Uncategorized

Delta Robots v2

2013-07-12 Dan

Both have been delayed because I could not get enough ball joints to fill orders. I’m sorry.

On the plus side, everyone who’s been waiting for a Delta Robot will be getting a free upgrade to the new and better model.
Over the next few days I’ll be publishing a few software updates and updating the store product description.

For those of you just joining us, Delta robots are parallel linkage mechanisms that are used for pick and place operations like food handling. They’ve recently grown in popularity thanks to the Kossel, a 3D printer built onto a Delta robot. They come in two flavors: three-armed and four-armed. They run on most flavors of Arduino like Duemilanove, UNO, Mega, and Leonardo. The open source code (on github) includes demos and understands gcode so you can “talk” to it and drive it with relative ease.

Now that I don’t need the last remaining ball joints for Delta robots I can put them in the HOG drive kits. A bit of laser cutting and these kits will be ready to go.

Uncategorized

DIY Makelangelo 2’s back in stock, 2013-7-11

2013-07-11 Dan

I have 4 kits ready, packaged, and waiting for you. Kits ship in the morning so you should expect an email with your tracking number next working day by noon, PST. Would you prefer fully assembled motor shields or DIY?

One new feature is that the name of the robot has been moved from the acrylic front of the box (where it was blocking the view) to one of the sides that didn’t have any other features.

Uncategorized

MixologyBot: Glueing raspberry pi and arduino together with a python daemon

2013-07-07 Dan

I have been incredibly busy. Friday I had an hour on the laser cutter and managed to complete three Makelangelo 2 kits and then stopped working. I was able to fill one existing order and then the other two sold the same day. I really need to learn about scaling up production. I’ve got parts printing every day to fill back orders on Delta 3, Delta 4, and HOG drive kits. For those of you who have had to wait for your order, I’m truly sorry. It will never happen again because I am never again selling something that isn’t already in stock.

While the parts are being produced I’ve been doubling down by working on the code for the MixologyBot. The only piece of software missing is a bit of “glue” to connect the web pages on the Raspberry Pi to the Arduino. Here’s what I’ve got so far.

[code]#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# python daemon to connect PHP and Arduino
# [email protected] 2013

from daemon import runner
from time import gmtime, strftime
import serial
import MySQLdb as mdb
import lockfile
import time
import sys

# config
PIDFILE = ‘/tmp/ardaemon.pid’
LOGFILE = ‘/var/log/ardaemon.log’

class App():
def __init__(self):
self.stdin_path = ‘/dev/null’
self.stdout_path = LOGFILE
self.stderr_path = LOGFILE
self.pidfile_path = PIDFILE
self.pidfile_timeout = 5

def run(self):
con = mdb.connect(‘localhost’,’root’,’43jkdf71′,’waddle_igby’)
ser = serial.Serial(‘/dev/ttyACM0’,57600)
cansend = False

while True:
# anything to receive?
numbytes = ser.inWaiting()
if numbytes > 0:
# grab whatever is incoming and put it in the db.
line=con.escape_string(ser.read(numbytes))
if line == ‘>’:
cansend = True
from_cursor = con.cursor()
from_cursor.execute("INSERT INTO `from_arduino` SET transmit_time=NOW(), message=%s",str(line))
from_cursor.close()
con.commit()
#print strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", gmtime()) + ‘ ‘ + (("<< " + line))

# anything to transmit?
from_cursor = con.cursor()
from_cursor.execute("SELECT * FROM `to_arduino` ORDER BY id LIMIT 1")
if cansend==True and from_cursor.rowcount > 0:
# send it, then take it out of the buffer.
line = from_cursor.fetchone()
from_cursor.close()
ser.write(line[2])
#print strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", gmtime()) + ‘ ‘ + ((">> (" + str(line[0]) + ") " + line[2]))
del_cursor = con.cursor()
del_cursor.execute("DELETE FROM `to_arduino` WHERE id=%s LIMIT 1",str(line[0]))
#print strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", gmtime()) + ‘ ‘ + ((str(del_cursor.rowcount) + " rows affected.\n"))
del_cursor.close()
con.commit()
else:
from_cursor.close()

# now take a break.
time.sleep(0.25);

# run the thing
app = App()
daemon_runner = runner.DaemonRunner(app)
daemon_runner.do_action()[/code]

Many special thanks to the lovely people in irc.freenode.net#python for their patience and help. If you use this program, link back to me, send an email, or something. With this the last major software hurdle is

Uncategorized

Laser cutter update: calibrated!

2013-07-03 Dan

The laser cutter is now assembled and calibrated. I’m working to find the right feed rate and speed for cutting the material I have. Once that is charted it will be a snap to produce parts for the delta robots, Makelangelo, and start testing the frame for the MixologyBot.

I can cut wood, bamboo, jade, marble, organic glass, crystal, plastic, garments, paper, leather, rubber, ceramic, and glass. While the 3D printers are going the laser cutter can be going as well, making me look super productive. …but there will be time when the machine is sitting there, growing cobwebs. Adding a Vancouver laser cutting service sounds like a very doable plan. $3/min runtime + material is the going rate at Metrix: Create Space (who, BTW, are totally awesome and you should go visit). I’ll start there and see how it goes.