As you know I've been using the Austria Microsystems AS5035 in conjunction with solarbotics gearmotors as an alternative to stepper motors in Tommelise. I'd been a little worried about this approach mostly because we seem to only have one supplier for the encoder chip and more importantly that the cost of the darned thing has been skyrocketing in recent months what with the appreciation of the Eby Forrest Higgs - Developers
(Snow!?) Yup. Strange, isn't it? Mind, a few months ago we had a 5 day cold snap that pretty much wrecked our citrus orchards down there so for this winter, at least, just about anything is possible, I guess. Global warming, hey? :-p ----- Original Message ---- From: Adrian Bowyer Cc: developers@reprapby Forrest Higgs - Developers
I'm off to the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in the morning. I present on Thursday afternoon and will be back in Pacific Grove on Friday. Wish me luck. The weather in Southern California has got a little weird what with windstorms overturning boats, snow and rain. Mind, we've needed more rain.by Forrest Higgs - Developers
***It all looks alarmingly do-able...*** It sure does when you put it all down like that. Looking at the list, I don't see anywhere that I could usefully help on the tasks that you've outlined. It's worth pointing out that Bart seems to be making a good faith effort to getting the Windows version of the Java software rolling here in the states. You might want to involve him on that task. I wby Forrest Higgs - Developers
That's a beautiful video, Vik. Why didn't you post it on the main blog? Just because you had a peel problem after several layers doesn't make it any less impressive.by Forrest Higgs - Developers
It is so cool to have some honest to goodness organic chemists on board here at RepRap. Are either of you two interested in the chemistry of producing polyactic acid (PLA) from cornstarch? Vik down in Auckland is having some commercially produced PLA made into filament for his 3D printer to see how RepRap friendly it will be. There has been a great deal of amateur interest in confecting a methby Forrest Higgs - Polymer Working Group
Yes, it would be definitely interesting to put a good pause in between layers to see whether allowing the layers to get really cool would help the situation. If that works in a production mode you could print several parts at the same time thus allowing much more of an interval between layers of a particular part for the polymer to cool and stabilise.by Forrest Higgs - Developers
One of the problems is that the price has been skyrocketing due to appreciation of the Euro. They're running about $10 now. The nearest packaged shaft encoder costs about $30. We're getting pretty close to a tipping point.by Forrest Higgs - General
Imagine it. I've googled for hours looking for an alternative. I think that perhaps Austriamicrosystems has a patent or something of that.by Forrest Higgs - General
The only downside to the Austriamicrosystems AS5035 magnetic shaft encoder is that it is about the size of a showgirl's sequin and has surface mount pins about as big as the legs on a tick. It's a real pest to work with without a surface mount workstation.by Forrest Higgs - General
You might want to take a look at my RepRap variant site at...by Forrest Higgs - Reprappers
Windows users might want to think about using Flix, a cheap Webcam app that can do time lapse videos at as high as 640x480. US$10by Forrest Higgs - Developers
I'm very impressed with your use of your webcam to do the time-lapse photography. I built a little frame-grab program for my webcam in VB.NET a few years ago. Could I ask how you talked it into giving you an mpg or equivalent instead of simple bitmap pics?by Forrest Higgs - Developers
What's the big deal? 500 metres of 3 mm filament only weighs a bit over 3.7 kg. {3.141592*(3/2)^2 mm^2 x 1000 mm/m} ~ 7070 mm^3/m ~ 7.07 cm^3/m 7.07 cm^3/m x 500 m ~ 3535 cm^3 ~ 3.535 dm^3 3.535 dm^3 x 1.05 (density) ~7.7 kgby Forrest Higgs - Developers
Wow! Sounds nasty! Good luck chasing the bug(s) that are causing that down.by Forrest Higgs - Developers
Well, let's see. Nozzle... For the extruder barrel I drill a hole in the tip of the extruder barrel that is made of a piece of 5/32 hard copper tube (costs about $1.50) and a piece of copper shim strip braised to it. A #76 wire gauge drill (0.5 mm) costs about $1.69 and, if you are careful, can be used many times. I understand that people may want ot use wire pull dies like you describe. Iby Forrest Higgs - General
Well, the problem with that is that by the time you've added enough pennies to make things really easy you wind up with a CNC mill with an extruder for a toolhead which costs several thousand dollars. Pretty much anybody who wants can do that now and several people, notably Sebastien up in Canada, are doing just that. The trick to RepRap once the Mk 2 extruder was invented by Dr. Bowyer is to bby Forrest Higgs - General
Are you going to make one out of a brass bolt like Vik did or one of the copper tube ones that I came up with?by Forrest Higgs - Developers
I've been reading lately that it's pretty easy to create PLA but the trick is to get the molecular weight up high enough to have something that you can use.by Forrest Higgs - Developers
Dimmer switch doesn't work. I tried it for something else and I know. It's for a/c current only. Running current through nichrome 80 when it isn't firmly attached to the extruder barrel is a rotten idea, too. That will cause the insulation to perish. ----- Original Message ---- From: Zach Hoeken To: Reprap Developers Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 7:18:55 PM Subject: heating coil testby Forrest Higgs - Developers
Sounds like a great idea. :-)by Forrest Higgs - General
Did you seen anything on the lists yet? It looked to me like they've just opened it.by Forrest Higgs - General
LOL! I had exactly the same reaction when I got my set eons ago. :-) When you look at the assembled Mk 2 on the documentation page photographed against that centimetre grid it looks a LOT bigger, but if you actually count the grid squares it matches what you're holding. It's some sort of optical or perceptual illusion, I think.by Forrest Higgs - Developers
_______________________________________________ Developers mailing list Developers@reprap.orgby Forrest Higgs - Developers
Hopefully, Darwin or Mendel or whatever will be printing its own boards by that time. ----- Original Message ---- From: Zach Hoeken To: Adrian Bowyer Cc: developers@reprap.org Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 3:16:48 PM Subject: Re: DRC Passed! they give a great rate at a >$2,500 pby Forrest Higgs - Developers
No ideas, but you're making history here! :-)by Forrest Higgs - Developers