Here’s a cool CNC Graving machine for hobby CNC computer stepper control.  Although kinda old school, still cool.

We were thinking about building our own CNC machines lately and found this one.

Check out these 4 CNC machines you can make using the plans.

Check out this cool stepper motor driver you can use for your next CNC milling machine. It is completely open-source with PCB Layout and everything included.

Also check out our 3 stepper motor example.

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Check out this solar powered lawnmower someone built in Humbolt County. Tight!

An electric lawnmower that utilizes solar power as an energy source will address a number of issues that standard internal combustion engine mowers do not. An electric lawnmower with a solar charger will be easier to use. There is no messy dangerous gasoline to deal with. It will eliminate those pesky trips to the gas station for fill-ups. Just plug the mower into the charging station when not in use and it will be charged and ready for your next mow! Most importantly it eliminates the emissions of an internal combustion mower.

The basic idea is to convert an older non-working gas mower into an electric powered mower by replacing the gas engine with an electric motor that runs from a 12 volt battery. This battery will be charged using a photovoltaic panel(s) (A.K.A. - solar panel). I chose to convert an old gas mower rather than just starting with an electric mower due to cost and so I could design the power output. I also planned on using as many used materials as I can. This will help to save these materials from ending up in our already over filled landfills.

All right, the dragon fly is finally available at my favorite store, Radio Shack!
We’ve been secretly collecting some toys from Radio Shack, this WILL make us happy again.

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video via pcworld blog

Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode

Wow, check out how you can use your computer FAN as a generator to power your cellphone and other small electrical devices!

via dabomb.tv

Here’s an update of controlling 3 stepper motors using a CUBLOC CB280 module. Although you can move the motors simultaneously, there are a lot of applications you can use it for.  Sorry about the video, my video camera needs head cleaning.

We’ve been messing around with some industrial stepper motors at work. These Xylotex stepper motors are pretty cool.

We have an example here for interfacing with some CUBLOC modules.

We got the 3-axis stepper kit so we will have a 3 stepper motor update soon too.

Here’s a nice little RC buggy for future reference on RC mods…

This was probably the most important thing to achieve. The R/C vehicle that I’m using has 2 servos, one to move the position of the front wheels and therefore controls steering and the other controls a mechanical speed controller (push it forwards and you go forwards, backwards and you reverse with an zone in the middle of not moving).

Servos are driven by a PWM signal which allows accurate positioning of the servo “arm”. Now I’m using a gumstix connex 200xm and a STUART waysmall board, the gumstix has 2 methods of producing a PWM signal, either through its hardware onto GPIO 16 (Jonathan Brandmeyer has a driver here however 16 isn’t avaliable on the waysmall board) or by the mpwm driver produced by Pascal A. Brisset which allows the signal to be produced on any GPIO.

Check out the update on CNC milling machine with cool software update with Mach3 CNC
software. Now Garrett’s CNC milling machine runs much faster with the Mach3!

We’ve been playing around with Mach3, which supports Modbus I/O. This example uses one
modbus output on a CUBLOC module to control the spindle motor through an SSR4. Cool dude…