James Slade Log

Tuesday Aug 20, 2013

Made a bit more progression on the CEB's. Managed to put parts from a couple non working mag drills together and make one work. Was able to drill most of the holes needed on CEB 2 with it and now have the frame standing up. The holes that were all torched previously don't line up with the attaching components. As an example, the support rails have pre drilled holes, but the holes on the frame were torched, and they don't line up at all. Basically all the torched holes were done on the frame and done very badly. Since they don't line up, I have to make all new holes once I get the machine square. Which wasn't done previously. Since so much material was torched out that leaves structural issues with drilling new holes. At this point I don't have that much faith that CEB 2 will function very well. It has a gap at the drawer level, which can lead to blocks with mushroom tops as the material can squeeze out when compressed. The blocks may not be totally square. We'll just have to see what comes out. I'll try and get some video of the specific issues for my next log update.

Spent most of my day on the above issue.

[ http://youtu.be/L5yD-t7GbeI Status update today]

Monday Aug 19, 2013

Trying to get a new mag drill, at a stand still on CEB 2 without. Going to focus on making every other part that I can today and get CEB 3 fully assembled.

John and Jonathan came to the shop today to learn welding and cutting. Both did very well so I put them to work a bit. :) Between the two they made 2 feet for one of the CEB's that was missing a pair. Also, tearing down 4 rail guides that had the wrong size holes drilled for the bearings.Drilling new holes and welding them back again. Finally they helped make some holes in one of the shaker units so it'll fit on multiple CEB's.

Monday Update showing CEB 3 together and parts being reworked.

Cutting holes

Sunday Aug 18, 2013

Didn't get much done in the shop, need a mag drill as all the ones here no longer work. Critical piece needs to be drilled out on CEB 2. Not something that can be placed on a drill press or just bored out. I imaging it could be just drilled or torched, but I like precision and don't want room for the frame to be able to shift under pressure.

Did work on the electronics layout a bit. Still in discussion with Zach Dwiel on the components needed as the press feet on these machine sits higher than the deck and the code doesn't account for that. He's going to write up some test code to see if we can get around it reworking the frame of the machine.

Saturday Aug 17, 2013

Updating spreadsheets, financial logs and getting the build plans for the CEB's from last November. The holes for the drawer rollers are too big at 3/4" they should be only 1/2" so will rework those. The top of one CEB so far has the removable crossbeams welded to the inner chamber which also has to be corrected. The drawers on all three are firmly stuck in the machines, so will be hooking up a power cube today to try and move the hydraulics to free these things up.

Today's videos thus far:

CEB 1 press foot coming up too high

CEB 1 press foot has broke welds

CEB 1 The bottom pin sits too high and is also barely attached for the weight it has to withstand

CEB 2 the press foot is coming up really shy. Bad assembly

CEB 2 cut away of the action. You can see its just built incorrectly

CEB 2 press foot solution

Printing a scaffold for the controller box

CEB 3 status

Friday Aug 16, 2013

Bought a box from the local hardware to use as a switch house for the CEB control toggles. Doesn't look like its going to work very well, will know after some further inspection and layout. Also got some rubberized spray to coat the plugs with for weather protection.

Will continue with the CEB move today and get the remaining parts in the shop and start setting the machines up. Will then inspect them.

CEB initial inspection

Got all the CEB's moved into the shop, setup most of one and ran into an issue with some bad welds. Will correct those and continue the assembly tomorrow.

Thursday Aug 15, 2013

Taking an inventory of electronics for the controls, calculating current expenses, look at the CEB's and determine a work area.

Laying out controller box. Using a Pelican 1060 box with a clear lid so we can see the LED's on the boards. This isn't a finished design, merely for observation while tweaking the over all design. Will also see if we can have a 3D printed scaffold of sorts for the components to screw into as space is very limited and I must suspend the components.

Moved the majority of the CEB's from the shed into the shop. Setup work space.

Wednesday Aug 14, 2013

Drove from Austin to Factor e Farm, 12+ hour journey.

Tuesday Aug 13, 2013

Went to Fry's Electronics in Austin to acquire parts for the controller. Picked up a crimp tool for the Molex connectors, some 2, and 6 pin Molex connectors, 3-1k ohm linear potentiometers, a rubber boot for a toggle switch and some extra screw down terminals.

Friday Aug 10, 2013

Ordering parts and finding alternative sites. Working with Katie on this.

Thu Aug 8, 2013

Work log at bottom of page.

Finalizing parts needed for initial controller build.

edit

Wed August 7 2013

• Upverter - Google Doc for circuit design - free for open source project - Link to Schematic:

• Conference call with Zach.
• worked out a BOM for the controller
• have a schematic drawn for the circuit
• will compile the BOM tomorrow to get parts ordered.

• CEB_Hydraulic_Pressure_Switch

• Amazon BOM
• Future pressure sensor - continuous vs on/off - [1]

Tue Aug 6 2013

edit

PCB Design

• See CEB_Press/Manufacturing_Instructions/Detroit_Fab_Lab_Solenoid_Driver_v4
• See code - [2] - updated July 2013
• Design software runs in Wine on Ubuntu - [3]
• Arduino - [4]
• Cable - [5]
• Relay - [6]
• 12V to 5V supply - [7]
• Buttons - [8]
• Code for Diecimila to Teensy - [9] - convert Diecimila to Teensy
• Real Terminals - [10]
• Or Yoonseo Terminal - [11]

Design Rationale for Zach's CEB Controller -

• Switch from automatic to manual mode - toggle
• For drawer - you calibrate it and move it a certain percentage.
• For drawer - end positions via pressure sensor
• Replace pause with auto/manual switch

PCB of Board - [12]

• Design Have plugin into main board
• Uses Arduino Teensy
• 6 buttons - forward back up down pause shaker; timing knobs - 1 for main cylinder - to select brick thickness based on a given power source; 1 for drawer cylinder
• http://www.ladyada.net/library/pcb/manufacturers.html

PCB designs

Sitting down and looking into PCB design for the CEB's. These will be professionally made to save time and also designed to be robust enough for outdoor, all weather use.

2 hours

Log Start

• Evaluate current requests from FeF and determine cost, time, and workflow
• Setup Log

Had a late day getting started as there were unexpected issues here in moving my truck from Creation Flame to a shop in town. This will become 1983 Chevy Blazer 6.2 diesel mobile 4x4 power cube with a turbo. :)

Time Log

Time Sheet