Month: August 2012

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Drawbot at the Vancouver Hack Space Super Happy Hacker House 23

MCing the lightning talks at the VHS Super Happy Hacker House was a blast. I was really nervous about the robot because I had not calibrated or tested it before the event. In the end it turned out great! Sadly, the camera man forgot his equipment so I didn’t get the raw footage for a new Drawbot video. I’ll have to work on that, I think an Indiegogo campaign is in my immediate future.

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Drawbots in the Wild, Michael is awesomesauce

Did you know? As of this moment there are sixteen Drawbots in the wild.

I love giving people props for being mad crazy good, and Michael is 105% awesome. Not only has he built his own version of the Drawbot, he’s contributing to The github project.

Saturday night we’ll be taking raw footage for a new Drawbot showcase video at the VHS Super Happy Hacker House 23.

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Drawbot automatic centering with limit switches, new OSX app on the way

The analog pins on the Adafruit Motor Shield have never been put to use. Today I finally printed the new motor mounts listed on the thingiverse page. There are 5 small holes on the side of each mount. I put an exposed wire through each pair of holes and the bobbin thread through the center hole. When the pen holder comes up and touches the wires together, the drawbot knows it’s about to break a string and stops automatically. I can also use this to re-center the robot with Settings > Drive Manually > Find Home.

So now all I need is pen up and pen down and I’ll be satisfied the hardware for this machine is finished. Then I can spend more time on the business side of things. I long for the day when I’m selling enough of these that I can get a part time worker to help out. My goal is have one part time employee by my birthday in March.

In other related news Michael and Miguel have build & tested an OSX app package and are probably working on a windows one right now. That means everyone will be able to grab a much friendlier install without having to see github (read: leave my site). The assembly instructions will then move to my site, thingiverse will need to be updated to point here, and there’s probably a dozen other links I’ve forgotten I should include. Hey! If I put the assembly instructions on this site I can embed a video SHOWING the assembly process. Oh yeah, that’s the ticket. To bad I don’t have a camera to film it on. I didn’t realize my GoPro would have such a crazy fisheye. Maybe I can trade it to someone?

Don’t forget, the Drawbot – with auto-centering limit switches – will be making an appearance at the Vancouver Hack Space SHHH on August 18 (four days away). Come on down and participate! We’ll be taking requests for pictures, making a timelapse, and answering all your questions. I hear there’s even going to be a soldering contest. I’ll also have EL Wire on sale in case you still aren’t ready for Burning Man. Don’t miss it!

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Soldering Tips for Adafruit Motor Shields

Hi, Adafruit!

I recently ordered ten motor shields and have been diligently soldering them together. I’ve found a few tricks that make it a little faster to put the boards together and I thought it might be nice if you added them to your tutorial. My first board took almost 2 hours. I find with my current method I don’t need helping hands, because they aren’t. My latest board took about 30 minutes.

First I do the pieces that can’t hold themselves in place, starting with the central 74HC595N. Insert it, flip over the board, and lay it on a flat surface. The weight of the board holds it at just the right location. I use this same technique for the the resistor network, then the sockets, then the screw terminals, then the jumper.

For the capacitors and resistors I do them in two sets, based on which way they are oriented. It’s much easier to turn the board over and solder them quickly if the leads are bent in the same direction.

The servo pins proved to be a real PITA until I discovered I could put them in and then smoosh the IC foam onto the pin heads to hold them in place. Check they’re straight, turn the board over, and repeat as with the ICs.

The button is no challenge, just watch you don’t prick yourself when snapping it in.

The last part I do are the male shield pins, where I follow your steps to the letter. Then the L293D go in and we’re ready to test.

One last tip: the ICs don’t really want to go in because all their legs bend outward. insert one whole side part way, then gently run a fingernail down the legs on the other side and they should snap into place one by one. Then insert the rest of the way.

Thank you for making such clear instructions, and such a fabulous product! Everybody reading this, go buy some and tell them I sent you. Show me a Youtube video of your fastest assembly time so I can see how great is your solder fu.

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Drawbot wiki updates; one less configuration screen

Thanks to local user Alan who recommended several important updates to the Wiki. Wiring for red/blue/green/black wiring has been added, theory part of the layout is improved, and several other mistakes/out of date things/formatting errors have been spruced up. Remember: if you have an idea that might help, please don’t hesitate to share!

The “configure machine limits” and “configure paper limits” have been combined into a single configure dialog. The plan is to put a picture in the background of the dialog to visually explain what is going on.

Also big thanks to Michael who’s been helping debug 64 bit systems. You guys are awesome and I can’t thank you enough for the help. I’m sure everyone else facing these issues appreciates it, too.

So… should I create a forum for you to work together? I’d like people with drawbot variations to have a place to compare notes.