Makers Local got the chassis for the Remote Control Lawnmower motorized and running around the shop on Tuesday.
Currently the chassis consists of 1″ square steel tubing, two caster wheels, two motors from kid’s scooters, and two Victor 833 Motor Control Boards.
RC Mower Meets Tuesdays @ 5:30 at the Make Shop.
Watch the Calendar and the project wiki page for details.
Congratulations to the Makers Local HSIS Team!
They took first place in the Hackerspaces in Space Competition!
Click Here to See the Results!
TIME: 3h31m – 35pts
WEIGHT: 1.48lbs – 25pts
COST: $174.29 – 38pts
TOTAL: 98pts
A couple of nights ago, Bob and I started playing with a Maker Bot one of the Makers Local 256 members left at the shop. I asked the member who owns it if I could try to get it working while he was gone on work travel. Of course he said “Yes”. He had been trying to get it to make a shot glass for a while. Bob and I started playing around. We installed the latest version of ReplicatorG and some new firmware. Bob then determined that the head needed to be about .6mm off the printing service. After he tagged me in, and I started playing with laying down a raft. After a few failed attempts where the head didn’t seem like it was moving up the Z-axis enough, I learned to set the Flow Rate of the plastic to 230 instead of 250 in skeinforge. Along with Bob’s findings we seemed to have found a very nice solution. I was able to make a coin, most of a shot glass (something happen 3/4 the way through), and a companion cube.
After seeing the working mini cannon on YouTube myself (preauxphoto) and Gregabyte started talking about how much fun it would be to have one (for purely scientific research of course.) I began to think that maybe it wasn’t a pipe dream and it might be possible. I began to look around and found us some 1″ brass round stock. From there it was just some time at the lathe and mill. Within an hour, we had a working prototype. Though it is about 4 times the size of the one in the video, it’s still fun. It measures 1.5″ in total length, 1″at its widest and 3/4″ at it’s smallest. It is designed to take 1/4″ steel ball bearings and a 2mm fuse. Though the first couple of shots were less than spectacular, we will see if we can get near the awesomeness of the one in the video. Updated with more pictures after the break.
One of our members took the undying oath of geek love recently, stating their passion for the hackerspace movement and the sense of family that can only come from people of similar interests. Last Friday after the 2600 meeting, he went to the local tattoo parlor, The Blue Rose,where he had an appointment with Caroline. This beautiful and talented artist was gentle with this burly man knowing that he had a heart of gold inside and he was looking for a way to show his love for his fellow geeks. Within 45 minutes the deed was done and PreauxPhoto (Scott) had been marked for life with his love for all things geek.