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…)
User deanville shared some pictures of his DIY Makelangelo in our forums.
Check out the whole gallery here
At the request of reddit user nortbotics I’ve changed the licensing of all the big thingiverse projects I’ve released. Instead of Creative Commons – Attribution – Non-Commercial they are now Creative Commons – Attribution – Share-Alike. That means you can do what you like with the designs – even make and sell them! – but you have to tell people where you got the plans, and if you change the designs you have to use the same license for the new design.
A large part of the day was spent shopping for infrastructure upgrades. Shelves, shelves, and more shelves. This really excites me. When I started there were five or six items on a shelf. Then there were too many and I had to put product SKUs on everything. Now I have a product SKU and I’m going to have to add a physical address in the warehouse. What’s next, Kiva robots?
I’ve installed a live chat feature. It should appear in the bottom right of your PC screen. When we’re both at computers you can reach out to me and get an immediate response. Now it’s even easier to tell me what you’ve got on your mind.
I have received confirmation from our HK suppliers that the big orders I am waiting on were shipped sunday evening (vancouver time). They should be here soon, at which point my postal carrier might just have a small heart attack or hernia trying to cart away all these orders.
On another good note, since my last post (yesterday?) four more Makelangelos have been turned on. I wonder who will be #700?
So much has been going on here, it’s incredible. I feel a bit like I’m playing real life Factorio.
I need more shelves because I’ve run out of space for robot parts, tools, and other great stuff. I’m having a hard time deciding between this shelf and This one. Which one do you think I should get?
I’m told that Marginally Clever robots will be appearing at both Maker Faire Toronto November 22 & 23 (the Think/Haus booth) and Maker Faire Tokyo November 23 & 24. There’s also the Circle in the Square Look for them, learn about robots that make art, and ask about the coupon code.
Thank you to everyone who’s written in and given great suggestions to improve the documentation.
At World’s Maker Faire 2014 there were 670 Makelangelos. In 13 days 19 more have been turned on.
How do I know? When a Makelangelo turns on for the very first time it phones home to get a number, and I put a pin in a map at the nearest city. See for yourself: here’s a map of Makelangelos everywhere.
I have two new products listed in the store and two more that I’m working on. Anyone who opened an account and joined the mailing list will get a notice a few days before I share the details on this blog. Think of it kind of like early access.
Tuesday, October 14, 8pm at the Vancouver Hack Space I’ll be running a short class on how to use the band saw. We’ll be chopping up scrap from the VHS laser cutter. Cost is $5.
Saturday, November 1, 1pm at the VHS I’ll be running a class on Programming 101 with Arduino and LED lights. $75 gets you a string of 64 LEDs and a power supply. The LEDs are the same ones used in the new VHS giant wall of LEDs.
I didn’t know this video existed until my mother found it online. This talk was at the Railway Club in Vancouver, Canada, some time in early 2013.
