Our team Table Flip got back together this week to regroup after demoing our last prototype. Our goal was re-think the process to make it as easy as possible to build a working proof of concept. Our MVP is simple:

We want a machine that can make it easier to disassemble electronics for reuse or recycling.

To that end we thought about ways to minimize construction, which made us think about what we could recycle to build our recycling machine. Since most of our movement is based off systems developed by 3d printers, why not just modify a 3d printer?

A filament 3d printer already has a heat source, so we talked about trying to turn that into a soldering iron itself: putting something like a paperclip into the filament hole to transfer heat. Since we thought that people may not want to risk damaging their filament heads, we decided instead to build a mount for a usb soldering iron or soldering gun. The next goal to prototype would be to build something that works like this:

We decided to focus on de-soldering a perma-proto breadboard. These boards are very common in home projects and they often are connected to components we might want to use for the next project.

The solder side of these is often relatively simple which should help our machine learning. Instead of trying to teach an algorithm to identify transistors, resistors, chips, etc., using the perma-proto board means we just need binary classifier: is this a solder blob or not?

With most home solder melting between 450 and 460 K (360 and 370 °F; 180 and 190 °C) it should be relatively easy to remove parts a human has hacked together (in comparison to something a machine installed on an assembly line).

We still have our final goal as something that has multiple tool heads to disassemble much more complex electronics. Right now, we feel the best way to get there is to iterate on more simple working models.

Though we can’t stop talking about future upgrades, like:

• having a system that jiggles the parts as we de-solder them to increase the chance they fall off the board
• flipping the table (or having two cameras) so the computer knows which solder joints are connected to the same component; heating both of those right after each other increases the chance of that piece falling off the board
• having the components fall on a copper inclined plane, so the melted solder sticks to the plane but the components fall down it

But for next steps, right now we’re working on:

• researching how to directly control 3d printers (like this video Connect Your 3D Printer To Your PC: 10 Minute 3D Printing Tutorial - YouTube)
• looking for images of proto boards that have been soldered on (for the machine learning training)
• organizing our ideas and updating our content to keep the community (you) in the loop