CF & TMFS, horrible combination and more...

Well, after a good time waiting and trouble, I gave up currently with using a CF as a replacement for the HDD. Its installing everything perfectly, but it wont start to boot, so the whole thing is stuck at BIOS level, giving me errors and driving me nuts. Google is not a good help either...

I havent found a way around it, except for using a mobile CD-rom drive who does the trick fortunately. This also means that if you have a system pre-installed on a CD-rom it will work fine. Thank god Torvalds knew that any media is usable for a pc system.

My reprap is currently in repair, the Y-belt went loose (again) and I didnt had the time to repair it. More busy with school than using the reprap lately.

School is considering to buy a reprap for drilling PCB's quickly and fast. Anyone got experience with it, and some howto guide? I am thinking about drilling holes & lanes, and maybe silkscreening it too (with a finepoint marker). Since I dont know python, it will be very hard for me to write some code for it. I hate to get my hands dirty in toxic material ;)

I also noted that my postings are listed on the great wall of reprap related blogs. Good to know for when I am posting more...

TMFS is working... Now I need to install stuff.

Its finally working :) I thought it never would, but its really there. The machine is currently powered by a 12V backup battery, only needed to solder 2 wires for the power. Its powered by a car battery, but I soldered a cigarette power supply on it.

This is my current setup. As you can see its currently installing windows XP on the SSD (Solid State Disk).

The setup is as follows:

In the bottom you can see the power device, together with a red and black wire. There is also a white wire, but thats purely for when its used in the car. The device powers the motherboard (shown on the right) with 1.6Ghz of power. Its pure overkill, but who cares?

In the top is a CF drive, I could also use a CD-player or something else, but I found out that this is the best way to handle bumpy roads.

The total costs are classified at this moment, but I can tell you that this is just the core... It will contain lots more. The final system will be using ubuntu linux, because the keys for vista and windows 7 are not that cheap.

The box that this setup is on will be my main box, only need to find a way to get everything screwed in there.

New project: TMFS

Its been a long time since I posted something, but it doesnt mean I am not working on making new projects that do concern the reprap.

I am currently working on a brand new project called the "Transportable Multi Functional System". I would call it the pc-in-a-box, but TMFS did sound a bit better for me. At this current moment the cost for it all is estimated at 250 euro barebone (without casing), and will run on a car battery. Its a complete server with a CF-card for the hard drive. I am not sure how much power it actually will drain from the car, because I havent checked it yet with a multimeter, but I try to keep it as low as possible. If people want one too, be patient, maybe I will sell clones.

I am sure that it cant beat a mini-laptop (its too expensive), but it is suitable for the following things:

1. Sentry turret for paintball/airsoft (am planning on building this one)

2. Reprap managment system (just put it in the back of your car and let it control the reprap, while you are making new items in the passenger seat and sending it to the back)

3. Wardriving (laptops in the front of the car are a rare sight, and can easely be spotted by cops. With the casing around it they cant blame you of wardriving, even if you open it).

4. Webserver-on-the-road (Just drive, and everyone with iphone/laptop can connect to it on the road)

The complete prototype that I am building will contain the following parts in a hard casing:

barebone:

1. A special 12V DC-DC converter

2. 4gig CF harddrive

3. mini ATX motherboard with 2gig ram

extra:

4. Wireless

5. GPS unit

6. Bluetooth

7. Arduino

8. Custom software

If someone can make a good logo to put on the case, then I would gladly appreciate it if you could send it to me.

wire glue, the next reprap revolution?

Because I got so much to do lately (helping an airsoft organiser and bottling homemade beer) I got not that much time to spend on my reprap and designing stuff. Its annoying, but thats how life goes when you dont have much money to spend.

It doesnt mean that I wont check stuff regulary to see if there is something new. I found something I like to share with all the reprappers around here. Its called "wire glue", and its on sale on amazon and thinkgeek. It comes in small bottles, but I am sure it can also put in syringes. Maybe a good alternative to solder?

I am not sure about the conductivity, but they say it can be used instead of solder, and the conductivity is pretty good. Who knows what comes next?

vacation

I am on holiday for a couple of weeks, my girlfriend has arrived from Turkey and I want to spend July with her. This doesnt mean I will not continue with designing. I will be more busy than ever in August. I found out that the biggest part that needs to be reprapped is the X-axis, so that will be the biggest part I need to make. The rest is smaller, so I can conserve a lot of space.

I hope you have a happy holiday too, because I will return with pictures containing my ideas.

I miss my reprap already

Well, its almost a day since I had to leave my reprap, and I miss it already. During those hours that I could work with the reprap, I did do several things and modifications:

1. Since my Z-axis doesnt work so well (in fact it doesnt work at all, its off by 5mm) I am using a normal kitchen knife to make sure it touches the endstop. Need to replace it with something better.

2. The Y-axis (the one with the 2 bands on it) has the terrible problem of getting loose at one end... I dunno why, but the connection with the stepper motor doesnt work, and it results in the stuff sliding off. Fixed this problem with superglue (and almost glued myself too).

3. Stuff keeps falling off, especially bolts and washers. Most of the time I dont know where it came from, so I wait until the machine is finished, check every bolt on the axis and put it back on. Handy if you have spares.

4. I really need to put the holder for filament back on. Every 30 min. I can untangle the stupid wire.

5. Note to me: That white dust you see is not cocaïne, its ABS. Its scraped off from the filament when going through the extruder.

6. Never make more than 1 piece at a time or never make a bridge, unless you have nail remover to clean it. When the reprap goes from one side to another, it tends to leave a small piece of filament behind. Its not neat. Will post picture when I get home.

Also stuff I want to do:

1. Make a bell on the fan... When the reprap is finished, I believe the fan stops. Ideal moment to put a bell on it, so when I am busy with something else it gets ringing when its done. No more problems of useless waiting time.

2. See if I can make a "mini reprap". And with "mini" I really mean "mini", complete with a mini arduino or PIC (mini sized) to make it all work. I am sure that in the end the electronics will be bigger than the machine itself, but its worth the try... When I hear Adrian talking about "using a Sanguino or ATMega" I am thinking: Why not make it smaller? You only need the size of the biggest part for a normal reprap as your maximum printing size, if you want to conserve as much space as possible (especially in student's homes). And with space reduction, there is also the possibility of making the reprap that small that instead of iron bars we can also reprap plastic counterparts... Also thought about moduling the Darwin. Since Darwin is square, and if I combine that with the latest invention (something to put the extruder motor somewhere else so you can conserve space on top) you can also make it so that you have several modules on top of each other, without problems. Let Adrian Bowyer do the big research work, I want to do the small research work. I hope someone can help me to reduce the reprap to at least half the size of a normal reprap, would be cool to see the reprap downgraded to a bare minimum.

Its alive, ALIVE!!!!

Its true,

I made a shotglass! After a few Z-axis problems (never touching the Z-axis button) and a few crashes into the acryl(grrr) I finally got a working reprap!

Its 2.49AM @ GMT+1, and I officially am an owner of a shotglass! The shotglass only holds half the cup, but its a proof of concept :D

Cheers!

Working on extruder

Finally started working on the extruder, after a whole lot of school trouble. Seems they cant give me a normal break anymore...

I have finished several parts, but the first part is the most tricky one... You need to do something (usually takes 15-30 min), then wait 12 hours for the stuff to dry, 10 min. in an oven and then the whole thing repeats itself again for another 3-4 times. Never noticed that I needed a hacksaw too... Since I hate cutting things off, I am hoping for the best.

At this moment I am at the part where the coil is wrapped around the extruder and the total time is 24 hours waiting. Hope they give me a break in school too so I can work on the reprap.

At least I found out its not something you can do in school during school hours with a bunch of screaming kids. You need a lot of patience and skilled fingers, but its an ideal project for when you have to write your thesis about it.

Greetings from Turkey

Hello all,

Sorry that I didnt say anything for the last few weeks, but at the moment I am in Turkey. Will come back at the end of the month, hopefully I can start finishing my reprap with building the extruder. You can always send me e-mails, but I cant respond them every day since I am having a good time with my gf.

Pictures will be online later.

Greetings to ya all

picture time!

Murphy's law! Aargh...

I found the murphy's law in effect today...

First of all I found out that the last 3 pages of my building manual were actually 3d moving pictures without any stuff...

Then I realised that I cut the drive belt at the wrong length...

And to get sad enough: I cant build the extruder, because the manual is missing :S

AARHGggg....

Building a reprap, day 2

Its 12pm in here, and the reprap is finally taking shape. I am tired but happy. All I need to do is connecting the axis, putting the extruder together and then i'm finished. Its putting the total building time on 19 hours...

I am taking pictures of the build per day, but since I am too tired to put any of them online right now, I will put them online later.

build has started

Hi everyone,

Too bad my camera didnt function so well today. Its 4 hours since I have begun, and I am at 1-07 of the build manual. Lots of parts to go trough, but its fun and I like it :)

I also found some weird stuff in the build manual, will tell Iain when I have time:

1-01: Left 3d does not fit part#

1-02: 10011 instead of 10010

1-03: 10008 instead of 10007, 10009 instead of 10008

And some parts dont have a name assigned, only a number. Oh well, luckely I know what M3x20 means. I will try to get this thing running before friday, I have got a good name for the reprap: Ice... Because its white. Only need some blue leds to match the fans.

D-day is coming...

I just got word from the person who is selling the repraps... They will ship it monday 16th march, so I will have it propably the 17th or 18th of march!

I am wondering what name you would give to the reprap? I have thought of Buzz (because of the sound a reprap can make), Spudd (name says all)...

Just leave a comment if you have a good name for it :)

Next post will be from a happy me, showing the goods.

Julius out.

EDIT: Due to delays they shipped it today... 18th of march. Waiting for the package to arrive!

Puzzling time!

Well,

I got started building a puzzle... You can find it here: http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Puzzles

I havent tested it yet, but the design looked promising...

reprap on sale!

Well, I got my reprap (finally). It took me some time but now I am going to be the proud owner of a fully working reprap. They are selling it on BfB since today. They say its version 3, and I am thinking they did a good job. Its a nice machine, even should accept SD-cards!

The price on the other hand is something to say "Ugh" to: 1050 euro, so thats a whole bunch of money. Hope its worth the prize... At least its a good investment for me, and I hope it can pay itself back.

Now comes the nasty waiting for D-day...

My first post!

Woehie, my first post.

I am going to blog about my Reprap, things I make with it and home improvements. At this moment I aint got a reprap, but I hope to get one pretty fast (hopefully before next month).

My future plan is supplying Belgium with their own reprap, and trying to find ways to make electric designs in 3d. I hope that my education as Product Designer will help me a lot.

For those that dont know what a reprap is should try to use google.

Until next time...

Mr. Seeker