Polar sand table - Arduino

Yes, the speed looks good. Are you using sand? I found that chinchilla bath works very well. Its volcanic dust available from any store that sells pet products, online, etc, and very inexpensive.

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I can send you my models of the scara arm in most any format you can use since I have translators. If you would like you can send me your email address.

You dont need a Raspberry Pi if you want to run it from the usb of your computer.

It looks great Arthur! I use a cylindrical magnet with a piece of soft leather glued to the top. On my first arm I put a spring under the magnet which worked well but sometimes the magnet would fall out. Then I changed the design of the arm so that it the arm has a joint that is spring loaded. This has worked very well. I changed the design since to make it a bit more simple and I can see that my leather is wearing. :smile:

arm

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Hi there.
I’m in the middle of my RD build and I tried finding the links to the Jeff’s conversion code for sandify. I only find people talking about it.

Is there a place to find it and instructions on how to use it?

This was my first post about it.

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Another trick I found that worked well. I mounted my scara drive on rubber mounts to reduce noise. It works really well. I 3d printed these parts then use short lengths of 1/4 rubber hose.


mount

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That would be wonderful.
I’m antonio_asaro@hotmail.com

How do you add video? What format and size requirements?
thanks

The best way is to upload the video on YouTube and then share the link here.

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For this test I used baking soda but I’m probably going to switch to the sand you mentioned.

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My RD machine:

I added an idler arm and moved sensors to elbow

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That is very cool and clean. DO NOT CRIMP!

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Hi Eric,

Can you please email/send a link to the .stl for the idler?
And/or, the rest of the .stl files (if any are different than Rob’s)?

antonio_asaro@hotmail.com

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I’ve posted my files here: https://github.com/antonioasaro/SandBot
Originals from Rob, plate spacers from Matt G, .dxf converted to .stl.

Still in the process of 3D printing parts - almost done though.

In the meantime …
I set up VSCode and successfully compiled the firmware.
Looking online for the controller and found the Adafruit HAZZAH32 is out-of-stock. :frowning:
I have some ESP8266s laying around though.
Tried to upload the compiled code but, get an “this is a ESP8266 not a ESP32” error.
Would it be possible to use a ESP8266 instead?
If so, how would one change the config parameters to do so?
I also have an Arduino Uno handy.
Same question for the Arduino.
Oh, and a old Raspberry Pi - would that work?
Is there firmware available for that?

For grbl_esp32? Nope. Esp32 is much faster, with dual cores. It isn’t complicated code, but the web interface takes some cycles you wouldn’t want the code for a cnc to wait for.

There are a bunch of esp32s though.h. the nodemcu 32 is very common. There are a bunch of others that don’t have any good names. Esp32 on amazon should find lots of choices. If you are using one of Bart’s boards, check to make sure it has the right pinout.

Hi Jchaplain123.
My email address is: antonio_asaro@hotmail.com
Appreciate it!!

Hi Jchaplain123.
My email address is: antonio_asaro@hotmail.com
Appreciate it!!

Thanks!!
I’ll check around then.

Too bad, really.
I have an uno sitting around that I was using to control an xy plotter. Was planning to use that as my sand bot 'til I read about Rob’s design. (right side of picture).
And a bunch of esp8266 controlling a servo, leds, oled display, other sensors … that I’m using with HomeAssistant on a Raspberry Pi. (top of picture).
The 3D printed parts for Rob’s design are in the photo too (left side of picture).

So, if I don’t care about speed OR if I hardcode an image, are you saying that the esp8266 just won’t cut it?

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