Mike, after chatting online with Alex over Skype, updated the group with this:
The Mendel 3d printer Z axis working (kinda of)!
December 1st, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Updates for everyone. First, thanks Alex for the continued dedication on the printer. He identified a few problem we can fix and improve on. 2 major issues:1. Z axis is stuck, moves a little bit but then stops. Not sure if it’s a mechanical issue where something is jamming or possibly electrical. Alex will try loosening and tightening the belt tension to see if that helps. Other potential issue is one of the screw rods and bearing seem to be canted, which may be the cause of the jam. I recall being able to make it move up and down by pulling on the belt by hand. If that continues to work, maybe the problem is the motor isn’t strong enough. Lucky me, I’ve been playing with motors and have one that’s 3x more powerful. Will mount that one if nothing else seems to work.2. Filament feeds into the first hole but can’t find the second hole into the heating chamber. Seems Alex can push the idler bearing block back and feed the filament into the first hole and then between the brass gear and idler bearing. But then the filament is pushed to the side slightly and can’t find the second hole itself. Likely problem is the brass gear I used is too large. 2 solutions, reduce the gear size or help the filament into the second hole. Reduce gear size by either buying a smaller one or file down the one we have. Help the filament into the second hole can be done with a small ramps or funnels around the second hole. I’ll give the ramp/funnel method a try first. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll go gear hunting.
Alex followed up a bit later with exciting news:
]]>Z axes works after untightening the belt. Bearings may be too tight now but is easy to adjust and we need to fix up the broken part. The part is not a essential but helps to have precision on the axis. I wasn’t able to unassemble the extruder part to try hand feeding and see if extrudes but Ricky just told me that he received the new parts so Saturday we will be able to change the whole thing… hopefully ;P
3d printer update: electronics and axis working
November 30th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
The good news is that I managed with Ricky to upload the firmware install the drivers in my laptop under windows 7 64 and make the whole thing move in every axes and the extruder to work and heat up. The bad news are that the Z axes get stuck for some strange reason I couldn’t figure out (probably is not well adjusted or the screw bars don’t turn at the same speed). The worst part of the story is that I broke one of the printed parts trying to tighten the bearings. Also I couldn’t manage to load any material into the extruder. The extruder works and gets heated but I didn’t assemble this part so I’m not sure how it works. It looks like there is not enough room for the plastic to go through the heated head so the wheels keep on turning but the plastic strand never goes through. To which Michael replied:
Thanks for getting the motors and extruder running everyone. No worries about broken parts, we’ll fix them. As for the z axis, I noticed the right screw isn’t exactly vertical and the bearing canted to the side so it’s likely the gantry will stick either in the upper or lower positions. Some adjustments and it should work okay. And forgot to mention how to load the plastic. Maybe the springs I installed on the extruder were too heavy…that’s why I bought some lighter springs…left those in the clear plastic trays. Have to push back the idler block (thing the 4 springs are attached to) then can feed the plastic filament in. I’ll be back Friday night but if anyone wants we can do a skype call Wed night and work out some of the details.]]>
MakeSense at XCJ on Wed Nov. 30th
November 28th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink
Social entrepreneurs and Hackers” (register if interested) on Wednesday at XinCheJian. He shares the following Q&A about MakeSense and what they want to accomplish with XinCheJian’s hackers.
What is MakeSense? http://we.makesense.org We connect Social entrepreneurs with supercool individuals online through social networks and a webapp that will go live soon (http://www.makesense.org) and offline through specifically designed workshops that we call hold-ups. What are social entrepreneurs? Wikipedia says : “A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change (a social venture). While a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur focuses on creating social capital.” More info at http://www.ashoka.org/social_entrepreneur How can hackers help with? That’s what MakeSense wants to determine by preparing a 1-day event facilitating the interactions between hackers and social entrepreneurs. The objective is to kickstart a sustainable loop of interactions bringing practical entrepreneurial realizations. What questions are we trying to answer at the brainstorm? After presenting you quickly the format of the event that we thought of at MakeSense, we hope to have your feedback (you hackers!) and refine the content of the event, for you hackers! Who will be interested by this? According to our statistics, anyone who likes XinCheJian..;-) What will be the follow up to this? Following this little presentation and the output of your brainstorming: we, at MakeSense commit ourselves to organize a 1-day event for you within 50 days. What benefits do people get doing this? Hacking business, New interactions for new Impact: Hackers + Social Entrepreneurs, Do it with joy]]>
]]>Cooling for aeroponic
November 28th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Hope to keep it at this temperature.
The total system has 50L of water and mixed with the nutrient from Taobao.
]]>
The Most Useless Machine Workshop
November 28th, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink
Time：December 4th at 1PM
Fees：RMB160 (including materials)
If you’ve never heard of the most useless machine before, it proves the the uselessness of this machine again. To keep it as useless as possible, by all means DO NOT google the term or follow the link below.
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/YkuiawKN3JA/
If you want to make it even more useless, nothing beats wasting your own time to learn to make one for yourself (or make several of them). So come and join us @ XinCheJian to make some useless machines! All parts and tools needed are provided with customizations welcome.
Sign up for the event here: http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=79
]]>Roborace today
November 27th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
今天的机器人比赛也许是今年最后一次的常规比赛，因为即将到来的节日等，新赛季的召开将在明年1月才会开始吧。
本次比赛，DFRobot派出了Ricky带着他的HCR机器人以及Rockets的坦克机器人，Paul的丛林王及子游的鳄鱼机器人参加了比赛。
子游的鳄鱼机器人（利用lego机器人搭建）勇猛无比，延续了手动组利用facetime进行视频传输的操作模式，但遗憾的是，操控性上有点问题，这次未能取得好成绩。
Paul的丛林王(由玩具车改造）依然延续着快速敏捷的特点，在稳定性上也有所提升，但是运气稍差，我相信，如果不是运气问题，Paul也许会获得成功。
Rockets的坦克机器人（PR5地盘+ardunio）已经好久没有出战，这次的比赛显然状态并不是很好，程序有点问题，稍后我将放出比赛的程序及我的策略给大家批评指正。很高兴，比赛中我的机器人在“大家”的帮助下，终于完成了两圈的比赛。
HCR机器人是本次比赛当之无愧的冠军，不管是从体型还是速度，还是策略都是这次比赛中最厉害的。从遥控操作的体验来看，亮度较高的情况下，视频基本上无法看清，和facetime比较效果较差，但不妨碍顺利操作。总之顺利获得了本次比赛的第一名。Ricky在几年未参赛的情况下，亲自操作HCR，玩的很high。恭喜Ricky获得本次的冠军。]]>
Article about XinCheJian on 3ders
November 27th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Hackerspaces in China.]]>
Reprap assembly ready for testing, debugging
November 26th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink
Even with a mad scramble to find all the missing parts from the Botmill kit, Mike reports some encouraging news:
]]>I finished the wiring, opto flags, feet, extruder, and wired up the power. Basically all that’s left is to square the axis, locktite the frame bolts, then plug it into the computer. Actually, just plug it in the computer and see if you can get the motors going and try extruding some plastic. We can calibrate and fine tune it after all the bugs have been worked out.