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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on September 19, 2011.
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You're making this project happen and I sincerely thank you!
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A pre-release PDF version of the blueprints, bill of materials, schematics and written instructions before they are available to the general public.
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Impress your friends and neighbors with an iCast t-shirt.
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Receive a printed full-color booklet with all the plans for making your own smartCaster as well as a t-shirt.
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An item created from the smartCaster using high quality casting materials (item TBD). Includes the printed booklet and t-shirt.
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smartCaster Kit: the electronic components including Arduino or equivalent electronics, the motor/s, a "shopping" list that can be given to your home depot guy for the hardware (plywood and nuts/bolts/screws).
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Your very own brand new smartCaster. Woohoo! Includes a custom mold made from an item of your choice (provided by you, size within reason) as well as a casting from it.
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Everything listed above plus a custom paint job to your liking as well as customized software to your specifications (within reason).
Project By
Connected as Aurelio Reis (125 friends)
I'm a husband and father, video game programmer and part time inventor. I love making things and generally being creative with anything technology related. You can check out my random thoughts at https://twitter.com/#!/AurelioReis
any word on a timeline for when any of this is going to happen?
Hey, congrats! I wasn't sure you were going to make it there :)
Looking forward to seeing the design... keep us posted!
Aurellio,
A lot of the smaller motors can be driven with higher voltages for short times with no harm to the motor but a lot more power. And, the Arduino has plenty of spare computing power to run anything your roto-caster would need, I think.
The computation of torque is not just mold weight but deals with centroids and such also. The liquid will be a dynamic.
I just signed up and wish this project the best.
Ron
I ran some tests this weekend and I was able to load the cargo enclosure with 56 ounces (1.56 kg) before the motor started to really chug on the frame upswing. At 68 ounces the motor was fully stalled. This was actually quite surprising to me as I thought it would be much less than 3 pounds. The motor is only rated for 32 ounces at 12 volts (54 rpm) so there is some mechanical advantage I'm not accounting for which I plan to investigate once everything is complete (though I'm not complaining)!
The test mold I made made measures about 6x4x3 and ended up weighting less than a pound even with the casting material in it. I used Mold Max 40 for the mold and Smooth-Cast 305 for the casting material. I highly recommend both and will have a write-up with more information on using them in the near future.
Great question Patrick; this is something I've been meaning to address!
The motor I'm using produces almost 32 Ounce-Inches (lets say 2 pounds-inches). The cradle and frame weigh around a pound. The motor is attached via a coupler to a 3 inch 5/16 threaded rod. Given this and other factors (like the smaller shaft size) the theoretical torque (rotational force) is a little over a pound. If this information is accurate you can assume the payload can be a few ounces before the motor stalls.
From my observations I think it may even be a little more than that. The motor spins the frame quite effortlessly even with a little resistance added (mind you when it gets going you don't want to get in it's way). The frame is a little top heavy (due to the pully system) so the motor struggles a little on the up-swing but I don't think it nears a stall.
Tonight I plan to do a proper load test so I'll post an update once I have more information. In the mean time, here's a great source of information on motor torque: http://www.pololu.com/docs/0J21/5.c
Looking pretty good so far! What would you estimate the maximum weight of mold this thing could bear?
The final product in this project will be very useful for me, as I make chocolate pieces and would like a way to reduce the chocolate required for the project. It will also take a 3 step process of making the pieces 3D into a 1 step process. I am really looking forward to seeing how this project progresses!