up at the top, but I'm not finding it in any of the generated shopping lists. Going to order a couple from Sparkfun with the thermocouple, as I'm expecting to let the magic smoke out of at least one.
Bits from Bytes, RRRF and Mouser orde
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Wade
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General
Hm, as usual, by the time I get around to posting a question, I manage to solve it myself right afterwards. I think all the electronics are included in the Arduino Electronics item, and I just need to order 1 of everything else except the Darwin part.
Wade
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Wade
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General
First off, let me say congrats on the parts lister - that's an awesome piece of work! I love that I can just cut and paste BOM's into individual suppliers.
But, I'm a little confused. I'm trying to build up a Darwin from scratch. I don't want the tools, as I can find those locally, but I also want to build the Arduino version. But, I'm a little confused as to which parts I need to check of
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Wade
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General
Sweet, webhttrack worked! Took a few tries, but setting the link depth to 2, not downloading anything over 2MB, and letting it run for an hour gave me a snapshot of the Documentation wiki that works offline. Now I've got something to keep me busy when the net (or the power) is out. Of course, now that I have an offline version of the wiki, my net connection is up and stable. Hope it stays lik
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Wade
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General
You got it Forrest, Cabarete to be exact! I'm just visiting, enjoying the wind, back to Canada all too soon. It's an interesting place - only the wealthy can afford garbage collection here. Everyone else just throws their trash wherever. Seeing all the abs plastic on the beach makes me think these folks could really use some sort of local recycling program.
Some photos of the place here .
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Wade
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General
I saw some discussion on this in the archives, but couldn't find any good answers. Does anyone have a good system for downloading a large chunk of the documentation wiki for offline reading? Internet and power are not always available here, and I'm going slightly insane trying to read the whole wiki - by the time I finish one page, the local internet dies, and I have to wait hours before I can
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Wade
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General