Three years in, and I now have license to set up a lab.

At Allegheny, I have found there there is a great deal of opportunity for cross-disciplinary collaboration. I have colleagues I can have fun with in Art, Environmental Science, Biology, Physics, Psychology… perhaps even History, but I’m really only including them in the list in case one of them wanders by and feels left out. Being able to make things move or collect data over time is a powerful thing, and I’m planning on making sure we can do more of that in my lab.

Of course, I would like to maximize the ability to fabricate while minimizing cost.

2D Lo-Fidelity Prototyping and Building

To start, I’d like to be able to do two things. I want to be able to cut new aircraft repeatably, and I’d like to have a low cost, workable material for exploring small scale robotics construction. My inclination, at this point, is to purchase a CNC foam cutter.

The Phlatprinter 3 would allow us to cut multiple copies of the Flying Gator easily, which would be excellent. Given my conversations with colleagues in Environmental Science, I think it would be useful to be able to build larger aircraft as well — for example, something that could be deployed for aerial photography in a coastal setting with gusting winds. This implies a much larger aircraft, and frankly, I don’t want to be cutting out wing spars for the rest of my life.

The Phlatprinter would also make it easy to cut robotics platforms out of foam (allowing students to design and build their own small robotics platforms), as well as provide (perhaps?) a robust enough skeleton for doing plushie robotics.

Twitchie Scorpion from MAKE magazine on Vimeo.

A Phlatprinter would run me roughly $1200 plus shipping.

2D Routing

A router would allow manufacture using beefier materials, but they’re big, and they’re more expensive. The blacktoe comes in either 2′ x 4′ or 4′ x 8′ sizes, for $2300 or $2900.

Given the prices, it is obvious that a 4′ x 8′ table is the way to go… but, I have precious little floor space. And, in truth, I need to think more about what role a router would play. It may be that a 12″ x 36″ table would be more than adequate for what I want to do (which mostly would be enclosures and small components for sensors and robotics platforms).

A router has many applications for small scale robotics as well as more artistic endeavors. The buildyourcnc website has some pretty pictures of the kinds of work people have done using these tools. I’d love to have access to these, as well as be able to make them available to students here at Allegheny.

PCB Milling

The MTM Snap was just announced, and obviously, that’s the machine I need.

While I could outsource PCB manufacture, the reality is that I typically need small, single-sided boards, and in quantities of 1-10. I could outsource (and perhaps I should), but I prefer not to outsource board production when I haven’t even had a chance to build and test. At roughly $700, I’m talking about 14 PCB runs at $50/each. If, for example, we were to decide that Environmental Sensing and Robotics might make an interesting course (or, perhaps, something more artistic, like Animatronics 101), then allowing students to cut and assemble a small board from scratch using tools like this would be an incredible experience unlike any they could find at any other small liberal arts college. (I may be wrong on that count, and if I am, someone tell me.)

Basically, I think I need a PCB mill. I could be wrong.

Misc Equipment

I’m hoping I can save in this space, and get high utility, low cost tools that allow my students to do basic electronics work without breaking the bank.

Power supplies, scopes, multimeters… these are all tools that you need to get on with building things and making sure you’re doing the right thing. I’m going to do some digging to see what we have on campus that I might use before I go shopping.

What Else?

What else do I need for a small scale electronics and robotics lab? Components, I suppose. Pieces-parts. Sensors. Motors. Stuff to build with. That may have to come with time. For the moment, I’m wondering what large pieces should be brought into play, and when. Is a dedicated machine for CNC foam work worthwhile? Can I use it in the ways that I think I want to use it? Would a single router be better? What tools would be valuable that I don’t have here already? (I have a Makerbot, but haven’t been able to set it up…) What, in short, would be the ideal set of tools for a small lab capable of supporting the exploration of environmental sensing and robotics?