Quoteandrewluecke I'm not an Chemistry professional (or electrical), so just thinking.. I don't want to sidestep this thread, but IMO: "a blind chicken sometimes will find a corn", that's what Open development is all about, brainstorming is all about getting ideas out there, no matter how crazy, and then hope that others can improve on the ideas, or maybe use the ideas as the basis of yet anotherby anton - General
@rocket_scentist I think Triffid_Hunters idea doesn't involve a laser printer at all, merely using the Mendel "as is" to extrude directly onto the copper layer, if the ABS or PLA will stick to copper, it might just be a matter of cleaning up some traces with a pen-knife. Another idea might be to sprinkle toner, maybe using a brush, and the heating with a laser from a CD-ROM/DVD drive.by anton - General
Wow .. thanks, yet another link I'll store for later reference. I love the fact that the board is rated for 2.5 amps, that extra 1/2 amp was one of my reasons for investigating alternatives for the 2.3 drivers.by anton - Controllers
Just a silly idea I had, but how about using simple household aluminum foil sandwiched between a glass plate and the kaptonsheet. The aluminum sheet(s) should be slightly larger than the kapton sheet, and power resistors aligned on top of the aluminum foil, right besides the kapton sheet. The idea/hope is that the aluminum foil will conduct the heat from the power resistors sufficiently for theby anton - General
Hi I've been looking into the old 1.2 stepper driver, as it seems to have some advantages over the 2.3 version. The biggest advantage I can see is: it is easier to source the parts globally it is 100% through the hole soldering it can be mounted on a stripboard Questions: Besides the heatsink and lack of ability to have finer stepping resolutions than hafstep, what were the issues causing thby anton - Controllers
@goinreverse Sorry I was concerned with the personal usage scenario, you are right that for distribution of kits, things are probably a bit different. Although you should be aware that there really isn't such a thing as a EU patent, you can be granted patent issuing rights by EPO, but those rights needs to be confirmed by each individual participating country. The patent fees still apply, althoby anton - General
Quoteksmith5133 I notice that this is a 3.5v motor rather than a 12v. Dopws that make any difference or could 3.5v motors be hooked up to the reprap's electronics? I'm not an expert, far from it, but I have spend a lot of time reading up on electronics and engines in the last couple of months. From what I understand of the literature, a voltage mismatch between the controller and the motor isn'by anton - Mechanics
Not everybody has a BW laserprinter at home, so I think it is worth exploring if this method can be used as well.by anton - General
Apparently - depending on where you live - you don't have to worry about patents as long as the patent is used for personal and non-profit. Besides, most patents aren't taken out world wide, usually just the bigger countries, so again quite often you have nothing to worry about if you live in a smaller country.by anton - General
This weekend I went to a LEGO exhibition with my daughter, and I gained a little nugget of information about how they fuse some of their parts together, which I thought I'd share, in case somebody finds it useful. They use sound waves, more specifically at 20kHz, they didn't mention a specific amplitude, but the machine operators are required to wear hearing protection, so I guess it is pretty hby anton - General
Lately I've been reading quite a few posts, stating that the McWire is too slow to be used as a Repstrapper, some say that the extruder cannot be run at the slow speed required by the McWire, others that the print times are very high, 200-300 hours of print time. It is quite important to me to find out if this is indeed the case, since I'm currently building a McWire like contraption. My plansby anton - Reprappers
MarcusWolschon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > So, does this still have anything to do with the > topic "Plastic recycler"? Whether is on topic is always to a certain degree subjective, but since the topic of drying shredded plastitc, is IMO is part of the recycling process, means and dangers related to the heating is on topic. But that's just my subjecby anton - General
naveen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > is any body know more about How plastic & metal is > melted by induction heating process ...? > plz send more abt it to naveenbagalkot@gmail.com QuoteLionel induction cannot heat plastic, it only heaby anton - General
@Nielson What part of net-etiquette don't you understand, spamming every active debate with your questions is hardly the way to get people to co-operate with you!by anton - General
Sorry to budge in on this thread, but I have a very similar question, so I hope it is ok, otherwise, I apologize in advance: I have found some motors in the UK, which I hope to use, the pricing isn't bad and the shipping costs are good; but... Step Angle 1.8° Step Accuracy 5% Holding Torque 4800g-cm / 66.66 oz-in Coil Resistance 3.1V Rated Current 1.25 Ohms Motor Length 48mm Mounting Platby anton - Reprappers
Quotegoinreverse With a small hollow shaft motor (need at least 3mm ID, I have been looking anyone seen such a thing) this would make for a super simple and powerful extruder. Right now I am using 45 degree angle gears to avoid clearance issues with the motor body but a hollow shaft would eliminate all that. I've been taking CD-ROM drives apart, to see if any of the motors could be used a repstby anton - General
Sorry, I believe I have been a bit unclear in my question. From my investigations, studying on the net and taking one apart to look things over, it appears that I have 1 and 1/2 stepper motor. The real stepper motor looks very small, approx 18MM diameter motor housing and a 3MM shaft diameter. The "half" stepper motor is the spindle motor, which is a brush less dc motor, which probably could beby anton - Reprappers
I think most of - if not all - the questions raised are valid, also the premise that commercial 3d printers will come down in price. @maitri982: I think you need to figure if you are in for the "ride" or for the "goal", if you want the "goal", high-rez, high-reliability, high-cost-quality-ratio etc. it is probably too early days. If you are in for the "ride", i.e. help make these things come truby anton - General
So many people has already tried so many weird things, so before I go and try this for myself, I want to know if anybody already tried mounting and using the steppers from CD-ROM drives?by anton - Reprappers
BeagleFury wrote this in another thread: QuoteBeagleFury I based my brainstorming on the idea that from the host perspective, I probably want to have 5-10 pending requests always waiting to be sent to the firmware. Discarding and retransmitting all of those costs very little on the host (As the buffer size in firmware may be limited... at best case, it might have a 2 or 3 out of order reconstructby anton - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
QuoteBeagleFury My test programs have nothing in them except the comms test. The *only* point of failure is the standard Arduino implementation of the Serial class. There is no heavy maths. No expensive loops. Nothing except a very tight loop checking for serial availability, a buffer save, and an echo back upon reciept. There is the possibility that the transmittion of data from the motherboardby anton - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
@tan I've pretty much given up on using the "standard" electronics, I've looked very closely into using a modified version of the firmware which can run on a std. Arduino 2009 (Duemilanove) and some std. stepper controllers. That means that the only specialized things I'm going to need are the opto stoppers and a temperature sensor. I can buy these things from quite a few places, e.g. in Swedenby anton - Denmark RepRap User Group
TinHead Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Nope forks are not updated ... I guess that's why > they call em forks But, since it is GIT, you can do all sorts of fancy stuff, like have git rebase the fork :-)by anton - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
@aka47 Let's agree to disagree, especially in terms of goals and means to achieve these goals. I do admire your faith and strength of conviction (no irony or sarcasm intended, I sincerely mean it) I intend to introduce the changes to the instruction stream being executed on my reprap mainboard I believe will further my interests, and definitely encourage you to do the same.by anton - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
Quoteaka47 Think of this project as being like SETI@Home using peoples heads & hands to create self replicating machinery and you have the idea. If you are just along for the ride because you want a cheap 3d printer, leave here, go buy a kit, don't waste your time any more. Perhaps there is room for a middle ground, having both a 3d printer and make it do novel things in ways I find interestby anton - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
Interesting debate, but I feel that it is lacking somewhat due to missing definitions, What is meant by "self replicating"? What is meant by "host"? What is meant by "controller"? What is meant by "driver"? What is meant by "Tool chain"? Depending on how I define those terms, either everything is already in place, or nothing is in place. Do we want the Reprap to be 100% self-replicating, incluby anton - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
Your project seems a perfect fit for me, I'm planning to go a similar route to yours with the electronics, so I grabbed the code from github. I cannot seem to find a sketchbook for the arduino ide, what development tools are you using?by anton - Firmware - experimental, borrowed, and future
> efficiencies well above 100% - 200% > should be possible. (This does not breaking any > physical laws; a heat pump can move more heat with > a given amount of energy than could be produced > with that energy alone.) OT: I know, my home is heated using a heat pump, though not solid state, with energy effeciency of approx 350% :-)by anton - Plastic Extruder Working Group
BeagleFury Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Where did you think the losses for the nichrome > were? I only see two significant factors - loss > due to radiation or environmental cooling, and > loss within the electronics (proportional to I^2, > and sensitive to resistance.) Like I said, I'm no specialist, I'm quite far away from my area of specialby anton - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Forrest Higgs Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Um, Anton ... why is this sort of inquiry put in > the Gada Prize thread? > > I'm going to move this to the extruder thread. Because of the low power consumption clause of the price!!by anton - Plastic Extruder Working Group