ShopBot as a 3D Printer: controlled by a RepRap RAMBo

On 05.10.13, In 3D Printing, Hardware, Instructionals, By jmil

suggested by Kliment via IRC (/ht), the way to have a heavy toolhead moving about in 3D with high speed AND precision is to modify a ShopBot instead of a Rostock. Recall, the Darwin suffered this design challenge which led to the Mendel.

With RAMBo bypassing the stock motherboard we can drive the ShopBot to scary speeds (10x faster in XY and 100x faster in Z.). Precision should also be ~10x better than belt-driven motion, but needs more fine tuning.

and did i mention it was freaking awesome?

My ShopBot RAMBo Marlin firmware branch is available via GitHub (of course). Follow along in the GitHub log to understand our process.

Thanks to ShopBot and Ultimachine for all your help and schematics!!

 
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Render your next Logo Design

On 05.03.13, In artists, Blender, Instructionals, By jmil

Blender, the awesome open-source do-everything model/rig/render/animate program continues to be an important part of my toolkit. The Artist Community is definitely a huge bonus. So check out this excellent tutorial over at BlenderGuru.com

So…I put Sean’s Harrow through it’s paces, and here are some of my newest desktop backgrounds.

First you get the basic render down. I use 32-bit color with OpenEXR file format, saving z-buffer info too, just, you know, in case you need it later. You should get something like this… kind of flat when viewed on a crappy computer screen, but i assure you there is a ton of color info there for fine tuning later.

Image0010-straight-away

With all that extra color depth, you can easily fine tune the contrast, like so.

Image0010-improved-contrast

Then you need to come up with the shadow version… Andrew Price from BlenderGuru does this in a new Scene. I like the stark contrast… when you look carefully the sharp edges tell you that you are looking at a perspective view.

Image0010-shadow-only

Put it all together, and you get a softly-back-lit Logo. WIN!

0010

 
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Software Freedom Day @ PACS

On 09.09.12, In Arduino, Classes, Events, Hardware, Instructionals, Linux, Presentation, By Jim Fisher

Hive76′s own PJ Santoro will be doing the “Main Presentation” at

the Philadelphia Area Computer Society‘s kickoff meeting, Saturday,

September 15th.

His topic will be “Arduino: Where It’s Been, Where It’s Headed, and Why You Should Care”.

After the main presentation, a beginner class will be taught in the Linux SIG.

PACS Schedule available here.

 
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Intro to Soldering Workshop

On 08.26.12, In Classes, Hardware, Instructionals, By peej
http://www.tvbgone.com/images/trippyRGB_images/35b-power-on.jpg

Trippy RGB Waves Kit

Soldering is an essential skill to learn if you’d like to build your own electronic circuits. Come on in to Hive76 and we can teach you how to solder using Mitch Altman’s Trippy RGB Waves kit!

This specific circuit has a red-green-blue (RGB) LED that slowly changes colors over time. When you wave an object (like your hand) over it, you reset the color-changing pattern. With several boards laid out before you, this creates a wave-like effect.

You can check out a video of the circuit in action here!

When: Saturday, September 8th, 1-4PM

Where: Hive76

Cost: $20 (covers kit and instruction)

 

 
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Hive76 Welcomes Raspberry Pi Developer, Rob Bishop!

On 08.21.12, In Events, Hardware, Instructionals, Presentation, By peej

Rob Bishop, a developer with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, is going to be taking a short tour of US hackerspaces. We are pleased to announce that Hive76 has been included on that list!

Because we are expecting a very high level of interest in this event, we have decided that our studio space is a little too small to accomodate the number of people we are expecting to attend. Philadelphia’s University of the Arts has  graciously offered up some space for us to meet in. There are only 30 spots available, so act fast; this will sell out. Ticket purchased are limited to 2 per person. You’ll find the link below.

If you’ve been wanting to get a taste of the Raspberry Pi (:P), you will not want to miss this event. The event is free to the public, but space is limited! Rob will have Pi(s) for sale at $35 per board. They are still on back-order from major  distributors, so now is your chance to grab one!

Here is what to expect:

Rob Bishop from the RaspberryPi Foundation is touring popular hackspaces in the US throughout September 2012 with the aim of giving talks and workshops about the RaspberryPi to both the hackspace members and also RaspberryPi users in the local community.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charitable organisation founded with the aim of promoting the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level. The Foundation is responsible for the design and sales of the popular RaspberryPi single-board computer. You can find out more about the Foundation and the RaspberryPi here.

The event at each hackspace will informally consist of the following;

  • Talk:
    • RaspberryPi: Past, Present & Future – An introduction to the RaspberryPi, including an overview of its history and development, details on the technical specification and an outline of future developments with many cool tech demos along the way. Followed by a Q&A session.
  • Tech Demos:
    • A chance to demonstrate various OS’s and other demos
  • Workshop:
    •  A chance to play with the RaspberryPi hands-on.
  • Show & Tell / Prizes: 
    • An opportunity to display RaspberryPi projects from the community with prizes for notable projects.

The tour will be blogged/vlogged on the RaspberryPi website and we hope to attract RaspberryPi enthusiasts and hackers/makers from across the areas we will be visiting, allowing us to meet and support our community.

Here are the details on where we are meeting and at what time:

University of the Arts, Terra Hall, 5th floor

211 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102

Monday, September 24th, 7:00PM-10:00PM

 

Update: Corrected UArts address
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Hive76 @ Fosscon!!

On 08.10.12, In Hacks, Instructionals, Philadelphia, Presentation, By peej

Whoa! Fosscon is tomorrow and Hive76 is going to be there!!

What’s fosscon? From the fosscon crew:

Fosscon 2012 is a free and open source software conference, and will
include six general-interest talks, and workshops on topics including
development, community building, hackerspace activities, and more.
Learn about 3D printing, security, and protecting your privacy.
Network with the local tech community and discover new technologies.

(fosscon.org)

Whoa, workshops?! That’s right! Some of which will be conducted by Hive76! We’ve actually been given an entire ROOM for the conference, so be sure to stop by when you’re there!

The workshops that we’ll be running cover Intro to soldering, Intro to Arduino, Build Your Own Flat Panel Speakers, and several workshops on Building Your Own Simple Square Wave Synthesizers.Several? Yeah, Sean will cover using 555 timers, MSP430s, and also Arduinos!

The costs for these workshops will vary from $10-$30 to cover instruction and also cost of materials used.

Make sure to register for fosscon! Seating is limited! If you’d like to financially support fosscon (you should, it’s awesome!), it will only cost you $25 and you get some nice swag! Otherwise, fosscon is a free-as-in-beer event, but you still have to register!

 

 
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Hand-crafted Charlie-Plexed Tile

On 07.28.12, In Cool Projects, Hacks, Instructionals, physical computing, By pez

This 5×6 LED tile is a key component in a secret project that I’m developing (in secret) with some other folks (whose names shall remain a secret).

Why be so public about something so secret? Because this tile uses a layout technique that lets you build charlie-plexed LED arrays quickly and cheaply — and that’s something worth sharing.

Charlie Tile Circuit

You need to flip the tile over in order to see what’s special about it. Here’s a quick list of features that make the assembly what it is:

  • The back of the tile has six “column” conductors and six “row” conductors.
  • These column and row conductors are connected along the diagonal of the row/column array.  At all other points in the matrix, the row and column conductors are isolated via a layer of masking tape.
  • LEDs above the diagonal have their cathode connected to the conductive row immediately above the LED.  LEDs on or below the diagonal have their cathode connected to the conductive row immediately below the LED.
  • All LEDs have their anode connected to the column that is to their immediate left.

The resulting circuit allows you to individually address any of the thirty LEDs in this 5×6 matrix using only six lines from a micro-controller. (more…)

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Modified MendelMax RepRap Build starting Wednesday

On 06.04.12, In 3D Printing, Arduino, HiveBot, Instructionals, By jmil

Did you take Peejay’s Intro to Programming with Arduino class? You may have learned that Arduino’s are great for controlling 3D printers such as a RepRap.

Well, hot on the heels of our last RepRap MendelMax Build, I’ve been able to redesign the MendelMax to be a rigid rectangle… the upshot is the build volume is increased (especially in Z) without the footprint increasing. The build volume of this baby is 265x233x190 mm (or ~10″x9″x7.5″). The build assembly goes much faster, too.

Come on by Hive76 starting this Wednesday night to see or help put together another one. If you’ve been wondering about our upcoming 3D Printer Build and Operation Workshop with NextFab Studio, this is a great way to see what the fuss is all about.

Here’s a video of this box design Modified MendelMax printer on it’s first print. It’s been chugging along for a solid few days now, no problems so far. It’s printing so well, it’s time to build another one. Come join us!

 
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Stanford U Machine Learning Study Group

On 05.01.12, In Instructionals, Study Groups, Theory, By peej

Standford University is at it again with another round of free (as in beer) courses! This time they’re joined by the likes of Princeton, Penn, and the University of Michigan!

Why should you care? Well, Hive76 is forming a study group to help individuals tackle this incredible and challenging opportunity to be found within Standford’s Machine Learning course, of course! Our first meeting will be held tomorrow night during Open House Hours (7-11 PM)! If you are interested in taking this course, please take the time to register with Stanford at the link provided here.

As a place to get started, Mike S. of the Noisebridge hackerspace in San Francisco, has compiled an excellent list of resources for the study group that they have going on the left coast. Do consider joining their ML-specific mailing list!

Folks considering this course should be familiar with programming concepts and linear algebra, for sure! Recommended linear algebra lectures can be found here, and for your open source alternative to MATLAB, check out GNU’s Octave.

See you tomorrow!

 
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Hive to HOST Bug Jam March 4th

On 02.14.12, In Classes, Code, Events, Instructionals, Linux, By Jim Fisher

What the heck is a Bug Jam?

README

Ok, so now what?

 

(more…)

 
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