Packaging
I’ve spent most of this week developing the way in which Mirobot gets shipped to its users. After shipping out 25 of the Beta units to the relevant Kickstarter backers I wasn’t really satisfied with how it was packaged. It was error prone, with lots of pieces to pick and make sure are in every box. One of the pieces even arrived broken (which was probably by me as I closed up the lid). It all just felt a bit thrown in a box (well it was I guess!).
I had been playing around with the idea of cutting the parts out of a number of panels of MDF in a way that left them slightly attached to the surrounding MDF so they could be popped out. By also cutting out recesses for the large parts like the stepper motors and servo it means that they are well protected during transit and don’t rattle around. Here are the panels:
and here they are stacked up with the components inside:
The depth of the stepper motors means that it meeds a layer of padding on top to hold everything in place:
and then it can be put into a perfectly sized shipping box (pro-tip: pick the box before designing what goes in it!):
There are a few downsides to this method; the package weighs more, you use more MDF per robot and it takes longer to cut. However, it’s much quicker to clean and pack so that compensates somewhat. And the overall experience is much nicer. One question I haven’t answered yet is whether it needs a secondary box inside the packaging. Any feedback on this is appreciated!
Read moreMearm Gets Supersized For A Super Secret Project
Had a really strange phone call and did the thing I’m trying to do less of, I said “yes”. Frankly it would have been silly to say no. The result is that I’ve just spent two days dusk till dawn hacking together a #meArm Grande. It only moves back and fowards as the axial rotation wasn’t needed. It was packaged up yesterday and sent off for testing. The results of which I eagerly await!
Should it pass I’ll be getting some feedback and building two more polished versions on a similarly tight deadline.
Fingers crossed!
Files of course are up. Open is everything for the #meArm project.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:404062
Read moreMearm Update 3d Printed Version Spotted In Poland
The twitter #meArm vanity search is working well for keeping track of what’s happening with the #meArm around the world. The latest wild arm has been built in Poland by the mepi.pl team. It took them about half a day to print the #meArm, compared to about 21 minutes on a 40W laser cutter on a summer’s day. They built it pretty fast after the print and seem to have some plans to build “an app for that” which is another exciting development.
Check out their video and the funky colours
Welcome to the project guys!
Read moreMearm Update Now Available In Peru
Famed for Machu Picchu, lamas and roasted rodents on sticks Peru isn’t the first place you think of for open hardware. However through a quick vanity search on twitter we’ve discovered a rather excellent Peruvian website selling our super #meArm under the open hardware licence.
Kool Mechatronics are cutting and etching what looks to be the v0.3 of the MeArm and selling it on the OpenHardware.pe website. It’s really fantastic to see the project spreading around the world like this. I’d like to thank the website and Kool Mechatronics for supplying all of the license information and links to our site so people can get involved with the #meArm project.
So if you’re in South American and you’re looking for a robot arm please check out their site!
Also love their addendum
“Important
Note that is a model of precision and delicate, it is the user management and make adjustments as necessary to complete the project in all packages some acrylic pieces of the most critical parts are included. Checks and always respects the characteristics and diameter of the screws find these installation instructions, however, note that the instructions may be for a previous version to the received, there is usually not much difference, but remember is a project Open Hardware, you are responsible to keep the production line.”
Read more