
Piccolo, a tiny CNC bot - ghosh
http://www.piccolo.cc/
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eps
This so reminiscent of Japanese robotic kits. Just look at the assembly
process from the beginning of the video ... damn :) My dad got me a simple
clap-and-it-walks robot kit when I was 8 or 9 and I still remember the insane
excitement of putting it together... It was a one-time thing, but the rush of
making something physical and complex from a pile of simple parts is really
something. Especially when it actually works in the end.

I mean, this sort of thing has virtually no immediate practical value, but it
is such a treat for anyone who likes to tinker with things.

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hobbes78
Does anyone remember playing with the Logo programming language in the 80's
and being able to control a "turtle" robot that had a pen attached and was
able to pretty much do the same?

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freiheit
Yes. I learned recursion from drawing "trees" with it when I was about 12...

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rqphqel
Too bad this is not open source but CC by-nc-sa.

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jgmmo
My thoughts exactly.

I hate when companies call it open hardware, but then turn around and say
'non-commercial use only'.

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fizx
You can't commercially sell the bots, but their output is fair game. Think of
it like a GPL'd compiler. This seems reasonable to me.

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mikeash
Except you can sell a GPL compiler.

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nanoscopic
If you get the parts cut via the linked online place ( ponoko ) it costs $48
just to get the cut parts. This obviously doesn't include the rest of the
parts. Buying all the needed parts for this would cost $130 ( am including the
$48 here ) each if you build them yourself. You'd have to build at least 5 to
get this price. Realistically making one of these would cost around $200.

It will never be sold commercially, since the designs are CC by-nc-sa.

Unless you are hardcore about building cute expensive tech toys, best move
along.

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VLM
In capability it appears to basically be a "flat eggbot" and an eggbot costs
$200. I bought one on sale back in '11 and have been inking a new personalized
christmas ornament with it every season since then (more or less).

As a tool, its hourly cost has gotten pretty low compared to other toys. If I
could find a similar recreational activity for this device, I'm just saying
past experience shows that something similar ends up as a reasonable financial
deal.

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nanoscopic
I agree that it may in fact be reasonable to pay $150 ( perhaps even $200 )
for such a thing. The real cost is much higher due to a need to solder
components. This is an especial blocker for people with no soldering
experience.

Really, the whole thing would make sense if it had a full cost breakdown to
make a single one of them, getting the parts mostly from one location, rather
than a random mix, many requiring a minimum purchase of X of them, instead of
one.

It's a really cool project, it is just unclear exactly how much effort and
money it would cost to make one of these. ( and what tools would be needed )

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nnnnni
I wonder if a 3d printer hot end could be added to this thing? It'd be the
perfect (ie cost-effective) way to print small figures (eg minis for
wargames)!

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rplnt
You would need to move it (or the print) on the z-axis as well. And printer
heads are usually quite big and heavy, I'm not sure if they can get small
enough for this.

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unwind
The Piccolo seems to be a 3-axis machine, i.e. it can already do that since
lifting the pen is quite essential when drawing.

However, I guess it can't control the extrusion rate dimension that a 3D
printer has, so it would still fall a bit short.

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sytelus
I know there is a huge coolness factor to this but why do I need 3-axis moving
thing to do 2-axis drawings? Can't I just use software to print them out
straight out of printer?

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ssw1n
For a second there, I thought it would be about a Command and Control Bot, and
was really intrigued ....

