Yes, you have found the humble beginnings of the project that would eventually grow to be the Interim GADA prize for personal manufacturing winner in July 2013.
Be sure to visit the new blog for the rest of the journey!
Quentin Harley
http://reprap.harleystudio.co.za
Friday, July 5, 2013
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Filament source...
I finally found a potential source of ABS and PLA filament, and close to my home in Centurion as a complete BONUS!
http://www.3d-printer.co.za
Anyway... development on the new XY axis is a bit slow, with real life interfering too much. Hopefully some progress with pictures this weekend.
http://www.3d-printer.co.za
Anyway... development on the new XY axis is a bit slow, with real life interfering too much. Hopefully some progress with pictures this weekend.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Inspiration comes
My first attempt to a system frame was a flat based polyhedron, made out of M8 threaded rod. The Z-axis was made from plywood glued to M8 nuts on the threaded rod of the frame, configured as a Sarrus Linkage. Problems were plentiful:
I have since explored electronics options, and decided to go with the RAMPS board for now. My intention is to get a working Rep Strap as soon as possible in order to start working on Morgan 1 - a potential Gada prize candidate.
Next up however is the X-Y axis implementation. The RepStrap should be a close approximation of the completed RepRap, since it will probably replace parts of its self until it is transformed into Morgan 1.
Morgan will return to the Darwin-like top mounted x and y axis format. The main reason for this is for print quality. The enemy of fast controlled movement is momentum. You want to reduce the weight of the X and Y axis as much as possible. Mendel did this by removing the need for the Y axis to move around the heavy stepper motor for the X-axis, but as build sizes increase, this advantage will diminish.
The plan is to implement the X and Y axis using two stepper motors mounted off axis, while keeping expensive rods and endless belts out of the equation.
Total cost target for this section: R800.00 ( US$ 115.00 )
More info to follow soon...
- The M8 rod was not rigid enough to handle the sideways forces applied to it by the Z-axis. This flexibility created play in the linkage, and the resulting platform was not stable enough.
- The M8 nuts had too much play on the threads of the rods.
- Mounting the nuts were also problematic, and my temporary solution turned out to be very temporary indeed. Metal and wood have different expansion curves, and the glue simply broke off pieces of the plywood.
I have since explored electronics options, and decided to go with the RAMPS board for now. My intention is to get a working Rep Strap as soon as possible in order to start working on Morgan 1 - a potential Gada prize candidate.
Next up however is the X-Y axis implementation. The RepStrap should be a close approximation of the completed RepRap, since it will probably replace parts of its self until it is transformed into Morgan 1.
Morgan will return to the Darwin-like top mounted x and y axis format. The main reason for this is for print quality. The enemy of fast controlled movement is momentum. You want to reduce the weight of the X and Y axis as much as possible. Mendel did this by removing the need for the Y axis to move around the heavy stepper motor for the X-axis, but as build sizes increase, this advantage will diminish.
The plan is to implement the X and Y axis using two stepper motors mounted off axis, while keeping expensive rods and endless belts out of the equation.
Total cost target for this section: R800.00 ( US$ 115.00 )
More info to follow soon...
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Framework halted
So, plan B was crazy - and will not work for the same reasons plan A did not work.
In the end, what we need is living hinges, and that will be the first thing I shall work on when I have some system I can print with. Chicken and Egg.
At the moment I am focussing on the electronics. Arduino is working, and I am looking into the shields for making the motors turn. Something that intrigues me is the power of the Arduino Mega, and how we are underusing it's capabilities. It should be possible to build a shield that can control the stepper motors with lower cost electronics than the pololu stepper drivers.
Looking into ways to modify either the "orginal" 5D code or the Teacup firmware to make this possible. The standard arduino stepper code available at the moment is "locking" code, preventing the system from doing anything else while the stepper is running... not ideal. It will have to be interrupt driven.
At the end of this experiment I would love to have a new shield, at lower cost - and single sided that will have the same functionality at the current RAMPS 1.3 board. Watch this space...
In the end, what we need is living hinges, and that will be the first thing I shall work on when I have some system I can print with. Chicken and Egg.
At the moment I am focussing on the electronics. Arduino is working, and I am looking into the shields for making the motors turn. Something that intrigues me is the power of the Arduino Mega, and how we are underusing it's capabilities. It should be possible to build a shield that can control the stepper motors with lower cost electronics than the pololu stepper drivers.
Looking into ways to modify either the "orginal" 5D code or the Teacup firmware to make this possible. The standard arduino stepper code available at the moment is "locking" code, preventing the system from doing anything else while the stepper is running... not ideal. It will have to be interrupt driven.
At the end of this experiment I would love to have a new shield, at lower cost - and single sided that will have the same functionality at the current RAMPS 1.3 board. Watch this space...
Monday, June 13, 2011
Science for Dummies
Experimentation.
So, what have I learnt so far?
The problem came in the arrangement of hinges. In order to save space, I opted for under platform hinges. This limits the placement of the hinges because they cannot occupy the same space. Additionally the support beams are not rigid enough by any stretch of the imagination, being designed to resist pulling forces, but not worth much in terms of lateral support...
It will be extremely hard to have the stability you need over the whole platform without placing the plates on the outside and on all sides, making it a bit ungainly.
Looking for plan B... and I think I have an idea. A crazy one perhaps
So, what have I learnt so far?
- Sarrus' linkage looks extremely good on paper and You Tube
- Stability depends on the play in the hinge and the stiffness of the support plates.
- There has to be a more efficient way to do this, material and space wise.
The problem came in the arrangement of hinges. In order to save space, I opted for under platform hinges. This limits the placement of the hinges because they cannot occupy the same space. Additionally the support beams are not rigid enough by any stretch of the imagination, being designed to resist pulling forces, but not worth much in terms of lateral support...
It will be extremely hard to have the stability you need over the whole platform without placing the plates on the outside and on all sides, making it a bit ungainly.
Looking for plan B... and I think I have an idea. A crazy one perhaps
Friday, June 10, 2011
Arduino
Fired it up, working out the box with Ubuntu 11.04. Absolutely painless.
My Arduino "Hello World" was changing the steady blink on the pin 13 LED to a fade-in, fade-out blink. It is almost too easy. My Eprom eraser and programmer will miss me...
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Vitamins are good for you - in moderation. Elements are always good.
It is good to get my mind working on a project again.
While trying to create a stucture that will be possible to easily recreate by building it in the repstrap, I am having a bit of a mind shift. While the idea is to get rid of all "vitamins" (non reprapable components) there is no way to get rid of it all. Now, given that some material are easilly available, and cheaply, at exceptional quality all over the world... Some vitamins are not cost effective to print. If it is more expensive to print an inferior replacement for a freely available part (like a steel nut) then it is just a waste, no matter how you approach the matter. Therefore these will be called "Elements" in the Morgan project henceforth.
element (n): a basic building block, freely available in some form (standards) word-wide at very low cost.
So, back to building business.
Morgan will incorporate as little as possible vitamins, but will make use of elements in order to create the hard wearing components. Structural components will be built, but interfaces can be placed.
Just did some maths for the Z-axis mechanics. Elements sure are going to make things work out very nicely... on paper anyway.
While trying to create a stucture that will be possible to easily recreate by building it in the repstrap, I am having a bit of a mind shift. While the idea is to get rid of all "vitamins" (non reprapable components) there is no way to get rid of it all. Now, given that some material are easilly available, and cheaply, at exceptional quality all over the world... Some vitamins are not cost effective to print. If it is more expensive to print an inferior replacement for a freely available part (like a steel nut) then it is just a waste, no matter how you approach the matter. Therefore these will be called "Elements" in the Morgan project henceforth.
element (n): a basic building block, freely available in some form (standards) word-wide at very low cost.
So, back to building business.
Morgan will incorporate as little as possible vitamins, but will make use of elements in order to create the hard wearing components. Structural components will be built, but interfaces can be placed.
Just did some maths for the Z-axis mechanics. Elements sure are going to make things work out very nicely... on paper anyway.
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