For the past 3 weeks we have been working on improving and expanding the capabilities of the AO-100 from Aleph Objects.
We noticed a few areas that could be improved. After loosing the Z axis alignment a few times, we started experiencing really bad wobble. Like really really bad. I think this is from flexing the x ends too far, but even after loosening and realigning we still experienced it. We found brass bushings and designed a mount so that the end of the bushing is at the same height as the nozzle. I remembered from a comment on thingiverse.com/thing:4740 how keeping the bushings at the same level as the nozzle would ensure the nozzle can rotate, but not translate, therefore reducing wobble. We also used nophead's coupler from thingiverse.com/thing:9622. In hind sight I would have printed the one from the Mendel90.

Next task was to add support for dual materials. Our original plan was to use two eMinebea motors (http://store.trinitylabs.com/trinitylabs-micro-extruder-gearhead-motor-and-options/). Since the consensus on their functionality is mixed, we went with a mirrored jonas'-greg's-wade. We designed a simple carriage with two fans and the extruders rotated. Using slic3r 0.8.4 and dob71's Marlin fork (https://github.com/dob71/Marlin) we were able to get dual materials working pretty well. Our original hope was to use PVA and ABS. There is very little data available about printing with PVA, so we were surprised (and a little frustrated :P) to find out PVA and ABS do not stick together. We are currently looking into other options such as PLA/ABS and ABS/PEO. If you have anymore info about sacrificial support for ABS, please let me know!

Edit: I forgot the SCAD's for the x carriage and lower x bushing. will upload tomorrow.


I would like to give a big thanks to Mill-Max Mfg for letting me open source this work. On that note, if you are interested in more info about our setup, please find me on IRC (sjkelly) or email me. Don't contact Mill-Max, they make really nice electronic headers and things(made in the USA!), not RepRaps... :D

Mashed up
thingiverse.com/thing:7218
and
thingiverse.com/thing:5213

Just simplified the script a bit and added an offset for extruders like wades. For my Printrbot-Variant I am working on tesla893.blogspot.com/2011/12/printrbot-part-1.html .

This is a mostly 3D printable sumo bot. It is going to be competing in the Science Olympiad sumo bot event. So far, the major vitamins we used are as follows...

- 1/8in x 1/2in aluminum rail
- Vex drive rod, sprockets, collars, and chains
vexrobotics.com/products/accessories/motion/276-2166.html
vexrobotics.com/products/accessories/motion/shafts.html
vexrobotics.com/products/accessories/motion/276-2010.html
- M4 screws and nuts
- Jaco foam tires (35 shore is what we are using)
jacoracing.net/nitroshoes_1_10.html
- Electronics
robotmarketplace.com/products/0-SABER2X5-RC.html
spektrumrc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdId=SPM5510
venom-group.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=15026
cgi.ebay.com/12V-120RPM-Powerful-High-Torque-Gear-Box-Electric-Motor-/290525929255?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a4b1df27
The offensive structure still needs to be built, but we are going to be using aluminum flashing around the perimeter to create a wedge. We needed to add about 800grams to the bot to bring it up to the maximum 2kg weight limit. Once we were at 2kg it pushed two textbooks easy, which total about 5kg. We will be competing this Saturday with it.

Previous years we either used completely Vex, or hand fabricated chassis using steel corner brackets and aluminum plate. This year we were able to 3D print the majority of the parts, which made it much easier. For example, previous years we were limited in the tire types we were able to use, but now we were able to make a fully integrated hub and drive coupler.

Just a note about the files, they are not at all parametric. I drew a picture in my head with the measurements and wrote the code. If anybody decides to try building this, let me know and I will be able to give you measurements off the original.

These are some simple files that might help some one build a mousetrap car. The first one is a CD adapter, so you can easily use a CD as a wheel with 8-32 threaded rod. These spin really concentric (previous years we used hand made nylon inserts which didn't work as well). The second file is a Mousetrap extender. Previously we used wooden dowels and zipties, and these work much better. It allows you to adjust the extension.

These are corner pieces for my school's Sumo Bot we are building for the Science Olympiad competition. We are using 3mmx12mm aluminum railing and M4 screws. The scad files for this stuff isn't the greatest. This is the first part of a few uploads I will be making as I assemble this robot.

Simple idler pulley for OpenSCAD. Inspired by a script Rick at Makergear.com wrote. This script is convenient because you can change the belt width and the overhang angle along with the lip height and thickness.



Licensed public domain cause reprappers are chill bros and chicks.

I found out while printing these vertexes that you need to flip the triangles sides on two of them to get them to work. The openscad file was modified to allow for this. Thanks to whosawhatasis for the great design/idea. This is going to be part of my "mixtape mendel" which is based of of prusajr's, hacklab.to's and whosaswhatasis's work.

My teacher for AP calculus was giving out extra credit if we wore a math function the whole day in school. He got the idea from the English department, who does it with a red "A" when they read "The Scarlet Letter".

So anyway, two days before it was due I modeled this up. The night before, I set it to print, and wake up to the sound of steppers skipping. Sure enough it had warped off the build platform because it was so big! The center of the model stuck, but the nozzle got caught on one of the corners and the X and Y were skipping.

I ended up just taking the bit of the model that was left and wrote the function with sharpie. He still gave me the credit :). Once I can get a driver board for my heated bed built I will attempt this one again.

This is the first thing I ever designed in Openscad. It is intended to be a Y bar/studding clamp for Huxley or Mendel. I parameterized it to hold 608 bearings for my filament spool. It is easily workable for people that are still getting a feeling for slicing software (me :p).

Since I have the attention span of a squirrel, I declared a bunch of variables and ended up using them for other things than their name indicates. The equations are right, just some of the parameters are messed up. It is easy to figure out what does what.

This is a printable opto flag for the Fleming CNC Isaac. It is much more robust than my previous designs,


This works with the Fleming CNC Isaac. It can be found at flemingcnc.com.

This uses Nophead's Darwin Z opto endstop(http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:124) flag on Isaac, along with a printable flag.

I designed the flag in openscad, but I forgot to save the source file :/.

This is a printable X-Axis flag for my Fleming CNC Isaac. It will only work if you are using Adrian's Geared extruder driver as well. It is the first thing I have printed that I designed myself. It is the second functional thing I designed in openscad. The file is not easily parametric (no variables).

I am going to be posting my Z and Y brackets/flags for Isaac as well.