[ale] ReplicatorG On a Stick!

[Charles Shapiro]

I should've tried Ubuntu, yeah.  But I'm thinkin' about making a 3d
printing puplet.  I found I could load Art Of Illusion (
http://www.artofillusion.org/ ) onto my puppy stick without too much
difficulty.

Getting a Cupcake dialed in is tricky -- there are a large bunch of
parameters in the control software, and out of the box
they're only mostly right. So far my prints are comin' out a little
blobby, which probably means that Cyndi needs some lovin' in this
area.  Official resolutions are about .084 mm horizontal and maybe .33
mm vertical ( http://makerblock.com/2010/02/makerbot-cupcake-cnc-print-resolution/
).  The calibration objects I've been printing come out pretty very
close when I mike 'em though -- usually within .01 mm of nominal in
both horizontal and vertical.

I think the figures you're citing are from earlier generations of the
technology.  I just printed a mounting board for my plastruder
controller which has a hex hole that is supposed to contain an M5 nut.
 The nut has enough clearance in the hole to slide in easily and need
a gentle tap on the table to fall out.  The Cupcake is capable of
making gears that mesh, bearings that turn, and parts that snap-fit
together.  Plus stuff like battery cases that work with standard
batteries. I'm pretty sure that a well-built and tuned Mendel can do
as well or better.

-- CHS


On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Michael Hirsch <mdhirsch at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/9/10, Charles Shapiro <hooterpincher at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Heh!  You can run ReplicatorG on a stick!
>>
>> I've been experimenting with 3d printing lately.  The software which
>> controls Cyndi, my "cupcake" CNC machine, requires very up-to-date
>> versions of python and java.  The developers test it solely on Ubuntu
>> Maverick Meerkat ( 10.10), the very latest 'n' greatest.  But I have
>> found that it will run just fine on Puppy Linux 5.11, which is based
>> on Lucid Lynx ( Ubuntu's LTS version 10.4) .  This lets you run the
>> software without installing or updating anything -- just boot your USB
>> media and start printin'!
>
> Did you try this with Ubuntu?  The standard install disk for Meerkat
> doubles as a live CD.  Use usb-creator to install it on a 1 Gig drive
> and assign yourself the remaining space for changes.  Now boot the
> drive and install whatever else you need.  That sounds like it would
> work.
>
> I looked at RepRap a while ago, and it looks to me like it has
> resoltion around the 1mm or 1/10 inch range.  It didn't seem like you
> could build to really tight tolerances.   Is the cupcake any better?
>
> Michael
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