October 2012 – Page 2 – Marginally Clever Robots

New Drawbot Assembly Instructions; New Forum.

2012-10-13 Dan

Get the new Drawbot assembly instructions right here. Please have a read through and let me know if I’ve missed anything.

Try the new Forums!

Tomorrow I’m running Introduction to Arduino at the VHS. Monday I’m working at a local SFX company. Tuesday I’m on a plane to Stanford. Friday I get back. Saturday I’m working on projects for my database clients. Sunday I have Introduction to Soldering at the VHS. Then I’m back to the SFX company and working on the pan and tilt head for Malcolm, followed by the Quarterly GM on Sunday again. Light reading in bed is about how to market my business better. If I get a chance to take a break it’ll probably be spent raking the half ton of leaves that fall on my front yard every day in fall. My TODO list is growing all the time. I need to figure out the best way to use what time I have in my day.

I definitely have troubles staying positive, engergized, and focussed. How do you do it? What’s your secret? I’m taking Vitamin D, getting out in the fresh air every day, and making sure I don’t get dehydrated. Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated. I need to stay efficient and on the ball, not under it.

How to Build a Drawbot (Makelangelo v1)

2012-10-13 Kali

These instructions are for the Makelangelo Drawbot v0.1. For all later versions, please visit our wiki.

If any part of these instructions are out of date, confusing, or in any way not clear please contact us and I will fix it quick fast. These instructions are current for v0.8.

The kit should include:

– 2x stepper motors

– 2x motor mounts

– 2x bobbins

– 4x 5mm M3

– 2x 10mm M3

– 1x pen holder ring

– 1x female power plug

– 1x arduino

– 1x motor shield

– 1x 12v2a power supply

(Not pictured: one arduino box.)

You will also need the following:

– a small screwdriver with a phillips head

– some sewing thread or fishing line

– 3x 2″ 1/4-20 bolts. These are available in any hardware store. In this photo I’ve used very long bolts because they’re all I had available.

Count the parts to make sure they are all there.

Screw the 3 1/4-20 bolts into the holes on the pen holder.

When the bolts get close to the center, stick the pen in and tighten one of the bolts until they pinch the pen.

Put it to one side.

Take the steppers out of their boxes.

Attach the motor mounts to the steppers.

Notice how the steppers are mirrors of each other.

Notice how the wires are on the side of the motor mount, never the back.

Put these to one side.

Make sure the bobbins will fit on the stepper shafts.

Make sure the bobbin set screw hole lines up with the flat part of the stepper shaft.

Add the 10mm M3 screw to the bobbin set screw hole.

Slide the bobbin onto the shaft until the middle of the bobbin is lined up with the middle of the five holes on the motor mount.

Gently tighten the set screw onto the flat part of the stepper shaft. Do not overtighten! You’ll know it is enough when turning the bobbin also turns the shaft with no wiggle.

Put your assembled mounts to one side.

Press the motor shield onto the arduino like a sandwich. The electronics are not a sandwich! Please do not eat the electronics.

Arrange the electronics and the arduino.

Attach the wires to the shield. Match the colors and screw until tight.

Attach the female power plug to your shield. Make sure M goes to red and GND goes to black.

Plug in the power.

Mount your motors and electronics to your wall or board. Note that the female power supply should be coming out at the top and all the writing on the motor shield will be upside down. That way the stepper on the left is attached to the left side of the shield and so on. It also keeps the power wire out of the way of the drawing.

You are now ready to attach the strings.

Push the thread through the center hole on the side of the mount and loop it over the set screw. Use the software to wind the bobbin “in” until you have enough thread.

Make a similar loop in the other end and loop it over a 1/4-20 bolt on the pen holder.

Repeat these steps for the other mount, bobbin, and a different bolt on the pen holder.

You should now have two steppers mounted and wired up with bobbins correctly wound and attached to the pen holder. You can now center your pen and start drawing.

In a future update I’ll show you how to add limit switches and auto-centering. For this you need some wire cutting and is considered more advanced.

In a future update I’ll show you how to add a servo for pen up/down. I have not developed a good enough pen holder yet so I am not going to confuse you with instructions that might change later.

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Can Drawbot hold a child’s attention?

2012-10-10 Dan

Ben says “It is a hit! The kids love it and teachers too.” I couldn’t be more pleased. This is exactly what I’m trying to do – inspire, educate, and maybe pay my bills (in that order).

Now if only I had some lesson plans…

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Record Time for Order Fulfillment; 3D printing challenges; IndieGoGo; new pen holder; Skycam

2012-10-07 Dan

Wow! Some days there is just too much news. I should split this into 5 separate postings but one of my news dissemination providers just changed their TOS and it means I can’t post as often as I’d like.

I’m setting new records for fastest order fulfillment! It makes me giggle. It’s almost ticklish, in a good way. Fastest order to fulfillment time is now 30 minutes, including the time it took to bike to the post office. I’ve got another one today, and that means I have only two Drawbots (or one skycam) left in stock. Better get that 3D printer going and restock ASAP.

Segues? We don’t need no segues! IndieGogo’s Robots for School campaign ended yesterday. Thank you to everyone who participated, shared, tweeted, linked, and so on. Those of you who contributed have been emailed a coupon code for the shop and a sneak peek at the next kit.

Alan, one of the local VHS members, bought a Drawbot from the shop (thankyouthankyouthankyou) and has been playing with Shapelock to design a better pen holder. Check this out!

alan's shapelock pen holder - action shot

Nice work Alan! Have you made some tweak to your drawbot the world should know about? Please share! I’m seriously considering a forum.

I’ve got FabLearn 2012 on my mind. I haven’t figured out how to save time to work on the next kit. I don’t remember the last time I felt like I was working on something fresh from the top of my dome, so to speak. More parts are due from Adafruit any day now and I’ve found a chinese supplier who can get me 12v2a power supplies for about 1/3 of what I’m paying right now.

Lastly, because I’ve been sitting on it forever and haven’t done anything… The Skycam code is now on github. I haven’t documented it yet. I hope it encourages you to buy a second Drawbot and do something cool, like build a room-sized machine that builds LEGO houses or something.

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Halloween EL wire specials

2012-10-04 Dan

Halloween special pricing!
For the next two weeks I’m having a sale on orange EL wire and yellow EL wire. 25% off the usual price. Get all decked out for Halloween while supplies last!

…and seriously, be quick about it. These things are moving. While the 3D printer was stalling all Drawbot orders EL was movin’, movin’, movin’.

It’s always busy in some way here. I love the way the challenges keep changing and things are growing. For instance, last night I bought a new Brother printer and label maker. Kits look great when they’re nicely labelled and come with an invoice. Feels more industry standard, less care package from mom. Also: Shaking my fist at HP and Canon. Not only have I been disappointed in your product but now I see your display at the local Staples should have tipped me off from the start – HP’s says “we will distract you with video!” and Canon’s says IDGAF. Brother’s was the only one that clearly spelled out their support plan to give me confidence with my purchase. There’s a lesson in there.

Last night a new piece of contract work fell in my lap. It’s the first time I’ve ever used the Twitter API or Tropo.com. So far they seem great and are really forthcoming with help. My hat is off to you for doing it right. Easy APIs make me a happy man. It’s also great to be working on something while the 3D printer is going. It makes me feel so… efficient. Like my first employee, almost!

PS: Did you notice there’s a Facebook and Twitter icon in the top left? You can follow us there if you like.

This morning I woke to find my development web server died and took out half the electronics in my office. Thankfully it was just a flipped breaker. After we got the power back on the server refused to start. It’s in the shop now and as soon as it’s back I’ll you the twitter stuff. Nobody likes to be teased without mercy.

So while it’s in the store I went to the post office and shipped another 3 kits today. All the back orders (except my less-than-stellar IndieGoGo campaign) are now filled and “delivered”. Special thanks to each of you who sent me kind words of support and kept clicking refresh until I delivered a tracking number. Special thanks also to the lady at the post office who gave me water when I nearly collapsed. Note to self: bike more often!

Today’s next goal is to get all the products in the store photographed. You may remember I built a light box a while ago. I never showed you the box itself, did I?

Let me know if you find something in the shop that is missing a picture and I’ll take one ASAP.
Many hands make light work, yes?