Josiah’s Ord Bot Hadron Project
The Ord Bot 3D Printer Mechanical Platform
by Bart Dring of Pumping Station One
Besides the RepRap Mendel that the space is putting together, I'm putting together an ORD Bot Hadron, the larger brother of the ORD Bot Quantum. It took me a long time to decide between this and SeeMeCNC's RostockMax. The first beta tester, Jeremy, brought an ORD Bot Quantum to Make Lehigh Valley quite awhile and showed off its impressive qualities.
In many basic ways, this is a simplified version of the RepRap based on MakerSlide and without the interest in being able to print as much of the printer as possible. I'm interested in comparing the time of assembly and results with the RepRap. It seems generally agreed that both printers are capable of equal quality. The typical Mendel may require more regular maintenance than an Ord Bot and require more effort to get well calibrated. The rigidity of the MakerSlide makes for a more stable platform.
The Ord Bot design is strictly a mechanical platform. Most kits only include the mechanical platform and steppers to get it moving. The come in various stages of assembly. The kit I purchased was from Automation Technologies, Inc.
Once I had the platform I had to decide what electronics and extruder I wanted to use. I'm going with Panucatt's X3 and heated bed for the electronics. My extruder choice is the brand new SeeMeCNC EZstruder extruder. (I'm sure to regret going with the bleeding edge, but its just so flexible.) I still need to pick up a hot end. I'll probably go with the J-Head when they come back in stock. I understand they usually are stocked at hotends.com on Friday afternoons at noon and are gone over the weekend.
I'm rather partial to the aesthetics of the Ord Bot over the RepRap also. The nice blue anodized aluminum and sleek smooth lines are nice. The ability to hide the cables inside the MakerSlide is also a great plus and the ability to expand it rather simply with just bigger or smaller pieces of makerslide is another notable feature.
My daughter and I will be chronicling our build in a Build Log and BuildLog.net with a picture album on Google+ and more static documentation in a wiki page at MakeLV's wiki.
RepRap Project Progress
The RepRap project is making progress. Check out the wiki page for the constantly improving documentation and watch as we put together the list of things to buy.
We hear Tony already has the plastic parts on the forge to help us boot strap the 3D printer community of the Lehigh Valley. I guess you could say, the reprap is beginning to take physical shape.
Tour the Home of Make Lehigh Valley, the Hive4A Hackerspace
We put together this video tour for you. We wanted you to come see the latest and greatest of our hackerspace from the comfort of your couch. Enjoy!
Now you've seen it. Come by some Thursday night and get the full-sensory HD tour. You won't believe how much better it is in person!
OpenStack Project – New Hardware
Our friends at iNetU sent over 5 Dell PowerEdge 2950s along with some Cisco PIX Firewalls and some load balancers to put towards the OpenStack Project that we're trying to get going. This will be the first hardware we have that supports the virtualization bit that makes so much difference. We're looking forward to growing our knowledge in what it takes to build a cloud using these machines.
We need to acquire hard drives to get these machines running. We also need to acquire or build a rack for them. Providing proper environmental control for the machines is also something that will take some effort in our current space with dust flying around and the significant temperature changes that occur.
If you'd like to read up and contribute to the plans check out the the OpenStack Project wiki page for gory details, especially the OpenStack References linked on that page.
LEGO Case for the Raspberry PI
I wanted a case for my Raspberry PI and I didn't want to spend much or any money. So, like many I turned to LEGOs. I started with the case designed by Biz. While I was building it I noticed a few things I wanted to change. First, there was no easy way to remove the PI once it was in the case. Second, there was also no easy way to see the LEDs on the PI (I now see that there is an updated version of Biz's case that does have a way to see the LEDs). Both of these are very useful whenever debugging is needed. So, like any good maker I did something about it.
The finished prototype. The SD card sticks out some
One side of the lid has hinges and windows (sorry about the blurry image)
Here is the finished prototype. The big changes I made to Biz's case was the addition of a windows for the LEDs and a hinged top that lets you remove the PI.
Large clear windows so that all of the LEDs can be easily seen
You have to remove the SD card before removing the PI from the box
Here the PI is completely out of the box
Here you can see that all the connections are accessible.
For fun I then created a better looking design in the LEGO Digital Desinger. I have included my design file (case_lego.lxf) so that anyone can make changes to the design. LEGO used to let you order designs made in the digital designer, but they have discontinued that. To fill that void some users have created a system that lets all the pieces for the set be purchased at once from sellers on bricklink. There is a video here explaining how to get the list of parts into bricklink to be purchased en masse. Basically, you must create an empty wanted list on bricklink, use LDD Manager to get a list of the parts needed for the design, use the id number of the new wanted list to create an xml file in LDD Manager, upload that xml file to bricklink, Use the "By Shop" tab to find a shop that has all the pieces that are in the design. In "By Shop" make sure that the wanted list you created is selected and you are sorting by "Lots (Unique)".
Downloads:
Super Easy Macroscopic Cell Phone Photos
I don't know where I first saw the instructions, but it mentioned using any CD drive/player lense. I used an old 40x CD computer drive (which in itself was fun and enlightening to take apart). When it finally came down to separating the tiny lense from the part holding it, I used wire cutters to cut away most of the plastic, but it turned out that the "glue" holding the lense came off the lense very easily like it was just silly putty.
I recommend this great instructable that uses a cat toy laser pen lense. If you feel the need to go overboard, your not alone.
You'll need a flashlight because you block most of the light when you are 2mm away from what you are photographing. This is my finger print without a flashlight but I had good lighting above and skin is semi-translucent.
Holding the camera steady at just the right distance is not easy. The CD drive's laser's lense that I used yields such a small depth of field that I taped a column of 0.5cm square pieces of paper to either side of the lense so that I can easily get (and hold) the camera parallel to the surface of flat surfaces I want to photograph. In the pencil on paper photo I simply lifted the end of the camera nearest the lense, but even with such a slight angle to the surface only the middle portion was in focus. Only the top surface of a surface mount resistor is in focus and they are only 0.25mm high!
The last photo below shows millimeter marks on a ruler, so you can compare the objects in the other photos to see how big they are.
Science Festival Radio Announcement
We recorded a little radio spot to highlight our involvement in the Science Festival of the Lehigh Valley. It will air on Lehigh Valley Tech Radio.
We will have the following fun activities to share with the Lehigh Valley:
- 3D scanning using a Microsoft Kinect
- 3D printing
- basic soldering classes
- interactive arduino microcontroller projects
- more
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/42546478" iframe="true" /]
Everything is Better with Root Beer
Tom's been working on a dc power supply using parts from his junk box. I really enjoyed the aesthetic of this project. He had a few that he was finishing up at the last open hack. He cut up a can of root beer to create a heat sink, used a board and nails to wire up the connections between the components and wing nuts for good solid connections for both power in and power out.
This project reminded me of an episode of Collin's Lab which looked back to the history of the breadboard a bit. Collin used a real wooden breadboard and nails much like Tom did. The method is basically the same and results in a simple, but custom prototyping space that has a lot of character and can be more permanent than a typical breadboard.
In any case, it is a nice little idea to stick in your back pocket. We played around with the idea of using this project as a workshop project to help teach a few things about electronics. If there is some interest we'll explore that more fully.
Bike Wrenching – Refurb of Old Light System
Matthew is working on a refurb job for the light on his wife's old coaster bicycle. The original light had two D-cell batteries that had corroded away years ago and lamps that may be hard to replace, but it has a great tactically pleasing switch and body that he hopes to preserve. We discussed options for putting LED lighting in the body of the light. He has a ton of space to work with so I've gone oven to Adafruit and tossed together a wish list of items to use to refurb this. Yeah, it's probably overkill, but it'd be an amazing light.
- USB/DC Lithium Polymer battery charger 5-12V - 3.7/4.2v cells
- Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 1300mAh
I'm not sure what to suggest for the best LEDs to fit the purpose. What do you guys think?
 |
 |
 |
Donate
Upcoming Events
Categories
- Member Projects
- New Tools & Equipment
- Skill Collecting
- Space Improvements
- Space Schedule
- Things to Learn
- Uncategorized
- Ways to Help
Find Us At
Wiki Changes
- User:425lduv4z May 17, 2013 425lduv4z
- User:382zyzj9s May 16, 2013 382zyzj9s
- User:097keyp0s May 16, 2013 097keyp0s