Tag Archives: endstop

Adding the circuit boards

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Once I had the opto-endstops all soldered up, I really wanted to keep going.  I made the Y-endstop cables, bolted the opto-endstops on, and bolted the motherboard and stepper motor boards to the MakerBot.  Clipped in the cables and it looks like a robot after all!  I’m going to need to organize those cables, but that will have to wait until all the other parts are in place.

An interesting side note – as I was moving the various axes someone noticed that little lights started flashing on the stepper motor boards!  Cool!  I presume moving the platform caused the motors to act like generators and pushing power to the boards, lighting up the LED’s.

Once the opto-endstops were done, I couldn’t resist bolting them on.  Once I started doing that, I wanted to make the Y-endstop cables, then the ribbon cables, and wire it all up.

If nothing else, it looks like a robot now!

Soldering?

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I have NO idea what I’m doing!

If you’ve got a Batch IX MakerBot all the surface mount boards should have arrived pre-soldered.  This means the first actual material step to building the robot is to solder the opto-endstops.  These are little circuit boards that contain optical switches that will prevent the machine from moving the build platform (and print head?) too far in a particular direction.  You can find the kits for the opto-endstops in the MakerBot store.  According to the page for these kits:

An optical switch usually used to detect when your robot has reached the minimum or maximum position of travel.

An optical endstop AKA opto endstop is a switch made out of light. When something interrupts the light-beam, then it signals the motherboard. Useful for detecting if your robot is attempting to self-destruct. ;)

Also, there are no moving parts to wear out, so they will last pretty much forever.

So, when all is said and done, hopefully I will have taken this:

OptoEndstops Parts

OptoEndstops Parts

To this:

OptoEndstops v2.1

OptoEndstops v2.1