What's going on with those makerbots?

[Bill Culverhouse]

Otto-bot and Cruz-bot.

 

What's the skinny?

 

I made a huge transformer head this weekend by-the-by. :-)

 

-b

 

 

 

[Jeff Crews]

My status: I have the makergear stepper extruder almost finished and will be putting it in soon. I'd like to rap with you about how to adjust skein settings. I plan to print an SAE Prusa once it's done (I already have some parts done). The BOM for the Prusa is pretty minimal except for the 5 steppers, so I'm getting all that in ASAP. I am simultaneously building a Mantis PCB mill. All of the parts are in except for leadscrew nuts and I am planning to use my extra set of MB electronics to drive it. So ping me about how to use the makergear stepper and let me know how I can get that tricolor LED flasher thingy to you so you can make your PLA  skull light up. jeff c --- On Tue, 5/17/11, Bill Culverhouse <bill.cul...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Otto Hammersmith]

I am very nearly done with this freakin' floor (3 more boards in the last room, woo hoo!  Nevermind the closets and trim work) and *then* I can get back to 'bot building.

[Bill Culverhouse]

Jeff, you will probably want to use a MBI stepper driver or the PSCC15 (what I'm using)

 

http://wiki.makerbot.com/stepper-driven-extruder#toc13

 

The PSCC is a pololu based driver and gives up to 1/16th stepping. I've replaced all my drivers

for these and the bot is much quieter and smoother. I think for the extruder I have it set to 1/8th

stepping.

 

You'll need to make a change in the "machines" for your repG driver to get the RPM

in the control panel. And a change like RPMify or add a line to your replace.csv in repg like

 

M108 S M108 R

 

Let me know when you get things together or need help getting it together. And I'll

come over and give you the 123.

 

Otto, did you kids ever get another shop to work out of or are you just out of your

house these days?

 

Oh and whats the word on Makerfaire NC? Jeff? You going to be out there? I've got

a fairly tweaked bot if you don't get yours running.

 

-b

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 7:40 PM, Jeff Crews <cruz...@yahoo.com> wrote:

[Otto Hammersmith]

The house is the shop... we deiced hardwood floors would give us more room to work with, so rather than spend money on space we spent it on floors... which is coming to fruition at any minute now.

[Jeff Crews]

Hmm... I thought that stepper extruders could be driven from the standard extruder controller board by connecting all 4 stepper wires and using some different code? 'cuz if not, I'm a lot farther away from  being finished than I thought. :-(

[Bill Culverhouse]

Check that page I sent. It shows you how to drive it off the EC as well. You are just a bit more

limited in the firmware options. Look at "Driving it from the extruder controller".

 

I found that the stepper motor ran really hot driving it that way. No way to turn down the

drive voltage I suppose. I have extra MBI drivers if you'd rather do it the right way. :-)

 

-b

[Jeff Crews]

Hey, there's an Arduino meetup at the Splat on Saturday from 2-5. Would anyone be interested in meeting before or after that to play Makerbots? Bill could help me get my newly built stepper extruder working (I am going to need some hand-holding even after reading those pages), we could light up his skull, and we could all ogle my pile of Mantis PCB mill parts and brainstorm about some of the final details. If that is not sufficiently central I'd be happy to do it Sunday instead at some other location, (except at TSRDU because I'm not a member and can't get in.) Let me know! JC

[Bill Culverhouse]

I'll see you At Splat on Sat. You guys should use that as a marketing thing.

"Time for another A.S.S. meeting", wait, maybe not.

Actually I'm probably looking at used cars on Sat, but I'll be there at some point.

I'll PM you when I know something solid. Do you take sms on your phone?

 

Oh, and speaking of makergear, they are announcing a new printer in the next

week or so. FYI.

 

-b

[Jeff Crews]

Just ping me via phone or send a text to it when you know the time. JC

[Drew Nelson]

I would love to join you all at Splatspace, but I will be at a booth at the North Carolina natural history museum's Astronomy Days.


Drew

[Jeff Crews]

Balloonage? --- On Fri, 5/20/11, Drew Nelson <drewne...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Drew Nelson]

Manning the balloonage boooth.

Cheers,
Drew