There are now 1006 Makelangelos around the world. To celebrate I invested Sunday to build a new website just for the Makelangelo robot. Thursday and Friday last week were spent making “how to assemble” videos and now they’re being edited together.
I am humbled and grateful that you enjoy this project so much. Thank you!
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.
I’m leaving for a week in Mexico starting tomorrow morning, so I don’t have a lot of time to write a blog post today.
Instead, here’s a random Internet Find of the Week: How to build your own solenoid engine.
I’m a big fan of Kaizen, the process of continual refinement. Opportunity is everywhere if you’re looking for it. Sometimes it’s obvious like “hey man, I think you should put a link to X on page Y of your tutorial!” …Ok! Sometimes it’s more subtle, like when a customer on the phone tries to describe a part for which they have no name.
On the good suggestion of Sarah Petkus of RobotArmy I’ve started putting part numbers right on all my laser cut pieces. Now I realize it was a hole in my inventory control system. I had a separate inventory number for every item in the store, but the laser cut parts were clumped together as “laser cut parts for kit X”. Now that I have separate part numbers I can… (more…)
