Build Your Robot Online

An anonymous reader writes "Ever needed a custom part for a robot, case mod or hardware hack but lacked the tools or a machineshop to make one for you? Ever needed a custom circuit board? Well, PC Magazine's Bill Machrone writes about a few websites, Emachineshop and Pad2Pad, where you use their free software to design, price, and order anything you can design with the software. This is more useful to slashdotters than 3D 'printing' technologies like rapid prototyping since you get real working parts. It looks like they support a number of machines and fabrication techniques beyond traditional machining, like plastic injection molding and waterjet. As Machrone says, this is empowering stuff. This is something that should ignite a creative spark to all you hardware tinkerers out there in Slashdot land."

Comments

Re:Great news!

[JABoyce]

I have used emachineshop on a few occasions. Mostly for machined aluminum parts for a motorcycle. Its a great service. Easy to design and order. I am surprised /.ers didnt come across this a long time ago.

Well maybe its my fault, I found them about a year a go, and didnt tell anyone here

Sorry :-{

Re:Intriguing idea...

[realdpk]

Their pricing drops dramatically for more parts. It's not much more expensive to get them in quantities >100.

The software is buggy, however. Crashes whenever I try to do file->open. I can't seem to figure out how to create objects, either, heh.

What I want is something like this, but with the Rhino interface. eMachineShop is supposed to be able to import a "universal format" (dxf I think?) that Rhino can write, but as stated before, file->open doesn't work so I can't test it.

ExpressPCB

[Darth Yoshi]

Since we're discussing PCB companies, I'll mention ExpressPCB. They not only have a free PCB design program, but also a free schematic design program.

Windows only, deal with it.

Re:Pricing

[ColdWetDog]

As a hobbyist machinist, I think the prices are about right. Certainly for some easy stampings, anyone with a half decent shop could turn out the design pretty quickly and much cheaper. For a machined or lasered part, you're talking about multiple man hours for even the simplest design.

Their multiple item prices are pretty reasonable. Remember - these aren't production items or prices - they're R&D. I imagine that aside from the occasional well heeled hobbyist, small companies who need to prototype something rapidly and relatively cheaply would have a field day with this service.

That said, if they were to drop thier prices to where the "mass" of hobbyist robotics fans / modelers / Star Trek freaks could just play with creating fun things, they could get awfully busy.

Re:Emachineshop has a neat little CAD program

[martingunnarsson]

For the lazy ones...

Clickable.

About Pad2Pad...

[Anonymous Coward]

I work in the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) industry, and I've looked at the Pad2pad website before. The problem with them is this - they give you software to create a board in, but it only outputs in their proprietary format. That means your design can only be fabricated by pad2pad, not by anyone else. So, once you've designed in their software, you are locked into ordering boards from them. You cannot order them anywhere else unless you re-design it in another software package.

There are older DOS freeware PCB layout packages called easytrax and autotrax available from Protel , as well as a free 30 day demo of their latest. There is also a Linux PCB layout package available. These packages output gerber data, which is the industry standard data format for circuit boards. It is also an open format (rumor has it /. people like that sort of thing). This means that you can send your design to any PCB shop in the world, and they can read it as easily as you can work with a *.bmp.

You can even send your gerber data to pad2pad, and they can make your board from that, though they would prefer if you used their software. After all, if you don't, you'll be able to get the boards make somewhere else if you don't like their service.

And that would be so unfashionable - doncha know proprietary lock-in is all the rage these days?

Circuit boards at home?

[northstarlarry]

What's difficult about doing circuit boards at home? I've made a couple.

You can buy "blank" boards, covered completely in copper on one side. I did the design in Illustrator, printed it out on a laser printer, and transferred the laser ink to the copper. The ink works as a good resist for the ferric chloride etching solution, which is also cheap and easy to buy.

Then you get a shallow dish that you're not planning on using again (some old tupperware, e.g.), and swish the board around until the extra copper's gone. A 100-watt lamp keeps the ferric warm and makes everything go a little faster.

The etching doesn't take more than half an hour, and the projects I've built have worked well.

I am a robot builder

[chroma]

I build robots for competitions like BattleBots, Robot Battles, etc.

Emachineshop seems to be a bit limited in the parts they can make. I prefer to use the services of the fellow robot builders at Team Whyachi. They don't mind handling small quantities and have great prices.