Congrats! Remarkable!!
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Itās actually a magnetic encoder that is after the motor. The last thing that the belt passes over before it extends out is roller and embedded in the roller is a magnet, above that magnet is an encoder which tracks the magnets movement. It has 4096 steps per rotation and each rotation relates to 44mm of belt travel (22 tooth sprocket, 2mm belt tooth spacing) 44/4096 = 0.0107 which is where the 1/100mm comes from.
Thatās a good point. The issue is that as the z-axis travel increases the bearings that attach the sled to the router need to be stronger. I kept it reasonably compact to keep it rigid. Maslow is really designed to cut sheet goods that usually less than 3/4 of an inch thick. 1.9 inches of z-axis travel gives enough travel to cut like a 2"x6" (really 1.5" by 2.5")ā¦although it isnāt really meant for that it is possible.
I have 13ā foot belts on there, but I think Iām going to try to ship with 14ā belts. The extra belt looks a little awkward when the belt is all the way retracted, but if I ship with longer belts everyone has the option to cut them down a little bit.
I will gather data on this and put it together in a useful way. Iāve got a bunch of random notes, but I think that if I put some organized data together we can probably improve things more quickly than I could alone even before anyone has hardware to work with.
Right!? Amazing! I lost a bet on this oneā¦I owe Roman a beer 
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Itās actually a magnetic encoder that is after the motor. The last thing that the belt passes over before it extends out is roller and embedded in the roller is a magnet, above that magnet is an encoder which tracks the magnets movement. It has 4096 steps per rotation and each rotation relates to 44mm of belt travel (22 tooth sprocket, 2mm belt tooth spacing) 44/4096 = 0.0107 which is where the 1/100mm comes from.
so no encoder on the motor, just apply current in either direction?
Thatās a good point. The issue is that as the z-axis travel increases the
bearings that attach the sled to the router need to be stronger. I kept it
reasonably compact to keep it rigid. Maslow is really designed to cut sheet
goods that usually less than 3/4 of an inch thick. 1.9 inches of z-axis travel
gives enough travel to cut like a 2"x6" (really 1.5" by 2.5")ā¦although it
isnāt really meant for that it is possible.
most bits donāt stick out that far anyway. especially when you account for the
thickness of the sled.
I have 13ā foot belts on there, but I think Iām going to try to ship with 14ā
belts. The extra belt looks a little awkward when the belt is all the way
retracted, but if I ship with longer belts everyone has the option to cut them
down a little bit.
sounds great.
I will gather data on this and put it together in a useful way. Iāve got a
bunch of random notes, but I think that if I put some organized data together
we can probably improve things more quickly than I could alone even before
anyone has hardware to work with.
thanks.
David Lang
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Yup. The motor does not contain itās own encoder this time. The motor driver does have a current reading so we can measure the load on the motor, but position control is done entirely with the roller tracking the belt after the motor. Measuring the position at the motor wouldnāt be accurate enough because as the belt spools up on the spool the size changes and itās not 100% predictable.
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OK time to place your bets. how many backers will Maslow 4 get?
Maslow 1 got 1,279 backers according to kickstarter.
Iām gonna guess 1400 backers for maslow 4.
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DONE! Cant wait to get my kit. First kickstarter Iāve every done. Has always followed the other builds but never pulled the trigger.
Fingers crossed the time goes quickly.
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I am in
,Bryce
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currently at 507 backers. curious to see where this ends up tomorrow.
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Bar, is there a maximum number that you will go to before you cut it off?
David Lang
This time I donāt think so, but weāll see if it gets uncomfortable. Iām very confident in our suppliers this time around so I am not stressed about sourcing the parts. I think that the limit would be we donāt want the community to grow so suddenly that it messes with the feel.
Iām not ready to commit one way or the other on that yet. I donāt have a number in mind, but Iām open to pausing it if we feel like itās getting out of hand.
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@bar , will there be a way to purchase spare parts at release? it would be nice to have a spares kit available. Im thinking motors, control boards, belts, etc,.
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Good old regular USPS, or anything that hands over to Canada Post on this side of the border. They only charge us the tax/duty for the parcel.
UPS adds a $90+ fee, plus tax on the fee to pay the tax. Itās bonkers.
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Maybe not exactly at release, but very shortly thereafter spares will be available. I want to focus on getting kits out first and then everything else (t-shirts, spare parts, router bitsā¦etc)
Excellent, that is good to hear.
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Yes, USPS is the cheapest. Sometimes Canada Post charges $5 for brokerage and other times they charge nothing. They will also sometimes charge federal sales tax. But UPS will charge the sales tax and shipping and they will charge $90+ for brokerage and handling. FedEX and DHL charge fees too though usually not as steep.
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Currently at double your funding level @bar .
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so the kickstarter lists Port Townsend as the home location. I kinda like it when my internet friends cross paths:
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sooooā¦ as of right now you are a couple backers away from $500K. How does it feel @bar?
Honestly I sort of stopped thinking about the money as soon as we hit the goal. My todo list is organized based on how critical the things on it are to make the project a success and as soon as we had enough money to make it happen I shifted my focus to getting it done. It does feel good knowing that we are going to be able to build it though.
The part Iām most looking forward to is when we ship them and people start building things. Iāll celebrate then 
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This is what i was thinking about. its an also an affirmation of your idea and proof that a lot of people want to support a new iteration of an old concept. I would have asked about the total backers but I am suspecting that some backers requested more than one kit or some may have just pledged a lower amount. In any case, its really nice knowing that there will be a large pool of users available who will be testing new ideas and changes and helping to improve the system as a whole.
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