The Simplest TS100 Upgrade Leads Down A Cable Testing Rabbit Hole

July 9, 2020 by Jenny List 53 Comments

By now, I must have had my Miniware TS100 soldering iron for nearly three years. It redefined what could be expected from the decent end of the budget soldering iron spectrum when it came on the market, and it’s still the one to beat even after those years. Small, lightweight, powerful, and hackable, it has even spawned direct imitations.

If the TS100 has a fault, it comes not from the iron itself but from its cable. A high-grade iron will have an extra-flexible PVC or silicone cable, but the TS100 does not have a cable of its own. Instead it relies on whatever cable comes on its power supply, which is frequently a laptop unit built with portable computing rather than soldering in mind. So to use it is to be constantly battling against its noticable lack of flexibility, a minor worry but one that I find irksome. I determined to find a solution, making a DC extension cable more flexible than that on my power supply. Continue reading “The Simplest TS100 Upgrade Leads Down A Cable Testing Rabbit Hole” →

Open-Source Grinder Makes Compression Screws For Plastic Extruders Easy

July 9, 2020 by Dan Maloney 13 Comments

In a world that’s literally awash in plastic waste, it seems a pity to have to buy fresh rolls of plastic filament to feed our 3D-printers, only to have them generate yet more plastic waste. Breaking that vicious cycle requires melding plastic recycling with additive manufacturing, and that takes some clever tooling with parts that aren’t easy to come by, like the compression screws that power plastics extruders.

This open-source compression screw grinder aims to make small-scale plastic recyclers easier to build. Coming from the lab of [Joshua Pearce] at the Michigan Technological University in collaboration with [Jacob Franz], the device is sort of a combination of a small lathe and a grinder. A piece of round steel stock is held by a chuck with the free end supported by bearings in a tailstock. On the bed of the machine is an X-Y carriage made of 3D-printed parts and pieces of electrical conduit. The carriage moves down the length of the bed as the stock rotates thanks to a pulley and a threaded rod, carrying a cordless angle grinder with a thick grinding wheel. A template attached to the front apron controls how deep the grinder cuts as it tracks along the rod; different templates allow the screw profile to be easily customized. The video below shows the machine in action and the complicated screw profiles it’s capable of producing.

We’ve seen lots of homebrew plastic extruders before, most of which use repurposed auger-type drill bits as compression screws. Those lack the variable geometry of a proper compression screw, so [Joshua] and [Jacob] making all the design documents for this machine available should be a boon to recycling experimenters.

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Salvaged Drill Gets A Magnetic Upgrade

July 7, 2020 by Tom Nardi 15 Comments

For most people, a broken tool is at the end of its useful life. But rather than toss a heavy-duty drill that had its handle broken off, [Workshop From Scratch] thought it was a perfect opportunity to create something new. In his latest video, he shows how he converted this old hand tool into a magnetic drill press with predictably impressive results.

Despite being assembled largely from pieces of scrap metal cut into shape with an angle grinder, we wouldn’t blame you for believing the end result was a commercial product. From the handles salvaged from chewed up old screwdrivers to the scratch-built rack and pinion assembly, the attention to detail here is really fantastic.

Removing what was left of the broken handle.

It’s difficult to pick a favorite detail, but the reinvented enclosure for the drill certainly ranks up there. [Workshop From Scratch] could have simply bolted on the tool as-is, but instead he surgically removed the vestigial handle to make it look as though the drill was always meant for this application. After cutting, it was finished off with some body filler, a bit of sanding, and a coat of his signature orange spray paint.

When he built his magnetic vise, [Workshop From Scratch] used magnets pulled from automotive air conditioning systems. They got the job done, but were somewhat annoying to work with given their round shape. This time around, he’s used off-the-shelf magnetic locks intended for steel doors. When energized with a 19 V laptop power supply, he says the three rectangular electromagnets have a combined pull of 540 kilograms.

If you don’t have a broken drill to use as a donor for this type of project, don’t worry. You could always use a salvaged hoverboard motor instead.

Continue reading “Salvaged Drill Gets A Magnetic Upgrade” →

Bantam Tools PCB Mill Gets A Ferocious New Sequel

July 7, 2020 by Sonya Vasquez 50 Comments

When the first Bantam Tools’ Milling Machine landed, it put PCB prototyping at the forefront with a smooth software and hardware pipeline for spinning out circuit boards in a manner of minutes. Now the folks at Bantam Tools are back, putting those insights into a new machine that makes cutting aluminum a first class feature. While machine details are still sparse from their announcement page, knowing that Bantam Tools has spent a few years turning classrooms of students into hardware prototypes reassures us that we’re in good hands. Now let’s spill some beans on this beast. Continue reading “Bantam Tools PCB Mill Gets A Ferocious New Sequel” →

Designing 3D Printed Enclosures For KiCad PCBs

July 7, 2020 by Tom Nardi 16 Comments

If you’ve used KiCad before, you’re certainly familiar with the handy 3D view that shows you a rendered view of what your assembled board would look like. But as [Vadim Panov] explains, you can take this capability a step further. With a few extra tools and a little bit of know-how, you can leverage KiCad’s PCB renderings to make custom 3D printable enclosures.

The first step is to design the PCB as you normally would in KiCad. This could be an original PCB of your own invention, or a digital representation of an off-the-shelf model you want to build an enclosure for. If the latter, then the PCB doesn’t need to be 100% accurate; the goal is really just to get the big components into roughly the right areas so you can get the clearances right. Though obviously you’ll want to make sure the board’s outer dimensions and mounting hole locations are recreated as accurately as possible.

From there, [Vadim] recommends a tool called StepUp. This will take your PCB KiCad PCB files and create either a STEP or STL file of the assembled board which can be imported into your CAD package of choice. For the purposes of this demonstration he’s sticking with FreeCAD, as he likes the idea of it being a completely FOSS toolchain from start to finish.

Now that you have a model of the PCB in your CAD software, the rest is up to you. Naturally, there are existing enclosure models you can use such as the ones produced by the “Ultimate Box Maker” that we covered previously, but you could just as easily start building a new enclosure around the digital PCB.

Looking for a bit more guidance? As it so happens, our very own [Anool Mahidharia] will be presenting a class on how you can develop a KiCad + FreeCAD workflow as part of our recently launched HackadayU initiative.

Syringes Put The Squeeze On This Mini Drill Press

July 5, 2020 by Tom Nardi 19 Comments

If you’re making your own PCBs for through-hole projects at home, getting the board etched is only half the battle; you’ve still got to drill all those little holes. It’s a tedious process, and if you’ve got a lot of them, doing them freehand with a drill just isn’t going to cut it. Which is why [Ruchir Chauhan] built this tiny 3D printed drill press.

This design is actually interesting for a number of reasons. The fact that it’s primarily 3D printed is a big one, though of course it’s not the first time we’ve seen that. We also like the minimal part count and low-cost, which is sure to appeal to those looking to produce PCBs on a budget. But the most impressive feature has to the hydraulic system [Ruchir] has come up with to actually do the drilling.

Rather than pulling an arm to lower the bit towards the work piece, a system utilizing four syringes, some water, and a bit of tubing is used to pull the tool down. This might seem extravagant, but if you’ve got a lot of holes to drill, this design is really going to save your arms. This method should also give you more consistent and accurate results, as you won’t be putting any torque on the structure as you would with a manually operated press.

[Ruchir] doesn’t offer much in the way of instructions on the project’s Hackaday.io page, but once you print out all of the provided STLs and get your syringes ready to go, the rest should be fairly self explanatory. Personally we might have added a smooth steel rod in there to make sure the movement is nice and straight, but we can see the appeal of doing it with a printed part to keep things cheap.

Looking for more ideas? If you’re after something a bit larger we might suggest this one made from PVC pipes, and this 3D printed desktop press would look good on anyone’s bench. Just don’t blame us if your arms get tired.

Continue reading “Syringes Put The Squeeze On This Mini Drill Press” →

AVR Multi-Tool Learns The Latest Tricks

July 2, 2020 by Tom Nardi 9 Comments

Like many of us who fiddle with microcontrollers, [Mike] and [Brian] often found themselves using an ISP programmer and a USB-to-serial adapter. But when they started working on the latest generation of ATtiny chips, they found themselves in need of a Unified Program, and Debug Interface (UPDI) programmer as well. So they decided to wrap all three functions into one handy open hardware gadget.

They call their creation the AVR General Purpose Programmer, or AVRgpp for short. It runs on an ATmega328P with a Pro Mini bootloader, which means that the programmer itself is fully compatible with the Arduino IDE. USB-to-serial capability is provided by a CH330N, and a MC14053 digital switch IC is used to select between talking to the AVRgpp’s onboard MCU or the target device.

A 128 x 32 I2C OLED and two push buttons are used to select the device’s current mode, and there’s a physical switch to select between 5 V or 3.3 V power for the target. There’s also a ST662 12 V regulator, as UPDI targets occasionally need a high voltage pulse to switch into programming mode. Everything is packaged up in a pocket-sized laser cut enclosure that you can easily toss in your bag.

[Mike] and [Brian] say they are considering putting the AVRgpp into small scale production if there’s enough interest, so let them know if you’d like to get one without having to build it yourself.