Currently on Indiegogo
From their IndieGoGo page:
From their IndieGoGo page:
Advantages of the Delta Arm design:
- MUCH faster Z axiz movement. A traditional 3D pritner design uses threaded rods or acme screws. These severely limit the Z axis speeds to about 200-400 mm/min speeds. With the Rostock MAX, we have the same speed in X/Y as we do in the Z, which is up to 40000 mm/min. Holy Cow right!
- Counter acting forces of movement. With a traditional pritner again, you have a carriage moving left/right or front/back, and it has to overcome the weight of that movement to reverse it's direction. We use accelaration to tune the motors DOWN to slow the speeds of the carriage when it's near the end of a move so it doesn't "whip" or chatter, when changing directions. With the MAX, all three carriages have to move together to make coordinated motion, so if one arm has to go up, the other two have to go down, and this cnacels out a huge amount of the inertia in the movement at the head, so we can tune the motor to a much higher rate, increasing the speed.
- Circular motion is smoother by default with the Rostock MAX. The delta arms also have a unique feature, SUPER ROUND CIRLCES! Now, yes, you can have the same smooth circles with a standard printer, however, you have to work to get it to make those circles very round. The reason is you have two straight lines, one in the X and one in the Y, and you have to vary those two lines to make a circle. Any backlash in the belts/pulleys etc... will cause the circles to come out egg shaped at best. With the MAX, circles are more true, becuase any backlash that could exist is cancelled out by the fact that the platform "hangs" from the arms, and gravity takes care of the rest. There are other reasons too, such as that every single move sent to the printer is split into 200 seperate movements.
Features:
We are looking into other "tool heads" to attach to the platform. Some easy to convert ideas are pick-and-place vacuum head for electronics board assembly, sodler paste syringes for PCB prepping, pen mount (it's the $25 perk) for plotting/drawing and even a low power laser platform should be easily adaptable.
- Approximate 10"+ Diameter x 13" + High build volume
- Sturdy design using bolted together parts
- Precision laser cut, CNC and injection molded parts
- Designed for english OR metric hardware
- Windows, MAC, and Linux compatible with OS software
- Uses UltiMachine RAMBo electronics
- Uses Standard NEMA 17 motors and GT2 timing belt
- 15 Tooth motor pulleys
- Filament is held by the machine, no more tangled spools on the floor
- Wide open access to the build area, easy to get at parts
- Unique design lends to easy modification for other uses
***EDIT***
We are also going to be using UltiMachine's new electronics boards, the RAMBo. They have the ability to run two extruders, one heated bed, and up to 5 stepper motors. Check out theRAMBo wiki page to learn more about these really awesome 3D printer electronics from UltiMachine. The boards have 5 allegro A4984 stepper drivers, two plugs if you ever need a dual-z motor setup etc..., 4 thermistor inputs, and so many more awesome features.
More information about our Rostock MAX can be found online over at theRepRap project, as well as our Forum. We will be posting build instructions, CAD files, firmware settings and more, all on ourRepRap.org Wiki Page
