Come play ginormous Tetris, make a flying light machine, and check out our awesome kits. Be early coz they’ll go fast fast fast.
Here’s a map of where we’ll be at the fair.
I recommend you run past everything else, screaming as you go, then leisurely stroll back towards the door.
Gearboxes can turn a weak fast motor and you need
When you buy a Marginally Clever robot kit, you don’t just get an awesome robot. You push the boundaries of science and engineering by funding my research. It’s a bit like I’m trying to run a personal Skunkworks.
You’ve heard me talk often on this site about my desire to build robot arms for less and make them for everyone. I need a gearbox so I can build the arms with affordable 3d printer electronics and hardware. Gearboxes transform weak but fast motors into slow but strong motors. Not every gearbox is right for robots. A good candidate is a hypocycloid, cousin of the harmonic gearbox.
these video’s aren’t mine. They are here to illustrate the concept.
I spent $3000 on a prototype that doesn’t work. In spite of the incredible tolerances and the top quality machining, we couldn’t get the gearbox to run without binding or jamming. More on that at the link, as well as details on my progress with the robot arm.
On the bright side, I can share my progress and save each of you a small fortune. Plus I haven’t given up. At a recent Bring-a-hack dinner after the 2015 Bay Area Maker Faire I got a number of great tips and suggestions about how to try again. They ranged everywhere from “run a kickstarter to fund more development” to “add more lasers”.
Do you have any ideas why the gearbox doesn’t work? Have you tried to make a hypocycloid or a zero-backlash gearbox? Comment below.
For more up-to-the-minute news about stuff I’m making, follow me on instagram.
989 Makelangelos around the world. 11 Makelangelos and three days to hit 1000 while I am at the 2015 Bay Area Maker Faire. ~I’m so excited~! You make this possible.
Yesterday with help from Fiverr.com I got Makelangelo new translations. If you can’t wait for the next software update, grab the files here direct: arabic, german, and dutch.
This morning I was asked if I would be on television to advertise our local maker fair. Of course! I’ll go on television any day. I just hope they pick a time when I’m in town!
Speaking of out of town, get this: the Russian embassy in Canada only handles visa applications through one company. The company has no offices anywhere west of Toronto. They also want me to bring in my passport … or mail it to their offices and they’ll send it back.
If this lengthy and questionable method succeeds, I’ll be at Geek Picnic instead of in town for the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire. Not to worry! I’ll have some fans & friends man the booth. Of course there will be robots. New this year we’ll have some fun stuff to make at our booth. Look out overhead!
Now I’ve also received interest from cinekid, a children’s media festival in Amsterdam. Amsterdam! It’s been so long.
Marginally Clever is truly international now and it’s all because of you. Thanks to you every more people are becoming robot-savvy and my army of minions grows. Maniacal laugh! This is great. Moon robots, together.
Fellow VHS member Luke Brooks came by and took new pictures for the website yesterday. He’s a former Tinkerines employee with great gear and even better ideas.
Here’s my lab workbench up close for the About page:
Here’s the “spill shot” of the ROBO-0033 Makelangelo 2.5.2.
A spill shot should be everything included in the kit. I added the water bottles you should take from your local recycling and some hand tools for scale. We’ll be bringing this kit to Maker Faire.
Here’s the ROBO-0034 Makelangelo 3.2 along side some art created on this and similar machines.
We’ll be bringing this kit to Maker Faire.
Here’s the ROBO-0023 Arm3:
The last time I brought this to a fair American Airlines misinterpreted “FRAGILE” as “PLEASE CRUSH”. I’ll be leaving this baby at home.
We’re ahead of schedule here, so I’m going to spend the rest of the day setting up a quick order form to use at the fair. Tomorrow I’m going to pack everything for travel on Thursday, and by 10am Friday we should be ready and I’ll get to tour the grounds.
My favorite part of Maker Fair is the magic hour before the gates open when I get an exclusive peek at the show-to-be and I’m surrounded by people full of purpose and energy. Watch for my Friday post! It will have a map to our booth location and a few behind the scenes shots seen nowhere else.
I’m delighted to announce the Makelangelo software update v7.1.0 is now available for download. At the Bay Area Maker Faire, May 16 & 17 I will be giving hands-on demonstrations and talking about our exciting future.
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