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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.

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A Vending Machine full of electronic parts & kits

VHS used to be one block from a grocery store. Getting food and drink downtown is so easy it wasn’t even an afterthought. Between my parking space and the hacking space there were two bars, two grocery stores, a macdonald’s, and a pizza parlor.

New VHS is a little more remote. Great big size, much cleaner environment… no food or drink. On foot it would take at least two minutes to walk to the nearest food source, a Macdonald’s. Apparently the burger joint next to them is even worse than Micky D’s, so that’s out. In the other direction is the Foundation – great if you want to wait 30 minutes for a table.

If you know anything about me by now, you know I see an opportunity and I take it. That’s why I’m looking to get a snack machine. Being that it’s at the VHS, I don’t see why it should *just* be food and drink. What about RPis? What about Arduinos? What about TV-B-Gones? Sadly, I don’t think lock picking kits will be included.

Now I’m not totally selfish, I plan to give 50% of profits back to the club. The rest is for restocking, insurance, and my time. If the machine pays itself off then maybe even more can go to the club. I plan to get a dirt cheap model and hack at it to add my own touch screen and maybe have it email me when it is running low.

What you’d want to see in a hackspace vending machine? Comment below.

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Should every asset have a SKU?

I’ve been working on my Wiki today. I added a long overdue table for shipping. I’ve displayed it here vertically for ease of reading, along with my first entry.

Order #	100
SKU	??
Name	LG900N Laser cutter
Qty	1
Supplier	G Weike
Shipper
Tracking #
Order cost	$**** USD
Import cost
Total cost
Order date	2012-05-25
Arrival date
Delivery time

This way I hope to be able to predict future order times better and avoid “stock outs” or product shortages. I only have one order at the moment, so on a whim I put it into the list. …and then it got me thinking, which is always dangerous. The field for SKU makes me wonder if I should give the laser cutter a SKU. More generally, should *every* asset have a SKU? Here are the pros and cons I see.

Pros

Total asset management: every item in the shop can be tracked, along with it’s depreciation, original cost, cost over time. Items could be easily re-ordered or sold (example: 3D printers). They could be marked for anti-theft purposes and given a QR code for easy how-to lookup, simplifying future employee training. Adding each item would only have to be done once.

Cons

It’s resource consuming to file every item and resources (especially time) are very precious. Some items are labelled individually, some are labelled by type – does this cause a filing headache? How can filing info become invalid or out of date?

I don’t know a lot of highly organized and/or highly effective people – they’re off getting stuff done, I suppose. I’d love to compare notes. Have you got any thoughts, pro or con, to share?

As I look at this I realize the table is a bit misleading – a single order might have multiple items of different type, each with it’s own SKU, in a many-to-one relationship. Dividing up the import costs could be trouble!

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Laser cutter purchased!

We’ve been having a real challenge with producing laser cut parts over the last 6 weeks, ever since the VHS laser cutter was disassembled for transport to the new location at 270 east 1st ave. I did everything I could to facilitate the move, including rent a truck for the largest items.

In the mean time I’ve found and fixed a number of reasons why my 3D prints were going bad. The latest appears to be tension on the filament – the spool of plastic doesn’t unwind fast enough and it pulls on the moving parts in a bad way sometimes.

I’ve also been experimenting with new designs to improve older models and getting ready for the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2013. I need to get some fishing line, stat!

This machine from G Weike will have 900x600mm cutting area, z axis control, red light for setup, honeycomb bed, chiller, backup tube, and all the rest of the fixins. Once this is installed I’ll be able to produce parts on demand and prototype much much faster and reduce delivery time for all my clients. I also foresee laser cutting as a service for some special customers.

Things are getting more awesome all the time here. It’s great to be my own boss – I get all the best toys.