Hi Zach, ... i used IMT901 1/8-microstep-drivers for my steppers in past - actually Nanotec offers IMT903 1/16-step-drivers ( ) for 8 Euros single-, 6 Euros in 25-bulk. Or the ready-to-use 1/8-step-board SMC11 ( ) for 29 Euros single- and 25 Euros in bulk. Maybe you can design own electronics with the 1/16-step-IMT903 and use coarser and chaeper steppers for better resolution for the same oby VDX - Reprappers
Hi Demented, ... here are scans of my sketches for the laser-plotter, i've made for the copyright-documents in 1995. The first similar concept for a simple pen-plotter i build in '80 or so. Ask me, if something isn't clear ... Viktorby VDX - Reprappers
Hi Steve, ... replace the stepper and the electronic with an encoder and you have a 'normal' servo-motor. I think it's easier and cheaper to build a servo with a radial or linear measure, then the tandem of stepper and a 'following' DC-motor ... Viktorby VDX - Reprappers
... hihihi ... i runs conform with subject 3 Viktorby VDX - General
... damned! clever beasts (or spambot-programmers) - that means even captchas are obsolete now ?!?by VDX - General
... have a SPAM-bot solved the image-code?by VDX - General
Hi gene hacker, ... welcome on board When i first stumbled over the reprap-project, then i had a similar question to Zach - i hoped to solve the problem of converting the cartesian slices to cylindrical paths for a diode-laser-head, which would cut the contour-lines of a LOM-output (LOM=LaminatedObjectModelling) as in a lathe, but not subtractive, but sheetwise additive fabbing. As no othersby VDX - General
Hi Demented, ... with a tripod setup you can scale up unlimited and use best Kardan-joints or self-made crossed ball-bearing-hinges instead of the magnetic spheres. The software is on the way, it seems not to be a real problem, to simply convert the cartesic XYZ-paths to ABC-moving, when i use simple trigonometrics ... By the way - my first home-brewed laser-plotter i build with an orthogonaby VDX - Reprappers
Hi Sebastien, ... my experience with electrostatic flex-systems weren't so good, that i tried further - i partially filled elastic polymers with graphite and applied voltage (eventually until 2kV!) to expand or bend the structures. The behaviour was similar to SMA's with much lower forces, but much faster activating speed. So if we find a better material-combination which generates higher forcby VDX - General
Hi Thomas, ... yes, the normal glass-spheres for 'stream-cleaning' didn't have a good quality and the separated are much to expensive - but maybe with a quick'n'dirty cleaning process we can pure the cheap stuff to make a try ... AFAIK the spheres in the fire-extinguishers are brittle hollow spheres or with antioxidant fillings, but should behave in the same manor. By the way - if you drop iby VDX - General
Hi Thomas, ... my probe is the same stuff for 'steam-cleaning' (in german 'Glasperlen-Sandstrahlen') It's obvious, that in the 'normal' grades you have a wide variety of sizes and broken particles, because of the manufacturing process - i think it's made with spin-exhausting of melted glass ... When i searched for better size-accuracy, then i found nearly 'perfect' glass- and plastic-spheres fby VDX - General
Hi Thomas, ... i have a kilogramm-probe of ~100-micron glass-spheres from Kisker, which are dedicated for high-accuracy surface-finishing. When i observed the quality and size-accuracy of the spheres, i found different sizes from nearly 5 microns up to 1 millimeter (most between 30 and 150 microns), some broken particles and needles and bulks of coagulated spheres. The consistence isn't reallyby VDX - General
Hi Zach, ... i didn't want to start a flame-war - if Ian is right and i consume to much 'forum-space', then i can reduce the amount of my posts ... For me the forum is very interesting because of exchanging ideas and evolving some fuzzy thoughts with a backup from other enthusiasts. My biggest 'problem' is maybe the sheer amount of possible interesting stuff and concepts, which accumulated oveby VDX - General
Hi Zach, ... it's the same for me, with the conversion from cartesian coordinates to tripod- moving. When my electronic works, i have to focus on the conversion, so your library could help me a lot ... Viktorby VDX - Controllers
Hi Ian, ... excuse me, i didn't want to offend you - english isn't so easy for me, so maybe i was a bit of ignorant? What pushed the thread-size was your declining of my setups as 'engines' and my explaining, that it's one indeed and that's good for 'powering' of pneumatic- and hydromechanics or 'artificial muscles'. So it was for me a legal 'engine'-definition - i think when i can perform movby VDX - General
Hi Ian, ... if every 'ferrofluid-tooth' can withstand 0,3 bar, then with a sequence of 10 'ff-teeth' in a row i can pump 3 bar difference! If i need 10 bar pressure, then my pump must have 31 free 'teeth-cavities' and 30 'blocking-teeth' (also nearly 60 tooth-magnets in the wheel) for defining the pressure-difference in the radial pump, what's a bit scary ... For this reason i evaluated the Heby VDX - General
Hi Forrest, ... dropped in my Private Messages too ... Viktorby VDX - General
Hi Sebastien, ... wait, until some more members comes together, actually it's not essentiell, germany isn't such a big country Viktorby VDX - Schwarzes Brett
Hi Matt, ... maybe in your next essay you should write a SF-story about sending an 'omni-reprap' to the stars instead of embryos I think, in some future there should be 'seeds' or probes sent to other planets in our or foreign solar-systems, where the probe starts with reprapping a fabbing plant, which builds exploration-scouts and other sophisticated stuff to scan the areal and maybe start aby VDX - General
Hi Demented, ... i'll post the next steps of progress in the builders blog - when the software/drivers will work, then some videos too ... Viktorby VDX - Mechanics
Hi Alex, ... you're welcome! How is your status? Are you on the straight reprap or on a repstrap? Until an europe-localized shop is working, the ordering from USA is a bit to troubling for me, so i'm actually on repstrapping .. With my experiments in solved powders instead of FDM it's another branch, but i think with a wider (practically unlimited) variety of materials an shore-values we coulby VDX - Schwarzes Brett
... i think, for supporting FDM-extruding, an intermediate temperature of 50by VDX - General
... the ferrofluid-pump works from low- to high-pressure as good as in the opposite - the red arrows didn't show the active pressure, but the flowing direction, when i turn the weel. The magnets are surrounded with so much ferrofluid, that it fills the gap between the magnets, and the stator-walls completely and acts as sealing. Between the magnets are cavities, which wanders with turning the wby VDX - General
Hi Zach, ... access would be fine, then i can post some images and videos of progress and some experiments in the blog Viktorby VDX - Mechanics
... i'm nearly ready with the mechanics of my vertically aligned Tripod: (from here: ) Viktorby VDX - Mechanics
... here is an image of my vertically aligned Tripod-repstrap-demonstrator - i only have to mill the fittings for the ball-magnets, so next week the mechanic is ready, and i can search my driver-boards ... The height is 21 cm, footprint nearly 17x17cm and the working area is a cylinder of 6cm diameter and nearly 8 cm height with an estimated accuracy of 10 microns or better (not in every zone thby VDX - Mechanics
Hi Zach, ... look at LinuxCNC or EMC2 ( ) - it's for free ... They have Ubuntu as Live-basis, some CNC-programs and tools for controlling different setups and you can install the whole on your harddrive, if it's ok ... Viktorby VDX - RepRap Host
Hi all, ... i'm located in Grosskrotzenburg, near Frankfut/M, Germany. Wo's reprapping nearby too? Viktorby VDX - Schwarzes Brett
Hi Ian, ... the spinner is a pump, you need a motor to activate it ... Here is a sketch of the previous mentioned MRF-Engine: If you activate the solenoids in the sequence 1,2,3,4,1,2,3... then the MRF (brown) in the elastic hose (yellow) would travel slow from right to left ... Viktorby VDX - General
... here i have a sketch of a spinning magnet-ferrofluid air-pump ... Viktorby VDX - General