I’ve been working on a few different mechanical projects for a while now. On the one hand, I’m severely limited by my complete and utter lack of mechanical engineering knowledge. On the other hand, I’ve got a 3D printer so I can always arrive at a decent approximation through enough trial and error.
Of course, it’s not like it would kill me to actually learn something about the basics of mechanical engineering. With a bit of googling, I found a page named, “Kinematic Models for Design” which links to a large number of historical texts relating to mechanical engineering – including works from Charles Babbage and Leonardo da Vinci. I found two to be particularly useful – Mechanisms for Intermittent Motion, by John Bickford, 1972, and Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements, by Henry Brown, 1871.
Last, but not least, I want to mention that a friend of mine, Rob Gisebert, told me about the website 507movements.com which is an online repository of the various movements from Brown’s book. Even more interesting, many of these complex movements are are accompanied by animated versions of the drawings in the book.
Before Maker Faire announced the official call for Makers, I had already downloaded and printed out the “call for Makers” information from the most recent Maker Faire and handwritten all of my responses in the form – just so I would be ready to submit my application to be a Maker this year. ((Photo courtesy of @Doug88888)) I ended up submitting my application within just a few hours of the call going out.
After I had submitted my application, my daughter wanted to submit her own application. Of course I was happy to help her, so I helped her prepare an application and submitted it on her behalf a little after 11pm on March 14, 2013, just under the wire.
Today Maker Faire sent her an acceptance! My daughter is going to be exhibiting at Maker Faire Bay Area 2013!
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I just hope my acceptance letter comes soon. :/ Senior year all over again…
I was waiting to surprise you with this, but last week I bought a MakerBot and had it shipped to work. 1
Well, it arrived today… and really… I suppose this is my own fault… but… you see… I was just robbed.
One of the best and most irreplaceable things about getting an awesome new robot is unboxing it. The mailroom guys at work, well intentioned though they are, opened my MakerBot box. I suppose I could have told them in advance that the robot should be arriving soon and to be on the look out for it.
Nevertheless! Tonight I have to clear a space in my Robot Work Area so that I can add my Replicator to the line of robot workers. But what to name it? My MakerBot Cupcake CNC is named “Bender,” the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic is named “Flexo.” There are so many Futurama robots to choose from.
Last Monday I noticed a funny looking Google vehicle while driving back home from Palo Alto. 1 It was a white SUV with a big Google logo on the back passenger side door. Traffic was heavy and I didn’t get to look at the vehicle very long. I’ve seen the Google streetview car before – and this was not it. The streetview car has a tall device mounted on the roof with what appears to be four cameras pointing forward, right, left, and back. The vehicle I saw last Monday had a device the size of a small toaster mounted to the roof with four white pipes – and it was spinning very fast.
My guess was this was the Google self-driving car. When I saw this article the following day, picturing the exact vehicle I saw, I was certain.
I have to admit, when I saw this vehicle I was tempted, for just a moment, to drive slightly recklessly and unpredictably to see what Google’s vehicle would do. 2
My superego won out over my id, and I just observed the progress of the Google self-driving vehicle. I wish I had seen the vehicle earlier so that I could have observed more of the vehicle’s behavior from behind it. Here’s what I saw:
I was in the #3 lane on I-680 North and the Google self-driving vehicle34 was in the #2 lane. Traffic was heavy during the late-afternoon early-evening commute and even though they were in a faster lane, we were probably both going no more than about 35 MPH. 56
They must have left at least at least 5 car lengths worth of traveling distance in front of them.
I didn’t see them switch lanes – except to take an exit.
Interestingly, with the ebb and flow of traffic, the Google vehicle was at times far behind me and even a little ahead of me.
Even though Google as a corporation is a person, and Google was likely present in that vehicle, it did not drive in the HOV/carpool lane.
If Google can drive for 300,000 miles without an accident, including travel in heavy traffic, I suppose there’s a few lessons we can learn:
The ebb and flow of heavy traffic is enough to basically normalize any efforts to “get ahead,” so you might as well drive as slowly, conservatively, and with as much following distance as Google
When traffic is congested, it might help to be in a lane farthest from the on/off ramps7
Always carry two backup passenger/drivers in your vehicle
Prisoners? How do you tell a self-driving vehicle you need to get out and pee? [↩]
The traffic was so bad that my Android phone, with the Google Maps directions showing me the way back home, displayed the dreaded deep-red path that indicates congested traffic. [↩]
I mention the Google Maps traffic congestion metric because I assume their vehicle was using the same information I was to make informed driving assessments. [↩]
Google didn’t have three physical people present, so they couldn’t be in the fastest HOV/carpool lane [↩]
Over the last few weeks Kodak has been on NPR several times. Kodak invented digital camera technology, but never tried to push it – since it didn’t advance their core method for making money… selling film. I’m reminded of this because I’ve finally come very very close to finally using up my 5 pound coil of black ABS that I’ve had since December of 2009.
I’m both excited and saddened at this prospect. In the last two years I’ve run through 5 pounds of clear PLA, 5 pounds of black ABS1 , and another kilogram of clear PLA. I’ve used a smattering of other colors, but not a whole lot yet. Black has been my go-to color since I’ve had so damn much of it.
I already own a Cupcake CNC, named “Bender.” He’s been fully upgraded with an automated build platform, MK5, and a few printed upgrades as well. (Right now it has a Unicorn instead of the MK5 installed.) I already own a Thing-O-Matic, named “Flexo.” My Thing-O-Matic is fully upgraded with a MK6 stepper extruder and a few minor printed upgrades.
Do I really need more plastic printing production capacity? I don’t know. Do I have a new name for a potential new robot lined up? No, I really don’t.
Do I really want another 3-axis CNC robot? Yes. Yes, I do.
