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Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2013

I had a blast at VMMF 2013. Gerard took some pictures and generously shared them with us after the event.

Some older samples were brought along and then we started taking requests from visitors to the booth. Pictures were selling right off the floor – sometimes they sold before the machine finished drawing! After testing different prices it seems like $0.50/minute fits the market well.

At 2pm on saturday the internet died. So I used my Canon camera to start taking portraits and draw them on the robot. I’m still working through the backlog of images to draw – it was a big success! If you left me your email I’ll be sharing the image with you on facebook as soon as it’s done.

I also brought along my newest creation, a mini stewart platform and the “waldo” that drives it. This is really exciting stuff – the waldo could be used to play most FPS games one-handed, giving you a huge advantage over other players. The Stewart Platform could be used to shake you realistically while you wear your Occulus Rift goggles. I would sell the two in a single box and when you open the lid there’d be assembly instructions printed on a barf bag.

I also brought my 3 armed delta robot and 4 armed delta robot for show. All in all I’d say it was a great hit. I look forward to having branding and stickers and a team. Maybe even be a VMMF sponsor? Fingers crossed.

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18th Century Drawing Robot – Maillardet’s Automaton

Read all about it.

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Laser Cutter Update – it’s on the boat!

We’ve had several production problems over the last few months. Growing pains that we are taking on with gusto. In order to avoid issues with 3rd party suppliers we’ve made the choice to get our own laser cutter in-house. It will improve production, speed up R&D, and generally be frikkin’ lasers. The machine is an LG900N from G Weike, who come highly recommended.

When we looked at their website the initial impression wasn’t good – the whole page was broken in ugly ways and it felt very sloppy. Still… the reviews said these guys were the best, so we made a deal: we fixed their home page in exchange for an extra laser tube and a few features. Every challenge is an opportunity in disguise.

You can see more images here.

For those of you who have ordered a kit and want to know how long it will be, please follow the boat’s progress here.

While the boat works it’s way over here I’ll be attending the Seattle Mini Maker Faire, fleshing out our new online store (still in alpha), ramping up R&D on the drink mixing robot, and generally trying to be as awesome as possible.

If you’re liking what you see and you live in Vancouver, come out to the VHS and join in our many exciting projects. Too far away? Please Like us on Facebook to keep up to date. With your help we can keep making awesomebots.

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What should Marginally Clever work on next?

I have a break between two maker faires and lots of time while the Makelangelo draws portraits of people who came to our booth.
There’s lots of things I *could* build. The question is: which one would you like to see the most?

Vote here or write in your own idea.

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What’s the Best Way to Document the Creation and Abilities of a Robot?

Reddit Robotics’ group has a lot of smart people. I know they’re smart because they ask really great questions, like when MrPotatoJunior asked this one: What is the best way to document the creation and functionality of a robot?

This is a great question – staying organized is so hard with so many projects.

Does your method work?

Let’s see some qualifications first, hey? I sell robots online. My method has been tested in a working environment and refined for the last 18 months. Here are some projects I documented on Instructables before “going pro”.

• How to build a mural drawing robot
• How to build a hexapod
• How to wire a desktop CNC machine

The format is the same each time: overview, BOM, step-by-step assembly instructions, copy of source code, final notes. Today I would add design files for parts that need to be manufactured at the end and the BOM can reference them along with a manufacturing estimate. I would also add testing wherever appropriate – not just before or after code. It may require several test programs to validate each piece works before trying to turn on the whole machine.

Drawings

Drawings are critical. You will develop great drafting skills in order to communicate your ideas clearly. Nothing I’ve found is faster for explaining how things fit together. Nothing I’ve found is faster for checking design ideas before investing time in a 3D modelling program.

For drawings I use an 11″x14″ sketchbook. Most drawings take up the center 1/9th of the page, leaving me room for notes and corrections around the edges. Date, project name, part name, and version on every page. One idea per page. I go through a lot of sketchbooks. I sometimes put a piece of tape sticking out the top of the sketchbook as a page marker so I can find important stuff fast.

When I make a 3D model I store it in projects/part_name/version-date for the filename. Same goes for drawings of circuits. I have a separate folder projects/project_name/version which then references the parts in other folders. This works great because sometimes I only make one model of a part (like a NEMA17 stepper) and reuse it in many other projects.

BOMs

I keep a Bill Of Materials (BOM) in an excel sheet in projects/project_name/version. Every part, where I got it, what it cost, and how many I had to get at once – some things only come in a 10 pack. Some get cheaper when bought in bulk.

Version control is your friend. Nothing sucks like breaking the design of a well-functioning robot when all I wanted to do was experiment with a new idea.

Physical storage

For physically storing my projects, I use clear plastic shoe boxes from Home Depot. $0.96ea. labelled on the front, stacked three high. Only one project needs a double-wide box. Only one needs a 2×2 sized box. The rest are actively being used (like 3d printers) and don’t go in boxes.

Code

When documenting code, I write the intention before the code. So I explain what I’m going to do in comment lines and then I write the code between the comment lines. There’s no such thing as “obvious” or “self-documenting” code – what’s easy for you might be hard for me. Heck, sometimes what’s easy for me is hard two months later when I don’t remember writing it!

For more information, read all the responses on Reddit here.