Author Topic: A fix for the shakes.  (Read 24809 times)

Offline ddmckee54

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A fix for the shakes.
« on: January 31, 2018, 10:28:05 PM »
As I said in my "Got the shakes" thread in Chatterbox I've got a benign essential tremor.  I've had it for years and it has been getting worse, despite the medications.  My neurologist says we've gone about as far as medication is going to take us so this might be about as good as it gets.  I have had to find ways to deal with it.  I'm an electrical engineer and communicating with electrical contractors is a big part of my job.  Where I used to hand sketch some thing out, it now gets done in AutoCAD.  Hand written notes and instructions are now done in Word or by e-mail, which also has the added advantage of giving me a paper-trail.  A couple of weeks ago I was making some wiring changes to my 3D printer that involved a minimal amount of soldering - couldn't do it anymore, my hands shook too much.

For some reason not being able to do that simple activity really pissed me off and I decided that I wasn't gonna take it no more.  I've got a 3D printer, I'm gonna build me some type of a jig/contraption that will allow me to successfully make a solder joint.  I want to be able to make that joint whether it's on a PC board or just splicing a wire, so this thing is going to require a fair range of movement.  I also want to be able to extend and retract the soldering iron to bring it into contact with what ever I'm trying to solder.  One last requirement, this thing has to be fairly compact and easy to store.  I'm also going to make this so that the parts are either 3D printed, bar stock and/or threaded rod that is just sawn to length, or simple plywood rectangles.

My first thought was some type of a movable X-Y table with the soldering iron on one side of the table and the solder roll on the other side of the table with everything meeting somewhere in the middle.  Then I realized that every time I needed to re-position the soldering iron I would also have to re-position the solder, etc., etc....  Not acceptable, too clumsy and time consuming.  My current thought is to have the solder roll and soldering iron slaved together.  Last weekend while I was waiting for the printer to get done with an 8 hour-ish print I started playing around with a 3D model of what I want, see the attached 3D PDF.  The model is rather crude because I'm still learning this 3D stuff.  I'm an electrical engineer, I don't NEED to know how to do 3D cad.  2D cad works just fine for electrical schematics - thank you very much.

The silver/gray thing is the solder feed tube, and the brown cylinder is an 8oz. roll of solder.  I haven't got the solder feed mechanism drawn yet, but it'll fit between the 2 red soldering iron clamps and it'll be in line with the solder feed tube. I'm thinking that the feed gear for a 3D printer Bowden style extruder drive would be a Jim-Dandy starting point for the solder feed drive.  I also haven't got the soldering iron extend/retract mechanism thought through entirely.  Right now it is shown as the red bar that holds the 2 soldering iron clamps apart.  It could be as involved as a rack and pinion or a feed screw of some type, or it could be just a friction clamp that keeps the iron where I put it.

The X-Y table at this point in time is just a lot of hand waving and head scratching.  I thought I'd start at the soldering iron and work my way out from there.

Don

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2018, 12:20:06 AM »
Don, I'm just seeing a blank white sheet in the .PDF. Is it just me or are others seeing the same.

Bill

Offline PStechPaul

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2018, 01:00:43 AM »
Also a blank for me. Acrobat Reader blocked 3-D content but still no joy after enabling it.

You might want to look into the "Gyro-Glove":

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545456/hope-in-a-glove-for-parkinsons-patients/



<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFzHYU3aVAY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFzHYU3aVAY</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rZpqryeAvs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rZpqryeAvs</a>

You might be able to adapt a camera stabilizer for your purposes:

https://www.amazon.com/camera-gyro-stabilizer/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acamera%20gyro%20stabilizer

Offline ddmckee54

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2018, 03:55:16 PM »
Bill/All:

When I first open the PDF from the thread I see a blank white sheet with a grey box in the upper left-hand corner.  The grey box has a red question mark in it.  Is that what you're seeing?

If so then there should be a yellow bar across the top of the screen with an "Options" button/tab towards the right-hand side.  It was about even with the edge of the white area on my PC.  This will give you a pull down menu with the options of "Always trust this document" or "Trust this document once".  Select one of them, because if you don't tell your PC security to "trust" the document it won't allow you to enable the content.

After you've "trusted" the document then you can click on the grey box and enable the content. Not sure if you need to left click or right click, can't get into that screen while I'm typing this.

After you've trusted the document and enabled the content you SHOULD see the model on the screen.  That's what worked for me anyway when I opened the PDF from the thread.  If that doesn't help then we need to go further into the realm of IT and cyber-security than I care to delve, or I am qualified to for that matter.

Don

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2018, 06:18:12 PM »
Thanks Don. It doesn't work for me within the thread, but if I download and save the .pdf file and then open it from my desktop I get exactly what you describe. Could be a settings problem on my end, but I can see the 3D drawing now  :)

Bill

Offline ddmckee54

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2018, 07:14:16 PM »
Bill:

I haven't figured out how to embed the PDF within the thread yet, that's why it's attached.  I downloaded the file too.  When downloading the PDF my system asks whether I want to open the file, or save it.  I just tell it to open the file, I figure that I can always do a "Save As" from Adobe if it's something I really want to keep.  That way I don't have extra files laying around taking up hard drive space.  With todays drives this isn't a problem, just a habit left over from the "OLD" days when we thought that we'd NEVER fill up a 100MEG hard drive.

Don
« Last Edit: February 01, 2018, 07:17:32 PM by ddmckee54 »

Offline crueby

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2018, 07:53:00 PM »
Bill:

I haven't figured out how to embed the PDF within the thread yet, that's why it's attached.  I downloaded the file too.  When downloading the PDF my system asks whether I want to open the file, or save it.  I just tell it to open the file, I figure that I can always do a "Save As" from Adobe if it's something I really want to keep.  That way I don't have extra files laying around taking up hard drive space.  With todays drives this isn't a problem, just a habit left over from the "OLD" days when we thought that we'd NEVER fill up a 100MEG hard drive.

Don
We thought it was a big deal when we got the first 50meg drive, first we had without the removable platter stack in it....
 :old:

Good thing I'm not as old as Zee, he had to carve his own bits to code with...!  :stickpoke:

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2018, 09:22:08 PM »
I don't know about carving the bits  ;) but the first harddisks I worked with where 5MB. The newer ones where 5.25" full height and the old ones where 14" remove able - the drive weighted 135Kg. ~ 297 pounds.
The more annoying fact was the newer 5.25" drives crashed a few times every day and you just might have lost all in such a crash - we had tape backup for the same reason (it took 10 minutes to make a backup).

This was back between 1979 and 1985 - the next gen 10MB drives where a lot better - like a month between crashes, and a few years further down the line we almost stopped making backups .... until we got servers.

Offline PStechPaul

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2018, 03:02:23 AM »
Took a screen shot:

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/Soldering_Steady_3D.PNG

Offline ddmckee54

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2018, 08:34:14 PM »
I haven't had a chance to work on this "fix" lately, I've been working on cleaning up the rat's nest of cables that has existed at the RAMPS board since I first got the printer, see attached photo.

It's been quite the learning experience.  Eventually I determined that the RAMPS board uses both Dupont connectors and JST connectors.  JST connectors are the little white connectors used on the RAMPS board - and Dupont connectors are the skinny black connectors that are about 1/2 the thickness of a JST connector

I have 2, 3 and 4 pin JST connections on my ramps board so I ordered a kit of bodies, connectors and male pin headers so that I could make up any connection I needed - I thought.  I also ordered a crimper, the Chinese generic equivalent of an SN-28B, that SAID it would crimp both JST connectors.   Don't you believe it, an SN-28B does a Jim-Dandee job of crimping Dupont connectors but it will cut a JST connector in half if you try using it to crimp a JST connection, DAMHIK. 

I ordered another crimper that was strictly for JST connectors, not knowing any better I ordered the crimper for the smaller pitches 0.5 - 1.0 - 1.5.  I've got the itty-bitty connectors right?  Ummmm... not so much, couldn't get the connectors to fit in the crimper without crushing something.  It finally dawned on me that the pitch numbers are referring to the center to center spacing of the pins in mm.  I've got a 0.1" center to center spacing on the pins or - wait for it - 2.54mm.  I looked into getting different crimper dies for the crimper I already had.  I could get die sets to crimp just about everything EXCEPT the ones I actually needed.  Sooo... ordered ANOTHER crimper, this time for the 2.54 and 3.96 pitches.

When JST connector set arrived it was for 6, 7, 8 and 9 pin connectors.  This wasn't what I ordered - was it?  Go back to the order, yup - it's EXACTLY what I ordered, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP.  Back to EBAY - check.  Find 2, 3, 4, and 5 pin JST connector kit, in 2.54mm pitch - check.  Buy now - check.  Wait... DAMN I hate waiting.

My 2.54 pitch crimper finally arrived last night and I can NOW properly crimp 2.54 JST connectors, most of the time.  I still get a 10-20%, or more, reject rate - but I blame that on operator error, not the equipment.  I got 4 out of 5 stepper motor cables shortened last night and one of the axis limit switches done before my neck got sore from being hunched over for hours.  I only had one boo-boo and that was on the Z axis limit switch cable, didn't have it plugged in completely.  Tonight I should be able to get take care of the rest of the cables and maybe even get the RAMPS board enclosure installed.  However because of my little Z axis limit switch boo-boo, I now get to re-level the X axis.  Oh the joys of owning/maintaining a 3D printer.

Don

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2018, 10:11:13 PM »
Bill:

I haven't figured out how to embed the PDF within the thread yet, that's why it's attached.  I downloaded the file too.  When downloading the PDF my system asks whether I want to open the file, or save it.  I just tell it to open the file, I figure that I can always do a "Save As" from Adobe if it's something I really want to keep.  That way I don't have extra files laying around taking up hard drive space.  With todays drives this isn't a problem, just a habit left over from the "OLD" days when we thought that we'd NEVER fill up a 100MEG hard drive.

Don
We thought it was a big deal when we got the first 50meg drive, first we had without the removable platter stack in it....
 :old:

Good thing I'm not as old as Zee, he had to carve his own bits to code with...!  :stickpoke:

50Meg! What waste!
Go back a bit further. Started with a 5 Meg drive. Then a 10! We were swimming in space...and then came Windows.

And yes, I started with Hollerith cards.
I couldn't believe my fortune when RAM chips doubled in size from 1K to 2K.
Then 8" floppies.

I'm watching this thread because it's a classic case of 'got a problem - will solve problem' and it's a problem that touches, or will touch, many of us.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline PStechPaul

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2018, 02:07:22 AM »
I wasn't familiar with JST connectors, so I looked it up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JST_connector

I bought some male and female connector pins and housings that would probably work for the 100 mil (2.54mm) connectors. Pins were about $2/100, housings $1 to $5/100. I use an AMP service tool crimper for these and other small crimp connectors.

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electronics/SIL_100_3802.jpg

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electronics/SIL_100_3806.jpg

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electronics/SIL_100_3811.jpg

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electronics/SIL_100_3812.jpg

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electronics/SIL_100_3815.jpg

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electronics/SIL_100_3817.jpg

The wire was a bit small for the connector, so I added solder:
http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electronics/SIL_100_3819.jpg

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electronics/SIL_100_3820.jpg


Offline ddmckee54

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2018, 04:04:22 PM »
Paul:

What you are showing are the Dupont type connectors.  The pin and socket terminals for a Dupont connector will not work in a JST connector.

In a Dupont connector the pins and socket terminals are held into the plastic body of the connector by a small plastic tab molded into the body.  You can see the tabs in your last picture.  The Dupont connector terminals are also longer that the JST terminals.

The pin and socket terminals for a JST connector are held into the plastic connector body by an itty-bitty metal tang that is part of the terminal.  That tang was part of reason I was getting such a high reject rate at first.  I don't know if my Chinese crimper dies are on the wide side of the Quality Control limits, or if my crimp terminals tang position is on the narrow side of the Quality Control limits, but for some reason my crimper was smashing that tang flat.  With no tang, there is noting to hold the crimped terminal in the plastic connector body.  My current work around is to bend the tang up about 30° to 45°.  This gives me the fraction of a mm clearance that I need between the crimper die and the tang when crimping a termination.

Yes, I know that you can crimp the terminals with something other than the specified crimper, I used to do it with just a small needle nosed plier.  You just need to crimp the wire and the insulation separately.   The problem is I shake enough already, I don't need to give myself MORE chances to screw something up.  The correct tool crimps both the insulation and the wire in one action, eazie-peazie.

Besides, I'm a tool junkie.  There, I said it, but I ain't proud of it - at least not too much.  Maybe I need to find my local TA (Tools Anonymous) and go to a meeting?  You know, the kind of meeting where you stand up and say "Hi, I'm Don and I'm a tool junkie".

Don

Offline ddmckee54

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #13 on: February 16, 2018, 09:49:44 PM »
Haven't had too much time to work on this lately.  I got done killing evicting all the rats and cleaning up their nest, that's the 1st photo.

My Mom's not doing too well, she's 94 and broke her right hip the day after Christmas, so I've had a few other higher priority things to work on.  However I did get a little more work done on the soldering rig.  I took a screen shot of the 3D PDF, that the second photo.  If you want to view the 3D PDF I am attaching that too, that way you can manipulate the view to see any angle you want.

The solder drive is currently a pair of 3D printer Bowden extruder drive gears.  Although that may change to just one gear with the solder being pressed between the gear and a bearing.

Ii doesn't show it in detail yet, but the iron will be advanced/retracted by a 3D printed rack and pinion set-up.  I finally found a site that takes you through gear design in all the excruciating detail that you can stand.

More to come,
Don

Offline ddmckee54

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Re: A fix for the shakes.
« Reply #14 on: March 01, 2018, 03:18:50 PM »
No progress to report, my Mom passed away on the 20th so my brothers and I have been a little busy for the last week or so.  She had everything pretty well planned out and we knew what her wishes were, so most of the heavy lifting had already been done.  It seemed like there was still an awful lot of leg work that needed to be done.  We'll pretty much wrap things up tomorrow - so by Monday things will start to feel a little more "normal".

Don

 

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