Saturday I went to the Vancouver Hack Space for our Super Happy Hacker House, a reccuring all-night jam session for makers. Nothing like a good combination of libations and young minds to foster great ideas. (more…)
Today we have SEVEN new products.
ELEC-0060 4mm cable wrap keeps all your wires tidy. Loose wires make fun cat toys and make it harder to understand what is going on in the machine. 10m per bag and we sell it by the meter.
Want to go big on a CNC project but don’t have time to solder all those wires? Get the ELEC-0058 RGBY plug-n-play extension cable. Each is 1m long.
MOTO-0008 180 degree servos with all-metal gears: Excellent manufacture and great ability to withstand higher torque situations.
They tested fine but draw too much currant for use in the Makelangelo.
It high time we start adding some more tools around here. These are the same brands we use in shop day-to-day.
TOOL-0002 2mm ball end hex key. Funny story here: I thought I was ordering 12 sets of 10 piece hex keys. Turns out I misread the description and ordered 120 pieces of just one hex key. 2mm keys are NOT the ideal size for an M3 hex head screw. We plan to get the rest of the set.
Every starting maker should have a few basic tools, including these TOOL-0003 flush cutters. Great when you want to cut something off without leaving a little dimple on the surface. I used them for everything from cleaning up a PCB through hole to trimming a bit of plastic off my 3D prints.
Showing off a Marginally Clever robot at a show? We’d love it if you wore one of our SWAG-0003 cotton t-shirts.
ROBO-0028 Makelangelo 1 to 2.5 upgrade kit will convert your existing Makelangelo 1 or 2 into a Makelangelo 2.5. Pen lifting! Improved accuracy! Also great if you want to DIY a polargraph.
Big shout out to the lovely people at Linode for keeping us running smooth as a buttered eel. When our traffic spikes you come through for us, and I just wanted to say thanks. 180 days uptime and counting! You rock.
The long delayed Hong Kong order arrived this morning, which means all the back-ordered kits are leaving this afternoon. If you ordered a kit in the last two weeks you should already see a notice that a shipping label was printed.
Frequent orders and long lead times from suppliers means that my RFQ numbers all have an extra digit now. 100 motors at a time? Not enough. Quote me 1000, please. The warehouse is expanded, plans for resellers are starting to come together… It’s a really exciting time to be making robots!
Now that the work of getting over the Maker Faire hump is done, I’m taking a road trip to Las Vegas. I’m looking forward to some beautiful vistas, all-inclusive hotel stays, and checking on the SYN Shop, the Las Vegas Hackspace. Why knows? Maybe I’ll even be able to pop in and say hi to Sarah and Mark at RobotArmy.com. They make a pretty sweet Delta robot.
What does this mean for you? Orders will not be flowing from the 17th to the ~28th. Shop for your heart’s desire now and we’ll get it into the mail Thursday evening.
DevFest is a week-long workshop-series and hackathon about bleeding-edge technologies for experienced developers taking place weeknights and over the weekend this November 3-9.
This year’s workshops cover
Yours truly will be leading the microcontroller workshop Sunday, November 9, from 10am onward.
Seats are very limited! reserve your spot early.
Last night at VHS was our first “learn to use the band saw” class. In two weeks I’ll be leading a “how to use the chop saw” class. November 1 is scheduled to be Programming 101 with LEDs. You can find out all the details for these classes on the website for the Vancouver Hack Space.
Museograph visited our booth at the NYC World’s Maker Faire 2014 and acquired a Makelangelo #551 drawing of Audrey Hepburn, the picture at the top of the post.
Have you seen Marginally Clever mentioned in the news somewhere? Let us know in the forums!
Here is a picture I’ve correctly drawn on a polargraph machine. Here are nine examples of common mistakes that can happen on any polargraph drawing robot – including the Makelangelo – and how to fix them. They are all a result of miscalibration. These should only need fixing once, so take the time to do it right: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
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Today I have more art, some bad news, and some good news. (more…)
