The only problem you get that is significant with threaded rod is the straightness of the rod. other than that it dose not really matter if its metric or english threads as the software only needs to know howmany turns to move 1mm or howmany turns to move 1 inch. Obviosly the threaded rod must not have any dings in the thread to stop the movement of a nut from end to finish. It must fit standardby BodgeIt - Mechanics
Yep I have 12 fully working opto end stops. They are very simple circuits so should be relativly simple to test. Simple test to see if the emiter half of the device is working. Apply power the opto end stop to be tested now take any kind of digital camera or video camera or mobile with a camera look at the emiter end of the device the little V slit in the plastic of the inner face using an eleby BodgeIt - Controllers
I have an Idea I have been working on to significantly cut the cost of the parts required to accurately build a Repstrap Dawin machine its still at the empirical Idea stage at the moment. I'm kind of a lazy engineer always looking for the cheaper and easier way to make some thing I have set the target cost at > £300 or > $450 for a complete kit of bits.by BodgeIt - Mechanics
The desktop factory I think is based on this kind of Idea.. though it looks like they need funding urgently News main site I think some of the staff at desktop factory were head hunted from Xeroxby BodgeIt - Mechanics
After our art class this morning Midge suggest we walk around the small Town we go to for the class as she wanted to pop up posters for the craft classes she is running.. My eyes lit up like toad of toad hall as I spotted a Model shop. Where i remained for a few hours. Last week I received the little gears from Conrad as suggested by Erik on his blog. I built an extruder but needed a smaller rolby BodgeIt - Mechanics
I guess Im getting stick as we are still at Midges house with all the stuff for Solar self sufficenty & CNC machines arriving here waiting to make the move to my house which is a 10 min walk away. I have a collection of inverters with lids off at the moment im investigating the possibility of a low cost convertion from modified sine wave to pure sine wave. Midge is also an enginner more aby BodgeIt - Controllers
Wonderfull picture thank you Victor your pile of assorted steppers looks a lot more than my pile so im in the clear with midge now...by BodgeIt - Controllers
I have just got the Atmega328 chip to replace the lowly arduino 16k chip on my Arduino Decima board I have not fitted it yet or put the boot code on. It is fully pin compatible with Atmeg168 with an extra 16k for around £5 P&P I am waiting for a low cost:- Atmega 128 bd to arrive < £30 inc P&P I think this may need a mod or two to convert to enable use of the Arduion SW and A puckby BodgeIt - Controllers
Hi Hazel Both of the Farnell 7805 type V regulators you listed seem to only have a maximum input Voltage of 10v max in the Gen3 stepper board they could be supplied any thing from 12V > 50Vby BodgeIt - Controllers
For any one else reading this who is stuck for a particular SM capacitor resistor or LED. You can just as easily solder a standard leaded component on to the SM pads. I bought the 1.1 Mother board very early before the kit was avalible and used axial resistors stood on end I think building like this was not as fiddly as hand soldering SM components. The only constraint is you have is componentby BodgeIt - Controllers
I always link from to the main RepRap suppliers page :- This page was updated 17 May 2009 it has not been changed to indicate this.by BodgeIt - General
I was making an order for some opto end stops PCBs when I noticed the previos order had not been sent. Placing an order with Makerbot is quick but they did not have any Extruder Controller v2.1 bds at the time. Also on my previous order to Makerbot the order was stopped by customs didnt mind that too much but the Extra £8 of handling charge the post office charged me I did mind a whole lot. Iby BodgeIt - General
I Placed an order on 3/6/2009 for 4 Extruder Controller v2.1 Raw PCBs the order was paid for but seems to be stuck in the processing state for nearly two weeks. Bodge Its birthday treat is running late. ;-( Oh no Im a year older since I placed the order..by BodgeIt - General
Please be very carefull with switch mode supplies at all times avoid running them with covers removed. There is a lot of power stored in eletrolitic cappacitors faults can occur. About 10-12 years ago a friend of mine was working on a switch mode power supply when an electrolitic capacitor failed the aluminium caseing flew off and hit his temple by his right eye it hit with such force it damageby BodgeIt - Controllers
I noticed this on my repstraps I rewired the stepper controllers to make use of the enable pin I blogged the details here. This only stops them heating up when they are not moving. To keep them cool when moving you could pop a small plastic fan blade on unused second drive shaft maybe an old CPU fan blade would do. Mine seem ok with the first fix using the stepper enable pin.by BodgeIt - Controllers
I looked for the same files they dont seem to exist. I have Acrilic set asside to make the extruder from. The thereory is you can take AOI files and create an STL. Usualy I find after an hour or two of struggling with AOI I give up. The application Nophead uses is called Co-Create that is excelent. I don't know how you can get an AOI file into co-creae though. I have downloaded the Linux veby BodgeIt - General
My partner is also a girl we are both memebers of the Linkedin reprap group. We are not very active on RepRap at the moment due to home renovation work that should be finished in July fingers crossed. (was due June) ;-(by BodgeIt - United Kingdom RepRap User Group
Old Processor fans and Case or PC PSU fans work great for £0. I have a small CPU fan on the Gen2 Z axis driver with 1/3 of a 4" x 2" heat sink originaly bought for an LM317 or a TN3055 power transistor. With the Gen2 X & Y axis drivers mounted 10mm or 1/2" apart each with their 1/3 of the heatsink with an Old PC case fan spanning the heatsinks see pics on my Blog. The bigger Problem I hadby BodgeIt - Controllers
Hmm the Big Bang Theory.. I have just located 50.5V switch mode Power supplies £12 on ebay, the original price £280 so have taken the plunge. Delivery is a bit steep at £28 but dont fancy driving to Slough as if I remember correct its a bit like Milton Keynes with a roundabout or 3 on every road. If you feel the earth shake up there you will know the Big bang happened. Just think what could bby BodgeIt - Controllers
Blushes slightly I may have called my self Bodge It I guess I believe in Belts and braces.. "Theres nothing better than a stiff power source" an ex-boss of mine once said, when we were working on the Dungeness B Coarse group 3 rod control. I am looking at switch mode supplies so the 10A would be the peak current with the idea of having the higher power ablity in reserve incase I need to have theby BodgeIt - Controllers
Thank you for the sugestion on the micro-switch. Its made me think about removing the micro-switch with the roller on the end of the Arm an putting a non rollerd micro-switch in instead which could then be shortend. This project is my first one using a higher presision stage movement. I saw the xyz stage at the Model enginering exhibition in Harogate offerd £40 then bought the Micro Mill to goby BodgeIt - Controllers
I set the Gen 3 Controllers up to limit the current to 0.4A i.e 0.80V on the Vref pin. The hae been turned on and running for 2-3 hours or more at a time the heat is hand warm i.e not too hot to hold. I am using EMC2 and have not figured out how to make use of the Gen 3 Enable Pi so I have all 3 tied Low Thus Steppers are continusly powerd. You must remember Thou:- The steppers are a little bitby BodgeIt - Controllers
The steppers on the 3 axis positioning stage shown here needed a lot more umph to move at a reasonable speed. At the modelenginering exhibition it was empasized running your steppers controllers at maximum voltage provides the best speed on the steppers. Rumaging in my shed I found an old 24V swich mode PSU to experiment with. I adjusted the PSU to maximum output V = 29V. Built a small PC usiby BodgeIt - Controllers
Sligtly off subject but:- I was also stung by the Post office for the extra £8 handling on my MakerBot order. Im not botherd by the VAT just the extotionate handling charge. Please note that the Post office is only £8 compared to Parcelforce £13.50 handling charge Parcelforce are the EMS delivery service for DX. I'm still waiting for 1kW inverters for my Solarpowerd Workshop via Parcelforceby BodgeIt - Reprappers
I am a little further away @ 26-30 miles south of Manchester.by BodgeIt - United Kingdom RepRap User Group
I think I have seen this effect on the arduino decima I cant remember which version of the firmware I was using at the time. My solution was to change the Z endstop input pins on the Arduinoin the pins.h file . Which pins on the arduino do you have connected to the XY&Z end stops? Which Arduino version are you using? >> 10 11 12 13 ... 15 Which version of the SW are you using? PS Iby BodgeIt - Controllers
oops I am making the assumtion tha you can half step a 7.5 degree stepperby BodgeIt - Controllers
I have made the asumption that the fields and stator will behave in the same way as with the smaller step devices. Please explain your doubt further as it would be silly for me waste time on this line of thought if there is not a chance in hell of achieving the goal. I left school at 15 so I do not have the benefit of all the complex theory involved in calculating if the magnitude of the fieldsby BodgeIt - Controllers
I am waiting for my full kits of the new rrrf Stepper Motor Driver v2.3 to arive.. I am also playing with the A3980 1A microstepping stepper driver from Alegro I think these will be very interesting may be with the 16x microstepping ability... We can look at 7.5 degree stepping motors yet still maintain the resolution and acuraxcyby BodgeIt - Controllers
The data sheet for L297 & L298 devices has a single sided layout that’s worth a look. There is another single sided layout here though this design has 4 extra components to compensate for the ringing produced by 0.5 ohm wire wound resistors for the current sense. Reading the data sheets it specifically states “do not use” wire wound resistors. I did try to etch my own PCBs using variousby BodgeIt - Controllers