Hi Wesley,
At 2019-01-10Thu07:05:09+00, Wesley Brooks sent:
Repairing machines in the grave yard is similar to what is bring discussed in this thread: https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?1,707941 Last year I replaced a control card from an Up + 2 (I think that was the name) with one of the latest 32 bit Duet cards, effectively rescuing a dead printer as the manufacturer wanted silly money for the board. Issues with grave yard printers can include lacking safety shutdown relays, play in bearings, and sometimes dodgy choices in wiring gauge. Having said the latter I always edge on the side of caution there.
That's very interesting and reässuring that there's a lot of scope to revive machines. I'm more thinking about what happens a year or more down the line when the probably new printers we get now are considered unreliable later.
Discussing pattentable ideas on an open forum maybe problematic from the perspectives you discuss. I'm not sure how patents and Open Source Hardware can fit together.
I'm not looking to get them to fit together, rather to safely avoid patent troubles without supporting the patent system. Some kind of nonprofit prior art registration and advice service would give me the confidence to discuss ideas which I fear others would patent and make proprietary.
E3D are working with some fine nozzles at the moment can't remember whether it was 0.15mm or finer.
Interesting. I've decided to gain competency with 0.25mm before trying 0.2mm or finer. Such an increase in finess from 0.4mm should be sufficient for a lot of what I want to do, so I might as well focus on that first.
I had recently set up my own company called BURPS (Brewed Up Research Products and Services, suitably non specific so it didn't limit the field of work) Ltd to do some work with an institution that was starting an Additive Manufacturing course. Unfortunately while the course leader was really keen, the contract was foiled by the finance department at second draft. […] My vision for BURPS was to work with companies looking to use AM and help guide them through the initial learning curve or project ideas they are looking to develop. I'd recently considered contacting the local chamber for introductions to local engineering companies to offer local prototyping, but margins are really tight there with the big players in the game.
Oh nice! Do you have any constitutional commitment to OSH, like RepRapPro Limited as explained in Adrian's closing post that you linked to in your previous email? (Btw., I've assumed that RepRap Limited also has constitutional commitment to OSH but don't see any mention of Memorandum of Association on their About page. Can anyone confirm this?) Being nonspecific, I suppose that you'd also consider brewed-up research outside of the field of additive manufacturing. I have ideas that I'd like to make into OSH projects across various fields.
I'd be interested to discuss working with you further, and may be able to make use of contacts at a nearby university who are always looking for bite size chunks of work for student summer projects.
Thank you. Although I don't know much about you and BURPS Limited, what you've said so far does seem interesting for various projects. Which university are you near?
Company email address: burps.ltd@gmail.com
Thank you. Do you have a Website? What events might I be able to meet you at?
Best regards, James R. Haigh.