Rick - I agree with Cheap!. I bought my boards from store.rrrf.org. Zach is very prompt and works very hard to keep all the parts on hand. The reason that I am building a RepStrap system is because it uses Industry standard chip of L297/L298 to drive the stepper motors and so you simply build the boards and test. Also I am working with Zach to build a parallel interface board to the stepper mby bobt - Minnesota Twin Cities RepRap User Group
Here is a video that I got off of another mailing list. This gentleman hand makes triode vacuum tubes. For those younger in the crowd that is a vacuum tube with three elements in it. It was the first type of electronic amplifier made. This is a very enjoyable video and at the end shows his shop that I would just love to own. Sorry I forgot to put the URL in.by bobt - General
Thank you (Who every you are) for fixing the Page. It looks just beautiful.by bobt - General
The diode's for the Stepper Motor board had been on a reel. But all the resistor and caps appeared to be individual parts. Even if they had a better system I would not expect the price to go down as they must compete in the current market now. So chasing to save 1 cent on 30 parts (ie. $0.30) just does not add up in a $500.00 project if they no longer provide the selection of the parts needed.by bobt - Controllers
If you order 5 resistors of a set size then those 5 resistors will be put in a bag and labeled to fill the order. This will have to be done this way because I can not really see buy 1 reel of 2500 resistors to get the 5 I need. Unfortunately. It is the nature of the beast. All items must be accounted for on an order and multiple people may be pulling parts of one order. So each item is a sepaby bobt - Controllers
Just had a thought about a possible shim material. HOT GLUE. Put hot glue all over the outside of the nut and screw the clamp over it. If the glue come undone then the ridges in the clamp will hold it in place. I knew that my portable extruder would come in handy someday.by bobt - Mechanics
It just appears that the page has been spammed. I downloaded the objects and they appear fine.by bobt - General
Just one note about the BOM order. If you did not have enough small plastic bags, you will after building all the boards.by bobt - Controllers
I have used the BOM for the Gen 2 electronics from the rrrf.org site and it works correctly. I got all the parts to build all of the boards that connect to the arduino for both the dual and single processor systems. I have hooked up the stepper motor card to the arduino and it tests just like the documentation say it does. YAHHHHHH!!!!!by bobt - Controllers
I have found a problem with the BOM for the hardware on Seedling. 11/16" 1/2"by bobt - Mechanics
I just looked at the object.reprap.org wiki page and it appears to have a long list of words at the beginning. Has this been hacked or just bad formatting.by bobt - General
Jay - tried to look at your RepRap.swf and guess what. I don't have ShockWave Flash on my machine. I am using a M$oft machine because it is a reasonable desktop machine. But I try to limit the amount of software on it because even with McAfee on it I get tired of reloading the machine because of bad software. This was just to let you know that not all of use the tools that you do. I am sorryby bobt - General
I hope everyone notices that the 48 stepper motors (16 sets) lasted all of 4 days. They probably lasted that long only because most people did not know that Zack had them in the store. O well. I will have to wait to order another set when he gets more in.by bobt - Mechanics
Zach - Thank You for the site changes. I makes things much simpler to work with.by bobt - General
Zach - I know that you sell Cat 6 wire to wire up the modules. My question is can I use Cat 5e to do that or is there a special reason. Why I ask this question is I still have about 2000 ft of Cat 5e wire left over from wiring my house when I built it and after putting in 24,000 ft of Cat 5e and RG-6 in the house I do have some left over. Was the cable selected because it had 4 pairs in a bundby bobt - Mechanics
Sebastien - I do have that "allow users to see me" enabled. I have had it the start. It seems that the forum software might be a bit flaky about this issue.by bobt - Administration, Announcements, Policy
I have notice on rare occasions that the currently logged in users are listed at the bottom of the forum list page. I even saw my name once. Is this something that can be enabled or just sometime works and then doesn't work. It would be nice to know who is reading the list at any one time. It might generate more activity on the forums if we see who's one first ( old abbot and costello joke).by bobt - Administration, Announcements, Policy
Zach - Its OK. I got my shipment in but what I ordered were the ABEC-9 Bearings. So I paid about $39.00 for 16 plus $5.00 for handling charge for an order under $50.00. But I got free shipping by USPS(mailman) I ordered it on 12/24 and it got here 12/28. I guess the postman had some time because all the Christmas Cards had been delivered. They also came with special "BsB Speed Lube". I thiby bobt - Mechanics
I have installed the arduino software that Zach wrote from his release and if you copy the library files where they belong it will compile without error. There were so warning but these do not cause the software to build or run.by bobt - Controllers
Jonathan - The who, what, where, when are very apparent. I guess my question is WHY? Why is the design for a stepper motor controller using a pic and discrete parts when there are about 10 different chip designs out there for driving stepper motors? The chip designs end up being cheaper because they are a very common item and industry has been using them for over 20 years. They are also veryby bobt - Controllers
Gentlemen - Let me make a small suggestion. Locate a local company/companies that does/do this type of work (ie engineering and such) Ask them for a specific donation to the school for this project and to add to you/your groups training. The reason for the specific donation is so that the school cannot do whatever they want with it but must use it for this purpose. Also if you can convince thby bobt - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)
Lewis - The 2.0 electronic boards do not use Pics but use the L297/L298 chips for driving the stepper motors. All of the connections will connect to a single Arduino and Zach has posted the code so that it can be downloaded. My question is why use more stuff than is necessary to build the unit. The design that is being supplied will work just fine and all I have to do is put it together and alby bobt - Minnesota Twin Cities RepRap User Group
Hi Lewis. Bob here. I live in Hastings so it looks like the cities are between us. I have most of the hardware in hand the rest should show up later in the week. I have the boards and Arduino's in hand and the electronic parts should show up tomorrow. So it looks like Christmas will be real nice this year. The only major item that I don't have yet is the extruder but that should not be a probby bobt - Minnesota Twin Cities RepRap User Group
OK - Mr. Zach said that he was going on Christmas vacation but all of a sudden there appears by magic detailed electronics/Software Arduino based electronics and detailed construction data. Please Zach don't go on vacation again as we can not take your vacation mode as to your work mode. But then again THANK YOU for all your hard work. I'm going to have a very Merry Christmas this year. Goingby bobt - Mechanics
Just a note: I went to academy.com on line. No Internet sales. Called corporate phone. They said that you had to call a store and if they had them they could ship them by ups. Long story short - What a nightmare. Go to website find a store in a list of 100 stores. I am in Minnesota stores are in Southeast. After 6 clerks and 2 managers they said that they could ship them ups ground but thatby bobt - Mechanics
Zach - I was really looking for 2 simple links added to the side bar that link to the 2 repstrap projects. I also will be on vacation for 2 weeks. Race you to see who has a toasting mug done first.by bobt - General
Can we have the left side of the main website changed to reflect that there are also 2 RepStrap projects also going on. It gets cumbersome that I cannot click to these projects easily and have to dig out a bookmark link every time I want to see these projects. RepStrap Project #1 "RepStrap" RepStrap Project #2 "Seedling"by bobt - General
I have attached a web pictures I sent to Zach about what I found on checking the drawings for the extruder parts. These items are what problems there will be trying to make the parts. Please check out the blog posting by Zach and also check out the information from the parts preprocessing. From the extrusion screw drawing. From the 1/2 bearings From the PTFE-Barrel Nothing from heaterby bobt - Mechanics
Blerik - My design is to make the turbine and generator separate on a common shaft. The shaft will be supported on an air bearing designed by NASA. (I just love to fly to the moon). This just gets more fun everyday.by bobt - Plastic Extruder Working Group
Sorry - Zach only has 45 available because I just ordered my 3.by bobt - Mechanics