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Thread: Plankton Tower

  1. #11
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    Re: Plankton Tower

    Reminds me of working at Abbott Labs in 1991, building the Spectrum units for analyzing blood samples

  2. #12
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    Re: Plankton Tower



    It looks like I have the design about finished.

  3. #13
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    Things are going so very slowly because I have so many other things to do. The programing went well but I have had problems doing the comparatively easy fabrication of small parts. I have gotten most of it done now. I am waiting for a cable carriage for the wiring like on a CNC machine has. Below, I have posted videos about the work that I have done on the bench before putting it onto the wall. It shows the main parts of the project and how they function separately. Now that it is on the wall, I hope that they work together. I should be done in somewhere between the next 2 weeks and another 5 month.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBPnccwZjO4

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMpPz_xaEC0

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK4hXVRhH2k

  4. #14
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    What prompted the idea of a carriage?

  5. #15
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    Do you mean the cable carriage or the second axis feeding carriage?
    If you are talking about the cable carriage, it is because I cut my teeth on CNC machines. I had a less expensive solution to keep the cables from getting tangled but I was only saving a few bucks and when another poster on another forum posted a picture of his latest CNC project (shown below , I wanted that same look.
    It only costs 50 bucks or so and it is an industry standard for controlling wires. The 8 feet of wires have to roll out as the second axis feeding carriage moves in one direction and be taken back up when it moves in the other. Without some good system for wire control, I could have a real mess on my hands. Even though I have more than 8 feet of wiring, I could get control with about 5 feet of the wire carriage. I had to by 2 orders of 4 feet to get the 5. It is a Chinese company instead of Igus so I hope that it turns out to be a good produce solution but I had to try. It's just fun.
    Wire Layout Along the Rail

    E-Chain Product

    Fellow Poster's CNC Project

  6. #16
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    Ah. Well I actually meant why use a moving carriage at all.

  7. #17
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    The COOL Factor

    Sorry, I thought that my answer went through yesterday but it must have hung up or something.

    Well .....When I was thinking through the possible issues that might arise, I was talking to someone about the relative importance of keeping pods and other contaminating critters out of my rotifers or not. I thought that I would keep the water line low enough to prevent over splash from popping bubbles and mainly replacement water injection, which uses a bigger peristaltic pump for automated washing machines. I thought that viscous food might squirt at an angle rather than straight down the cavity. This might make for food dripping down the walls causing unsightly but more importantly, inaccurate dosing.

    The actual cost for the second axis was a few components that were less than 20 bucks each. Shipping was my biggest expense for so many little parts, aside from the second axis. There isn't a robot store in my town.

    ....but the bottom line is, I used that as an excuse to expand the challenge. It also raised the POTENTIAL for an increase of the cool factor. If it didn't work at all, I could always revert to the single axis robot.

    After all, this project is mostly just for fun.

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