Tag: ribbon cable

more things i learned [Draft 02/20/2010]

  • put screws through the opto endstops first – to make sure they’ll go through
  • put the hex key through the body in order to line up the spacers
  • not all spacers are the same size
  • the heads that bite into the ribbon cable are difficult to clamp on
  • Adjust the y tension pulley as best as you can before installation of the caps
  • clipping the heads off of ethernet cables is very satisfying
Drafts Zero - The Lost Blog Posts
  1. Misnamer [11/28/2010]
  2. The Lost Blog Posts
  3. Plastruder! [Draft 12/25/2009]
  4. UNTITLED [Draft 12/25/2009]
  5. Preparing to print [Draft 12/27/2009]
  6. More prints [Draft 01/04/2010]
  7. Prototype Pricing [Draft 01/19/2010]
  8. MakerBot tuning [Draft 01/20/2010]
  9. Plastic Screw Anchor [Draft 02/02/2010]
  10. Magic [Draft 02/03/2010]
  11. How are you printing with PLA? [Draft 02/16/2010]
  12. Rebuilding my extruder [Draft 02/16/2010]
  13. MY robot [Draft 02/18/2010]
  14. more things i learned [Draft 02/20/2010]
  15. First commissioned piece! [Draft 02/22/2010]
  16. MakerBot: Toy or Tool? [02/25/2010]
  17. Idea for Skeinforge settings… [Draft 03/27/2010]
  18. RepRap and MakerBot alternatives [Draft 04/05/2010]
  19. RepRap Parts for Sale [Draft 04/07/2010]
  20. Where is the Othercutter? [Draft 06/08/2015]
  21. Mendel Parts – Printed, Cast, CNC’d, Lasercut or Injection Molded? [Draft 04/12/2010]
  22. MakerBot Operator’s Manual [06/04/20210]
  23. MakerBot on CBS! [07/07/2010]
  24. New Print: Soft-Pawed Albino Stoat of South Wales Cookie Cutter [07/07/2010]
  25. House calls [07/11/2010]
  26. Digital assistant? [08/05/2010]
  27. MakerBot + Junk = Stuff! [08/06/2010]
  28. Design choices in RepRap, Goals of RepRap [08/14/2010]
  29. Upgrades and obsolescence [08/25/2010]
  30. Dear Anonymous [08/25/2010]
  31. The ultimate in customer service [08/26/2010]
  32. Open Source Makes You Smarter [08/27/2010]
  33. Getting my Plastruder MK5 running [09/06/2010]
  34. Weird new kind of spam [09/19/2010]
  35. An open letter to Ms. Word [10/18/2010]
  36. Printing with PLA again! [10/18/2010]
  37. Halloween costume too [10/27/2010]
  38. Dream jobs [10/29/2010]
  39. The nuances of time travel [10/31/2010]
  40. Printed Pink Panther Person [11/22/2010]
  41. Skein them all and let ‘Bot sort them all out [11/24/2010]
  42. The Patents for disc shooters [12/10/2010]
  43. Princess Bride with Lightsabers [12/13/2010]
  44. Dilbert comic [12/13/2010]
  45. Ultimachine PLA review [12/15/2010]
  46. Mendel to the power of 101 [12/21/2010]
  47. Potential improvements for Leonardo Voltron [12/27/20210]
  48. You can keep your filthy money [12/28/2010]
  49. I watched Primer the other night [12/30/2010]

Arduino Powered Drawing Robot – Take 2 (Or 3)

Still under construction
Still under construction

My original drawing robot was built using an Arduino Uno, Adafruit motor shield, and two beefy stepper motors bolted onto a big chunk of plywood.1 Now I’m in the process of building a new robot using a sweet wooden project box, a freeduino, a PolagraphSD shield, and the steppers from the original drawing robot.  The other day it occurred to me that if I only had another set of steppers, I would have everything I need for a second drawbot.

About a week and a half ago I placed an order with SparkFun for some awesome rainbow colored ribbon cable, wire connectors, and some other stuff.  Since I was buying some stuff anyhow, I figured $14 wasn’t much to pay to have another set of motors I could use to rebuild my old drawing robot.2 I also see several additional side benefits to having this extra set of motors.  First, and most obvious, I’ll have two drawing  robots.345 Second,67 I’ll have another set of motors I can put into some other wacky project down the road.  Third, I’ll be able to test a totally different software setup on the second drawing robot without having to disassemble the other robot.  Ideally I’d tinker a little with the source for Dan Royer’s Makelangelo’s software and Sandy Nobel’s Polargraph software.

Don’t forget to take a minute and fill out my DrawBot poll so I’ll know what to blog about next!

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  1. Photo courtesy of Alex Abian (Also on flickr.com/alexabian [↩]
  2. Albeit with smaller motors [↩]
  3. What’s better than one drawing robot?  10 drawing robots! [↩]
  4. Give it a second [↩]
  5. Second.  Heh. [↩]
  6. Again with the second [↩]
  7. You’d think we’d be to thirds by now [↩]
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