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Improving the Makelangelo output quality

2013-05-14 Dan

I just ordered 100 v-groove bearings. I’d seen Antonio’s huge drawbot that used the bearings and I realize now he had to put in the bearings to get decent image quality. I’ve made a special request that they arrive before May 31st. I hope they do so I can build my own enormous drawing robot in time for the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2013.

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Challenges for this week: Can you help?

2013-05-13 Dan

This week I’ve got a lot of challenges coming up and I could sure use a hand.

Maker Faire & VHS

My local Vancouver hack space is moving to a new location this month. I’m helping with the egress crew – that is to say, getting all the stuff out of the old place. It’s about 10h/week out of my time that would otherwise be spent on improving the store. A plan is already firmly in place and ever so slightly ahead of schedule. All I can do is ask people to show up and help move stuff.  If you’ve got a truck, van, or car, it would be very welcome.

Get a Working Laser Cutter

The VHS laser cutter is offline until they finish moving it. I tried a few other laser cutters around town and was disappointed with the accessibility, speed, and quality of the work. I’m looking for a machine with these specs:
– need: cuts at least 12″x24″
– need: doesn’t use a dongle
– need: comes with chiller & venting
– need: >60W power
– want: shows up as a printer on my network
– want: warranty

The budget is $5k including shipping and install. Got any leads?

Makelangelo Code Changes

The request came several weeks ago to change the calibration point to make very very large drawings easier. My demo machine isn’t running as well as I’d like and it’s made testing very challenging. A part of me is tempted to release it and wait for the error messages to come in.

Two fantastic users have submitted pull requests to add more stuff to the project. One fixes a rare race condition.  The other stores pen up/down settings in the arduino EEPROM, which means a firmware upgrade.  Both change a bunch of project settings and need to be merged into the current version.

I don’t know a way to make this code more open so other people can apply the patches themselves. Ideas?

Kit upgrades

I’m waiting on parts to arrive from Hong Kong that should greatly improve the range of motion in the delta robots and the stewart platform.  It’s take a year of negotiating with 3rd party “finders” because the factory won’t deal direct.  If they work as promised then I’ll be over the moon with joy.  In any case for the moment I am actively telling people to wait so that they get the upgrade coming soon (I hope).  Is this the right way to do business?  No.  Is it the right thing to do for my customers?  Yes.  Does it make it harder to do business?  Yes, in the short term.  I believe treating people right is how to make loyal fans, and my business runs on word of mouth.

…and all the rest

RFPs, artist’s projects, existing long-term customers… it’s at a tipping point: I need more help but I can’t afford it and if I had it already then I could probably afford it.  I guess I need to get into subcontracting?  Your thoughts are appreciated.

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What products do you want to see in the store?

2013-05-10 Dan

I’ve been looking for a part that will improve some of my kits for more than a year now. Some samples are finally in the mail and while I wait I’m going slightly crazy. It makes me wonder how many of you might be in the same boat. Heck, it’s not even a boat. It’s a piece of driftwood and on the side it says “if only i had this one thing I could move forward on this project”. I hear that line a lot and it makes so sad. To me nothing sucks more than having to wait for someone else. That’s why I do everything I can to ship kits as fast as possible and with zero mistakes.

But back to my point! So far I’ve only been stocking parts that are (or have been) used in my robots. I think it would be cool to add that conductive paint I’ve been reading about, or shapelock, or sugru… but I don’t want to invest good money if nobody’s interested. So, please, share with me: What parts, materials, or tools are you looking for? I’d be happy to make a bulk purchase to make it less expensive for everyone. Help me help you and we both win.

In the same way, what kind of robot would you like to see? Lawn mowing robots? Chore doing robots? Machine that throws balls for your dog? You tell me.

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Makelangelo Day, May 6 2013

2013-05-06 Dan

Today is a Makelangelo day. I’m working on patching bugs reported by users, updating the wiki, and prettying up the photos on the website. Got anything to contribute? Let me know!