The technology shop is a haven for all sorts of creations. We are equipped to work on robotics projects, Arduino projects, CAD projects, drones, and more. The shop is both a workshop and an extension into other shops. We provide 3D printers, workstations, and classes for soldering electronics and robotics, computer stations for computer-aided design and programming, as well as CNC (Computer Numerical Control) tools that live in the wood and metal shops.
3D Printer Becomes Soldering Robot
Sure the Anet A8 is well-known for its fire hazard. There are two things to keep in mind, I do not use the heated bed nor the heating element on the extruder. The soldering iron is directly connected to the PSU and the mainboard is only running the stepper motors. So way less power is needed compared to the 3d printer setup.. Anyway I would never leave my machines unattended ;)
The full CAD files for the robot can be found where I have uploaded it into the GrabCAD Community Library. Please follow this link to see the files. I decided to upload the assembly as a .step file so that it will be importable into any major CAD software, so that hopefully as many of you as possible will be able to use the files. You will almost certainly wish to make minor edits to the files before printing them (such as adjusting mechanical fits to suit the expected quality of your 3D printer, or to fit the components you've bought, especially the servos).
The DIY soldering robot which we have been building in our spare time over the past few months is now working and we have been able to solder some test Raspberry Pi expansion board headers with the machine.
There are several commercial soldering robots available and we got quotes for some of them but we decided that they were either too big, too slow or too expensive, with most costing more than a new car. In the end, we decided that what we wanted was so specialized it would be easier and cheaper to make one ourselves.
We tried to design the machine in a way that would be small and easy to replicate so that if we need to speed up the production of our boards we can quickly make more soldering robots and have a row of them running on a desk. A Bluetooth module was added to the design so when we do build more robots we can use one master robot to wirelessly control several slave machines.
We are currently running the soldering robot via a Windows PC as we found that the Windows 8 tablet we purchased will not charge while acting as a USB host and so the internal tablet's battery was trying to provide power to the USB hub even though it has its own power supply and the tablet was going flat very quickly. We are looking into various ways to resolve this and may have to modify the tablet to replace the battery with an internal switching supply.
Have you ever wanted to build a giant, 6-axis, mostly-3D-printed robot arm? Well, this Instructable will show you how to do exactly that. Using a large collection of 3D printed parts, stepper motors, a 3D printer control board, a power supply, and a big pile of off-the-shelf hardware, we will create a large and powerful robot arm.
The code used to control the robot arm is actually the Marlin firmware which is typically used for controlling 3D printers. Since, from a hardware perspective, a 3D printer is basically just a collection of stepper motors, just like the robot arm, the Marlin firmware works very well for controlling the robot arm in this Instructable. The Marlin firmware was adapted by BCN3D for use in this project.
The robot arm is controlled using G-Code. G-Code is a type of programming language commonly used to tell computer-controlled machines how to make things. Almost every 3D printer and CNC machine on the planet takes G-Code commands during operation. The G-Code tells these types of machines how to move. The Arduino and RAMPS combination we are using to control the robot is normally used to control 3D printers. In essence, the Arduino/RAMPS/Marlin firmware combination is a platform for interpreting and executing G-Code.
Others have suggested that as more and more 3D printers start to enter people's homes, the conventional relationship between the home and the workplace might get further eroded.[214] Likewise, it has also been suggested that, as it becomes easier for businesses to transmit designs for new objects around the globe, so the need for high-speed freight services might also become less.[215] Finally, given the ease with which certain objects can now be replicated, it remains to be seen whether changes will be made to current copyright legislation so as to protect intellectual property rights with the new technology widely available.
In 2019, Nolop grew increasingly popular. For the last few weeks of the fall 2019 semester, Nolop was packed every afternoon, routinely drawing crowds of 50+ people from 4 PM until 8 or 9 PM. The laser cutter was running continuously most of the day and late into the night. Our four 3D printers also ran close to 24 hours per day. With grad student Elliot Pavlovich supervising the red zone several evenings per week, use of the table saw, drill press, and band saw increased as well. Another student, Mandy Rosengren, helped us set up a wearable tech area with a sewing machine and electronics for embedding in garments and accessories. We added a jump shear and brake for working sheet metal and a second soldering station to support more users. 2ff7e9595c
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