I hacked a load of opto sensors from a couple of printers (including an awesome one which seems to work over 300mm!) Ive tried lots of different set ups and think I may have blown a couple but as I havent had any signals at all out of them, Im stuck! Ive written a short sketch for my new Sanguino which turns an LED on when it gets a low or high signal on one of the pins - the sketch works fineby philwaud - Controllers
This isnt a laser printer, but I think it fits in with the discusion, very high quality, but a bit messy! Philby philwaud - Mechanics
Thanks, I google Step genie and found the web site you gave us! I must learn to read things more carefully! It looks a nice circuit, but I made the mistake of buying a bipolar motor as I only had two motors. I dont think the Step Genie works with bipolar motors? Looking forward to hearing how youve got on!by philwaud - Mechanics
I knocked up a variation of one I found on the web using MOSFETs and some quirky logic that drove unipolar motors in wave mode, then realised that I would be better having half stepping with bipolar motors so I bought one o fteh reprap stepper drivers. Ive just ordered three more but the cost of these plus the sanguino has really racked the total cost of the project up. Being a Yorkshireman and hby philwaud - Mechanics
Ahh, I thought you were driving it directly! Like the circuit your using, have you any more details? Philby philwaud - Mechanics
I was wondering if that kind of set up was possible, glad you are experimenting with it before I have to make lots of mistakes getting it right! You have used quite a large diameter drive wheel, looks about 25-30mm which gives it a circumference of 80mm ish. With a 200 step stepper this is quite a large feed per step. Do you think the stepper will have enough torque to drive it? Well done, goodby philwaud - Mechanics
I would have thought that the kind of model you are trying to produce would lend itself to a milling style rather than an extrusion process. If you make "walls" as thin objects and then assemble them, you are going to get issues with warping and having to create many seperate objects in order to create your building. Overhangs are still an issue with milling, and you may have to create objects aby philwaud - General
Thanks for the response, definite food for thought. Copperrap is at the point now where I can move X&Y so can draw objects using some Arduino code I wrote to "move to XY". Ive just built a stepper driver board from the Makerbot store so I am working on adding Z movement. My lovely wife has given me a strict budget on this (just as well as I would happily spend a small fortune on bits) so Imby philwaud - 3D Design tools
Hi folks Has anyone considered or even used Sketchup with their RepRap? As one of my long term goals with CopperRap, I want to develop some software to take a Sketchup file and print it on the RepRap. Is this doable? Are there any issues I will come across that have prevented people progressing in the past? Philby philwaud - 3D Design tools
Im cracking up, I thought the stepper driver kit I bought was from RRRP, but it came today and its from MakerBot! I went on the RRRP site and they only have about ten items for sale which seems odd! BTW, MakerBot have been awesome, the Stepper kit was ordered last Sunday and came today (8 days). Ive just ordered a Sanguino and breakout kit from them, just over 30 quid including postage. Ill haby philwaud - General
Try Fast service, and they are cheap. Very nice motors. They only had the dual shaft one when I ordered but it arrived next day.by philwaud - Controllers
Loving the rep(st)rapping lark! Ive managed to get Copper Rap to draw its first shapes, sort of a proof of concept! Ive written an Arduino sketch to move the x-y table to a set position, hence drawing a shape if you hold a pen over a piece of paper. Its crude, but Im impressed with the accuracy,and until I take delivery of the new stepper board for the z-axis its the best I will be able to do!by philwaud - General
Fascinating description there and I must say its typical of the quality of thinking that I have come to expect from the reprap community. I dont fully understand the theory that you describe but Im guessing it can be simplified by saying that the fluid being extruded close to the nozzle wall is restricted more that the fluid in the middle which causes a stress. Im guessing you are arguing that tby philwaud - General
Ive just realised that I actually have a boxful of these motors already, even better they are attached to a driver board! The school that I work at lets me have any old kit for salvage. I can usually find bearings, opto sensors, power supplies and if Im lucky some decent steppers (the Epson C2600 colour laser has a NEMA 17 unipolar, a NEMA 23 uniploar and three other motors which I didnt recogniby philwaud - Controllers
Hi folks Ive been looking for a kit of parts for the Stepper Driver Board 2.3 for a few weeks now. Ideally, I would like a fully assembled one as Im more than a little intimidated by SMT manufacture! (more on that later!) Anyway, does anyone know of a supplier for the 2.3 kit that currently has them in stock? (ideally in the UK or Europe, as it will save on shipping cost and air miles!) Alsoby philwaud - General
The postage seems very steep and they are bipolar, but I suppose you spotted that? I bought one of these for a tenner this week:- To replace a bipolar one I had. They are lovely motors, very solid and strong as they use a rare earth magnet. Unfortunately, I didnt realise it was biploar until too late so Ill have to set up a H bridge as a driver :-( Philby philwaud - Controllers
Im really looking forward to attaching an extruder up to CopperRap, and have looked at the many and varied ways that some of you folks have invented for dealing with the problem. As I understand it, the fundamental problem is that the plastic changes its properties as it gets hot but before its fluid enough to extrude and sticks to the walls of the extruder which means you have to overcome thisby philwaud - General
And now we have electronics! Ive lashed together a stepper controller, not bad as it only cost 16 UKP in parts! Next stage is to fix it up to an Arduino and see if it all works! More details at:- Philby philwaud - General
Really appreciate the comments, thanks. The idea of using a double nut with a spring inbetween is a good one, will look at that. Im going to get the electronics and software up and running before I tackle any fine tuning. I can see the drawer runners being replaced by something more sophisticated at some stage and then maybe jump up to a full reprap? Philby philwaud - General
Well after a couple of days "playing" as my wife lovingly calls it, CopperRap is now almost alive! You can see the details here:- I know that there will be many problems to solve but at least Ive made a start. Id really welcome any suggestions and comments! Philby philwaud - General
Ive been messing with the idea of building my own Reprap for quite some time now, and Ive finally got round to making a start, introducing... CopperRap! Ive used 15mm copper pipe and copper pipe fittings for the main frame, and Ive got to decide whether I solder the fittings or glue them on. Im going to use 17mm drawer runners to hold the XY table, you can see them in the photo. The basic frameby philwaud - Reprappers
Thanks for the response. I should have said that I have actually started to build the rep rap, I really should have emailed first! The frame is assembled and I am waiting for the drawer sliders. As soon as I have some pics, ill post them. Im also in the process of drawing the design using sketchup, I only have hand drawn plans at the moment. Philby philwaud - General
Hi folks Very long term lurker here - and also my first post so go easy! I first attempted to build a CAD type machine way back in 1980 as part of my A level design project. It wasnt particularly successful but the idea has stuck with me and I have built up quite a collection of steppers, various computer interfaces etc over the years but have never quite got round to a full blown reprap type oby philwaud - General