How to tap a thread in acrylic Perspex, Lucite, Plexiglass using your cordless drill driver

 Laser Cutting, Making  15 Responses »
Feb 262018
 
How to tap a thread in acrylic Perspex, Lucite, Plexiglass using your cordless drill driver

I recently bought a laser cutter (running on a Pi) and started working with acrylic (Perspex). I’ve sawn, routed and drilled Perspex before. It machines beautifully as long as you’re not too ‘greedy’ with your cuts (and if you’re too greedy, it cracks). In exploring the material, I wanted to investigate thread tapping as I’d heard it was possible and it opens up new design options. So I watched a few videos about thread tapping. Some people use a CNC machine on an industrial scale, but others use a small hand tapping set in the […more…]

Run a K40 Laser Cutter from Your Raspberry Pi with K40 Whisperer

 Laser Cutting, Making, software installation  28 Responses »
Feb 192018
 
Run a K40 Laser Cutter from Your Raspberry Pi with K40 Whisperer

I bought a Chinese K40-style laser cutter about three weeks ago and I’ve been spending quite a bit of time playing with it learning how best to use it. It’s an eminently hackable design, and while mine could cut 3mm acrylic OK ‘straight out of the box’, there are many things that can be done to make it better, easier to use and more user-friendly. I’ve had great fun doing a whole host of upgrades and improvements to it, but that’s not what I’m focusing on today. Last week, Les Pounder published a blog article […more…]

Using Wemos D1 mini to control a brushless motor with ESC and servo signals

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, Wemos  4 Responses »
Feb 122018
 
Using Wemos D1 mini to control a brushless motor with ESC and servo signals

I’ve recently become interested in making “machines” of various sorts. I was sorting through some of my RC (radio control) plane “stash” the other day and came across various brushless motors and electronic speed controllers (ESC) like these. In RC, Brushless ESCs are usually connected to a radio receiver which generates servo control pulses. So this morning I thought it would be fun to try and get a Wemos D1 mini controlling a brushless motor. I’ve done similar before. I can remember, back in the dark ages of 2013, using a Guzunty Pi to generate […more…]