Africa is a tough country... especially if you are looking for speciality items like the robotics we need for a RepRap.
First Hurdle: Stepper motors. I have a couple, but all of them have very low step resolution. All but two, and one has an inconvenient sized and pitched timer belt pulley forged onto the shaft...
In the end I had to go to down-town Johannesburg (Mantech electronics) to get decent steppers. Not even the mainstream electronics suppliers in Midrand had anything useful to me.
Second Hurdle: Open ended timing belt. For Morgan's POC I need a single timingbelt of around 3 meter length. Almost impossible to find apparently. Finally found a company in Kempton park that could cut me a piece.
Third Hurdle: Electronics! Even though I could make all the boards I need here, the cost of building it in small scale would be more just in materials than importing manufactured boards from Europe or USA.
Going to start with Arduino Mega that I managed to source from the local Arduino agent, and prototype electronics. Now I am just waiting for delivery.
I am terribly excited about this platform. I programmed since an early age, and used to program for DOS and microprocessors in C and C++. Cannot wait to be able to dust off my C knowledge again. Morgan depends on it.
Tomorrow morning I will start building the frame, and hopefully I'll get some work in progress pictures as I go along.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
CAD
Today I started to play with OpenSCAD, to get a feel of what can be done, and how much time you need. Initially you have to get your head around the parametric stuff, but it turned out to be quite powerful.
Here are the initial candidates for the Morgan extremities.
I am going to try to model each of the parts I have to "strap" for Morgan Zero in order to make the machine easier to systematically replace with built parts when I get it operational. It also helps me to focus on the functionality of the parts to ensure that I have to hand-make as few as possible pieces to get to the working system I need. These parts will not be the final parts in any way, and will not be published until I start building in plastic...
More news later - I need some materials
Here are the initial candidates for the Morgan extremities.
More news later - I need some materials
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Evolution of the Species
Evolution happens when you keep mating specimens, and keep removing the most unsuitable offspring from the gene pool. Survival of the fittest.
Mutation helps to keep the pool diverse enough for the off chance that something else might be the answer to the problem.
What I am going to explore is the possibility that a cross-over between different successful rapid prototypers, with a bit of mutation (fuelled by my ignorance) could deliver a next generation of self replicating rapid prototype modellers.
Adding to my adventure, is that my birth county and country domicile do not cater for what I am about to attempt. We do not have the choice of material from filament right though to "vitamins" that others have. What makes this exiting is that this project will most likely be forced towards the Gada grand prize specification exactly because of this.
This is the uneasy birth of Morgan.
It will be a RepRap system, with build envelope of at least 300 x 300 x 200mm and will comprise of 80 to 90% printed components eventually. Electronics will be simple, and as affordable as possible. Should have at least 3 different build materials, with automatic material selection - and one should be an easily removable support material.
It should be able to build all its plastic parts completely unattended, and possibly its electronics as well.
Let's say its a 5 year plan...
Mutation helps to keep the pool diverse enough for the off chance that something else might be the answer to the problem.
What I am going to explore is the possibility that a cross-over between different successful rapid prototypers, with a bit of mutation (fuelled by my ignorance) could deliver a next generation of self replicating rapid prototype modellers.
Adding to my adventure, is that my birth county and country domicile do not cater for what I am about to attempt. We do not have the choice of material from filament right though to "vitamins" that others have. What makes this exiting is that this project will most likely be forced towards the Gada grand prize specification exactly because of this.
This is the uneasy birth of Morgan.
It will be a RepRap system, with build envelope of at least 300 x 300 x 200mm and will comprise of 80 to 90% printed components eventually. Electronics will be simple, and as affordable as possible. Should have at least 3 different build materials, with automatic material selection - and one should be an easily removable support material.
It should be able to build all its plastic parts completely unattended, and possibly its electronics as well.
Let's say its a 5 year plan...
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