Open Capitalist

To design and manufacture light-weight electric commuter bike motors for the masses.  Electric motors will be easily mounted to the front hub of existing bikes, thereby turning  regular bicycles into electric vehicles.  Affordability, performance and durability are the main objectives to help people transition out of cars and into electric bicycles.  

True Revolution is Local Production, taking job creation into our own hands.  It is NOT complaining why others, such as politicians or corporations, don’t seem to be doing this for us.  We’ve bitched about that, over and over, and it is really fucking lame cause…

Nothing ever changes on Election Day, 

Nothing ever changes when you send your power away. 

The next revision of the 4 axis stepper controller is in the works.  The first design was made to be as inexpensive as possible.  Texas Instruments provided a very good reason to redesign when the released their newer msp430 uControllers.  So I am redesigning around the MSP430F55xx uController.  The stepper drivers are the same as the old version.  

A buddy of mine mentioned he wanted a record cutting lathe.  It got me thinking about a possible application for the 4 axis motor controller and decided to sketch what I envision a record cutting lathe to be.

My main interest is finding more uses for the motor controller, but I am also intrigued by what would be possible when redesigning this with new methods.  

Some updates in this design vs older designs:

In order to reduce the cost of the Pick and Place machine a new 4-Axis Stepper Motor Controller has been designed. 

Hardware Features:

USB Interface

7 general purpose 12v relay drivers.

8 General Purpose I/O

Over Current/ Over Temperature protection

Step/Direction Inputs for use with other control methods.(emc2)

Can be run standalone without USB input.  

As a subset of the Electronic Manufacturing line the main function is controlling the pick and place machine.  The software is pretty far along but still needs some polishing.  Here are the main functions:

This is the subproject for the mechanical aspects of the pick-and-place machine.  I have very little details thus far as this is the portion of the project that needs the most work.  I will update this with the design files of what I have so far after I figure out how to upload.

This is the focal point of the Open Source Manufacturing Line.  Most of it is pretty standard XYZ manipulator with a focus on speed, therefore mass has been kept as low as possible.  Another consideration is cost, we have every indication it can be manufactured and sold for under $400.

The goal is to create an open source manufacturing line for printed circuit boards.  Here are the reasons for why this is important:

Currently an open source hardware designer faces a very high cost of production due to the low quantities involved.  This will greatly reduce the cost of manufacturing to the point where the end product is competitively priced with the commercial equivalent.