Its been a few months since my last update. I haven’t had a lot of time to work on both my RepRap and update my blog. In hopes of finishing my RepRap, I decided to blog less often.
I’ve finished the cartesian robot and setup the electronics. I put all the electronics on a single piece of plywood. The wires that run between the various boards are tied down with wire ties so they don’t move around and come loose. The wires that are connected to the cartesian robot are tied down to the frame. I used an ATX motherboard extension cable to connect to the power supply. This allowed me to put a power switch on the board and make a few power connections off a single plug. The stepper drivers are all powered directly off the power supply, while the rest of the boards run through the large ATX connector.
I don’t have an extruder yet, but I decided to test the cartesian robot out. I connected an LED to the extruder signal from the microcontroller. I used a 520 Ohm resistor in series with the LED. After shutting the lights off, I took a video of the LED “printing” a corner bracket. My camera would only record for an hour continuously, so I just got the bottom quarter of the part.
The top edge isn’t parallel with the bottom edge. I believe this is because there is slack in my y-axis belts.
Since I have now discovered that it will take a long time to print a part, I’ve decided to set up a dedicated computer to run the RepRap. I’m using my old MythTV system, which has a 500 MHz P3. I’ve also built a table to hold the computer and the RepRap so that they are out of the way of my workspace.
I’m going to order pre-made parts for the extruder to save time. Those should arrive within a few weeks.