Just ordered my ball bearings kit from www.VXB.com
They are AWESOME! processed and shipped same day, and have excellent pricing. Since I'm not going to be redesigning the whole mendel from scratch now - which would actually be a waste of time that could be spent PRINTING things - I decided to order the reprap kit from VXB. Sure the 624s are about $1 /ea and there's 48 of em in the mendel build, which is about 0.60/ea more than the 608s if you buy in a lot of 100 pcs. but they are much smaller and here's the big thing. 608s have an ID of 8mm... M8 bolts aren't cheap. you're better off spending $0.60 more per bearing and using M4s, than if you purchase the 608s and having to use expensive bolts.
Still - for things like hobbing an extruder bolt, and other potential uses (home brew micro lathe anyone?) I picked up a set of 16 extra 608s. never hurts to have cool hardware lying around when you have a brilliant idea.
so that should arrive early next week - probably right about the time I'll get a big project at work and won't be able to touch anything.
... next, I'm planning on placing my order at Mcmaster tomorrow to pick up some of the other hardware, studding, and bar stock.
Probably will try and put together a Mouser order too - more than one project going on that could use some parts! but that's another topic altogether.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Electronics: Phase 1, procure electronics.... #@#$%^&
Everything is out of stock EVERYWHERE, so I picked up an Arduino Mega (Makerbot.com says that's the platform their moving toward anyway, so yeah, by the time I figure everything out the WILL... right?... have firmware compatible with the Arduino Mega!... hopefully anyway... not to worry though - the firmware is not horribly complex, so if I have to hack it together for myself, I will.
Also picked up 4 - NEMA 17 Stepper motors from www.TrossenRobotics.com
Also picked up 4 - EasyDriver Stepper Motor Controllers from the same - they are the ones made by sparkfun (VERY easy to use)
Once I have a hardware platform up and running, I'm probably going to pick up a couple of Arduino Pro Mini to use for the controllers. 1) they are based on the ATMega328, so pleanty of RAM for a MOBO and Extruder controller and 2) they are FRIGGIN CUTE AS HELL!
In all, my mobo with steppers and extruder controller with stepper will be smaller than the makerbot's mobo and extruder without stepper controllers. (bothacker has built a Seeeduino shield and is using the same stepper drivers as I am... so this is along the same lines I'm working toward)
that's it for now - will keep posting my progress.
Also picked up 4 - NEMA 17 Stepper motors from www.TrossenRobotics.com
Also picked up 4 - EasyDriver Stepper Motor Controllers from the same - they are the ones made by sparkfun (VERY easy to use)
Once I have a hardware platform up and running, I'm probably going to pick up a couple of Arduino Pro Mini to use for the controllers. 1) they are based on the ATMega328, so pleanty of RAM for a MOBO and Extruder controller and 2) they are FRIGGIN CUTE AS HELL!
In all, my mobo with steppers and extruder controller with stepper will be smaller than the makerbot's mobo and extruder without stepper controllers. (bothacker has built a Seeeduino shield and is using the same stepper drivers as I am... so this is along the same lines I'm working toward)
that's it for now - will keep posting my progress.
This shall be a journal of the research and building of my rapid prototyping robot...
Like many who have come before me, I will document the experience of building my very own 3D printer. It's a very exciting time we live in, where we can not only build a thing that can create physical objects we can interact with, but in fact it can create copies of many of it's own parts. I was skeptical last year when I first happened upon reprap.org. it reminded me of the "build your own hovercraft" that was the regular last page ad in popular science - no I NEVER saw one of those things around. I discounted it as pipe dreaming!
Well, I was wrong. I have seen a Darwin printing in person. I have seen hundreds of videos of things being built. I am now, actually, confident I will have my very own 3D printer within the next month or so - otherwise it will be a much longer time - since I will be heading to the bay area for a month! (I'm hoping to bring a finished, working, 3D printer with me - to show off I guess.
A little bit of background here.
In January, I revisited the reprap.org web site, and makerbot.com since I had seen them in wired magazine. Finally some credibility to the whole thing. It only took about an hour or so and I was convinced I would have one of my own.
After a few more days of browsing and researching, becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the enormous number of directions and general over abundance of information, none of which could easily be discerned as "current and viable", I did what I tend to do - I decided to design my own - I'd leverage all that had come before me, and I'd build a repstrap of sorts, perhaps a McWire type - but nicer looking or whatever.
I also realized I'd have to spend some time experimenting with implementations of drive mechanisms. I am no expert on these types of things - well I know a lot more now than I did a month ago...
I actually asked my mom to send me all my old Lego (THANK YOU FOR NOT THROWING THEM AWAY!!! Golly they're expensive now :) I built a number of transport mechanism contraptions with them to figure out how to use the stepper motors and figure things out about using a lead screw (tooo slow) and how a cable drive really is a better way to go FAST anyway - posted on youtube if you wanna see them.
http://www.youtube.com/user/cakeller98
Anyway - enough babbling. after several experiments, I realized that, for a reprap style 3D printer - that's efficient, and fast - mendel's basic design is the way I'll be wanting to go. I don't have access to a rapid prototyper at least not enough for ALL the mendel parts. They estimate 50-60 hours worth of printing to get all the parts. Andres Huertas has the first Darwin (I know of) in the area that's actually printing. He said he could help out a bit - but really, he's just getting started, so asking a favor on that magnitiude would require a LOT of bear and pizza. Beside, where's the challenge in doing things the way everyone else did!?!?
So I'll set out to build a mendelbot-repstrap. Let's see how it goes!
Well, I was wrong. I have seen a Darwin printing in person. I have seen hundreds of videos of things being built. I am now, actually, confident I will have my very own 3D printer within the next month or so - otherwise it will be a much longer time - since I will be heading to the bay area for a month! (I'm hoping to bring a finished, working, 3D printer with me - to show off I guess.
A little bit of background here.
In January, I revisited the reprap.org web site, and makerbot.com since I had seen them in wired magazine. Finally some credibility to the whole thing. It only took about an hour or so and I was convinced I would have one of my own.
After a few more days of browsing and researching, becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the enormous number of directions and general over abundance of information, none of which could easily be discerned as "current and viable", I did what I tend to do - I decided to design my own - I'd leverage all that had come before me, and I'd build a repstrap of sorts, perhaps a McWire type - but nicer looking or whatever.
I also realized I'd have to spend some time experimenting with implementations of drive mechanisms. I am no expert on these types of things - well I know a lot more now than I did a month ago...
I actually asked my mom to send me all my old Lego (THANK YOU FOR NOT THROWING THEM AWAY!!! Golly they're expensive now :) I built a number of transport mechanism contraptions with them to figure out how to use the stepper motors and figure things out about using a lead screw (tooo slow) and how a cable drive really is a better way to go FAST anyway - posted on youtube if you wanna see them.
http://www.youtube.com/user/cakeller98
Anyway - enough babbling. after several experiments, I realized that, for a reprap style 3D printer - that's efficient, and fast - mendel's basic design is the way I'll be wanting to go. I don't have access to a rapid prototyper at least not enough for ALL the mendel parts. They estimate 50-60 hours worth of printing to get all the parts. Andres Huertas has the first Darwin (I know of) in the area that's actually printing. He said he could help out a bit - but really, he's just getting started, so asking a favor on that magnitiude would require a LOT of bear and pizza. Beside, where's the challenge in doing things the way everyone else did!?!?
So I'll set out to build a mendelbot-repstrap. Let's see how it goes!
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