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Praise, questions, complaints, etc. go here. Want to change our policy? This is where we calmly and thoughtfully discuss these matters at length.
Re: RepRap future and leader (the need for) - 13 years ago
Thank you, Triffid_Hunter. I have tried to avoid there being a "direction" for RepRap as much as possible. I would much rather there were lots of directions. A monoculture is not evolutionarily stable. So - given that I am the leader - I regard one of my jobs as being to prevent leadership. I think that it is much healthier for people and groups to go the ways that they want to go. --- Bby Adrian Bowyer - General
Re: Mendel corner bracket STL geometry flaw - 13 years ago
Yes - you're right looking at it. In practice the error is too small to give nut-and-washer cracking problems with PLA or ABS, I think. And (when we've finished the docs...........) you'll see it's intended to be stood on soft pads. Nonetheless, if you have time to fix it in AoI and e-mail me that file, that would be marvelous and I'd really be grateful.by Adrian Bowyer - General
Re: Using thermocouples instead of thermistors - 13 years ago
Advantages and disadvantages: The Makerbot thermocouple board produces a voltage (it's just an amplifier and faked-up cold junction) that you can feed directly into A3 (where the thermistor feeds in) and convert using the Arduino's A-to-D facility. But the chip it uses can be hard to get hold of. My new board uses a much more widespread chip, and is smaller. But it takes up three pins on theby Adrian Bowyer - Controllers
Using thermocouples instead of thermistors - 13 years ago
As part of getting the Generation 3 electronics working with RepRap Version II Mendel, I created a simple circuit that allows a K-type thermocouple to be used to measure extruder temperature as opposed to the standard thermistor. The circuit is described here:by Adrian Bowyer - Controllers
Re: RRRF is "an attack website" according to firefox - 13 years ago
Yes - sorry about this folks. It's not your problem. We have had an attack on this part of the RRRF site. It should be back shortly.by Adrian Bowyer - General
Re: possible prize for reprap development - 13 years ago
"who decides what constitutes an adequate audit trail" That's easy - the award committee. Given that one of the principles of RepRap is to make its development progress public as that development is being done, and given that an obligation to do that would put everyone on a level playing field, I think that a requirement to do that is a sine qua non for any prize. And I don't think it would beby Adrian Bowyer - Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize
Re: possible prize for reprap development - 13 years ago
Indeed, it would probably make the race more interestingby Adrian Bowyer - Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize
Re: possible prize for reprap development - 13 years ago
Nophead's point about secrecy is a very important one. I think that the only way to avoid the problem is to say that entries must be developed in public, leaving a dated audit trail on blogs, file repositories and wikis. We then have a situation analogous to a sporting competition in which teams' training schedules are public knowledge. This doesn't mean that all teams will end in a dead heat.by Adrian Bowyer - Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize
Re: possible prize for reprap development - 13 years ago
These are all good points. But the danger we now approach is one of over-specification: in (reasonably) attempting to set a bunch of rules that make it hard to 'cheat', we may over-constrain creativity. For hypothetical example: suppose someone made a RepRap that completely replicated all but one of its parts for $20, and the one thing you had to add was a multiply-sourced worldwide-available pby Adrian Bowyer - Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize
Re: possible prize for reprap development - 13 years ago
Josh - what a wonderful and generous idea! Looking at what Forrest and Viktor have said, I think the following: CNC-mill replication: true, though milling machines have been around for two hundred years, RepRap for four. I think we can catch up... Also subtractive technologies are inherently less versatile than additive ones, especially when it comes to multi-material products and complicateby Adrian Bowyer - Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize
Re: Acrylic RepRap files on Ponoko - 14 years ago
Thanks for your offer of help, Ben. Yes please :-) Feel free to post what you do on the Builders Wiki (http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Builders), and do e-mail me if you want to be added to the Builder's Blog.by Adrian Bowyer - General
Re: RepRap near future - 14 years ago
I very definitely agree that we need to sort out documentation for new users. At the moment it's written for our reference (this is clearly needed too) rather than for someone coming to the project for the first time. That's why we've started up the Builder's Wiki at It was the intention of that (among other things) to allow us all to create precisely what is being requested here. So we sby Adrian Bowyer - General
Java versions and the host software - 14 years ago
I've changed the RepRap control panel in the Java host software so that it'll work under Java 1.5. It used to require Java 1.6 (which isn't on the Mac yet), so moving it back a step was a real pain. It's checked into the svn repository. It's mostly there, plus a little added functionality. You can now pause a build, Sto(re) the current machine coordinates in the XYZ tab, hit the Rcl (recall) butby Adrian Bowyer - RepRap Host
Re: Real Value - 15 years ago
Couple of quick points: 1. Plants are really bad solar energy converters. They're about 3% efficient. You can get 10% out of a solar panel from your local Radio Shack. "Hang on. I thought evolution was an optimising process..." Sure - but the 3% is a local optimum. Because plants' solar collectors are - wait for it - self-replicating, the 3% is actually fine: being able to increase your arby Adrian Bowyer - General
Re: Poor economics on front page? - 15 years ago
One of the greatest pleasures of running the RepRap project is that it has caused lots of people to accuse me of, or to congratulate me for, being left wing. This makes people who know me fall about laughing, or beat me about the head with my own copy of the Daily Telegraph, according to taste. I also find it interesting that people seem unable even to imagine a world without money. And yet moby Adrian Bowyer - General
Re: Introducing myself - 15 years ago
Hello Erik, Glad you liked what I had to say (I just make it all up, you know...), and welcome!by Adrian Bowyer - Reprappers
Re: Arduino chosen for next stage of RepRap development - 15 years ago
Yes - we'll almost certainly start with the single Arduino setup, then work from there.by Adrian Bowyer - Controllers
Arduino chosen for next stage of RepRap development - 15 years ago
We have chosen the open-source Arduino microcontroller (http://www.arduino.cc/) for the next stage of RepRap development. Zach has been working on this for a while, and it gives a number of advantages: * Direct USB connection to the host computer, hence no significant communications delays * Easy-to-use platform-independent software development environment * Faster * More memoryby Adrian Bowyer - Controllers
Re: The extruder motor and changes needed in extruder robustness - 15 years ago
"I don't think that you can do it, though. As well, the whole issue of how you insure flow continuity on a granule extruder operating at such low extrusion rates is one that I don't think that anybody has seriously thought about." We have an existence proof: those Australian students who did it for [email protected]. "Polymer guide friction: I was toying with the idea of adding some sort of roller beariby Adrian Bowyer - Mechanics
Re: Adopting PLA as the core RepRap polymer - 15 years ago
Yes - it is just over a kilogram of ABS in the original. Ed has the accurate figure; I'll get it tomorrow.by Adrian Bowyer - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Re: Having an intermediate file between slicing and building - 15 years ago
I think we might go for G-code instructions and a preferences file plus anything else that's needed wrapped up in XML and compressed. The preferences file is slightly problematic as it's individual to a machine; maybe have one with fewer entries in that need to overwrite the machine's local defaults?by Adrian Bowyer - RepRap Host
Chasing (and maybe helping) Adrian to improve the geometry code - 15 years ago
I need to get on with two things: 1. Finish documenting how the existing geometry code for slicing works (I've made a start, honest; see ) 2. Get rid of the bugs and tidy it. Every time someone posts a moan to this topic, my in-box will go ping. Eventually I'll get so annoyed that I'll get on with it. Of course, offers of help would be welcome too. But I guess you can't do that tby Adrian Bowyer - RepRap Host
Setting up the new server that Zach has arranged - 15 years ago
We need to set up the server that Zach has arranged. I think we should start by making this mirror the current twiki. Then move to it as the main server, with Simon's server acting as the mirror. The we need to migrate the forums. In parallel I think we should have a Builder's wiki to go with the Builder's blog that is world writable; lots of people are a bit wistful that we don't let them edby Adrian Bowyer - Developers
How do we both encourage RepRap mutations and stay focussed? - 15 years ago
When I set RepRap up, I wanted it to mutate as people adapted the design. And I wanted those mutations to be made available to all. That's why I used the GPL licence. But there's a downside to having lots of ideas and lots of versions of things: the core team is dedicated, but also few in number. I want to keep it few, too, for the time being, as increasing numbers makes more administration tby Adrian Bowyer - Developers
The extruder motor and changes needed in extruder robustness - 15 years ago
I am in the process of incrementing the extruder design. This makes it both easier to manufacture and more robust. But we need to make it stronger yet, and also for one design to be able to handle (at least) PCL, HDPE and PLA. Of course, this may be the time to go for broke and switch to a granule extruder design. The principal problem there is the easy (i.e. no lathe) manufacture of a robustby Adrian Bowyer - Mechanics
Steppers and obtaining them - 15 years ago
RepRap currently uses two stepper types: 1. Nanotec ST5709S1208-B (http://www.nanotec.com/page_product__st5709__en.html) 2. Keling KL23H51-24-08B (http://www.kelinginc.net/NEMA23Motor.html) and there's also 3. Lin Engineering 5718X-05S (http://www.linengineering.com//site/products/5718.html) which we haven't tried, but does have the right spec. 1. is spot on technically, but expensiveby Adrian Bowyer - Controllers
Re: What do you need to make UV-curing resins? - 15 years ago
I've got a sample of Swellby Adrian Bowyer - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Adopting PLA as the core RepRap polymer - 15 years ago
Ed and I have been building with PCL, which is easy to work with and produces OK results. But Vik has been having lots of success with PLA. It looks as if we can get a supply of 3mm PLA filament (details follow), so should we switch to PLA as the recommended RepRap polymer (not to exclude others, of course)? Being both bio-sourced and bio-degradable it has good green credentials too (cue commeby Adrian Bowyer - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Having an intermediate file between slicing and building - 15 years ago
Zach has proposed, and I think it's a good idea, that we have the Java STL slice code write a RepRap-machine control file (probably in G-codes). We then have a short separate program to read that and send it to the machine. We also allow it to be read into the simulator, so we can see what it will do. Advantages: If the slice code throws a wobbly, it doesn't ruin the build. No time delays whby Adrian Bowyer - RepRap Host
Java heap overflow - 15 years ago
The latest Java that I have checked in contains a few things to try to reduce memory usage. 1. All the RepRap geometry code now has a destroy() function that, when called, genocidally goes through it with fire and the sword not only deleting the thing that the function was called for, but also everything to which it links recursively. Not to put too fine a point on it, this function has to be cby Adrian Bowyer - RepRap Host