Machine Making

We began our project with building Nadya's Machines that makes modular kit. The modules turned out perfect and we continued to assemble them together. At this stage of our project, we were waiting for the gestalt boards wires, and resistors to arrive so we can begin testing the platforms.

The next week the gestalt nodes and components for the fabnet usb arrived. Unfortunately, the wire we needed for the Fabnet USB did not arrive. We were closing in our deadline so we decided to order a similar wire from Amazon. Once the substitute wire arrived, we wired the gestalt board with our platform. Finally, Matt Chalker was able to compile code to the gestalt board and made our platform move. Success! However, problems began to appear when we tried to talk with another gestalt node to add another degree of freedom. Unfortunately, we started encountering multiple errors because the computer could not detect our gestalt nodes. We concluded that the substitute wire we ordered was insufficient and waiting another week for the proper wire to arrive.

At this time, we also consulted the fab academy to guide us debug our problems. The solution was to delete the persistence file every time we needed to run the code because the computer has to identify the machine. This was game breaking because we spent most of our time trying to debug this problem since it was delaying our progress. This was a great discovery, but at this point, we were struggling to invest time in our machine design while keeping up with the other topics. But, once we connected a third gestalt node we encountered another error, what a surprise. At this time, we decided to design a machine to play with a cat by using a laser pointer. We attached a laser pointer holder attachment to the Y-axis platform. The following images are our assembling procedure.

We attached two mtm platforms together to develop a 2 axis machines than moves in the Z and X direction. We finished out combined platform with a machine base

With two moving stages we now effectively had a XY plotter and needed to figure out some sort of toolhead. William Whitaker suggested we make a "cat occupier" to randomly move a laser pointer around to keep a cat chasing a red dot on the wall. We attached our laser pointer with a 2” piece of Delrin rod with a 9/16” hole drilled out of the center to hold the laser pointer. A wooden wedge keeps the laser button pressed. Unfortunately none of us have cats to test, but I do have a temperamental dog, so we transitioned the device to a "furball occupier."

Check out the initial test below!

We also tested the device out with a living subject. Unfortunately Yoshimi the Corgi/Shiba was mostly terrified of the sound the machine made and didn't notice the red dot on the wall.

All of our files are available

  • here in our file repository
  • Division of Labor

    All: Build a MTM Stage

    Roger Kassebaum: Design stand for the machine

    William Whitaker: Design and fabricate laser point holder

    Matt Chalker: Programming, assembly

    Geromar Hasta: Documentation

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