Uncategorized

Stewart/Gough Platform Cable Porn (not the kind on pay-per-view)

Imagine a venn diagram. One circle says “cable management”. One circle says “OCD”. One says “Photography”. At the intersection of these three you’ll find Cable Porn, the art of making cables and wires look extra tidy. I had built a Stewart Platform about a year ago and it sat, sad, neglected, and horribly wired for most of that time. A couple days ago I decided I’d fix it up and take it to the next meeting of the Vancouver Robotics Club. I knew right away I had to get the embarrassment that was my wiring under control. Here are the after pictures.

Uncategorized

News Years goals & resolutions

My goals for 2013:
– Sell 500 Makelangelos.
– Add one new product to my store every 4 months
– develop my robot arm
– get on the cover of Make magazine

my resolution is to do more things that make me happy. I do a lot of things to avoid pain that make me miserable in the long run. I’m tired of learning that lesson over and again.

Uncategorized

Makelangelo drawbots shipping now

Man it feels good to be able to post this picture. One of these is already bought, waiting delivery. The rest are ready to go and will be appearing in a store somewhere in Vancouver very soon. It’s such a relief to know I can box, ship, and deliver in a day. If this keeps up I might be running a real business type thing, one day.

Uncategorized

How do you feel about collecting anonymous metrics?

how do you feel about opt-out anonymous metrics? I’d love to know how much you’re using your machines. It would be kind of cool to be able to show statistics like “100km of line drawn since January 1, 2013”. Comment below, please.

Uncategorized

Bobbins arrive tomorrow, new software tutorial

Man, I sure hope so. Between the laser cutter, the inventory of parts I’ve build up in my warehouse, and the bobbins I’ve got everything I need. Murphey’s law says tomorrow I’ll find out the pen holder needs some wacky part I can’t make on my own.

Some users were having trouble getting their Makelangelos working in time for Christmas. I’ve written a new tutorial in the forums that walks through all the steps of installing and running Makelangelo software. Please let me know if I’ve missed anything. If it looks OK then I’ll film it with a time lapse so you can see beginning-to-end.

Edit: Arrived!