Poorly timed blackout!

Fortunately, I just finished some prints for makexyz customers!  That last print took almost five hours, and I would have been majorly bummed if I had to reprint it from scratch.

I finally got around to revising the laser tag models for the magazine release parts, and as soon as I started to print them, the power went out.  Time to get that UPS for the printer!  Well, maybe tomorrow morning I will be able to try again before I have to go to work.

Here's what the parts look like.

Check out the barrel!

I think the barrel design for my laser tag gun looks pretty good.  It has a Desert Eagle-ish angle to it and I attempted to add an accessory rail to it.  The thought is that I will add in contacts for attaching various accessories.  Maybe a GPS module.  Maybe an OLED screen.  Who knows?

I have to rev the lens tube to v2 so that it slides into the barrel.  I also have to extend it to accommodate the trigger mechanism.  Maybe I will get around to it tonight!

I love the Replicator 2 more and more with every passing day.  This is truly an awesome printer.

Quick test of the LED tube

Looks pretty good to me!  In the final version I will keep all of the slots in case the focal distance of the lenses change.  I didn't have time to solder in a current-limiting resistor, but thankfully I have some current-limited cells so it wasn't necessary.

Testing out the 5V solenoid from SparkFun

Just got my 5V solenoids in the mail today, and seconds ago tested one on my power supply.  At 5V it seems like it will give a reasonable kick, but at 3.3V it is a little weak.  Not much I can do about this if I want to keep costs down.  I could bump up the voltage but then I'd need to add another LiFePo4 cell, which adds another $3 to the COGS.  The return spring is also a little weak.  I am worried that the mini slide for the recoil effect will bind, but there's only one way to find out for sure!

Hole sizing not quite like the UP!

I just finished my lens "tube" that will collimate the light from an IR emitter.  For now, I am going to test the focal distance with an ultra bright red LED with a 30 degree cone.  I need to get an IR emitter with a 20 degree cone given my 30mm lens and 70mm focal distance (roughly).  Too bad I didn't first check the accuracy of the hole with a yet print!  The Replicator 2 printed a 4.4mm hole, whereas I modeled a 5mm hole.  On the UP!, it probably would have been closer to 4.9mm.

UPDATE: Correction on the measurement -- I failed to realize that because I set the leveling such that the first layer gets smashed onto the build platform, the hole was smaller than it should have been.  I measured the opposite side of the hole at 4.84mm, so it was pretty close after all.  My bad!

I'll drill out the hole tomorrow and hook up the LED to a power supply once I am at the office.  Stay tuned for pics!

Quick update

I got my lenses in from Korea today.  If you can find what you need on eBay, that's definitely the way to go.  I picked up 5 30mm x 70mm FD lenses for cheap... I can't remember how cheap, but they were probably $2 each.  These will be used to collimate the IR LED beam to get longer range blasts.