MSRaynsford

So even though DK isn't going to the maker faire and I have a million other things to be working on before the maker faire I just can't help but make a few more tweaks and changes to the machine. This week I managed to make all the ladders and girders for the new DK, I also redrew all the sprites (because the new style just needs pixel outlines rather than cuts) and I assembled them onto the back boards. I laser cut some perspex windows and heat bent them through 90 degrees to catch the balls as they drop, and (because this version is closer to the original game in terms of girder angles) I had to add an additional little slope section to ensure that the balls change direction quickly but also manage to roll all the way down to the bottom window. (no specific file yet) 22 Projects/ 26 Weeks

I've been cursing my laser a bit recently because it's been behaving badly. I can't decide if the tube is on the way out or if it's just because the outside temperature has suddenly heated up significantly. I took another look to make sure that the mirrors and lenses were clean and I discovered this visible smut on one of the mirrors. I know it wasn't there last time I cleaned the mirror and it won't rub off which makes me think that the mirror itself might be damaged now. I hope to hear something from HPC in the morning.

With the UK Maker Faire just days away I had to concede and cut my loses. Donkey Kong just wasn't going to be finished in time and to an acceptable standard, so I had to make the decision not to take it as a half built project to the Maker Faire. I still want to take something interactive though so I needed to make a new project. The new project is a CNC controlled ball bearing rolling round a maze. The XY frame is taken from my old 3020 (the one that caught fire) and is driven by some hefty stepper drivers from my old CNC mill. A couple of magnets are placed on top of the machine and a ball bearing on top of a sheet of mdf. Sure it's only a flat maze but there is a reason for that, the whole thing is driven from an arduino and I'm going to let people program the arduino to drive it round the maze. I wrote a small application that converts a command string sent via the serial port into a series of movements. N10, E20 etc. Simple enough to pick up quickly. Multipl...

For a long time postage across the globe has been costing me £3.30 but I've been charging £3.00 and taking the minor loss. Postage has gone up again this week though to £3.50 so I'm going to have to pass the cost on (because that still doesn't include the price of the envelope and labels etc).  Because of the way I'm using the blog though this might take a while for me to manually change all the paypal links so order quickly and you'll get in on the cheaper prices.

Just a quick update from the weekend. I had to recut the X rails 3 times so far to get to something that works well with the distance between the two vertical rails. From silly mistakes to design flaws I think I've finally got something that is close to working (close enough not to recut it for another week) I added some back boards this time to make things a bit neater and better aligned. I'm now in the process of populating those boards with girders and ladders to make it look functional, then I'll probably work on the ball lift next so that I can at least have circulating barrels to show off if nothing else.

The UK maker faire is fast approaching so I thought I better get started on the Donkey Kong remake. This week I mostly concentrated on redrawing everything (as I appear to have lost some original files) and getting some of the parts moving. This is the X axis that will support Mario and he moves from left to right. It's a very simple stepper motor and belt drive combo. I made custom brackets at either end for my parts and affixed them to some 8mm rods. The test worked mostly well, I need to adjust the central idler wheel a little (second video) as everything pinches when I pull the belt tight (there is a reason for the middle wheel if anyone fancies a guess) (no specific file) 21 Projects/ 24 weeks.

The last piece of laser work I did for the wedding are the table decorations. Based on item no 300 of my 365 things project, this was a redesign and a revamp of the butterfly cage. The aim was to make them faster to cut and simpler to assemble, I achieved the later. The bottom is a separate piece and is only glued in once the butterflies are in place. I ended up making 6 cages, one for each table. If there is interest I'll happily release this as a kit. ( svg here ) 20 projects/ 23 Weeks