I'm back - part 2

I've been busy, work has been hectic, I haven't had time to post yahdah yahdah yaydah...

Quite a few things have happened including writing more of my electronics PhD thesis and successfully completing the advanced stream of the online Standford Introduction to Artificial Intelligence www.ai-class.com, with a very respectable score. :)

I haven't entirely finished my thesis yet, but I have more time on my hands now and that folks, means I'll be spending more time working on my SumPod.  I must admit at being more than a little bit envious of the progress of some notable others namely Eric over at  http://renaissance-engineer.net; Brixham Engineer (what is your name?) over at  http://www.3d-printer-kit.com and Electronica.  Stohn a recent addition to the community has been busy (is there a blog yet?), implementing a rotary switch to navigate menus and progress support for a SD card, giving the SumPod a valuable stand alone capability.  If this wasn't enough he has championed the adoption of the MARLIN RAMPS firmware.  For those interested I believe Richard is investigating putting together a kit for existing SumPod users to upgrade their systems - if it doesn't materialise then I will certainly be offering a kit at at cost price for early adopters. 

The original hot end for the SumPod has turned out to be a flawed design and the new Mk2 has been promised, since early December.  Despite the lack of print functionality progress has been made by others milling polystyrene and MDF.  I would if I could attempt the same, but my SumPod is still lacking some vital parts, for example the right hand side of the print platform.  So far I have received three left hand pieces, two in the original box and a third as a replacement, which I embarrassingly painted without checking it was the correct part.  I only realised the mistake during assembly of my SumPod.  This was all the more frustrating since I had given one of the duplicate parts to Richard to avoid this exact situation.

Over the last couple of month I've repeatedly asked for the missing parts, but I haven't been too fussed with their non-delivery, because I've been busy.  Now I have more time on my hands, I have been assured they should be delivered along with the Mk2 hotend, no later than this Friday.  The pick list is available for download from the SumPod website for early adopters whose kits were prepared before the list was created.  I will go through this after the parcel arrives.

It's not all bad, the parts I have assembled, fit snugly and assembly is straight forward, requiring much less effort than it took to paint it!  I particularly like the Z axis coupling, it fits beautifully and just works.  Overall the SumPod is sturdy and I believe it has a lot of potential and the scope to support a large number of accessories.

I've learnt in the last week there have been the odd problem with some of the pre-soldered RAMPS boards supplied by Richard.  I haven't been given the full details but my attempt to dig Richard out of a hole back in mid October by assembling some RAMPS boards at very short order (only half the number needed, but sold several months earlier and here), to meet his tight schedule. Although I was paid for this work [at a fraction of the going rate btw] it was frustrating to work to such tight deadlines and with missing parts (boards were soldered like my own RAMPS board) and then receive negative feedback months after when I thought all had been well!  I also improved the electronics kitting list while populating boards by identifying shortages. I wish now that I had labelled and initialled the boards as is my habit to differentiate my work. Examples of my work can be found here.