Monday March 23 - Thursday March 26
Crazy busy at work preparing many projects and robots for a show and a photo shoot
Monday
Vibrobots at work
Tuesday
Vibrobots
Wired motor board into VCR, heisted two switches on VCR to control the circuitry
Changed to 7.2V R/C car battery (bought it, charging)
Wednesday
Installed battery, jamming, mechanical bits for VCR, motor toast
Finally bought new motor kit, made it, it works
End of the deadline for show, krazee time! Fun tho.
Thursday
Soldered last four LEDs for Peggy
End of deadline for photo shoot, gathered all projects
Bent some wire with new bendy tool
Elephant Gets Simpler
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Toolpaths are too tight for 1/8" bit to negotiate, changed to simpler design with only three parts.
Toolpaths are too tight for 1/8" bit to negotiate, changed to simpler design with only three parts.
Elephant Puzzle
Monday 23 March 2009
Started drawing custom puzzle to cut out on CNC. It's a Heffalump!
Started drawing custom puzzle to cut out on CNC. It's a Heffalump!
Soldering 500 LEDs
Saturday through Monday, 23 March 2009
Soldered up a "Peggy", which is sort of a programmable LED light bright, for work. It probably had between 400 and 500 LEDs on it.
Soldered up a "Peggy", which is sort of a programmable LED light bright, for work. It probably had between 400 and 500 LEDs on it.
Old School Relay Motor Driver
Sun 21 March 2009
I dug out this schematic of the very first robot I ever made, which used relays to drive the motors. Think that is part of the reason I used the relay in the previous post -- so I could understand how the transistor turns them on and off. I have felt puzzled for years after building that gosh darn robot. Now I can see why -- the schematic is like spaghetti -- I can give my ' inner sixteen year old' electronics newbie a break. Apparently the -6/+6 gives directional control via the relay, pretty clever, eh?
That's all hand-drawn, serious geek points.
I dug out this schematic of the very first robot I ever made, which used relays to drive the motors. Think that is part of the reason I used the relay in the previous post -- so I could understand how the transistor turns them on and off. I have felt puzzled for years after building that gosh darn robot. Now I can see why -- the schematic is like spaghetti -- I can give my ' inner sixteen year old' electronics newbie a break. Apparently the -6/+6 gives directional control via the relay, pretty clever, eh?
That's all hand-drawn, serious geek points.
Motor Driver Circuit
Friday-Saturday March 20-21 2009
Made a circuit to turn a motor on for a short time when a button is pressed. We had a bunch of 3904s lying around and no power transistors, but we had a bunch of these 5V relays, so I used a 3904 and a relay. The motor is going to be overvolted and overworked pretty hard I suspect. Fun stuff, actually had to do some calculations and look up values in data sheets to figure out the sizing of the resistors. Not that I knew how, much thanks to the internet and www.kpsec.freeuk.com.
Made a circuit to turn a motor on for a short time when a button is pressed. We had a bunch of 3904s lying around and no power transistors, but we had a bunch of these 5V relays, so I used a 3904 and a relay. The motor is going to be overvolted and overworked pretty hard I suspect. Fun stuff, actually had to do some calculations and look up values in data sheets to figure out the sizing of the resistors. Not that I knew how, much thanks to the internet and www.kpsec.freeuk.com.
HyperBot
Thursday March 19 2009
Made a hyperactive vibrobot at work. Shortened the legs and increased the wobble with an eccentric weighted piece. Thanks to Lindsey for the doggie parts -- googly eyes, pointy ears, tail.
Made a hyperactive vibrobot at work. Shortened the legs and increased the wobble with an eccentric weighted piece. Thanks to Lindsey for the doggie parts -- googly eyes, pointy ears, tail.
Completed Puzzle
Wed March 18 2009
Cut the remaining three pieces of the puzzle. Fits like... well, like fine machinery.
Cut the remaining three pieces of the puzzle. Fits like... well, like fine machinery.
The Bottle Opener
March 4 2006
This is my favorite of all the parts I've CNC'd for school. I call it The Happy Tool.
This is my favorite of all the parts I've CNC'd for school. I call it The Happy Tool.
First Robot Part
Sunday February 28.
Wow my first robot part. I am so happy. Beautiful part.
CNC YEAH BABY
Wow my first robot part. I am so happy. Beautiful part.
CNC YEAH BABY
My First PCB Design
25 February 2009
Pretty proud of this. My swap with Steamboat Ed leads me on a three week odyssey through the vagaries of PCB layout, a completly new skill for me. Results thusly. Is that not a gorgeous thing? It's colorful and yes, I hung it on the wall in my room.
Schematic and board designed with EagleSoft EagleCAD free PCB software. Knowledge by Instructables, couldn't have done it without the Instructables.
What is it, you ask? It's a driver circuit to control 12 valves from a BASIC Stamp microcontroller. It's the board for Steamboat Ed's calliope (like a pipe organ).
Here's a shot of a test-fit of some of the parts.
Pretty proud of this. My swap with Steamboat Ed leads me on a three week odyssey through the vagaries of PCB layout, a completly new skill for me. Results thusly. Is that not a gorgeous thing? It's colorful and yes, I hung it on the wall in my room.
Schematic and board designed with EagleSoft EagleCAD free PCB software. Knowledge by Instructables, couldn't have done it without the Instructables.What is it, you ask? It's a driver circuit to control 12 valves from a BASIC Stamp microcontroller. It's the board for Steamboat Ed's calliope (like a pipe organ).
Here's a shot of a test-fit of some of the parts.
The Round Maze
Our first creative part, we designed our own round mazes. This was REALLY hard to draw, egads.
The Square Maze
This was hard, very challenging to draw. Amazing accuracy of this little machine. Something like 6 passes to cut out the grooves. First time with the engraver tool, which is a left handed center drill to a depth of 7 thousandths.
Hexagon
Drawn, CAD, CAM, and G-code in Emco WinCAM. Cut on Emco PC Mill 50. Our second CNC mill assignment.
The Bishop
26 JanuaryOK in the meantime I'm trying to get caught up in last semester's tasks so I turn out a Bishop.
This entails really reading through the lathe manual and procedures and really dialing it so I know what in the hell I am doing instead of just following a document like a dumb chimpanzee at a keyboard.
Drawn on EMCO DOS.
Saved as DXF from the DOS program and imported into EMCO WinCAM.
CAM program created with EMCO WinCAM.
Cut on EMCO PCTurn 50 CNC lathe.
The Haas Gator
January 24 2009
CHECK IT -- The first part I cut on Steamboat Ed's Haas Mini Mill. It took a whole lot of time but finally we got first chips. Here's a closeup of the part as cut on the Haas.
Drawn and programmed initially with Emco WinCAM, then hand-edited on Haas Mini Mill.
This is the culmination of perhaps three weeks of study of his mill.
We had to:
What I learned: it's about impossible to hand-edit a program created by a CAM program. There are simply too many things to change in too many places. Better way would be to re-do the decisions using the CAM program and re-generate the G-code. At this point I am a bundle of frustration over not being able to made G-code at home.
I embark on a lot of study of CAM programs and reading forums etc.
End up downloading Predator CNC.
So the method is to use the G-code from WinCAM and then pop it into Predator and edit it there.
Predator is a royal pain in the ass and a hassle to set up.
It probably takes an hour just to set up Predator to be able to run a simulation of the cutting.
At this point I realize what a great program WinCAM really is. I had dismissed it as rinky-dink but I am wrong. It has everything in one package - CAD, CAM, what they call "post", and "verification", which means you can see in 2-D the toolpaths and you can see in 3-D the cut-out part. So, WinCAM freakin' rocks at this point. Only problem is that I can only use it at school and when I get to Steamer's and need to make a change it's quite difficult.
CHECK IT -- The first part I cut on Steamboat Ed's Haas Mini Mill. It took a whole lot of time but finally we got first chips. Here's a closeup of the part as cut on the Haas.
Drawn and programmed initially with Emco WinCAM, then hand-edited on Haas Mini Mill.
This is the culmination of perhaps three weeks of study of his mill.
We had to:
- Install the vise
- Tram the vise
- Get the coolant system working
- Fill it up and then get the grate/filter thing installed (he had to order it)
- And me going through the big fat binder to figure out the control panel, etc.
What I learned: it's about impossible to hand-edit a program created by a CAM program. There are simply too many things to change in too many places. Better way would be to re-do the decisions using the CAM program and re-generate the G-code. At this point I am a bundle of frustration over not being able to made G-code at home.
I embark on a lot of study of CAM programs and reading forums etc.
End up downloading Predator CNC.
So the method is to use the G-code from WinCAM and then pop it into Predator and edit it there.
Predator is a royal pain in the ass and a hassle to set up.
It probably takes an hour just to set up Predator to be able to run a simulation of the cutting.
At this point I realize what a great program WinCAM really is. I had dismissed it as rinky-dink but I am wrong. It has everything in one package - CAD, CAM, what they call "post", and "verification", which means you can see in 2-D the toolpaths and you can see in 3-D the cut-out part. So, WinCAM freakin' rocks at this point. Only problem is that I can only use it at school and when I get to Steamer's and need to make a change it's quite difficult.
The Gator
This is the very first thing I made on a CNC mill.
Drawn using Emco WinCAM.
CAM program by Emco WinCAM with arcs, countours, and pockets.
G-code created by Emco WinCAM.
Drawn using Emco WinCAM.
CAM program by Emco WinCAM with arcs, countours, and pockets.
G-code created by Emco WinCAM.
The Beat Bearing
9 January 2009
At work I am making this thing called The Beat Bearing. You can read all about it in Issue 17 of Make. Here's an eyes-shut photo of me with the finished Lexan piece. Milled on Bridgeport manual mill by Steamboat Ed.
I get Steamboat Ed to mill out the Lexan piece. The dimensions given are all in metric and the mill is in inches, so I draw it all out in AutoCAD in 3-D and then I create a 2-D diagram for him. So, I go over there, and it takes him about 5 hours. Very cool, very educational. He's got a gizmo that sort of CNC's the X-axis, which rocks, and also he has a quick change tool holder. WAY better than having to unscrew that drawbar thingy every time. I learned about wigglers too.
I end up bartering my skills to get it done. He wants a PCB made. That's another story.
At work I am making this thing called The Beat Bearing. You can read all about it in Issue 17 of Make. Here's an eyes-shut photo of me with the finished Lexan piece. Milled on Bridgeport manual mill by Steamboat Ed.
I get Steamboat Ed to mill out the Lexan piece. The dimensions given are all in metric and the mill is in inches, so I draw it all out in AutoCAD in 3-D and then I create a 2-D diagram for him. So, I go over there, and it takes him about 5 hours. Very cool, very educational. He's got a gizmo that sort of CNC's the X-axis, which rocks, and also he has a quick change tool holder. WAY better than having to unscrew that drawbar thingy every time. I learned about wigglers too.
I end up bartering my skills to get it done. He wants a PCB made. That's another story.
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