Ramrod

Hello again!

It's been a busy month so far, and I haven't had lots of time to work on Ramrod. Fortunately, I have made lots of progress either way, and it is documented in this update- but in a video form. Enjoy!

Hello again!

All of the parts have shipped to my house, so it's time to get building the prototype. Mechanical work will come first, along with electrical work and lastly programming.

As I go along, I will be adding more info to the BOM and build instructions for Ramrod. Also, I may be working on pushing things to the GitHub, but we'll see what actually happens. I hope to finish the construction soon, but I will be busy this next week and will not have much time to work on it. So here are some more pictures of the parts, and in the meantime I will be uploading more construction photos to the Flickr page!

Hello everyone!

I just finished up the project description video for Ramrod. I know that the rules changed for the Hackaday Prize, but I thought that it would be a waste if I created the video and didn't share it with anyone!

It really just goes over the basics of what I hope to see in the project, but if you are interested in hearing what my plans are for Ramrod, then this short video is for you.

More updates coming very soon!

Hello again!

I've created some fantastic renderings (all on the Flickr album) of the prototype with Lagoa, a 3-D rendering service. Here's a peek:

Unfortunately, FreeCAD hasn't been exporting STEP files very nicely lately, so you would be right in saying that you can see the mesh rendering (those are STLs). For a closer look at what I mean, see this:

Anyway, I have made lots and lots of pretty renderings (some with layers stripped away) to explain what all of the different parts do. Hopefully you can get a better understanding of what is going on while the prototype gets built. Without further ado, I present Ramrod's prototype, explained!

Frame

The frame is made of Schedule 40 3/4 in. PVC pipe. Why? PVC pipe is sturdy, very inexpensive, and great for building approximately sized structures. Most of all, it is simple to put together and modify- all that is needed is a little sawing and mallet-ing. As you can see in the far above image, the printer rests on top of the structure, and the interesting stuff sits down below.

Part Insertion

The final version of Ramrod should put the tool back on the in/out platter. This prototype will not do that, but it will retrieve the part from the scanner bed automagically. Simply enough, a NEMA 17 stepper will sweep the part off the scanner bed and into a chute. To protect the bed, a piece of 1/8 in. acrylic is laid over the glass to protect it- I still want to be able to use this scanner afterwards.

Part Storage

This prototype only has six storage spaces, which is definitely less than the final version. After all, this is but a demonstration, and a refined one at that. These storage spaces are cheap and cost-effective- they are ordinary cans from canned food. The principle is that the tool from the scanner bed will land in a can, which is attached to a rotating platform. The platform can spin (another stepper) to provide another empty can, lined up for a fresh tool to go into.

Part Retrieval

Wondering what the mysterious upper stepper motor with the spool on it is for? Attached to that spool are six lengths of fishing line that go around every can. Ordinarily, the spool has the lines spooled around it, keeping the cans taught and upright. The upper stepper rotates at the same speed as the lower one, and none of the cans spin downwards. But what happens when a part needs to be released?

The upper stepper will not rotate in sync anymore, loosening the lines. This will cause all of the cans to tilt outwards, but only one can will spin in the MDF blocks and dump its contents. That can has no cardboard rack surrounding it (see the very topmost photo). All of the other cans will just rest on the rack until the line is respooled and they all become upright. The part will be unceremoniously dumped onto the table.

That's it for the prototype. Pretty simple, but we'll see how it actually turns out! Anyway, in case you didn't understand, here are some more renderings (also on the Flickr album):

I bet you are a bit tired of hearing about "rendering this, rendering that." Me too! I've started to order the parts for the prototype, and many parts are already here. I'll be posting the completed BOM soon, some build notes should get posted, and there should be a video with expectations for the final product coming as well.

Thanks for staying tuned- there should be another update later this week!

I am pleased to say that I have completed the CAD for the first (and only) prototype of Ramrod:

I'll be working on ordering parts, getting the BOM ready, and writing an explanation of how the prototype works, complete with fancier renderings. Another update should come in the next couple days!

So far, a couple people have subscribed to my project, which is really cool. Thank you all for following my project updates- it's good to know that people are interested.

I have recently been going through tutorials in OpenCV, as can be seen on Ramrod's Github, and I have also been planning the first prototype. One of the important parts of this project is that I need to make all of the separate pieces work together. This means that I must be able to test out the individual parts before I can work on the final product.

For that reason, I have been working on coming up with a prototype to test out the software side of Ramrod. The actual mechanics of the prototype will be quite simple, consisting of only three stepper motors, assorted plastic and metal parts, cans, and a PVC frame, with the scanner on top. However, the value of the prototype will be that it will provide testing of Ramrod's software and that it will prove that Ramrod is a feasible project.

After a couple iterations, I came up with a quick sketch of what the prototype will look like:

Right now, I am measuring parts for the prototype, which will be low-cost due to my budget. I'm working on establishing a bill of materials and a CAD file, and I will get those out as soon as I can.

Also, I just set up a Flickr album with ALL of Ramrod's pictures, not just the ones on the main project page. If you want, you can take a peek at all of the images on there- I just made it public.