The "Power harvesting Challenge" of this year's HackadayPrize is ending today, so here is what my open source CNC router can do to evolve that technology.

To check what precision my latest CNC v3.2.2 can deliver and if the software works fine, I wrote a Perl script that generates Gcode for carving lenses. After (semi) manual finishing work, the result was good enough to concentrate sunbeams to "laser" a piece of paper:

This was just a first test run. To get better precision and to automatize all steps of lens production, I will add two more axes on my CNC. Being able to carve lenses of any shape will enable me to harvest small portions of light to get closer to the stars or microscopic structures - something that excites my since my childhood days...