Hi Larry If we can get PLA into a bunch of High Schools based on the fact that it is biodegradeable we can build up the volumn.by freds - Plastic Extruder Working Group
I hear you, working with some high school students that are building a repstrap. They also have a powder 3D machine where the powder is $500.00 a bucket and not that reliable of a machine.by freds - Reprappers
It's always great to be an insider and use spare machine time. What would these parts have cost if a customer had called you up and ordered them?by freds - Reprappers
The SD card is not really working yet in the firmware. The design still needs some kind of display and control pannel to make that possible. So yeah it is still a required item and I would think would still be useful down the road also.by freds - Controllers
Not everyone has a parallel port on their PC. If you buy the USB to TTL cable that is recommended, you can also use it to burn the bootstrap with instructions that are located here: If you want to build the adapter cable for the Parallel port it is documented on the the Arduino site here:by freds - Controllers
Here's a similar concept for guide wires that can be printed. R.J. Bowman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Over at Thingiverse, I saw a design for a laser > cutable cable chain, which gave me an idea; > printable snap-together sprocket chain links (and, > no, I don't have a design for them). Yes, it would > not wear as well as manufactured machinby freds - Mechanics
It looks a lot more centered on the object now, though the rotation is not smooth it looks like you go though about 340 degrees and then reset to zero. Still not rotating vertically, a good example is the Knight as you never get to see the face of the horse. JoeMcGuire Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Marcus, > > Using an applet viewer was certainly anby freds - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Well the RS-232 chip you selected has two drivers and two receivers: You could wire it like the following: Driver #1 is TX Driver #2 is CTS Receiver #1 is RX Receiver #2 is RTS You do not have to use the RTS and actually in operation it has been problematic, most people learn the timing sequence of mashing the reset button. Since you are building this up on a breadboard how are you getting tby freds - Controllers
Just shooting from the hip and my visual observation of what you have now, which looks great though it seemed on some parts that I was missing part of the view. I picked 36 degrees so that you would do ten views with the vertical tumble, you might try multiples of that.by freds - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Very cool, now if you would tumble in the vertical axis every 36 degrees and offset it more to the right or center of the object. Do one full rotation and then the stepped tumble, then you more and likely will not need the user rotate control.by freds - Administration, Announcements, Policy
That could possibly do it if you moved away from a raster scan and have some form of header on the wire feeder. Then you into the mechanics of a vacumn chamber and pulling enough vacumn that the gun doesn't vaporize it self, etc. Maybe part of the construction is step one, get 12 lead acid batteries for the safety cage.by freds - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Ahh a use for old TV's, just have to up the beam current LOL! Anyway want to do the power calculations? The NASA version creates a puddle of metal verses exciting phosphor dots, but since you are recycling use multiple guns with a raster image?by freds - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Well first off you need a vacuum chamber and the process generates XRAYS so you need shielding so you don’t get a fatal dose of radiation; then you need an electron beam source of 8,000 to 60,000 volts. Not quite something to run on your desktop. For more information just type "Electron beam freeform fabrication" into google. For stronger structures a more reasonable near term possibltiy for uby freds - Plastic Extruder Working Group
You more an likely have servo motors on this beast which might have controllers that simulate a stepper motor interface. That would be the interface point to look for as directly controlling a servo motor is a much more difficult task.by freds - Reprappers
Hi Willy The home and limit switches should be present on your PC interface card, you will need to create an adapter cable to go between it and the Sanguino motherboard. The reprap mother board can either have all onboard electronics or have a plug in Sanguino processor. Just kind of depends on what is in stock from the makerbot store when you place your order. I do not know if you are in the sby freds - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
Here's a video presentation by one of the founders of MakerBot "Bre Pettis" that is interesting to watch. Seems to be fairly recent. It looks like they are doing their production run of the cupcake in batches so before they ship their next batch they have to get back into stock. Ahh the joys of a startup and shipping products. They say that the entire kit is out of stock with a fill date of tby freds - Controllers
Order the generation III hardware from www.makerbot.com as the boards now come mostly assembled.by freds - Controllers
Hi Willy There have been a number of people who have gone your route starting with a CNC machine. Whether it is feasible breaks down in the following areas: 1. Machine resolution needs an repeatable accuracy of 0.1 mm which is generally not a problem with CnC machines. 2. Build area of 230mm (X) x 230mm (Y) x 100mm (Z), note the Makerbot CupCake Cnc is 100mm (X) x 100mm (Y) x 130mm (Z) so mby freds - CNC Routers, Mills, and Hybrid RepRapping
It should be as he orginally wrote the software for that purpose. From my reading there are a some pin and logic level changes between generation two and three, like the stepper enable line. So the G-code software would need to be updated by someone.by freds - RepRap Host
While the motor movements could be consider digital where they could run in lock step the extruder control of the heaters would have to be cordinated. You then get into the purely mechanical issues of tolerances between the machines and potential Z-axis calibration. Though I image one you delt with that it would make repative parts runs more reasonable. Then what happens when one machine has aby freds - General
Reminds me of the milk scanner R.J.Bowmaan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My solution to the sagging problem is a granite > slab, resting on pontoons, floating in a tank of > water. The z-axis actuator is a water pump. There > are solutions to every problem.by freds - General
Wow a chicken farm can overthow us, give me a link to the details!by freds - General
Can you imagine the junk mail associated with this capablity to do garage enhancements?by freds - Tissue Engineering
I do not remember as I brought at a local household store, I was it a rush to see hot plastic LOL! I tossed it a while back. I think that trying to use a off the self product you might encounter a mixture of materials that might change from batch to batch.by freds - Reprappers
I tried trimmer line and it initial extruded and then baked to a hard internal shell that had to be drilled out.by freds - Reprappers
How about a brand name, how viscous is it, time to cure, etc?by freds - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Nothing wrong with staying relevant! The Arduino IDE is normally setup to program via AVRDUDE to a parallel port. Try running AVRDUDE directly with the command examples for your programmer.by freds - Controllers
Also when getting short cables make sure they are not crossed over pair patch cables, I believe one member on here made that mistake and blew out all his endstop sensors. So you one normal standard one to one wiring cables.by freds - Reprappers
Looks very good! I see that you are using a generation three extruder controller, we have thought about it for our project also. The EMC allows you to drive a serial channel via G-code?by freds - RepRap Host
If you have a long X then it might make sense to have multiple extruders to build duplicate objects. CnC mills typical have a more generous X then Y. I am working with some high school students who's repstrap is going to be such a mill and we are looking at working with multiple extruders and should have some form of initial report by October. We are using a Sanguino which only has six PWM drivby freds - General