Hello All,
I’ve sunk hours into trying to put together a BOM that’s accurate, and I still don’t have one. Some things that are a problems:
I’m in the US, and I’m not finding a the metric pipe for the axis. If I convert to imperial, this means changes across the design, so I’d rather not.
The BOMs available don’t seem to align with the directions.
Components just appear in the directions, without much of an explanation.
Can I purchase the PCBs? I’ve used seeds, but I’d rather just buy premade boards at this point.
I have a friend with a 3D printer who said he can make the 3D printed parts. But the files don’t seem to be the kind he needs. This part might be just because I’ve never run the 3D printer.
The hidden corners are expensive. I did find some that are 2.50ish a piece instead of the 5.50ish that I originally found. But they are going to need to be filed down cause they were really poorly made. Get what I paid for, I guess. (I got some of the T-slot and corners to test)
A comprehensive list of parts would be awesome. McmasterCarr has a lot of what I need. I can use seeds to make the PCB, and Mouser for the components. But I’m running in circles trying to figure out what exactly I need.
Is there an excel doc somewhere with an up to date BOM with all the parts?
I’m in a bit of a time crunch. I’m have a finite window to weasel the funding out of the University. I can figure out how to put it all together later, but I have to buy the stuff now, or I’ll lose funding. And I likely cannot go back and get something that I forgot later. It has to be right the first time. Also, I have NOTHING laying around (bolts washers and the like). Everything has to be purchased for this project.
The STL files for imperial pipe is included in the v3.0 release zip file for the rotator. @cshields, @ryan_turner, us, and probably a few more are working on or have imperial-sized design files. The tubing is intended to come from a local home improvement store. EMT conduit would also work except near the antennas.
There are a couple of boards on OSH Park that can be ordered, though they may not be the most current versions.
Good news! I just received qty 80 hidden corners from Aliexpress this one and they are just right. $0.55 each when including shipping. Also these drop-in t-slot M4 nuts for about $0.10 each.
There are only a few places where the hidden brackets are actually needed due to clearance issues. Other corners will work fine in the other positions.
Heads-up: for our first round trying to build a v3 we used extrusion from 80/20 since they are pretty much local to us this was a source of many problems. This was due to the fact their slot is 5mm wide and all other brands have a 6mm slot. Therefore the hidden corners didn’t fit.
Last week we took delivery of a batch of 20 series extrusion from Misumi $78 delivered for 10x 1m sticks. They will even cut it for you to the nearest 0.5mm. This was less cost than cheap import stuff and arrived in 2 days. Highly recommended extrusion source.
Amazon or eBay were the sources of the metric hardware. Half the cost of McM-C, plus we now have a stock of hardware by buying in bulk.
There haven’t quite been enough external, documented, builds of v3 to truly shakedown the instructions. It is a “hands-on” build at present. Keep tabs and ask questions in these forums to stay up to date.
