The parts were purchased on eBay from a seller called elderfarrer2hy7. With one minor exception, all the parts looked great. I didn;t like the rod couplings included so I made my own to give a bit more flex to the Z-Axis steppers.by jcabrer - Reprappers
I used four set screws coming in from the sides to lock the Teflon rod in place. I don't know how well this works, but without any instructions on assembling the Wade's Extruder, I just did what seemed logical when I noticed the four holes there. I suspect that if the hot end get too, well, hot, then the nozzle may wander a bit while printing, but I haven't seen this happen yet in testing it ouby jcabrer - Reprappers
Except for a hosed Pololu Carrier, and a missing thermistor, my Mendel Prusa (Prussia?) is built, wired up and ready to go, or so I thought... I tried out the extruder manually to test the hot end, and it seemed to work fine, until I started the steppers moving. It ran for a couple of seconds, and then the voltage collapsed. Temperature started falling, and the steppers all went limp. I thougby jcabrer - RAMPS Electronics
I'm really pleased with the Prusa design. By my estimate, there's about 75 fewer parts than Mendel. I've included pictures of the build so far, and of the experimental nozzle I'm working on, made from a brass air hose coupling and mig welder tip, which is copper.by jcabrer - Reprappers
I ordered four (4) Pololu Drivers for my RAMPS about two weeks ago. I got an email today that they are again shipping. I'm sure they will run out soon, so get your order in quick, in case they have any left after they go through their backlog.by jcabrer - Reprappers
I'm almost finished building a Mendel Prusa SAE version. The extruder is Wade's. The hot end, I made from a brass air hose coupling and a 0.023" MIG Welder Tip. To this, I clamped an aluminum block with a wire-wound resistor embedded on one side. While I'm still waiting for stepper drivers (I'm using RAMPS electronics), I connected the extruder to a LAM Tech stepper driver, and tested the extby jcabrer - Reprappers
This is really great info. I've been looking for a lot of what you've covered Dr Jack! Thanks a lot. I just got the Cricut put back together. I've built a custom cable to sniff the cart. Now I need to complete the sniffing app in LabVIEW. I'll keep everyone posted on results.by jcabrer - RepLab Working Group
The Flash Chip is a 4 Megabit ATMEL 45DB041Bby jcabrer - RepLab Working Group
I've been thinking the same thing. I don't yet know enough about the AVR and ATMEL software to venture a guess at how to go in through USB. I did try connecting with some open source JTAG software that I found on SourceForge, but it did not recognize any device. I'll spend some time on that tonight. Thanks for the info.by jcabrer - RepLab Working Group
They are either a new employee in customer support, or they lied to you. There is a lot of talk about the topic on their own forums, and in fact all over the place. The real issue is that by making it possible to design on the PC, they are hurting their Font Cartridge Sales ($80+ each!) From a business point of view, it makes sense. From the consumer point ??? Not so much.by jcabrer - RepLab Working Group
I've posted pictures of the inside on flickr. Search for Cricut or look here The board is simple enough. As for reading or writing the chip, I think then font cartridge is the better approach. The cart uses an ATMEGA16. Need to sniff the lines there to see what's going on. By the way, I does have a Z axis. Z is interpreted as blade pressure. Thin paper requires less, thick board requiresby jcabrer - RepLab Working Group
There are Bismuth-Tin alloys with very low melting points in the range of 117 Degrees F (43 Deg. C), and others with higher temps. One interesting quality of some of these alloys is that they shrink when heated (not melted), which makes it easi to remove from molds in certain casting applications. The alloys also exibit a very low thermal conductivity, which means depositing molten alloy on solby jcabrer - General
I just picked up a Cricut Paper Cutter a couple of days ago, and I'm convinced it can be hacked into a general CNC very easily, with the right expertise, which I lack! They're on sale until the 30th at Michael's for $139.00 if anyone is interested. There is a USB port, which Windows XP recognises as an FTDI FT8U2XX Device (USB to Serial), which leads me to believe that there is the possibilityby jcabrer - RepLab Working Group