[chbot] Robotics Group meeting, Monday 19 April 2021, 630pm, 5 Idris Road

[Mark Atherton]

Hello everyone,

Good turnout with 25 attendees, and lots of huddles-of tech-talk. $26 + 
change (in gold, and flat-money) collected and transferred into the 
robotics loose-change jar (for later banking).

All sales from the trading table should go into the brown box on the 
wall, and are directly for the benefit of our host club, NZART Branch 05.

Equipment donations are welcome for the trading table, but no CRT based 
product, printers, toner or items that are likely to be a disposal burden.

With thanks on behalf of the group,

Mark Atherton


Mark started the evening by talking about several items that may be of 
interest. These included Alien-Art (derived from ‘(X ^ Y) % 9’, an 
interesting Planetary Roller Screw design, and a Cable Robot. The latter 
being an agile platform (with a seated person), which can be rapidly 
moved in X, Y, Z space using tonne-rated steel wire driven by some 
massive motor-gearboxes.

Levin talked about the construction of his low-cost video studio. Main 
construction element was PVC piping which turned out to be a remarkably 
versatile material to hold lights, camera, as well as the other items.

Charles brought in some 3D printed bearings he used to construct a 3D 
filament dispenser amongst other items. He also discussed many different 
approaches towards bearing design.

Graham talked about a science-fair presentation he helped his son work 
on. Apart from rocket fuel mixing, he talked about presenting results. 
Very interesting.

Grahame talked about a graphite mould he fabricated using Electrical 
Discharge Machining for Molten Media. The mould allows small insignias 
to be cast using aluminium.

Geoff  talked about his prototype ‘aircraft’ control surface. Features 
included a bluetooth joystick controller for each hand. Lots of thought 
involved in the design, a huge amount of stuff was learnt in the 
process. Clever, interesting (and low cost) designed around lots of 
extruded PVC.

Andrew brought in a several prototype 3D printed enclosures for his 
multi-sensor devices. He also brought along his pi-laptop in a very 
small footprint. Great finish, and well designed enclosure.