Have a look at this pdf. It would be an ambitious build but I think it would be a next level blow minds kind of project. We would have three weeks from Monday to complete giving us week to tweek it. I am prepared to work straight through after this weekend.

Little custom parts most everything is off the shelf. We have all the electronics. Would just need the power transmission stuff. I am figuring a budget of sub $800 350 for PT components the rest for material and out side fab.

I will take a look and be in touch tonight.

Cool

Tell me about the electronics, OS and the software to run the motors (gcode interpreter?)…. that will help me determine the unknowns.  The build looks possible in that time frame but you do have two external vendors involved so that’s always a risk.

True. I think just a headless Linux box the reset could be an Arduino input. We can run emc and your random generator.

I can get stuff order when you green light it and I can have the stuff to the fab guys straight a way…

The electronics choice makes it known territory although I’ve never autoloaded anything on boot.  I’m guessing there’s a direct interace to emc2 — i need to evaluate that.  i’ll start there for tonight.

the rest of it, the reset switch and what-not is trivial.

you’ll have to explain the motor and pt setup.

Ball screws are similar to lead screws but with a more aggressive thread pitch and the nut glides on bearings and is preloaded for backlash. They are very fast. The motors are just standard stepper motors. Vb1 ran nema. 23′s the palette shuttle and tool changer on Vb4 are powered by nema 17′s and the brush spinner on vb4 is a nema 11. As you move from heavier loads the x to lighter loads the z a smaller motor is used.

The y is counter levered on the x so the y is balanced over the x. The guide rail is a hardened and chromed rod that has linear bearing that travels the length they are load bearing as well.

This all based on that high end gantry system the pen-omatic was based on.

I took a quick look at emc2 CLI options and nothing jumped out at me.  So, I decided the best thing to do is not mess with it and just use axis. We’ll set the machine up and take the monitor away once the program is loaded.  Put a UPS on it and hope for the best.  Gcode can be written to handle the reset and all the control points and random generation will be stored in sub routines… hmmmm, i hope gcode can do trig.  well, i have some studying to do.

That leaves a discussion on the PT methods and also this machine must have homing capabilities on all three axes.  It’s three, right?

Yep just 3. Home will be in the ink well there is a g80 something that will make the machine go back to home. You stick in at the end of the sub.

I meant homing switches.  2/axis is standard.  But since the machine will never be shut off once installed we could probably get away without using mechanical homing.  If we had the time it would be nice to be able to just turn it on and it loads all the software and homes automatically.  Just thinking out loud but we probably don’t have time to make it look good and have good brains.

That would be cool I’ve got a bag full of switches I will make it so.

Metal and Beam

Tronics

Junk Computer boots with UNbuntu

Got the carcass and the foot glued up for the pedestal. Also got the computer to do a shut a down when you hit the power button and reboot and open up axis whenyou hit the power button. I am sure you’ll be able to make it load the file we want and have it run… Now I need to find a spot for the power button.

Emailed the tile co at 1pm asking them what was up have not heard back plan on visiting them in person tomorrow. d-bags! pedestal should be ready for sanding and finishing by te after noon.

Called the tile co guy said oh I haven’t had time to really look at that… he said he’d look at this afternoon. If I don’t have a quote by 10 am I am going to tell him to forget it and go with flagstone and shape it myself.

Got all the PT stuff in. Looks good.
Pedestal is done with the exception of edgebanding the exposed ply on the backside . I’ve got the banding forgot to bring in my iron…the adhesive is heat sensitive.

I am holding off on the shelves until I am wiring. Tomorrow get the bandin on fill some holes and gaps then start on the pt.

Oh on the down side burned up my table saw this afternoon after I was trash talking it with john this am… :-)

let this simmer in your brain pan for a bit…

[Van-Go-Bot]
[Art & The Machine]
[Defining An Ever-Changing Landscape]

artistic movements such as cubism and futurism mirrored a rapidly changing, technologically oriented world. through the medium of technology, culture reinvented itself everywhere and artists, as they do, responded.

today, as then, the splendor of the world is enriched with the beauty of speed and radical extensions of cultural memory.

we use computers to trade throughout the global market.

we diagnose, predict and assess medical procedures.

we computerize nearly every working aspect of automobiles, traffic control systems, electrical power grids and our toasters.

we sing praise upon the ubiquity of automation and computerization in every aspect of contemporary life.

systems exist – cars that correct their position on the road due to inattentive driving – phone systems that listen to our voices and reply with the answers we need – blood tests that diagnose the condition of our hearts – these systems are extensions of ourselves and our culture…

rules for the use of these things are simply part of our conceptual grasp, our internal representations, of those things. as such it is no more unusual for us to use electronics and high level computer programming languages to create works of art as it is to create houses with power tools.

The technological cultural shock-wave crested in the 20th century and we are now in the midst of a crashing wave full of systems less than human, perhaps, but potentially capable of many of the higher intellectual functions we have in generations past supposed to be uniquely human. We are in the process of coming to terms with the fact that intelligence no longer means, uniquely, human intelligence.

08 12 2011

Got the pedestal edge banded and shellacked . Started on the PT stuff have the fram for the X welded up. Did not here back from Midwest tile I let them know I was going with plan B. Already have picked up stone and have it layed out. It will look nice. Ran out of gas for the welder for this morning. Picked up a new tank out at linweld while I was there I asked them if they new of any small job shops who weld aluminum they turned me on to a place they said I could just walk into.

good progress… on track?

i got the video portion figured out.  I have looping video on an apple tv… installed some after market os stuff and it’s working.

So my plan right now is to keep it simple and do time lapse paintings. 30 second spots from the best-of popartmachine list.  I mentioned the new render program naturally produces vids so I added that code today and there’s an input function “duration”…. tell it you want a 30 second time lapse a nd it poops one out.

They are good.  All textury and pretty.  Figured 30 second spots was like watching commercials just enough to tease and then bam another one.

So I’m going to crank those this weekend and then start thinking about copy to go with fliers and maybe a wall mounted statement piece..  I have some ideas..

Still dont have anything to show you for the new bot but I know what I’m doing and I figured we’ll find the day you’re ready to test and I’ll come down with my kit and we’ll play.

Yeah I feel good about where we are at. Keeping it simple.

Videos sound great. Like the idea of
It just doing video after video that’s a piece of art right there.

I am still thinking the week of the 29th is tweak week.

I have some copy bouncing around that I think is better than anything else to date.  I’ll try to get it in an email today and maybe go back and forth a couple times w/ you on it before Wed.

I had a bizarre idea of painting a statement on unprimed canvas using vb4 along w/ a decorative motif on the top/sides.  I’m saying that out loud but  had already thought it too weird but give it a once over.

might be interesting…