The Brains and Nervous system

Makerbot parts came in this evening.  Brains and nervous system for the repstrap.  PCB boards for stepper control and for the main reprap control board.  Also got opto endstops and temperature sensor.  I will probably solder the surface mount components Tomorrow and assemble and program the microcontrolers tomorrow.  Maybe if I am productive I will even get to a stepper motor test.  Once this is complete it is on to finishing the body of the gantry and trying to interface EMC2 and the reprap control board.

AVR Programer Build

Just completed my AVR programer USBtiny  took 20 or so min to solder everything together great instruction on the webpage.  Now I just need something to program.  I should be getting the PCB boards from makerbot today or tomorrow.  Then we are off and running with the electronics portion of my reprap/repstrap.

These are my steppers I have 8 of the small Nema 17's and 3 of the large Nema 23's  the big one is 302oz-in.  I think I paied like 5.50 a piece for the smaller ones they are 24V 2 Amp if I cant use them for the reprap I will turn them into little windmill array 12V battery recharger.

X-Axis loose fitting and assembly on the 2'x4' CNC router gantry shown in the picture. This is the bigboy I resurrected out of storage.  I don't really have a place to run this as my workshop is in the basement and space is a premium but I may just bring it into work (we have a couple thousand square feet of workspace) and run it there.  I am hoping to run this as my first repstrap and then just as a CNC router as I have all the parts for completion on this setup.  I am currently using HobbyCNC board and EMC2 to run the NEMA 23 302oz-in steppers that will move this guy.  I will have to do a little interfacing between the reprap motherboard and the Hobby CNC to run this setup as a repstrap.  The plans for the gantry setup are from buildyourownCNC.com

From The Jabberwocky and the Jubjub Bird

New toy at work

This is my new work toy 14" roll mill for new metal matrix composites. This should be fun writing ladder logic for.

Awesome News

Just got an email from Makerbot.

Your order # 100003xxx has been
Complete - Packed and Shipped.

Great news for the robot we may be in working order sooner rather than later. Now I just need time to put all of these components together.

RepRap

So I am resurrecting my failed attempt at blogging for blogging's sake and jumping on the RepRap Bandwagon. The funny thing is I didn't know the bandwagon had gotten so big until I found that there is a waiting list on almost every component site especially makerbot. I believe this new awesome interest in the DIY rapid prototyping is most likey due to the wired Makerbot article.

So were does this leave me Well to start I have an inventory of various things microcontrolers, a ton so surface mount parts for a reprap mother board that may ship in a week or two hopefully. a variety of stepper motors, the internet, a 25% finished CNC lathe with hobby CNC controls, EMC2, a tiny workshop, good ole american ingenuity , and a material science engineering background.

Wish me luck and persistance.