Author: Dan

Technically a brain in a jar.
News

Jigsolve: IRC bot rewrite; monetization; assembly photos

2017-07-07 Dan

Since the last update

I fought a hell of a long time with my DIY Prusa i3. Nothing sticks to any bed, and I blame the nozzle. I’ve ordered two new Prusa i3s from Prusa himself, so fingers crossed that’ll go better.

Meanwhile, back at the farm

While we wait for delivery I’ve been using the Tinkerine printer at the Vancouver Hack Space to print parts from my design.

and I’ve attached the Raspberry Pi B to the side of the X-Carve collet. I’ve also modelled a place to attach the air pump.

The Pi camera talks to the pi which Wifi’s back to the PC 3 feet away. The PC runs a Java IRC bot which listens to user commands and then translates them into GRBL, the firmware running on the X-Carve.

Either the PC or the Pi will upload the camera image to the internet – I’m not sure which yet, but Pi would be more straightforward. I wonder about bandwidth. There is a separate special PCB that runs the stepper driver to rotate pieces when they are picked up and turn on the air pump. This PCB could not be connected to the X-Carve directly with ease. I could reuse some of the extra connections on the back of the X-Carve (coolant system?) but that makes me uncomfortable.

Monetization

At some point this robot has got to start paying for itself. I considered banner ads on the video feed, corporate sponsors, and a few other options. All of them seemed like a lot of long term work. I want to turn this on, scatter the jigsaw pieces, and then walk away. So instead I’m taking a page from http://reddit.com/r/place and http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/ to sell off the squares under the jigsolve. There are 75×75 1cm squares, and I’m thinking $2 each is very fair. 300dpi print covering the whole table should be 118 pixels on each side of each square (300*10/25.4). Plenty for all kinds of messages or fun pics! Plans are already being drawn up for a short kickstarter video to promo this project.

I’m glad we had this talk

I’m heading out right now to pick up the last mounting hardware for the air pump. If it fits then tomorrow I rewire all the components and try to get through the unit tests. Maybe even an integration test! God laughs at the plans of mortal men.

News

jigsolve: modelled and added camera

2017-06-14 Dan

TBH I have no idea if the camera can see the nozzle tip from there or if the image will be in focus. More than a little important! I’d be very grateful to our lizard overlords if I did NOT have to build a mirror system to get the image to the camera.

The M2*20 screws were hidden when I took this screen shot. ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)

News

Jigsolve: X-Carve assembled

2017-06-13 Dan

I bought and assembled an X-Carve CNC. I am now designing a few parts to hold the rotating air nozzle that will pick up jigsaw pieces. (purple plate, pin, plate, yellow tube.) once I can turn and suction up pieces I’ll add a few more bits to hold a raspberry pi camera, which will be mounted to look down at the nozzle.

Here’s the X-Carve mostly assembled.

News

Jigsolve: X-Carve to the rescue

2017-05-18 Dan

This has been on the backburner for too long, sitting in a corner and taunting me with it’s unfinished business. The problem is not the suction nozzle or the camera or the code – it’s the janky gantry I built, partly to save money and partly to learn about CoreXY systems.

Business is good and the money is there, so I’ve purchased an Inventables X-Carve machine. Once it arrives I’ll mount the suction nozzle instead of a cutter and run the system like that. Later when the thrill of jigsolving is gone I’ll repurpose the X-Carve as a traditional CNC machine.

More when the X-Carve assembly happens.