printrbot project

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/printrbot/printrbot-your-first-3d-printer/posts

http://printrbot.com/home/2011/11/20/can-we-do-this-yes.html


This could be the breakthrough project.  Odds are that the product will evolve and get more shiny and expensive....

Brain meet computer... computer .. brain!

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/bionics/human-trials-planned-for-brain-computer-interface?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrumBiomedical+%28IEEE+Spectrum%3A+Biomedical%29

Article on brain computer interfaces.  Very fine stuff.

Point Cloud Library

http://pointclouds.org/

This is useful for the mocap along with 3Dscanning.

Laser Engraver Project

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-laser-engraver/step4/Construct-the-mechanics/

This is a great little project. I have all these parts except time....

Drool... how much do I want one?

http://singularityhub.com/2010/04/05/5-axis-robot-carves-metal-like-butter-video/

5 axis cnc design

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1091976372/open-source-5-axis-cnc-router-and-plasma-machine-p

This is a nice build. Good work envelope.  Need to check back later and see if he has updated the resources.

http://diylilcnc.org/

This is another project worth looking at. Seems to be struggling a bit and may die from lack of interest. Its not particularly unique either.

Plotter project Notes

These are resources for my next project. Building a CNC xy plotter using an Arduino and some old steppers and printer parts I have.  I have not decided yet if it will be a paper + pen plotter or something more interesting like an eggbot or a sand table.

The endpoint will either be a pen or some sort of simple cutter. The problem with the cutter is the that it takes a little more precision and has a higher cost per mistake if I jam it into a table or something else goes awry. Still the learning is in the doing and mistakes are part of the fun.

http://www.tigoe.net/pcomp/code/circuits/motors/stepper-motors

The system will have 3 axis of control for starters with limit switches on both travel ends of each axis. This gives me six switches to read from. I also want to put some debugging lines using LED's so I know what should be happening even if its not actually doing anything. There will also be 2 calibration switches for the head position. The last (or first) major feature is a master kill switch which will terminate all the action on the plotter but will not kill power to the Arduino.

The overall features will be:

UP_X, UP_Y, UP_Z - Moves the Z axis to the top of its travel (Is 0 best as the top or the middle of the travel?) Away from the work piece.

Home - Returns the head to (0,0,0) in an orderly way. slowly.

Calibrate - Measure the dimensions of the cutting head.

CutterON and CutterOFF - Power up or down the cutter head. (Not used for a pen obviously)

LOAD - Measure the load on the cutter.

RUN - Start the current cut/draw script.