Bodge It Quick Rep Strap Bertha Project

BIQs 1st day @ Bang Goes the Theory Live Manchester with FabLab Manchester

2011-10-22T05:29:00.001+01:00

After a successful Top Gear challenge result yesterday morning with Midge Ace doing her wanna be the first female Stig impression, driving a typical "James May" type car against the clock we got to the Bang goes the theory live venue within our allotted time slot.. Phew..

Note to Midge when Jem announces fire in the hole or something like that and your at Bang Goes The Theory LIVE setting up day you shouldn't jump out of your skin as Midge did.. LOL.. Bang!!!!

Anyway I'm up early collecting the bits and bobs to build one or more of the Huxley seedlings at the show We will aim to build 2 Huxley Seedling 3D printers & demonstrate at least one of them them working....

Will post Pics if any come out its an even Darker Hall than Maker Fair was in March this year.

We are not far from releaseing Beta versions of Huxley Seedling to testers then it will not be too much longer before we release a take away 3D printer that will be avalible in Pocket money staged sections.or in full kit We will be offering fully built machines as well depending on demand.

Sunday morning 5am update
Trying to build two 3D printer when you are surounded by visitors to the show is almost imposible.. I will post pictures tomorow / tonight of how far I got with building two printers.. the basic frames were finished yesterday thats 4 A frames with fronts and back frame seperators on each printer finished.

The only takeaway 3D printer Kit so far...

2011-07-20T10:53:00.001+01:00

Still here just a tiny bit bizzy its a case of Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey, presenting the only takeaway 3D printer test packed in its pizza box!

The only takeaway 3D printer test packed in its pizza box!
Includes printer frame, reel holder, extruder, nuts, bolts and bars with a sprinkling of fix it blocks!

Cut with a Solar powered Laser Cutter... To Be Continued......

Huxley Seedling is at MakerFaire UK 2011

2011-03-13T01:19:00.011Z

After a long while without a post here is a Short post from our hotel room in Newcastle on Tyne..

A 3.5 hour drive up from Cheshire yesterday, we set up the stand this morning pictures to follow. We are on stand 52 if your passing this way..;-) tomorrow. I've not had much of a look around the show yet Midge had a good look today & took a few pics..
This new laptop doesn't have a memory stick reader so cant up load them from here we will try tomorrow from the show if we get a quite spell ~ it was busy to day with about 2,800 visitors we were told. unofficially
There was a few comments from visitors at the show about the number of different 3D printers.
So far from Midges walk around she spotted there were 3 Makerbots, 1 RapMan, 1 Mendel, 1 Lasercut Mendel, 2 E-maker Huxley's our 4 of our Huxley seedlings two of them bare frames two with electronics (still waiting for our Huxley seedling boards) so one machine with Gen3 electronics 1 Machine with an allinone CNC printer port driven stepper controller running from EMC2 Linux. This was built for Midge to play with engraving, paper embossing paper cutting and PCB cutting Midge also wants to extrude Acrylic paint and Acrylic Media for crafting her art orientated applications.

We also have a early stage Harvester 3D scanner build that is a little behind schedule now... we suffered burst pipes again this year this time it was Midges house so that has delayed us a little.

Pictures to go here........Compared to thos on the Photo stream our pics were not that good ;-(

Any way here is one taken and shared and uploaded to Nottinghack's photostream (700)

Bodge & Midge Visit Fab Lab Manchester.

2010-11-28T01:53:00.001Z

Its time to write a few things up and share with you the wonders of FabLab Manchester

As you know I have been making drawings of both of my Re-Strap renditions so that others can build their own Repstrap that works without having to re-invent the wheel to solve the problem of not having printed parts to start with. I have been taking at least a week to make all the parts from my drawings it gets tedious you end up with huge collections of sometimes useless parts. I have piles of failed ideas filling boxes in the workshop.

Above Right MTM multifab has a similar design principal to http://blog.ultimaker.com/ a small box sliding on two cross hair bars.

So I thought I would save some time if I could make use of the equipment at FabLab Manchester.

The Laser cutter in particular which is the most popular tool in FabLab so there seems to always be a Que for it.

I have now used the Dimension 1200es Series 3D Printer It has produced an interesting result as seen in the pictures.

The most interesting stuff is the support material that is said to be ABS + additive. Its feels hard snaps like wafer biscuit its a dull brown in colour it behaves like what I imagine extruded sugar would be like brittle and crunchy turning to dust.t usually is dissolved in an heated bath of water soluble solvent taking several hours to be dissolved.

Dimension 1200 Print options for Wades extruder body

Low density

30.45^3 cm

High density

39.00^3 cm

Solid

44.37^3 cm

Support material

Basic

11.37^3 cm

Sparse

11.66^3 cm

Smart

10.23^3 cm

I Opted for the lowest density with sparse support material as you pay £0.33 per cubic cm for both materials plus VAT so the extruder body and Clamp was £18.05 ~ Print time on the 1200es was 4 hours.

The amount of support material used by the Dimension is huge Things printed by RepRap without any form of support material need to have support material in the Dimension. Having seen the results of RepRaps and a Dimension 1200 I think Adrian's RepRap project has really cracked the nut particularly as RepRap results are constantly getting better.

Any way I printed Wades Extruder body and clamp un-fortuantly the resultant print has an extra part to it where there should be a hole there is a thin membrain of ABS. This is not visable in any applictions I use to view STL files. Im sure that when I loaded the STL file before it was printed the hole was a hole all the way through.

You can see I am going to have to drill out the extra material that is a 1mm thick membrane to make use of the part..

I have also used the Laser cutter its a neat tool I have save a week of sawing chiseling and drilling for each revision of my drawings I have made. As promised to Sebastian Ballard I will not blog the making of Huxley seedling here until I have put it in the ReprapWIKI.

Picture of Repstrap Mendel parts / Drawings Laser cut based on my Mendel 2009 build.

Midge took a few pics of Fab Lab so here they are.

I also introduced some of the other users to REPRAP and HydraRaptor ending up having to explain what a NOP was.

Strange until that point I had not given much thought to it.. as we all know NopHead is far from being a Nophead.
I also discovered that its really only us old hand coding or in your head assemblers form the era of and Nascoms / 8080s - Z80s that even know what a NOP is.

NOP in assembler is the instruction or mnemonic for No Operation Performed

Been busy.

2010-11-22T02:26:00.000Z

Dawing and re-Drawing my new Repstrap Huxley and Mendel designs so I'v not had time for taking pictures Blogging, FaceBook, Linked-in or Twitter.

Next week I think I should have some pics. If all goes well this week I will be blogging some pictures of my results next week. I will be posting the drawings first on the reprap Wiki.

.

New Hot End ~ Peak insulator melts~ as Thermocouple fell off

2010-10-31T16:20:00.001Z

The idea was to have a new changeable extruder tip to allow for extruder die swell tests and a swappable 0.3 mm tip.. but alas changing / fixing some thing that's not broke or applying instant design usually fails.

From Blogger Pictures

So my insulator that has extruded by now over a 1lb of ABS I need to remake it was all going so well ;-(.

Lesson learnt do not rely on Kapton tape to hold a thermocouple onto a heater block.

At least I know the heater block works OK.. showing heater bloc and 2 copper 0.6 welding tips and a brass copy with 0.3mm hole.

Aside from that my Evolution saw ate itself earlier today not a good day..

The part on the Right is all that remains of the blade guide the part on the left is part of the blade safety cover.

It looks like the blade guide a two prong fork thing came lose it was shredded by the blade then flew around blade cover cracking it and the blade safety cover open and the motor mount is also split open. Needles to say it did fail safely. Not happy that it failed though.

Before and After fixing Y axis wobble

2010-10-30T00:08:00.003+01:00

From Blogger Pictures

After chasing my tail the problem of the Y axis instability is solved.

Watching the Y axis I was convinced that I was losing position on the Y axis due to belt slipping jumping on the drive gears..

1/. So I rebuilt the Y stage and the X stage using linear bearings ... The gain was a significant noise reduction Y position wobble still there strange...

2/. Replace the Y belt for 10mm 5mm pitch wire strengthen belt replacing the old 4mm wide xml rubber belt..

No change...

3/ Adjusting the current drive on the Y axis stepper controller threw up a strange effect it was a little like tuneing the stage a small band on the current adjusting resistor rendered zero Y positional wobble.
Problem solved sort of... spent the night thinking about how this could be..

4/. Looked at my firmware again then at the "Tonkip FiveD" code noticed that disable stepper after a move had been commented out. Thought about it a little remembering stepper tests and how the steppers jerked as the start up.
Modified my code by removing disable steppers code. As I have used all my Sanguino pins Ive lost the power on off pin. So in the time out code that usually switches the power off I have now got disable steppers code. I also adjusted the M80 instruction to disable stepper.

So after a print I now send an M80

Y axis positional wobble was caused by the stepper motor jerking as it was restarting for each move also explaining the ability to tune the effect out by adjusting the current. The belt movement is now not jerking but as its kept taught.

The side effect again is the whole thing is quieter than my laser and ink jet printers where as originally you could hear it in the house 14 meters away from the fully insulated home office.

Im still struggling slightly with making rafts tht stay down on the perspex
Its ok for things like a Nopheads belt drive gear and Eriks standing-mini-mendel-vertex with an 8mm border. However if printing some thing flat I still get warping if any one could sugest the best thicknes of the first layer of the raft and the height of the next two layers to prevent warping that would be great start. Im using repsapper.

Im still trying to get a heated bed to work

Quick Problem update

2010-10-27T02:39:00.000+01:00

Problem after problem gradually solved one after another..

First problem was making the raft stick to Perspex eventually solved by fine tuning the first layer of the raft.

It must be slightly squashed but not so squashed that the extruder cant extrude.. and the filament kinks into a coil filling the space between the drive and the insulator.

Next problem make sure you have the latest version of Repsnapper not the version pointed to by the RepRap WIKI the latest version is in the source in a directory called release. Though I'm not sure exactly what the difference is between the two windows version in the source other than they have slightly different UI interfaces.

Next I found a bug in raft creation on Repsnapper its only shows if acceleration is not turned on. the second layer of raft creates G-code that has the E value missing for the middle section of the second layer the first 4 passes are OK then the middle section E values are missed out then the last 4 passes of the layer are OK.

G1 X102.59 Y94.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X20 Y92.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y90.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X20 Y88.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y86.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X20 Y84.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y82.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X20 Y80.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y78.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y76.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y74.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y72.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y70.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y68.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y66.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y64.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y62.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y60.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y58.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y56.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y54.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y52.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y50.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y48.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y46.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y44.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y42.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y40.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y38.0193 F2300
G1 X20 Y36.0193 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y34.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X20 Y32.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y30.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X20 Y28.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y26.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X20 Y24.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 Y22.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 X20 Y20.0193 E82.5899 F2300
G1 F70 ;Move Z
G1 Z3.3 F70 ;Move Z

Switch acceleration on and its all fixed.. strange bug..
However the accelerated G-code also seems to have a very high number of feed rate setting G codes added that are identical.

G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y94.0193 E3 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y94.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y92.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y92.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y90.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y90.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y88.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y88.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y86.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y86.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y84.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y84.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y82.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y82.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y80.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y80.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y78.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y78.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y76.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y76.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y74.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y74.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y72.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y72.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y70.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y70.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y68.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y68.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y66.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y66.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y64.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y64.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y62.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y62.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y60.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y60.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y58.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y58.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y56.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y56.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y54.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y54.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y52.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y52.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y50.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y50.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y48.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y48.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y46.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y46.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y44.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y44.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y42.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y42.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y40.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y40.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y38.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y38.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y36.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y36.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y34.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y34.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y32.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y32.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y30.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y30.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y28.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y28.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y26.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y26.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y24.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y24.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X23 Y22.0193 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y22.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X102.59 E3 F2300
G1 F2300
G1 X99.5899 Y20.0193 F2300
G1 X23 Y20.0193 E76.5899 F2300
G1 X20 E3 F2300
G1 F70 ;Move Z
G1 Z3.3 F70 ;Move Z

As my Rep strap Mendel was so loud I rebuilt all axis removing the skate bearings and using some linear bearings its much quieter now (i.e you cant hear it outside the Home Office)

The next problem is Y belt jump/bounce I'm not sure if this is a common problem as I haven't seen it mentioned any where so It must be some thing peculiar to my set up.

I'm still using the original 80 thou" pitch belt bought from the RRRF ages ago. or 2.032mm pitch belt cut down to 4mm wide.

looking at a scanner that has a similar length of movement with a similar un-wired belt, I will try to simplify the rep strap Mendel drive to be more like the scanner drive belt system.

I do hope some one finds a neat way to re-cycle ABS waste as I have a growing collection building in a cardboard box now.

I'm very pleased with the performance of my Mk5.5 Worm drive extruder that uses only 40mm of 16mm peek insulator with a 4.2mm hole through it and a 0.6mm welding tip with nichrome wire wraped around it. with a 4.2mm hole through it details and drawing I will post later.

Beginners luck.... ran out Warping warping nothing but warping...

2010-10-08T13:21:00.001+01:00

Even though I had the Potbelly well stoked up and the temperature in the home office T shirt weather.

I fixed every thing that showed as a problem in the first print Tensioner for Y belt, filament reel etc.

Reel made from hardboard with £1 shop paint brush stand as the core covered in thick card 2 skate bearings 8mm threaded rod and two 22mm pipe clips drew around garden sieve to get sides. Tensioner two fix-it plastic blocks 2 springs 2 long 4mm screws 2 big washers 4 small washers 1 shorter 4mm screws 5 4mm nuts. 1 small bearing with 4mm hole.

I tried desperate measures to stop warping bigger rafts warming the print bed plate up on the Potbelly stove before printing. So alas I must now find a way of using uninsulated Ni-chrome to heat the bed the other heated beds I made are all for Huxley / Mini Mendel so are too small.

As recomended by Kulitorum this is a RepRap Mendel Fan Mount from Thingyverse

The only explanation I can think of for the reasonable print of the Two spoons print is it has such a large overhang i.e. it almost floats over the raft. That was why it did not warp.. just pure luck I saw it on the pipe when I was looking for my next test thing to try..

Next jobs Heated bed from what I have to hand without changing the structure of the existing almost working printer. Modifying the code to include a heated bed or using a Pid controller with separate PSU... making a case to Suround the printer in case Midge opens the door to the cold out side. to prevent this I have waited till she is busy painting in the conservatory.

Its been a good day for firsts.

2010-10-07T01:58:00.002+01:00

Its been a good day for firsts.
The first fire in the Pot belly stove yea!!! and now Ta Da the first Repstrap Mendel print using Bodgeits Extruder Mk5 Bodgeits modified version of Tonkip's 5D Gcode Interpreter firmware using Rep Snapper Host Software.

First here is a pic of the calibration prints or the eleven failed prints....

Failed due to things like extruder feed rate guesstimate was wrong, Z was too close to print, filament feed got stuck, X axis belt was slipping.
The only adjustment I need to do now is tighten the Y axis belt as it has a little slack that shows up when you watch the belt.

Then I can start to fine tune the speed and parameters in Rep-snapper.

So here is the clip of Rep Strap Mendel having a go at printing. 2 teaspoons // tablespoons at once!

Extruder details are as follows.

The extruder has an insulator of 16mm diameter 40mm long Peek with a 4.2mm hole through it with 6mm long 6mm thread hole to take a 6mm diameter 25mm long 0.6mm Welding tip.
The Welding tip is drilled out to 3.2mm for 24.2mm of its depth, leaving a 0.8mm long 0.6mm diameter hole to extrude thru.

6.8 ohms of Nichrome is wound onto the 25mm welding tip with a thermcouple and Kapton tape. Temprature measured using AD595A.

Plastic used ABS temprature was set to 255C

Quick update

2010-09-29T20:29:00.000+01:00

The last September "Midge Ace Art studio open day" completed back to reprapping again..!

These were the Next Jobs:-

Get Pid or Bang Bang Extruder temprature control part working. Done
Get Pid or Bang Bang Build Base temprature control part working. Done

Make the drawings for Worm drive Extruder stepper. Done (but took longer than expected!!)
.... drawings stepped up from Extruder MK3 to now Extruder Mk5 seems to be working very well so far.
I was able to hot swap ABS filament

Make full size Mendel heated Bed with removable print surface as per WIKI . Done

Changes made to Mendel heated Bed 4mm Aluminum, extrude slot drilled out with 32mm drill, 6mm MDF insulation layer, Kapton tape electrical insulation layer nichrome wire heater element as used on my Huxley Fire glass heated bed in February.

Next Jobs
Firmware experiments to find best firmware combination/setup for RepSnapper to use with a single Arduino CPU configuration.

Then commit/post the final firmware as used on Bodgeits Git Hub repository.
Add pin config data and cct of FET drivers.

Make three more MK5 Worm drive Extruder steppers.
Re-build Repstrap Huxley1 adding precision ground slide bars with linear bearings.

Connections for adding the Worm drive extruder stepper to Mendel.

2010-09-19T13:29:00.002+01:00

V2.3 Stepper motor connections reminder sheet for Worm drive extruder stepper.

Pin	Colour	Name	Function	Motherboard V1.1
1	Brown	N/C	N/C
2	Red	GND	Ground.	GND
3	Orange	Step	500ns Step pulse	Digital 10
4	Yellow	Dir	Set direction	Digital 11
5	Green	!Enable	Enable stepper	Digital 14
6	Blue	Min	Min not used on Extruder
7	Violet	Max	Max not used on Extruder
8	Grey	GND	Ground.
9	White	GND	Ground.
10	Black	GND	Ground.

Connected and working using RepSnapper yay....

BodgeIts Next Jobs:-

Get Pid or Bang Bang Extruder temprature control part working.
Get Pid or Bang Bang Build Base temprature control part working.

Make the drawings for Worm drive Extruder stepper.
Make three more Worm drive Extruder steppers.
Re-build Repstrap Huxley1 adding presision ground slide bars with linear bearings.

BodgeIts Ardrino /Sanguino Motherboard 1.1 Pin / function crib table

2010-09-17T22:16:00.000+01:00

Bodge It's Sanguino Motherboard 1.1 crib table dervied from this data on www.sanguino.cc and this circuit diagram on http://reprap.org/wiki/File:Cache-3316884519_b84b59fc90_b.jpg

This is the resulting work table used to define BodgeIts pins in the FiveD Gcode Interpreter.

ATMega 644P	ATMegag 644A
Chip Pin	Chip Pin	AtMega Name	Arduino Name	Function 1	Function 2	Function 3	Motherboard Use 1	REPRAP Use	Bodgeits Use
1	40	PB-0	Digital 0	In/Out			Debug Led	Debug Led	Debug Led	Digital 0
2	41	PB-1	Digital 1	In/Out						Digital 1
3	42	PB-2	Digital 2	In/Out	INT 2		SD Card Write	SD Card Write	SD Card Write	Digital 2
4	43	PB-3	Digital 3	In/Out	PWM		SD Card Detect	SD Card Detect	SD Card Detect	Digital 3
5	44	PB-4	Digital 4	In/Out	PWM	SS	SD Card Select	SD Card Select	SD Card Select	Digital 4
6	1	PB-5	Digital 5	In/Out	MOS1		ICSP MOSI	SD Card MOSI	SD Card MOSI	Digital 5
7	2	PB-6	Digital 6	In/Out	MOS0		ICSP MISO	SD Card MISO	SD Card MISO	Digital 6
8	3	PB-7	Digital 7	In/Out	SCK		ICSP SCK	SD Card SCK	SD Card SCK	Digital 7
14	9	PD-0	Digital 8	In/Out	RX0		USB TTL RXD	USB TTL RXD	USB TTL RXD	Digital 8
15	10	PD-1	Digital 9	In/Out	TX0		USB TTL TXD	USB TTL TXD	USB TTL TXD	Digital 9
16	11	PD-2	Digital 10	In/Out	RX1	INT0	RS485 RXD	RS485 RXD	EXTRUDER_0_MOTOR_SPEED_PIN	Digital 10
17	12	PD-3	Digital 11	In/Out	TX1	INT1	RS485 TXD	RS485 TXD	EXTRUDER_0_MOTOR_DIR_PIN	Digital 11
18	13	PD-4	Digital 12	In/Out	PWM		RS485 TXE	RS485 TXE	EXTRUDER_0_HEATER_PIN	Digital 12
19	14	PD-5	Digital 13	In/Out	PWM		RS485 RXE	RS485 RXE	BASE_HEATER_PIN	Digital 13
20	15	PD-6	Digital 14	In/Out	PWM		PS_ON_Pin	PS_ON_Pin	EXTRUDER_0_STEP_ENABLE_PIN	Digital 14
21	16	PD-7	Digital 15	In/Out	PWM			X_Step_Pin	X_Step_Pin	Digital 15
22	19	PC-0	Digital 16	In/Out	SCL		I2C SCL	I2C SCL	I2C SCL	Digital 16
23	20	PC-1	Digital 17	In/Out	SDA		I2C SDA	I2C SDA	I2C SDA	Digital 17
24	21	PC-2	Digital 18	In/Out	TCK		JTAG TCK	X_Direction_Pin	X_Direction_Pin	Digital 18
25	22	PC-3	Digital 19	In/Out	TMS		JTAG TMS	X_Enable_Pin	X_Enable_Pin	Digital 19
26	23	PC-4	Digital 20	In/Out	TD0		JTAG TD0	X_Min_Pin	X_Min_Pin	Digital 20
27	24	PC-5	Digital 21	In/Out	TD1		JTAG TDI	X_Max_Pin	EXTRUDER_0_FAN_PIN	Digital 21
28	25	PC-6	Digital 22	In/Out				Y_Direction_Pin	Y_Direction_Pin	Digital 22
29	26	PC-7	Digital 23	In/Out				Y_Step_Pin	Y_Step_Pin	Digital 23
33	37	PA-7	Digital 24	In/Out	Analogue 7			Y_Enable_Pin	Y_Enable_Pin	Digital 24
34	36	PA-6	Digital 25	In/Out	Analogue 6			Y_Min_Pin	Y_Min_Pin	Digital 25
35	35	PA-5	Digital 26	In/Out	Analogue 5			Y_Max_Pin	Bed Temp	Digital 26
36	34	PA-4	Digital 27	In/Out	Analogue 4			Z_Step_pin	Z_Step_pin	Digital 27
37	33	PA-3	Digital 28	In/Out	Analogue 3			Z_Direction_pin	Z_Direction_pin	Digital 28
38	32	PA-2	Digital 29	In/Out	Analogue 2			Z_Enable_Pin	Z_Enable_Pin	Digital 29
39	31	PA-1	Digital 30	In/Out	Analogue 1			Z_Min_Pin	Z_Min_Pin	Digital 30
40	30	PA-0	Digital 31	In/Out	Analogue 0			Z_Max_Pin	EXTRUDER_0_TEMPERATURE_PIN	Digital 31

9	4	RST					ICSP Reset	JTAG Reset
10	6,18,38	VCC					ICSP VCC	JTAG VCC
11	5,17,33	GND					ICSP GND	JTAG GND
12	7	XTAL2
13	8	XTAL1
30	27	AVCC
31	28	GND
32	29	AREF

BodgeIt is RepRapping in the Home Office at last!!

2010-09-16T00:10:00.001+01:00

After a lot of playing around with Firmware and software I have decided to use the Repsnapper host software with a customized version of the 5D firmware. As I'm using a mixture of hardware on the various repstraps that I have.

So :-

RepstrapMendel is using Motherboard V1.1 with 4 2.3 stepper controllers the original PWM driver V1.1 board.

RepstrapHuxley1 is using Motherboard V1.1 with 3 2.3 stepper 1 Bodgeit micro Stepper & Vero FET Bd

RepstrapHuxley2 is using AudrinoMega with 4 1.2 stepper controllers & Vero FET switching board.

RepstrapDarwin1 is using AudrinoDemiglove with 4 1.2 stepper controller with a Vero FET switching board

RepstrapDarwin2 TBD (I need to make use of 4 extruder controllers that are currently redundant)

I made the two Huxley's way back in February this year when they would have been called mini Mendel's.
Once I finish the easier to make Mrk2 Huxley Strap I will post all the drawings in the WIKI if I learn to drive the WIKI input interface.

I have abandoned the MDF Makerbot build due to RS485 problems on V2.1 Extruder controllers.
I can now build the Makerbot firmware using my Ubunto10.04 machine (Thanks to several hours of work from Midge Ace in exchange for setting up her Art studio & Conservatory then building her a 4.5m x 4.8m decking for the Cheshire Open Studios event last week and the weekend after next)

However my next most important job is to install the Potbelly stove in the home Office as its beginning to get a bit nippy at night in here.

Bodgeit has moved to into the Home Office at last. (short update)

2010-08-06T20:08:00.001+01:00

Now the task of unpacking, making the new space usable finding everything a nice home getting shelves storage units built ready to resume some RepRapping, computer is in place networked with printer on a recycled server rack and bench rescued from a trip to the tip. Finishing the Solar power installation next adding the backup server and Linux machines to run RepRap Mendel from.

Have been busy last week and this week with builders plumbers electrician and decorators who have replaced the conservatory floor, wiring, plumbing all wrecked by burst pipes at the beginning of the year while I was in hospital.. as the UK had the -18C big freeze.

Hence the lack of posts.

Makerbot RS485 ~ Extruder board: Null version reported! BUG mismatch ? ;-(

2010-07-26T01:25:00.000+01:00

Having had a really Good experience with ReplicatorG18...
Generated a fair amount of Gcode to try on my MakerBot build..

I flashed my Sanguino / Mother Board V1.1 with the 1.6 version of the Makerbot SW.
works great until I try to run any steppers from my nice new Gcode. Boards light leds flash chips get warm motors stay stationary. Solution was edit the config file and change the line.

#define STEP_DELAY 175 // usual value is 1..?????

I cant think why I need to do this though usually this is delay is 1-2 uS

I came across this unwelcome error Message next when starting ReplicatorG you gt a Jar file mismatch warning on the rxtx lib and Dll. Visiting the site there is a warning saying this:-

"The 2.2pre2 bins contain the 2.2pre1 jar file and the 2.2pre2 native lib which causes a mismatch warning."

It is only a warning but playing it safe I installed the stable version

"Use newer binary version such as rxtx 2.1-7r2 (stable), which does work on Windows."

Next I then came across this problem of "Extruder board: Null version reported!" going through over 85 threads in MakerBot Operators google group took some time as the threads were quite heavily replied to.

Provided little help as I have already tried every thing suggested to fix the problem.

Do any of you run the Makerbot firmware if so which hardware do you have brd versions.
I have two Motherboard V1.1 both work as Sanguino mother boards except maybe the RS485 interface is not working maybe... I have 4 built and working Extruder V2.1 extruder controllers all working except maybe the RS485 interface. Any Ideas on what I might be missing that is staring me in the face.

Firmware versions tried.
ASC 1.4,1.5,1.6,1.8HP,1.8 with SM 1.4,1.5 & 1.6
and the V2 Firmware MB-rrmbv12-V2 range used with the matching EC-ecv22-V2 range.
I have tried a little mixing and matching of versions but by no means all of the possible combinations.

Has any one else seen these problems??

1/. Having the need to increase the stepper delay by 175% to get steppers to work?
   Any ideas on what is going on why would my V2.3 Stepper boards or stepper motors need a longer step pulse to work? Nb I have seven working V2.3 stepper controller boards all fail with the 1-2uS delay.

2/. Is there a combination of Firmware that works if you have the V1.1 MB with V2.1 Extruder controllers?

     Both the MB and the EC boards work as Processors Controlling every thing else it only appears to be the R3485. I have used the latest boot loaders on both boards They flash every time with no problems.

From my look at the Hardware there is very little difference between the various versions of the MB and EC boards things like the reset switch ~ I rearranged the tracks to solve the PCB problem.

The whole set up is running from a 4A bench power supply max current hits 2A with all steppers running
Thus eliminating any switch mode noise as the PSUs are transformer type with internal CPU for voltage and current control.

Wey hey !!! The Beta 18 version of replicator G looks great Python selector works Great!

2010-07-20T01:07:00.001+01:00

Wey Hey Cool very cool. Beta 18 version of replicator G!!
Almost a WFT apllication (Work First Time)

It is still not quite a work out of the Zip/box application as I still needed to add the Bat file to run it.
Special thanks to doctoroctalpus at Makerbot for letting me know about the beta 18 version.

Screen shot with stelocta4.stl from thingyverse loaded.

Gcode generated (Note this was just a my first play with ReplicatorG18)

Here is the bat file I used.

@echo off

REM --- if you're running out of memory, change the 128m
REM --- (which means 128 megabytes) to something higher.

set SAVEDCP=%CLASSPATH%
set SAVEDPATH=%PATH%
set JAVA_HOME="C:\Program Files\java\bin"

if %JAVA_HOME% == "" GOTO Error

set CLASSPATH=java\lib\rt.jar;lib;lib\build;lib\vecmath.jar;lib\j3dcore.jar;lib\j3dutils.jar;lib\replicatorg.jar;lib\antlr.jar;lib\RXTXcomm.jar;lib\miglayout-3.7.jar;lib\oro.jar;lib\registry.jar;lib\mrj.jar
set PATH="C:\Program Files\python26";java\bin;java\lib;%PATH%

REM start javaw -ms128m -mx128m replicatorg.app.Base
%JAVA_HOME%\java replicatorg.app.Base

set CLASSPATH=%SAVEDCP%
set PATH=%SAVEDPATH%

GOTO End

:Error
echo *** Error: cannot execute ReplicatorG
echo *** Reason: lacking the directory where to find Java in your computer
echo ***
echo *** Fix: Edit run.bat and add the JAVA_HOME directory
echo *** at the 'set JAVA_HOME=""' line
echo ***
echo *** then call the batch file run.bat in order to execute ReplicatorG

:End
Pause
echo Bye.

The Home office is very nearly ready for moving in the Reprap Machines O'yea

2010-07-07T23:50:00.001+01:00

With power connected to the Home Office. Im just waiting for this time next week to have the phone and internet connection connected so we can officaly move in.

So I have been gradualy catching up on whats been going on in the forums and on the fantastic Reprap aggregation pipe.

I saw this post from ReplicatorG I was completely impresed with the idea of its one stop shop approch with a single instaltaion of the the Software. How neat .. and it looks realy nice..

So I have downloaded it maybe three or four times as it has been revised from the original version through to version -R2. Now I'm by no means a Java Guru of any kind I'm just an every day generic user of applications using it. Applications like:-

The arduino-0012~arduino-0018, Python Open Office all run ok on my machine out of the Box so to speak.
But ReplicatorG would not until I recreated a start up batch file as was once used to sort out the environment variables with the start ReplicatorG batch file hey presto ReplicatorG now starts but fails when you try to run Skein forge as it won't recognize python! Grrrrr oh well got bored trying to figure out what the new environment variable problem is. I will have to come back to it later

Darwins and Mendels New home has risen off the ground

2010-04-20T03:48:00.002+01:00

Not much to blog on Rep-rapping for quite some time.... I've had a few more PSVT attacks (4 this year) my last attack gave me my first trip with blue lights & siren in ambulace followed by some panic in resus.
After 3 lots of this stuff where they thought It was a lot worse than it was. So with my Beat blocker dose now trebled I qualify for a fix... Waiting for a consultation with the RF power enginner (consultant) for the lets burn out the extra wire in your heart with a bit of RF fix.

Any way back to Rep Rapping this will be the new home for Mendel, Darwin, two micro Mendels & Bodgeit to RepRap from with 3m high rafters to hang the plastic supply baskets from it should be fun.

The plans
http://bodgeitquicksolapowerdshed.blogspot.com/2010_01_24_archive.html

The Rep-Raping half is the West half the East half is the Artists studio for Midge.

What it looks like now
http://bodgeitquicksolapowerdshed.blogspot.com/2010_04_18_archive.html

Rep strap Mini/Micro Mendel Heated Bed using Fire Glass

2010-02-28T16:44:00.003Z

Building Mini or Micro Mendel for the show I don't know where I can get Aluminum sheet easily so I had an odd thought on Saturday when passing a Glass supplier so popped in to see if I could get some heat resistant glass 140mm x 138mm to use as a heated bed.

I was told I had to buy fire glass it can take up to 600C. I got lucky they had an off cut so I had two cut for £11 note this is good price as its usually £100 Square Meter.

It has a slight yellow tint to it but as its not for looking through who cares.

Here are pictures of my attempts to get the element right using 50ohm per meter nichrome.



Note as I re-make them I start using much less Kapton tape



The last attempt was the best achieving 100C in 6 minutes

Then 110C in 7 minutes. I'm running from power supply no temperature control yet..

So resistance of final solution is about 20 ohms based on a 30.5 voltage and current of 1.5A total wattage is about 46 W.

The original attempts were mounted on Plastic chopping board using bulldog type clips as the wattage went up the Plastic started to smoke so the final version has 3mm MDF bulldog-ed to the Fire Glass. I removed the two silver levers on each of the bull dog type clips.

I just need to figure out how to mount a Thermistor then I can add PID or Bang bang control of temprature using an extruder controller.

The nichrome has a 30mm spacing the other attempts were 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm to fit a 100mm x 100mm central print area.

Unseen problems with buying SMT components.

2010-02-20T13:22:00.002Z

Having just rung the Supplier as my last order had the wrong device supplied. I now find when taking pictures for my Micro Stepper to post on line here, that the resistors supplied in my order at the beginning of the month are the wrong value.!!

Even with my 5 x magnifying head set on I could not read the value it wasn't till I snap a blog picture and crop it that I can see my 0.75 ohm resistors are actually 0.33 ohm.

So I now have one 74HC244 that's pretending to be AD595AQ chip that's been put on the rack or had 4 extra legs implanted.

I found this yesterday and went off shopping cross with my self for ordering a different type of Thermistor amp. It wasn't till the evening I got a magnifying glass out to see why I had ordered the wrong device.
That i saw it wasn't me but the device that was wrong. Ahhhhhhhh.

And now I find that 15 of my 0.75 ohm resistors are actually half their former selves at 0.33 ohms..

What ever happened ISO 9002 or BS5750 ?

Looks like I have a lost my Thermocouple test and now my micro stepping weekend now !!

Dare I even try to use the 4 thermistors..?

I'm now just looking at the 4 glass thermistors that have no markings at all !! Except what was printed on the bag by the suppliers picking system which I now know is not that reliable!!.

May be RS are not so expensive after all...

It takes quite a bit or me to be really irritated but this has just hit the Mark.. !!!

KIcad the Etch a sketch for Grown Ups --Yay

2010-02-18T08:48:00.000Z

My MicroMendel needs Microstepping so it was time to Play wit Ki-Cad

For a long while I have been looking for a nice PCB package as I want on occasion to make the odd board or two.

I have tried a few. KiCad so far is the only package that has not frustrated me beyond getting further than a day or so of messing around.
It gave me this nice result for a single sided micro stepper design that I can etch at home.

The only struggle I had and still have was creating a thermal pad so far I can create it.

I can see it but if I try to Print it the thermal pads vanish from my board design..

So I will stick some tape down where my thermal pads should be before I etch the board.

So if any of you know how to do thermal pads that will print for etching in Ki-Cad please please let me know.

Note you see them on your design absolutely great!! Try any combination of printing or plottingng saving to file they Vanish one of the Two bugs I found the other is in the electrical test thing in the cct / Schmatic drawing program I always have an error showing. Seems that its a random error as its different any time you try to change the part of-the error that is not there as it moves some where else.

Special thanks must go to AK47, Nophead and Grael in the Forums who all suggested Ki Cad very pleased !
I will be etching this board shortly.
Next job I now have is to take 4 CA-42 Nokia leads and turn them into 4 Serial leads for my controller boards thus saving well over $80 - $100 as I believe a serial lead is $20 US.
So just one serial cable for me would be $20 + Air freight cost + £8 import handling + %17.5 VAT

4.7kg pull Extruder drive using Meccano Worm gear

2010-02-09T22:21:00.168Z

Four Meccano worm gears arrived, that I dilled out to 4.5mm then 5mm to fit the stepper shaft.
I've removed the furniture screw, one plastic block thus reducing the flexing of the whole extruder assembly.
The 1st stepper I used was 4.6 kg/cm or 0.451 Nm torque it had no difficulty.
I'm now using a stepper with 4 times less torque at 1.1 kilogram centimeter or 0.108 newton meter.

The geaing is 26:1 so the extruder resolution should be at least 20 times better than the splined shaft extruder.

The drive has changed from 5mm splined shaft to 7mm gear drive.

Here is a picture of the new extruder.

Testing the New extruder causes my ABS stock hanging frame to start bending, as it goes past 4kg of pull.
I achieve 4.7kg of pull before the gripping pulley slips on the shaft or the gear slips on the shaft or on the ABS rod. I.E. tighten the gear the shaft slips with the pulley tighten the pulley the gear slips or the ABS then slips. The Conrad gear or an AK47 "worm" gear are just about the same as each other in my set up no difference.. my "worm" may not be as good as it should thou!

I need flats on the shaft and stronger springs to clamp the bearing into a sharper "worm" pulley.

If the splined shaft gave me 1.7 kg pull this must be not far off Adrian's pukka Mendel extruder.
Getting 4.7kg pull with a low cost low torque stepper using an easy to make drive construction.
Is the best I can do so I'm giving up trying to get a better pull than 4.7kg for now.
My next task is to add a feed guide then marry the extruder to the drive system test then add it to Mendel.

As I need to have two working machines for the show time is short for me to mess around any more trying to get better results that may not be needed. There is still the PID temprature control to get working for both the Ext ruder and Bed yet. I will make drawings once I can prove it works OK if there is time left before the show to do that.

Oh the side effect of the smaller stepper is the whole assembly has weight reduction from 560gms down to 346gms. Just over 200gm weight saving if that will make any difference to performance... ??? I don't know ???

I think I have achieved the best pull I can with out using any RepRapped or specially machined parts.

Bodgits definitive guide to Flashing Boot loaders Using AVR Studio

2010-02-09T18:48:00.000Z

I am blogging this mainly for my own reference as you generally do not Flash boot Loaders often. As I had to re-learn the whole process again As I had five bootloaders to load.

Previously I grabbed the AVR data sheet to figure out the settings required fuses and lock bits.

This time I found it was easier to use the information stored here:-

X:\Program Files\arduino-0017\hardware\boards.txt

This file is found on any PC that has the Arduino Software installed.

The boards.txt file will look like my slightly modified Boards.txt file:-

##############################################################

extruder1p.name=Extruder1p
extruder1p.upload.protocol=stk500
extruder1p.upload.maximum_size=63488
extruder1p.upload.speed=38400
extruder1p.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
extruder1p.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDC
extruder1p.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
extruder1p.bootloader.path=atmega644p
extruder1p.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_644.hex
extruder1p.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
extruder1p.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F                << note reads as CF in AVR studio so needs to be 0xCF.
extruder1p.build.mcu=atmega644p
extruder1p.build.f_cpu=16000000L
extruder1p.build.core=sanguino
extruder1p.verbose=false

##############################################################

extruder1.name=Extruder1
extruder1.upload.protocol=stk500
extruder1.upload.maximum_size=63488
extruder1.upload.speed=38400
extruder1.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
extruder1.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDC
extruder1.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
extruder1.bootloader.path=atmega644p
extruder1.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_644.hex
extruder1.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
extruder1.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F                << note reads as CF in AVR studio so needs to be 0xCF.
extruder1.build.mcu=atmega644
extruder1.build.f_cpu=16000000L
extruder1.build.core=sanguino
extruder1.verbose=false

##############################################################

motherboard.name=Motherboard
motherboard.upload.protocol=stk500
motherboard.upload.maximum_size=63488
motherboard.upload.speed=38400
motherboard.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
motherboard.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDC
motherboard.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
motherboard.bootloader.path=atmega644p
motherboard.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_644.hex
motherboard.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
motherboard.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F                << note reads as CF in AVR studio so needs to be 0xCF.
motherboard.build.mcu=atmega644
motherboard.build.f_cpu=16000000L
motherboard.build.core=sanguino
motherboard.verbose=false

##############################################################

sanguino.name=Sanguino
sanguino.upload.protocol=stk500
sanguino.upload.maximum_size=63488
sanguino.upload.speed=38400
sanguino.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
sanguino.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDC
sanguino.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
sanguino.bootloader.path=atmega644p
sanguino.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_644P.hex
sanguino.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
sanguino.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F                 << note reads as CF in AVR studio so needs to be 0xCF.
sanguino.build.mcu=atmega644p
sanguino.build.f_cpu=16000000L
sanguino.build.core=sanguino
sanguino.verbose=false

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This file is a lot longer I am just showing the board details for Extruder1.1, Motherboard1.1 and Sanguino1.1

The Single Sided Audrion board I made here

Is shown above after drilling I ironed on the component outline image to make it easier to build.

My first misshap on testing the boards was one Extruder controller fried a processor due to a bad V regulator that didnt regulate. Cut the Atmega off using a craft knife in a scoring motion accross the pins.

De solderd the offending regulator.

Misshap number two one of the pads for the CPU lifted off in fact typical one of the few that has its connection under the chip.. located the via hole solderd a wire on to the pin BIG mistake should have solderd the via hole end first. as the pin broke off at the plastic to pin join. night mare !! fixed with steady hand and a drop of araldite to prevent any further miss haps.

So 1 Extruder board now has a 168P the others have 168 CPUs.

Back to Flashing bootloaders using AVR studio connecte a board to your programer select the chip icon with AVR on it its a mid screen

Select read Signature and correct the device name if nesasary and re-read to double check.

You may now select the program Tab in the Flash section you can select the boot loader file you want on the device and then select the Program button. You now select the Fuses Tab.

Now using the Settings found in the file Boards.txt for the Extended High and low fuses. Correct the settings by typing in the values for Extended High and low fuses from the file then select program.

Example from flashing the Motherboard 1.1 chip.

Now select the Lock bits. All you need is the option that locks the boot section from being writen to.

Job Done!!

Please note that some of the Lock bits in the files should be 0xCF not 0x0F the fuse values are read as high for any non existent bits by AVR studio in the boards.txt file they are show as not there. I have adjusted these to be correct for AVR studio in my Boards.txt file.

CALL FOR ALL REPRAPPERS – MAKER FAIRE 2010 IN NEWCASTLE, UK

2010-02-01T00:40:00.003Z

CALL FOR ALL REPRAPPERS – MAKER FAIRE 2010 IN NEWCASTLE,

Great news for all us Reprappers! I have been lucky enough to be allocated a stand at MAKER FAIRE 2010 in Newcastle, UK. This is the second one to be held here following its success in 2009 which had a great response and caught the attention of the BBC!

I have been initially allocated a 3x3m slot but can request more space if needed. It will have internet connection which will be useful to hook up to other colleagues around the world during the show if necessary. I have until 8^th February to submit my requirements for the show.

Throughout the two days (i.e. 13^th and 14^th March) I will also be able to hold 30 minute demonstrations on how it works and source of suppliers.

At the moment I am just buzzing with the news as I know from previous experience doing computer fair shows how much can be gained. This kind of thing attracts lots of publicity such as the BBC etc. Thus I believe this could be a brilliant opportunity for us RepRappers to promote the project further in the UK and presumably as a result also worldwide!

Maybe this is also a good way for us Reprappers in the UK to get together? … make it a yearly meet up? What do you think?

Current Ideas

Last year someone 3D-printed ornaments. Personally I would like to do something a bit more spectacular to capture everyone’s imagination.

Duy Nguyen had a good suggestion of people printing specific parts and mailing them to one location to be assembled into something … I think this would be good if Reprappers around the world could print a specific Reprap part, send it to the show and then it is assembled into a Reprap machine.

The only thing I don’t know is if there are enough of us out there that can actually print all the actual parts in time for the show?

I also liked Gene Hacker’s suggestion of “Teleporting” objects as it was what I also had in mind. Maybe the Reprap assembled at the show can demonstrate how it works by printing something sent from another country or replicating one of its parts?

So what I am looking for at the moment is:

a) To hear from Reprapper’s that can actually print Reprap parts

b) Volunteers, ideas and suggestions for the “Teleport” demonstration

c) Submission of Videos, images, artwork etc that can be displayed during the show e.g. could be of those printing the reprap parts for the show! Or other related interesting things? … open to suggestions but remember only 30 minutes allowed for video demos!

d) Any UK Reprapper’s that have a machine they would like to bring and demonstrate at the show or those that would like to accompany us to or meet us at the show?

e) We will need to have between 6-8 people+ on the stand at the show so any volunteers to help out would be greatly welcomed.

f) As much help and support to make this opportunity a big success!

Please note the stand is strictly not commercial so no offers to sell products please. However, I am not sure, but will find out if promotional material can be displayed on the stand which I will be happy to do.

It would be really good if some of the members of the

Core Team could attend!!!

Deadline for suggestions, volunteers, demonstrators and participants that are interested is 5^th February 2010 as I will need time to collate everything and contact everyone to make arrangements prior to my requirements submission on 8^th February.

So RepRappers get your thinking caps on and post your comments to the

CALL FOR ALL REPRAPPERS – MAKER FAIRE 2010 IN NEWCASTLE,

thread on our forum under General discussions.

Nopheads small heated bed made from scrap.

2010-01-31T19:42:00.001Z

It was Snowing today saw Nopheads new Heated Bed.. excellent Idea had to Make one.

As I knew I had almost all the bits even though they are all scrap.

Aluminium sheet from an DIY Radio I built in 1970. Magnets left over from Bathroom re-fit used 40 20mm neodym magnets to hold 300mm x 300mm wall tile / covers all the plumbing shut off taps. Tile is removed to access taps with a 4" glass sucker some puling.

Thin steel plate for printing on an old Mitsumi 3.5" disc drive cover. So heated bed is cut to 130mm x 99mm inside dimensions of a disk drive.

Cut the 3.3mm thick Aluminum plate to inside dimensions of a disk drive.
So heated bed will be 130mm x 99mm x 3.3mm.

Stand off material had choice of Perspex ABS chopping board and MDF.
Decided MDF easiest least likely to be upset by temprature.

Blind 2mm deep 22mm holes for magnets found 2 2 ohm AL clad resistors checked with Nophead if he thought they were big enough. Marked out position drilled 2 big holes so the can mount through MDF.

Drilled and tapped aluminum for power resistors to fit. Screwed it all together added two 12mm thick strips of MDF as stand offs to mount heated bed to Mendel printing Bed.

Have left two holes in plate for Thermocouples one will be fitted the other is for calibration.

I will use the second extruder controller as a PID control for the heated bed.

Still waiting for 4 Meccano worm gears to arrive so cant test my extruders yet.

I will be setting up extruder controllers next flashing the boot then trying out the Software for temprature control on both extruder and Bed.

Thanks to Nopheads latest post I will have a heated bed without spending a penny.

I'm going to MAKERFAIRE 2010!

2010-01-30T22:00:00.021Z

Just got an email today confirming that I have a stand at the Makerfair in Newcastle to demonstrate RepRap in March 13th to 14th 2010!

Wow Nopheads drive system is the killer App of RepRap extrusion drives!

2010-01-28T00:35:00.001Z

The RapTruder Experiments could only be continued this evening as I only had time to make a template and two new versions of the RapTruder increasing the gap between the two blocks so I could try the Conrad shaft coupler as a drive gear and add a Skate bearing clamp with some fairly weak springs.

I used two Plastic blocks to join the welding rod works great!

Using The Flat pack Furniture Screw worm gear combined with a Meccano gear really works.

Please note I had to use a much bigger clamp to hold the RapTruder assembly down !!

Having seen this working now and seen the effect of just over a 3.5kg pull Maximum pull seen was 4.08Kg
I do not think Plastic gears would be strong enough to work.
I am seeing the MDF and plastic Blocks flexing as it reaches 2.9kg of pull.

The flexing makes the Furniture screw jump on the Meccano gear. The furniture screw is only a push fit on the stepper drive shaft it and it has not slipped yet.

The design really needs a shorter Worm gear; so that the assembly is not three plastic blocks high.

The optimum height is 2 Blocks only a proper Meccano worm gear will fit this height. I have not calculated the resolution the number of steps taken in the video clip was.

Taking 24464 steps.
Number of steps (-ve goes other way):

You can hear by the thump of the flexing and just how strong the pull is.

Very pleased with the results as it is only a lash up.

This is the BEST grip I have seen so far.
I am using the Conrad coupler as the drive.
This is very much the way to go the difference is so noticeable.

Having the spring adjustable grip and higher resolution are big winners.!!

I'm not sure if I can get this any better until I can stop the flexing.

Plastic Block RapTruder based on the "No compromise Extruder"

2010-01-27T05:16:00.007Z

Based on Nopheads "No compromise Extruder" design.

So how on earth do you make something like Nopheads "No compromise Extruder"

It was this message left by

Casainho said...

Thanks!!! I don't have a lathe but I am trying understand what could I do with it.
I was curious on how to make the worm pulley since NopHead had very good results using it.
I wish I could make my own gears, and make the same extruder as NopHead...

Now there's a Challenge !

This is how you do it without special tools without a Worm Gear with one Mecano gear!!

Please note you can go and buy a mecano worm gear ~ I just have no money so I have to improvise even more.

I have another Idea for a no money solution not sure if this will be strong enough.

The big white tray drive gear out of a 5.25 CD drive and a 12mm bolt.

The 12mm bolt is the worm for the CD drive tray gear.

Any way here is the result of the initial idea.
It will need some more work but hey it works.

I spent more time looking for my other big grey gear like I have used on the Mendel Z axis drive.

This would also work and mean that you use all 5 gears as they come in packs of 5 for £1:50 ish.

Any way here is the first Video of it working time from Idea to this stage about two hours.

With a Beta blocker nap in between making and posting.

Will make another version tomorrow as another Idea to go from.

End of Plastic Block RapTruder Part 1 stay tuned for part two

Mendel gear creation gears that failed to get a grip.

2010-01-26T14:59:00.000Z

A pictorial record of gear creation gears that failed to get a good grip.

By the way the face on the gear was an atempt to trigger face recognition on the camera.

It failed to get auto focus to work any better.

A length of 1/2" brass kindly left by the previous owner of my house.

My second use of the floating steady with more olive oil added to the fingers to stop them squealing.

Cutting the brass bar to a useable lenght.

Brass is incredibly tough to machine it holds on to it tries to hold on no matter how hard you cut into it.

Cut to a size ready to make two of AK47's "worm gears"

From 12.5mm to 10mm the incredibly slow way.

Eventualy ending up with this

Making the worm using a 3mm tap lathe turning at about 200 rpm.

ready to test.

Free hand dremel drilling lookls ugly but works to save making a new block to hold the variety of gears.

Well my badly made worm fails to grip any better back to the drawing board as they say..

Thus the splined shaft remains the best gripping extruder drive wheel that I can make

Experimenting with video with a short film on how not to make a worm gear.

At least a day wasted as my extruder is still no better than my first attempt!!

Glad I chose the Electronics apprenticship when I was offerd the choice of mechanical or electronics at my interview.
Taking a working steam engine as well as a simple dial in adding computer to my interview meant I was offerd both. I chose the right one!

making Mendel element on Welding tip and Torque test video

2010-01-24T03:06:00.001Z

An in focus picture of the shorter Extruder with long wedding tip made in December.

Here is the New longer Peek insulator with the shorter welding tip.

The insulator anti twist securing hole drilled out read or a 3mm screw.

With the screw fitted and a bevel to aid the alignment of material being extruded this was made using the tip of a 22mm flat wood bit.

The brass inserts were removed from a standard plastic 3A chocolate block attached to my last 7 ohms of cotton covered nichrome wire.

The red cable is attached to one end of the element and taped to the Peek insulator using 200C heat resistant Kapton tape its ready to wind the element.

Element wound ready for the Black wire end of the element to be taped up.

Taped up twice on the long Peek insulator.

The end on view now with a K type thermocouple slid in under the layer of Kapton tape its the green wire.

Last months heated barrel looked like this before the high temprature black self amalgamating tape was put on.

Now for my second Video where I miss getting the scale showing 2Kg for the second or third time each time destroying two foot or more of ABS welding Rod as the splines eat it up as it starts to slip and yes it had already stated to slip by the time I got the camera to focus on the digital scales Ahhhh. We decide to give up before we had got any more frustrated by trying to film it.

Testing the new splines shaft in my perspex clone of the Mendel extruder block with 3mm ABS gave a maximum of 2kg of pull measured before the ABS starts to be eaten away by the splined shaft.

Now we know that Wade has achieved 5.5kg of pull without slippage.

So whats was the difference.

Nophead is using the AKA47 "worm" pulley. It is 15mm OD, ~13mm ID using an M4 tap

And has suggested halving the ID to 6.5mm and using a M3.5x0.6 tap with an OD of 10mm

The other difference is both Wade and Nopheads extruders have a spring tensioner to control the pressure of the grip.

Where as the standard Mendel extruder has the pressure set by setting up the gap to be 2.5mm between the bearing and the splined shaft using a drill.

I tried using a 2.4mm drill this had no effect on the grip.

Using the AK47 "worm" pulley makes a lot of sense as it will be gripping more of the ABS.

So tomorow that will be my next Job.

Many thanks to Nophead for all his marvelous pioneering work on extruders and extremely detailed blogs.

Not forgetting AK47 and his great "worm" pulley blog entry the next task is to make a new acrylic block tat can incorporate the "worm" pulley

The Spline cutter worked great

2010-01-23T02:29:00.001Z

Cutting the splines on the extruder stepper motor was very easy with the spline cutter pictures. below.

The first set of 11 0.7mm splines were cut with a 4mm spacer in place on the dremel spline cutter with 36 steps between each spline the spacer was then removed and another 11 cuts were made making the splines 4mm longer.

Testing the Stepper drive.. and posting my 1st YouTube video.

Wow my first Toner transfer Home made PCB that is Usable !!!!!!!!

2010-01-19T23:21:00.001Z

For a while I have wanted to try a different way of Toner transfer PCB making that I had read about on line.

I found this single sided board Arduino Single-Sided Serial Board (version 3) as I have the old chip from my Arduino Decimila that's now been converted to a Arduino Demiglove I could do with a new board for the old chip.

I have tried all kinds of colour photo paper in the past followed several different peoples blogs on how you iron on your picture the soak it in water and gently rub the paper off..

Well no matter how careful you are Gently rubbing the toner It comes off leaving areas of track that get over etched with bits of track missing.

So reading about this other method that sounded like it might work I though I would give it a try to day as I had used some Computer labels I had the backing sheet to try out.

What you do is you print on the backing sheet of the computer labels.

I have not had any success with laser Iron on transfer. I was not as pedantic in my cleaning of the board just a quick scrub with a green plastic scourer.
Then I Ironed on the printed image on to the board.. leaving the iron on for about 1-2 mins no rubbing just resting on the label removed the iron. Tried peeling the corner up - to my surprise every part of the toner image was left on the board.

A new use for Arnie the £10 PID control HOB keeping the etch ant warm to make the etching quicker. I set the P.I.D. controller to 50C put a metal case on the hob then the plastic etch tray I found I needed to cover the tray to try to keep the heat in eventually getting 40C popped the board in to etch went away and left it etching wile I set up the Spline cutter.

I took it out slightly too soon as there are a few little patches that are under etched but it is by far better than any previous toner transfer etch result I can see that this board will work It will not need any track repairs.

The labels I have are the cheapest ones you can get from a pound shop so I think any kind will work just fine.

Very very pleased with this result as I have several CCT designs I want to try ~ I hate using the non solder prototyping boards even though I have just bought my first one. I prefer to go from design to board as it has always been the fastest route to have a working demo board to get funding from Directors or customers to start a new project.

PS my laser toner is on its last legs as well I need to put a new one in.. I have one but just want to get every last drop out of the current one first. The toner on the board was a devil of a job to get off and nail varnish remover did not remove it so it was scrubbing with the same old green plastic scourer to get the toner off.

Mendel Spline cutter for Mendel Extruders made from scrap MDF

2010-01-18T23:49:00.000Z

.
Mendel Spline cutter for Mendel Extruders made from scrap MDF.

Its made from scraps of MDF of previous Darwin experimental parts.

I have cardboard boxes full of little bits of MDF.

The spline cutter has three stepper Splines to cut so I have made it as a bit more of a permanent fixture.

The MDF holding the Real Dremel (the Dremel look alike is on the Bertha CNC) the MDF was originally a Stepper motor mount on one of many experimental Darwin builds i have at least 4 or 5 boxes of MDF scraps like this.

Blogging this while I'm waiting for the second lot of PVA glue to dry.

Making the Mendel Extruder Block

2010-01-18T13:22:00.002Z

.
Making the Mendel Extruder Block from 16mm Hobby shop Acrylic block used for "Stamping"

First I printed these two pictures to stick onto the Acrylic so I can use the image to drill the holes.

The holes were all drilled out to 3.6mm then 12mm for the motor center hole and 16mm for the blind bearing hole the two mounting holes were then drilled to 5mm to allow for movement to line things up.

Now I find my first problem with the Mendel instructions no mention of any gear required for the extruder its not listed in the Extruder BOM and to add to that there is no mention of any preparation required for the extruder motor shaft. What do I do.. now I'm sure its not just a friction drive off the motor shaft or is it..??

Its seems a pity that the Mendel instructions fall apart on the most crucial part of Mendel the extruder.

Oh hold on it might work without gears or splines as its turning the stepper threading the abs thru..

Second Extruder head build for Mendel with drawing & pictures

2010-01-17T02:07:00.001Z

Here is the drawing for the extended length thermal insulator for the plastic block Mendel build.

The extra 15mm of length is to clear the skate bearing carriage this is the only part where I have used a specialist tool a micro lathe.
It was to make things like this that justified my purchasing a lathe after seeing Nopheads lathe.

This lathe is the next size down making it < half the price of Nopheads you can see full details on Bodgeitquicktools blog.

This the first time of ever using a Fixed steady on any lathe. I soon realized I needed to lubricate the brass fingers so popped a drop of extra virgin oil which did the trick of stopping the horrendous screaming noise.

It was a much safer result as the Parting off tool finished the final part of its cut.

I used the parting off tool to make the two slots for the retaining cir-clips that hold it onto the X carriage.

As I forgot to to buy a center drill I used a 2.8mm wood drill first then drilled out the 3.5mm with a standard drill. Peek is a very nice material to machine much nicer than PTFE.

As I will be using welding tip for my extruder barrel the threaded part only needs to be drilled out to 4.2mm and 7mm deep for it to be tapped for a 5mm thread that the welding tips have. In my last extruder I used a B&Q welding tip

In this extruder I'm using the 5mm shorter Halfords 0.6mm welding tip. This is so I can keep the heated area as small as possible. I don't know if this is a good idea or not. I remember seeing several mentions of minimizing the thermal mass of the extruder head.

Thus with a heated barrel that is only 18mm long and 5mm diameter this extruder will have a very low thermal mass.

Its all ready to be trial fitted onto the X carriage before I use my last length of Ni-chrome wire making the heating element. I have plenty of the 16mm Acrylic block used by hobby stampers to stick their home made stamps on to press into ink and stamp all sorts of stuff with wording or outline pictures on cards journals or scrapbooks. Now there's an Idea printing custom stamps for scrapbookers and the like with Mendel.

Anyway as it is nice and see-through and its plastic its the ideal material to make the extruder block out of as you can see the holes inside it as you are working..

Mendel all Belted Up on the Y Axis

2010-01-14T11:51:00.002Z

Seeing that the Mendel belts have been halved I decided to half my belts too thus no need to buy any belt for Mendel I have used the remains of my 0.80" belt bought for Darwin two years ago. I made a splitter from scrap wood broke a Stanley blade that I hammerd into the wood, bit of a bodge but it worked I now have enough belt for the X and Y drives.

Y Axis Belt Clamps 27mm x 10mm made from ASDA plastic cutting board.

Three Stepper controllers mounted and wired Y Axis Stepper mounted three 0.80" 0.5" pulleys mounted Belt fitted at this axis end.

And Mendel moves on the Y Axis to the sound of Happy birthday I - "Need" end stops fitted ASAP as the switching of the PSU is not the best way to stop the Y axis moving / crashing it moves very well though.

Next Y axis end stops Z Axis connected with End stop then to get X axis finished this needs new a new Mendel extruder heater & element the extruder drive block, The X pulley mount plus an X axis End stop. Oh and tapeing up the spare belt under the Y axis table mount ~ didnt want to cut the belt is like 6" too long for the Standard Mendel Y axis.

Mendel Electronics

2010-01-10T09:08:00.006Z

Building most of the Mendel Electronics

I have not done much this week ;-(

I did finish making the 3 Stepper Motor Drivers v2.3, the 3 10way ribbon cables, re-working the 1.1 motherboard and Extruder controller V1.2 (Removing the Ethernet RJ45 connectors and AT power connector) I didn't read/notice the Extra notes on modifying these boards for Mendel till Tuesday.

Bit of a pain as in removing the Ethernet RJ45 connector on the extruder controller I damaged a track hence on the motherboard I have left one of the fully sealed in RJ45 connectors on the board. I fixed the track with some wire wrap wire as I have run out of Verowire now. Destruction of the RJ45 connectors is the only safe way to remove them with the exception of RJ45 connectors that a fully moulded in plastic where you cant remove one pin at a time hence the damaged track on my Extruder controller.

I also took the time to Fix one of the first Stepper Motor Drivers v2.3 were i killed the chip when setting up the Baby Bertha 3D platform (nothing blogged on Baby Bertha yet.!). Rather than dremel the leads like Nophead did I lifted each pin in turn using the point of my tweezers so I have the smt chip off intact to play with later.

I will steal the 20V PSU from Bertha CNC as the proper 32V power supply shown here for Bertha CNC arrived in November but I never fitted it.

I will then use the 20V PSU for Mendel as I know the Stepper Motor Drivers v2.3 worked OK with it on my Baby Bertha experiments where I took the voltage up to 29V without problems.

Testing the Stepper Motor Drivers v2.3 using my modified Arduino Decimila that I have upgraded to an Arduino Demiglove by replacing the Atmel ATmega168 with a Atmel ATmega328 I made a little Veroboard break out board to do this.

	1	N/C	Brown	No Connection
GND	2	GND	Red	Ground.
2	3	Step	Orange	Step
3	4	Dir	Yellow	Direction high forward, low backwards.
8	5	Enable	Green	Active low Enable
7	6	Min	Blue	'min' sensor
6	7	Max	Violet	'max' sensor.
GND	8	GND	Grey	Ground.
GND	9	GND	White	Ground.
GND	10	GND	Black	Ground.

Test code with the altered pin configuration for use with the Arduino Demiglove and Veroboard quite a funny reaction from Midge wondering where I had connected a speaker so I had to explain it was the stepper motor playing the Happy birthday tune. By the time I had tested the 3 new boards and the fixed boards it had lost a little of its original charm thou.

I changed the 3 lines defining the pins in the listing. (Shown in bold) to work with the Veroboard break out board.
The original of this code is from the reprap builders blog by Zack or Makerbot; I think as now cant remember where I found the listing.
I thought it was on Stepper motor build instructions but it wasn't there. So I have listed the whole thing!

#define stepPin 2
#define dirPin 3
#define enablePin 8
#define minPin 7
#define maxPin 6

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(19200);
Serial.println("Starting stepper exerciser.");

pinMode(stepPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dirPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(enablePin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(minPin, INPUT);
pinMode(maxPin, INPUT);
digitalWrite(minPin, HIGH); //turn on internal pullup
digitalWrite(maxPin, HIGH); //other pullup

digitalWrite(dirPin, HIGH);
digitalWrite(stepPin, LOW);
digitalWrite(enablePin, HIGH); //disable

calculate_tones();
}

void loop()
{
Serial.println("Forward!");
digitalWrite(dirPin, HIGH);
play_song(maxPin);

delay(500);

Serial.println("Reverse!");
digitalWrite(dirPin, LOW);
play_song(minPin);

delay(500);
}

boolean at_switch(byte pin)
{
return !digitalRead(pin);
}

#define TONE_COUNT 16

float frequencies[TONE_COUNT] = {
196.00, //G    0
207.65, //G#   1
220.00, //A    2
233.08, //B-   3
246.94, //B    4
261.63, //C    5
277.18, //C#   6
293.66, //D    7
311.13, //D#   8
329.63, //E    9
349.23, //F    10
392.00, //G    11
440.00, //A    12
466.16, //B-   13
493.88, //B    14
523.25, //C    15
};

int tones[TONE_COUNT];

#define NOTE_COUNT 25
int notes[] = {
5, 5, 7, 5, 10, 9, 5, 5, 7, 5, 11, 10, 5, 5, 15, 12, 10, 9, 7, 13, 13, 12, 10, 11, 10
};

void calculate_tones()
{
for (byte i=0; i
    tones[i] = (int)(1000000.0/ (2.0 * frequencies[i]));
}

void play_song(byte switchPin)
{
digitalWrite(enablePin, LOW); //enable

for (byte i=0; i
{
    if (!at_switch(switchPin))
    {
      play_note(tones[notes[i]], 300000);
      delay(10);
    }
}
digitalWrite(enablePin, HIGH); //disable
}

void play_note(int note, long time)
{
int count = round(time / note);

for (int i=0; i
{
    digitalWrite(stepPin, HIGH);
    delayMicroseconds(note);
    digitalWrite(stepPin, LOW);
    delayMicroseconds(note);
}
}

Also this weekend I'm going to try making a CA-42 Nokia lead into a USB comms lead for the 1.1 mother board.

When you take the cover off my picture here is the best of many taken trying to show the silk screen that is neatly labeled with the signal names going to the Nokia plug not a bad buy for £0.99 on EBay or $1.62 including P&P I will cut up a USB cable to re use its wire to connect to Veroboard with a 0.1 female connector to go to connect to the pins on the Sanguino mounted on the Mother board.

Extruder controller V2.1 fixing the reset switch problem/bug.

2010-01-03T03:13:00.005Z

Before building the extruder controller V2.1 I examined the circuit diagrams of both versions 2.1 and 2.2

The bug with the V2.1 board is the reset switch is wired to the 5V supply instead of the Ground (0V).

To fix this Pins 3 and 4 of the reset switch will not be soldered or put though their holes on the board.
As Pin 3 is connected to Pin 4 internally inside the push button only one of the pins needs to be connected to Gnd.
This is done by scratching a patch of the solder resist on the ground plane off and soldering the pin to it. The other pin is bent up and then trimmed off to look neat..

Thus there will be no need to mess around unplugging power to cause a reset as you just press the reset button.

Please note I did not have an 0.22uf SMT devices so I used standard 0.22uf devices that I had in my capacitor draw.

This is the only part of the build instructions you need to change when following the on line step by step pictorial guide. If I can get my camera to be in focus for a close up I will add some pictures. Please note you only need to do this if you have the V2.1 boards the V2.2 have this bug fixed!! Better Pictures to follow hope fully.

BodgeIt broke on Boxing day and was taken to Hospital.

2009-12-31T18:53:00.001Z

On Boxing Day my heart decided to lose sync with its other half so for 30 minuets it was ticking along at 225 beats per min. Thus I have had a very interesting 5 days in hospital. Ive been diagnosed as having PAROXYSMAL SUPRAVENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA (PSVT) this condition is resolved with asprin and beta blockers and is generaly not life threatening just feels like it is at the time of an attack.

I will continue with the Mendel build as soon as I can next year ~ there not being much of this year left now. Happy New Year to every one.

Mendel stand / base board to keep it neat and transportable

2009-12-24T04:02:00.000Z

Making a Mendel stand / base board to keep it neat and transportable.

It is not a necessary part for Mendel. I think it might make it easier to square Mendel up. As I am not using belt for the Z axis my steppers hang down an by an extra 16mm.

I need Mendel to be easily transportable so it can be picked up like a portable sewing machine set up and put away. Using a base board will keep it square and save from the odd knock. I know its a little Belts and Braces once its nicely set up working, I don't want to have to realign it every so often after its been moved.

The base board I've used is 18mm Ply but could be OSB board or MDF its is 295mm x 500mm x 18mm.
It has two side bars Mendel is crewed to these side bars at one end so Mendel can be hinged up from the base board to make wiring easier or sort any problems out like flipping a sewing machine up to see its works. The side bars are made from softwood 500mm x 22mm x 14mm softwood. The side bars are screwed and glued to the sides of the board. Then the base board was painted with 30min quick drying black paint. Mendel has left the Kitchen!...

My time was limited today so I built only one stepper controller so not much else was done.

Nopheads suggestion to install the Google tool bar to get a spell checker works great.. thank you.

Reducing the number of skate bearings from 32 to 24 or maybe only 20

2009-12-23T01:52:00.002Z

Some times some thing is stareing you in the face and yet you dont see it.

Well after two weeks I have seen it by taking just a few 5mm spring washers and 6mm spring washers. I have reduced the number of skate bearings required from 32 down to 24 skate bearings a significant saveing.

You could save 4 more by keeping the 3 and 2 bearing configuration of Mendel.

Im lazy and it was easier to just change 1 block per boggie thus mine are all 3 bearing blocks now. Maybe once its all going I will change the Y axis to be a 3 and a 2 configuration.

Here is the method to make both types the three and the two bearing types.

Three bearing boggies.

Here is how you assemble one:

1 nylon corner block in this order.

1 8mm bolt 1 bearing, 1 nut, 1 bearing, 1 washer, Nylon corner block and a nut.

Using two 4mm screw put thru the two holes of 2 bearing block then put an un modified block on the two screws first block now add two 5mm spring washers on to the 4mm screws then add the next block thats made in this order:

1 bearing, 1 nut, 1 washer, Nylon corner block and a nut.

Add the two nuts to hold the new bogie assembly together.

Two bearing boggies.

Here is how you assemble one:

Make 2 nylon corner block in this order.

1 bearing, 1 nut, 1 washer, Nylon corner block and a nut.

Using two 4mm screw put thru the two holes of 1 bearing block now add two 6mm flat washers on to the 4mm screws then put an un modified block on the two screws then two 6mm flat washers folowed by the second 1 bearing block

Add the two nuts to hold the new bogie assembly together.

The 3 bearing seperation is based on the 5mm spring washers bein 1.3mm - 1.4mm when comppresed spring washers are better as it gives you the ability to loosen or tighten the grip of the skate bearings.

The 2 bearing seperation is based on the 6mm spring washers bein 1.4mm - 2mm when comppresed spring washers are better as it gives you the ability to loosen or tighten the grip of the skate bearings.

New image uploaded for oiaohm to show how the bevel on the skate bearings works to produce the effect of 3 bearings at 120 degrees this effect definatly provides a slider with much less friction than using the four bearings boggies. I do not know the angle of the bevel maybe it is a 60 degree bevel.

The Mendel X Slider and its Skate bearing boggies.

2009-12-21T14:01:00.004Z

Ok so here is the photo of the X slider made on the Second build day taken apart to add some Skate bearings the red lines show where I need to make some cut outs. I will do this today. after the X slider I need to make a replacement part for the butterfly shaped part that holds the Z Bearings. The Z bearings will just be the Corner block that are alredy fitted on the Z axis sliders.

X carridge finished and fitted.. now to figure out the Butterfly part..

Two hour break ~~~

Back to another bit of Chopping board as Ive run out of 6mm MDF.

Design for the butterfly part on Mendel this is four parts that hold the Z bearings two at each end of the X axis. Design drawn on the chopping board yes too many construction lines I know I pay for this mistake as I drill one hole on the wrong X mark but thru shear luck manage to make use of the extra holes.

Note the two holes closest together is the mistake I drilled one of them on the wrong crosover of lines. Opps.. I do make use of thes holes later thou.

Here is the drilling template for the Z drive nuts the holes are 30mm apart the one closets to the edhe will have a 10mm clearance hole in it on the final 2 parts these are made of Oak floor boards as Im going to use 8mm bolts screwed into a 7.5mm hole in the oak it could be any wood not MDF tho as MDF will split on a peice this small.

First I mounted the two Slider blocks at each end of the cut off triangles. Then held the Oak so it sits imediatly above the center line of the X Endplate drilled 7.5 mm holes through the spare unequal holes into the Oak.

The I screwed the 8mm bolts thru the butterfly plates extra holes into the oak.

I then disasembled the X axis to fitt the Two new parts that hold the Z axis bearings fitted the parts the re assembled Mendel...

The whole of the Mendel frame is now completed...

Jobs for to-morow 1/ Square the Mendel assembly.
2/build stepper driver boards
3 fit belts and stepper motors
4/make a new Extruder to fit Mendel
5/ connct Stepper motors and test X Y and Z axies.

This will be an on going post again.. 21 December 2009

The Snow today means its another Mendel Day

2009-12-20T10:33:00.003Z

I was going to move the new 1 Ton bag of gravel from Front to Back today my plan has been Snowed off.

From Blogger Pictures

I have to keep a few little promises for Midge like moving two Darwins out of the Kitchen to the garage and reposoitioning Bertha before Christmas as all four of my girls are due to visit on boxing day. Then its a Mendel day! I will be re-creating a skate bearing carridge for the Y axis as I did with Darwin I think... but first I must do my chores.. An on going post for December 20th 2009.

Having run out of 6mm MDF I have decide to use the small ASDA/Walmart 50p Chopping board 50 as it comes with a big one for £1. In fact the big one is almost Exactly the right width for the Print Bed think I will try this as Its easy to replace.

Struggling with the dimensions of it tho as the one I have Made looks a little small. here are the pictures.

TaDA The Squashed Frog External Dimensions 148mm X 200 when put on Mendel it looks to be not wide enough for the running rails by about 10mm. If you have a Squashed frog alredy please could you confirm these dimensions for me.

Drawing 1

Now we need to adapt the Squashed Frog to run on Skate bearings pictorial record.

On the fly Drawing adaption.

16mm holes drilled to help cut the shapes out.

The new Squashed Frog for Skate bearings.

All of the other holes drilled

Building and fitting the bearing blocks.

Bearing boggies made

Neat little Skate board pics.

All fitted and Slideing great result phew..

About 4-5 hours work including the Bodgeing/design making of the new parts.
3 Squashed frogs one for when I have my printed parts. Also X carridge Drawing and trial assembly of X caridge boggies X carridge next.. followed by the Y sliders and drive.

From Blogger Pictures

Mendel build Day Two

2009-12-19T14:09:00.009Z

I spent about 2 hours last night working out the X axis parts on the computer printing stl files out on paper. And using this little application for gaining the external dimensions.

It was good in a way to have break from Mendel last weekend particularly as the ground outside is frozen solid this weekend.

As I have re thought the design. First I will remove the two extra Nylon corner blocks on the bottom bar of the two A frames they are used in a real Mendel.. my lazy / simplified design they are now not required.

I have cut 2 MDF plates 2 off of 150mm x 60mm X 12mm and 2 off of 90mm X 60mm X 12mm for Z axis.

Finding that I did not have along enough belt I found a little draw with some of these Geeenweld gears for the Extruder V1 its a pack of 5 for £1:30.

Screwing one gear through the threded rod hole then positioning other meshing with it. I got the center mark to stick my photo copy of a stepper motor on. Drilling out the tiny hole in one gear to 5mm so I could screw it to the brass hub from Conrad means ~I can fitt it to a stepper.

First I thought I would keep this true to Mendel so I drilled the other two gears out to 8mm big mistake the colar causes the drill to run off center here is the first experimental result.

Making a few diffrent machines ~I also did not have enough 8mm bar but I did have 8mm tube that a 6mm bar fits I used tube on Bertha CNC so I know this works.

So to regain a concentic hole I found 6mm penny washes fited the gear center perfectly one each side of gear removes wobbly gear effect the skate bearings then needed to have a skate bearing insert to reduce the 8mm hole to 6mm great problem solved no need to use belt for Z axis just two cheap steppers.

Final assembly picture

My X axis is about 10mm wider than the printed parts. The Z cartridge is made from 1off 97mm X 84mm x 6mm the 2off X end plates are 62mm x 84mm 6mm.

I have not made proper drawings yet as it was a simple process of positioning the bits and holes to suit I have set the Slider 30mm from the Screw drive on both sides of the Z axis. To maintain the alignment I drilled these holes out using a 2.8mm drill then drilled the bigger holes.

Just a few parts left to make now.. the build base carridge to mount the build base madelast week and the Z axis drive and slider/bearing mounting board.

From Blogger Pictures

Sofar its been about 8 hours today spent building Mendel Im not far short of finishing the whole of the Mendel frame work. next it will be building the electronics fixing belts and testing.

This an ongoing post through out Saturday 19 December pictures to be added.

Sunday Oops This Computer has hard drive Failure

2009-12-14T21:14:00.003Z

Delayed more Mendel building on Sunday due to This computer having the main hard drive fail... :-(

So I decided at midday when my Eldest Daughter and BF arrived as it was a dry day my time would better spent clearing the garden for the Solar powerd shed.

12:30 - 6pm Pictures of 50% 12' x 12' finished Solar powerd shed area 1 ton of gravel used. Special thanks to my eldest daughter and her boyfriend who helped us clear the 24' x 12' area on Sunday and Midges Daughters BF who chain sawed the 4' diameter Pampas grass flat last week.

Hard disk recovery from back up has just finished.

So I am a little behind schedule. with RepStrap Mendel... Thank goodness I had made a back up of Drive C: D: & E: !!!.

My uninerversal vitamin The Nylon Corner Block

2009-12-12T11:42:00.023Z

Seeing all the Rep Strap Mendels appearing in many forms. I thought it was time that I made use of My universal Vitamin the ever faithfull Nylon Corner Block ( Fixing Block, Fixit Blocks, Assembly Joint) as I am a very lazy builder of RepStrap machines not completely unskilled as a carpenter or metal worker and one who likes the whole concept of KISS.

For those who don't live by KISS it is the Acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid I like this principal and that of spending as little as possible to achive my goal. Also currently being without income is another contibuting factor to this need.

So from watching and pausing the excelent overview Videos then examining the drawings and pictures made by triffid.hunter and : swighton I have been able to build my low cost low tech version of Mendel using a few Nylon Corner Blocks I will attempt to build the Mendel frame from scratch in a day/weekend here goes. a pictorial build. Start time Saturday 12 December 8:30am.

From Blogger Pictures

The Esential Build tool for making any kind of Repstrap with Nylon Corner Blocks a build Gauge so all bars are Eactly the same size Ideal for Kebab Quality control.

In use.. Making the plain side bar Two required.

Making the motherboard and extruder mounting side bar 2 required.

Making the bottom bar with Stepper controller mounting board 2 Required Note both pairs with extra Nylon Corner Block made as mirror images of each other.

All the Kebabs made Time for a quick Coffee Break and two slices of Toast.. The I will see if the Sides are Equilateral when mounted on the blocks.

Wey Hey it worked.. well it looks Equal onlt time will tell thou.

Out of focus sorry Detail of the Nylon Corner Block mounting using one wood screw to hold it together.

Now to make the other side.. Oh mistake no 1 above I did not use the Mother board side bar it became obvios as I had two for the next Mendel side.. Opps.

And two together..

Next to put the two together... off to read the Mendel assembly guide... not sure which is the next bar to use..

Hmm Slight change to Mendel design Nylon Corner Block Mendel Needs Legs Have used White Nylon Blocks to make the Legs stand out I have also made Nylon Block type 3 wich has an 8mm hole for the slider bar and one of the two holes drilled out to 8.5mm.

Build so Far Sarurday 16:42 build time 7.92 hours Tea break time as Midge is back from Art Class.

Time to make some more wooden bits for the slider rails for the Z axis as the bars are no diffrent from the corner blocks I will make two more corner blocks and fit the forth type of Nylon corner block this will have a the single hole drilled out to an 8mm hole to grip the Z slider rods and will be screwed to these two new wood bits.

The build will not fitt in the photo booth now! It also needs to be squared up as it has a 2mm wobble the same as a Darwin needs Squaring up the wobble on Mendel seems less than the two Darwins I built so its looking good.

Basic assemble of the frame completed now I just need to add the X and the Y Axiss to finish..

Jobs to do Make X carridge assembly Make motor mounts for Z and X and sliders. Make Stepper controller mounting board Make motherboard-Extruder controller mounting board. Make build platform board.

Saturdat 17.49 Build time almost nine hours and a break for Merlin.

Made the following PCB mounting boards and drilled the 8 4mm holes in each to suit the Nylon corner blocks. Layed out the PCBs and drilled the other holes to mount the PCBs.

Motherboard mounting board 290mm X 98mm x 6mm
Stepper mounting board 380mm X 80mm x 6mm

Made the other thick pannel boards
Print base board 230mm X 200mm x 6mm

Z slider mounting pieces.

Midnight Saturday 11 hours spent on the Mendel build End of Day one.

Experiments with off the shelf Amtel processor boards

2009-12-10T23:00:00.001Z

RepRap Mother Board

A collection of Other off the shelf Amtel Processor board.

From top left to right we have an ATMEGA128 board then an Ardrino Decima board with an ATmega328 chip fitted making it now Arduino Duemilanove.ATMEGA16 Board with LCD display Aurdrino Mega with Mega 128 Board below.

Over the next month I will be investigating the best way to make use of these Boards on my REPSTRAP REPRAP Builds.
The ATMEGA16 will only be used for PID type control or display purposes I have several of thes boards that I will be using in my Solar power projects. It might also turn out to be a nice way to control an Extruder on the Bertha CNC machine though providing Extruder temprature and flow rate date on its LCD display. All the others are candidates to controll a full RepRap Strap Machine.

First I'm going to build one of my 2.1 extruder controllers to get my extruder working then I can begin.

Ahhh just found out that the spell checker is not present on the new blogger editor!! so please excues the dyslexic spelling.

My first Extruder build and testing

2009-12-05T10:41:00.017Z

I am all caught up on every ones Blogs caught up on all of the Forum posts with a Saturday with Midge off doing a Life Drawing class.

So without much else that I want to do today I'm going to make and test my Extruder !!!!
OK 1st tidy untouched work area!!! Charge 6 AAA batteries for temperature meter find the bits.

With 4/5 RepRap/CNC Machines I can fit it too and 2kg of ABS its about time I actually finish making an Extruder.

So here is where I start putting the bits I have already made together some over a year or more ago. New batteries in camera.

Pictures of the parts I have already made:-

Measuring the resistance of my meeter leads 0.3 ohms I have striped the back the insulation of 300mm of nichrome wire to 285mm measured as 6 ohms with the lead resistance subtracted from the measured 6.3ohms.

Using two brass inserts and the two screws from a 5A chocolate block connector with a red and a black moulded 4mm skt with 105mm of wire on each I have twisted together the12mm ends of the Nichrome wire and one of the power cables at each end of the heater element. Then screwed the two brass screws down very tight then I soldered this connection. I re checked the resistance of the heater element circuit between the brass connectors still at 6 ohms.

From blogpics

I then wrapped Kapton tape around each connection. I then taped the Black connection to the Peek insulator with Kapton tape. Wrapped a short length 22swg around the welding tip give an edge to wind the nichrome wire against wound the nichrome on ending just before the flat on the welding tip. Taped the red end of the element to the peek insulator then taped the nichrome coil to the welding tip.
Positioned my K type thermocouple on to the flat on the welding tip and taped with more Kapton tape. I then wrapped a layer of high temperature self amalgamating tape around the welding tip assembly and around the Peek insulator.

Ready to test... @ 5.16V and 804mA the measured temperature seems to be sitting at 200 C. (This was incorrect as the Thermocouple was reading low using the thermocouple supplied with the meter meant 200C was measured with 6.89V @ 1043mA on the element)

Little problem with the Maplin K type thermocouple and my Temperature meter as the meter goes out of range with the thermocouple at 200 C. So I have an Incompatibility with the meter from Deal Extreme and the Maplin K type thermocouple here seems to work ok with the meter tho. Nope it did not I reverted to using the Thermocouple supplied with the meter from this I will calibrated the maplin thermocouples in the Ardrion cct. Having now got an extruder heater that works it wont be long now.

The high temperature self amalgamating tape (pipe repair tape) from B&Q works ~Using 4 Cir clips to hold the Peek insulator to the aluminum angle works well. Next Jobs sorting out calibrating the thermocouples and control electronics. Trying to get the extruded plastic smaller ~Using a 0.6mm welding nozzle the extruded plastic was 0.9mm considerably more than I expected.

Photo are not very good getting a close up in focus with my camera was impossible.

I ran the Extruder on and off for at least an hour or more hand feeding 3mm ABS.

Off subject as been busy gardening.

2009-10-25T22:16:00.004Z

By gardening I really mean clearing the ground ready to build the Solar powered Shed/Workshop.

With a foot print of 24' x 12' its a big space shrubs have gone Pampas grass is going though a bit worried it might decide to grow again.

Also some very tall grasses that look like Bamboo I believe it to be a very tall 8' to 10' tall Miscanthus that looks like bamboo that is in three huge clumps. Its Murder to dig up my old spade just bent as I tried. I have thoughts of this rampant grass forcing its way through the floor of the shed.. more pictures of the garden before BodgeIt .

Any Ideas on how to ensure these grasses do not try to grow again are welcome as I think just covering them with membrane and gravel will not suffice.

Bertha cuts her own T slot work clamping base

2009-09-28T10:58:00.009+01:00

Using the Dremel Key hole router bit 655 not quite its intended use but it works well once I figured out that 10mm a min was the best speed for a 7mm deep cut and almost the slowest speed on the look alike avoided MDF burning smell. so it takes 30Min's per slot to cut there are 19 slots ie every 20mm. I also learn a little G code in the process.

The process has identified that I forgot to put the collar back on the X axis drive shaft when I added the two extra runner on the X axis. Oops so there was a 2mm difference between the start point of the first X T slot to the start of the last X T slot. As the Slots are only for Clamping stuff down is no big problem tho.

The bigger problems are:-

Finding a reliable way to set spindle speed on the look alike.

Finding a way to stop the filters blocking on the hover when cutting MDF.

Modifications required:

Fit the Collar on the X axis.

Upgrade Y and Z Axis's to have motor couplers, bearings and collars like X instead of Plastic tube and tie wraps... Coupling... Thou neither the Y or Z axis had any measurable error like the X had.. the solution for X is more mechanically stable thou..

An electronic switch to turn the spindle on and off.

An electronic switch to turn the hover on and off.

Maybe make some kind of spindle speed detector to have complete control of spindle speed.

2009-09-16T00:46:00.008+01:00

A busy weekend in Gloucester making a Double door frame and fitting new hard wood doors to my Mom's house. So not much rep rapping or CNC~ing etc.. Any way here is a quick up date on Bertha and Big Bertha the projects.. Some brief details on the Big Bertha project blog. Slightly earlier than anticipated due to the success of Bertha.

Also last weekend I added the 2 extra runners on the X and Y axis of Bertha.

Bertha completed over 110,000 lines of G code using the pic to G code function of EMC2 I made the mistake of clicking on invert image so I stopped the G code some 120,000 lines early. lessons learnt dont make the first real job for your CNC a big one a 9.4 MB Gcode file is > 200,000 lines of Gcode set the feed rate higher than 120mm a min and a cut of depth 0.1mm.

So the carve a logo exercise ended up as one long soak test.
Great result though Bertha did not fall apart it did not lose position and the low cost look like a Dremel did not fail. Other lessons learnt you need a fan for the X Axis motor or run it at < 2A. An aborted Bodge It Logo around 100mm x 73 mm~ 3-4mm deep. Note the invert function takes the regular G code and reverses the code order not a good idea as it re cuts seach layer.

Oh and not forgetting the picture of the Wind and Solar powered speed caution signs seen on roads around Gloucester.

Y Rod mount amd Y motor mount

2009-09-04T01:52:00.004+01:00

Click here for Full details of Y Rod mount Y motor mount

I love it when a plan comes together!

2009-09-03T20:46:00.003+01:00

Things arrive from around the world together amazing!!!.

To see more go here:-

The deliverys arrive.. pictures of the bits.

Pictures of the rebuilt Bertha now as a CNC

2009-09-03T13:10:00.008+01:00

A work in progreess with axis transion speeds of > 30mm /s

I'm working on making the as yet unsupported trapezoidal spindle drive shaft to make it so that its supported with bearings, this will allow a much higher axis transition speed. I'm also will be improving the rigidity of the Y axis by adding two more 8mm y Axis slide bars the beauty of using the nylon blocks as the mounting method has saved around £70 the cost of a traditional CNC slide system.

Here is a picture of the first test routing performed.. using a cone shaped dremel bit no 125

I am still having intermitent problems with the Z Axis home opto sensor despite ex-changing the sensor for another one and changing the parallel printer port input pin from 12 to 13, using USB double screend cable and adding high and low value capacitanc to the 5v supply pins on the Opto sensor PCB.
I have also reduced the length of the sensor cable run that is spiro wraped with the stepper and dremel power cables. curently run out of ideas to solve the problem.
Correction its a Dremel look alike from Aldi.. I do have a puka Dremel as well as several other imitations. I also have a giant 700W dremel type tool from the B&Q P Pro range this will be used on Big Bertha .. Yes a 700w with a small collete pin chuck just like a dremel.

More pictures of Bertha and its insides on the BodgeITQuickTools blog.

Ps Midge just asked why I didnt sand the test piece to make it look better. It is as it is off of Bertha.. I didnt use a small dremel 105 engraving bit as I did not know if Bertha would work hence it is a rough cut in the beach ply that is 0.02mm deep (If my stepper configuration settings are correct ) I dont know the speed of the cutting either but it was finished /done in less than 2 min.

X and Y axis sliders method 3 ONLY for belt or ball chain drive.

2009-08-15T16:24:00.004+01:00

I am total amazed by this one I expected this to have more friction than the skate bearings and for it to have a lot of play.. neither is the case it is also very very much lighter as it has not got 32 skate bearings. I cant belive how simple the X & Y mechanisims are now and its £16 cheaper to buy..

X & Y Sliders method 2 is for using Bike chain

2009-08-15T01:34:00.005+01:00

After testing method 3 with Bike chain I have found that you must use this method.
Its a bit of a catch 22 ~ toothed belt rus great with method 3 and is closest to a printed Darwin.
However with bike chain the extra weight causes too much friction and skate bearings are needed. Skate bearings and bike chain are cheaper but in the long run you will need to buy toothed belt. I will continue to look for an inexpensive reliable method of making ball chaine drive pulles as this solves the catch 22 by eliminating toothed belt.

X and Y axis sliders method 2 tyring to avoid drilling big holes in wood and keeping it simple to make. Making the sliders out of Nylon corner fixing blocks.

Here are the full details of the construction. X & Y Sliders method 2

Follow the link to Repstrap Dawin for

2009-07-29T16:06:00.005+01:00

> Making 20 Diagonal tie brackets & 4 anti vibration feet <

originalFree drive belt gears for Z axis using LL025XML (RRRF Belt)

2009-03-22T00:14:00.047Z

Lost posting recoverd...

For those in the UK/US taking an ASDA/Wal-Mart Blue milk bottle top filled with poly morph/Capa creates a Z pulley with the correct pitch of gripper plastic to mate with the RRRF drive belt (LL025XML). Complete with a dimple in the middle to drill the 8mm hole for the Z axis. I've not finished experimenting but it looks very good.

Tools used.

Design change for X and Y gears so all are made in simple ply mould for all three by making the drive shaft from 6mm studding.

By using a short length of 8mm Aluminium tube as a bearing insert to fit the 6mm studding in a standard skate bearing. The new 6mm size drive can replace the 8mm drive shaft on Repstrap Darwin

Mould assembly

The XY belt length for mould is 0.1mm x 400steps = 40mm.
Cut 40mm of belt starting at a tooth & ending just before a tooth thus giving 20 teeth.
The hole size required to make the mould is (40mm/3.142) + 2*0.64 mm [belt height] = 14mm.
I took 2 pieces of ply 75mm X 44mm held them together drilled a 6mm hole through the middle put a 6mm nut and bolt through them marked the sides with marker pen. Drilled 6mm holes in each corner 15mm in from each edge. I took the ply apart marking the tops with felt pen... I took the top piece and used a 13mm wood bit to drill out the middle hole (use a 14mm drill if you have one.)
Using my big tapered reamer and the 40mm of belt I adjusted the hole for a perfect fit. I sanded all of the internal edges of the new hole fitted the belt. This made great gears but when I drilled out the drive shaft hole it was slightly off centre. So off to B&Q to get a 14mm wood bit & remade the Top plate. I also decided to make an Aluminium plate to go between the top and bottom ply plates to make a nice flat finish on the end of the gear. I found using a cheap friction style G clamp with a penny washer produced a better finish to the top of the gears. I used a 1 pint Christmas pudding bowl to heat the water to temperature in the microwave.

Filling the Bowl 3/4 pint of water & Micro waving for 2.5 mins in a 900w microwave gave the right temperature for the Polymorph. I found measuring a milk bottle top full of Polymorph was just right for making one gear.
I used a plastic fork to squish the Polymorph granules together and remove them from the hot water. Once drained you can handle the plastic (test it first as you don’t want to burn your puddys) push into the top of the mould level it off put penny washer on top and clamp down with G clamp leave for 10 mins remove clamp and washer. Un-bolt mould remove aluminium plate ensure polymorph has cooled to white colour re-bolt the ply parts flip mould over & drill 6mm hole un bolt mould pop the gear out carefully peeling of the length of belt you have one nice looking gear.
The first gear you make will pick up any wood dust so put the first gear to one side.
re-assemble and repeat this time the gear is perfect, so make 2 more.

The finished gears are a tight fit on threaded rod so screw the gears on. I put a washer on either side of each gear on the Y axis. The X axis can be fitted to the X stepper using supper glue and some force to fit it I adjusted the hole with a small tapered reamer first.

The milk bottle top gears have 64 teeth. The Z resolution remains at 1mm / 400steps =0.0025mm as this is governed by the thread of the drive shafts not the pulley size.

Lost posting recoverd...

Quick update on the two RepStrap builds.

2009-01-14T23:08:00.011Z

The DIY Repstrap started out using the pipe CNC idea using copper pipes and easy fit connections. Looking at it one day I just thought it would bee much cheaper in MDF with 2x1 and more robust.
Having already discovered the 13" long Y axis was not big enough I decided If I was to change the Y axis to 15" I might as well remove the copper hence we get the 2x1 and MDF low cost DIY repstrap.

Blogger Pictures

Using £12 stepper motors that seem quite happy with a 6 Kg load on the work table.

Problem with using the lower cost steppers motors they get very hot when powered continue sly. I had already bought a Maplin infra-red thermometer for checking the extruder temp.
pointing this at the itty bitty steppers showed me they were sitting at 70C burn your puddys hot.

Looked at the standard Arduino decided Pin 15 would do to switch all of enable pins on the RRRF stepper controllers.

Last weekend was spent playing getting the Arduino and Sanguino controllers working correctly with the RepStrap Machines now this appeared to be a bit of a black art at first getting a version of the firmware to run correctly there seem some serial coms race conditions, I must say seem as I have not bothered to investigate the actual problem. One set of documents have the data bits parity and stop parameters set labelled incorrectly.
Any way reading a Forum post by Chris Meighan I downloaded the zip file and ran the package Luckily Chris had chosen the same Arduino pin to enable the steppers.
All the problems were resolved by using the New, improved G-code firmware for RepRap the code is nicely commented and compact. I installed the latest Windows RepRap Host from Adrian the only problem seen using the Host software is some kind of resolution problem with the Z axis where instead of 400 steps per mm you need to set this to 200 don't know why yet. The firm ware from Chris seems to be correct in stand alone mode, not yet down loaded the source for the Host to investigate. Spent a lot of time playing with G code files and Windows RepRap host SW .

Next Job finish the extruder order ABS to play with not sure about using HDPE yet.

Extruder notes

2008-11-06T19:12:00.005Z

I have decided to make at least two extruder's one for each machine, both using the direct dive as Nophead has done. Both will be using Peek not PTFE as it seems to work ok for the meta lab machine.

I received my length of Peek - 1000 16mm today just need to develop a means of cutting it straight and drilling a central hole to tap without a lathe.Also figuring out how to start the die threading the brass rod correctly. This has encouraged me to only thread the part that will screw into the Peek.

I will be using the rrrf magnetic shaft encoder on one extuder and Looking at this locking-solarbotics-gm3-clutch as another little differential modification.

The other little problem on Bertha is to try to cut the noise it makes. to be continued

Stepper Motor mounts for Z and Y Axis

2008-10-27T18:00:00.009Z

The motor mounts and he drive couplings have evolved from the X Axis discovery's lessons learnt from the design it as you build it method I used for this project.
On the X axis these problems were:-

Stepper motors too small to drive weight
Home brew stepper motor controllers more expensive to buy than Zacks RRRF full kits.
5mml studding had too much flex was hard to buy perfectly straight straight lengths.
Alignment of Stepper motors to studding drive is very difficult.

The solutions were:-

Buy Stepper motors from Bits from Bytes - Excellent dual ended drive shafts.
Buy all future electronics as complete kits from Zack at RRRF nice and easy.
Upgrade studding from 5mm to 8mm re arrange the structure to accommodate 8mm.
Improvise a drive linkage tried using tried springs, clear hose pipe, then used the holes left from a hole cutter which was refined to using big washers, nuts and 60 Amp chock block.

Here are the pictures of the final result of these changes.

From Blogger Pictures

Motor mounting blocks with captive nuts the large hole is 25mm the four smaller holes 5.5mm they are counter bored with 8.5mm to a depth of 2.5mm the plywood is 6mm thick.

A picture of the x axis drive its using the MDF motor couplings made from scrap floor laminate you can see how i needed to cut a slot in the base plate to accommodate the 8mm drive and bearings.

The Y Axis in close up detail motor drive coupling and bearing shown with the picture of the Y and Z axis to the right.

Details of the drive shafts bearings & motor coupling

2008-10-26T00:51:00.009+01:00

Rep Strap Bertha is screw thread driven using 8mm studding with roller skate bearings and large washers for anti shake drive coupling.

Here are the roller skate bearings mounts made from 18mm plywood, it is drilled with a 22mm hole 7mm deep then a 19mm drill is used to complete the hole this provides a retention shelf for the bearing to rest on.

From Blogger Pictures

Here is the assembly of the Y Axis drive shaft please note I used Adrian Atkins tip of using 22swg solder to wrap around the thread to stop any bearing wiggle the bearings are positioned with Nylock lock nuts.

From Blogger Pictures

The steeper motors a connected to the drive shafts with anti shake couplings made from large washers a 1/2 60 Amp terminal 8mm nut 4mm not and bolt. The washers are bolted together for drilling and filling.

These coupling parts are then assembled using a 45W Weller soldering Iorn positioning the nut with a bolt and the terminal with a 4mm bolt, spring and nut.

The Drive coupling can now be Nylock nutted on the the end of the Y axis Shaft.

Steel frame Kit orderd

2008-10-20T22:00:00.014+01:00

Ordered the Steel Frame Kit from Bits From Bytes as because I don't know any suppliers up in the north west, did not have time to find a supplier of the raw steel it was a lazy option I guess.
(I know plenty of places in the South east 240 miles away ~ the main draw back of relocation is loss of local knowledge)

Anticipating the arrival of this kit I used a jigsaw to cut the Darwin print platform out of MDF tonight.

From Blogger Pictures

As I now have almost two full sets of working electronics so I though might as well have two set ups to play with; A wooden Darwin driven by Sanguino and the Rep Strap Bertha driven by the Arudrino.

From Blogger Pictures

I also have a 500mm x 500mm x 500mm CNC in the process of being constructed based on the experiences of the Rep Strap Bertha build. Still using draw slides but 24" heavy duty ones some thing like a 50kg load capacity per pair. I will wait for the new new Stepper Motor Driver v2.0 PCB kit from Zack to drive this beast.

The XYL is correcting my wording from the other room now. I need to get a digital camera that's a little better than the one on my Smartphone to put some pictures up of these efforts.

Plywood Extruder part 1

2008-10-18T23:34:00.005+01:00

The extruder how can I make one cheaply:
Search the RepRap Wiki to find a set of drawings for the extruder parts.

The answer had to be using hard wood plywood from the local Bodge It Quick store:

For the 10mm thick parts use 9mm hard wood ply.
To get the 15mm thick parts glue 6mm to 9mm hard wood ply.
To get the 25mm thick parts make it 24mm with 18mm glued to 6mm hard wood ply.

As these parts were designed to be printed or lazer cut not made from wood.
Planning the way you start to fabricate them is required.

The extruder design I am opting for the direct drive extruder system.
As I alredy have the optical encoder from Zack at the rrrf built and working.

The direct drive extruder has still two designs one of Adrians and on from Nophead.
The difrence being Adrians retains the drive gearing and Nopheads has this removed.
I alredy have bought the two packs of 5 Geenbank gear wheels seems a pity to waste them.
But Nopheads extruder is simpler for not having them going for the Kiss system (Keep It Simple Stupid) I can always add the gearing later if its needed saves at least making the L shaped part that holds the gears.

So I can scrubb the L shaped 25mm /24mm thick part.

Parts list is now reduced to the screw side of the extruder and the polymer guide part of the extruder. The Motor mounting bracket, the extruder assembly mounting bracket, the motor coupling.

Router in clasped firmly in my hand its off to the shed....

Magnetic Rotary Encoder v1.0 Kit build

2008-08-06T18:47:00.006+01:00

The PCB high quality just like all the other Bds.
It's a great little kit its as it was WFT kit too. (Works First Time).
I've not used surface mount components for over 20 years.
(Development engineer to firmware / software engineer conversion)

I used an old Weller TCP iron with 22swg multi core solder didn't have flux so tinned all pads except the chip. Borrowed a pair of eye lash tweezers from the better half.
Soldered it with the exception the chip without an eye glass, for the chip I used 3.5x magnification head set (Rolson head set from CPC farnel).
Didn't need solder wick which was lucky as I didn't have any.
I did get all of the components positioned so you could read them left to right ;-)

For any one in the UK .
I made the mistake of buying the Arduino Raw PCB Kit as I had most of bits in the shed I now know buying Zacks full Arduino kit is by far the cheaper and quicker option.

Stepper Motor Driver v1.1 PCBs
Tip: I replaced the 4k7 resistors with zerohms and did not fit the 1nf caps.
For two good reasons I hadn't got any 1nf caps and the application notes for the L298 makes no suggestion of needing to filter ringing on the current sence pins. These components would only be needed if a wire wound 0.5 ohm resistors were used. The L298 application notes advise against using a wire wound resistor.

NB A zerohms is a wire link that looks like an 1/8 w resistor mine are yellow will post a picture of some. they may not be made any more I haven't looked.

Bertha is made from MDF with some old ball-bearing draw slides don't know how accurate this will be, I can't feel any play on any of the axis.

End of my first Dyslexic blog.