LittleBox | The DIY Raspberry Pi All-In-One Desktop PC by Gregory L Holloway. The LittleBox is designed to be built at home, by anyone, and with the minimum of tools. Everything you need to turn your Raspberry Pi into a Desktop PC is included as part of the complete LittleBox kit. I am a huge fan of the Raspberry Pi. It has sparked a revolution in the computing world, and has inspired millions, including myself. The LittleBox is the culmination of 18 months of working with the Raspberry Pi. The idea for the LittleBox comes from my involvement with the FishPi Project where we are moving towards building an autonomous drone, controlled by a Raspberry Pi, which will cross the Atlantic Ocean.
We have a Base-Station which is used to control and monitor our Proof-Of-Concept Vehicle, and I wanted everyone to be able to share in the experience. The 61 Laser-Cut parts are are produced from a single sheet of 3mm Birch plywood. The HDMI cable is hand-made here in the UK. The LittleBox design & prototyping has been documented on Instructables. Specification. The LittleBox | A Raspberry Pi PC. Crossing the Atlantic is a complicated challenge, and one that I have decided to accept. The FishPi Project hopes to use a Raspberry Pi to navigate a drone across the Atlantic Ocean. The first step in this quest has been the building of a Proof-Of-Concept-Vehicle (POCV), and a controlling terminal called the Base-Station.
The Base-Station is an aluminium flight case fitted with a Raspberry Pi, a screen, keyboard & trackball, a USB hub, and a wireless router. It will be used to manage the POCV, handle the telemetry, and monitor the POCV's performance. I'd like everyone to be able to follow the POCV during testing, watch as the FishPi makes it's way across the Atlantic Ocean, and monitor our progress along the way. What if everyone had their own Base-Station to do this? To build the FishPi Base-Station has taken over a year. Better yet, rather than a Base-Station, what about a Raspberry Pi Desktop PC? Brilliant idea! So what would I want from a Raspberry Pi Desktop PC? Stamps from craft foam. Small Arduino CNC. Pocket laser engraver. For the Arduino I started out writing my own software. But while searching for a good way to control movement from the serial port I stumbled upon something called "Grbl ".
This is a g-code interpreter with lots of nifty functions. As I already had everything connected to the Arduino I had to ether change my connections or change the software. Luckily it is easy to change control pins in the software. I did however have to download Winavr and then the code from github.com . I have however changed the pin-out since then and here in the instructable I use the default pin-out of Grbl. Important: The current version of Grbl (0.6b) has a bug in the queue system. Any way you choose to do it you will end up with a .hex file that you must get into the Arduino. The Arduino needs to be set up for the job. Grbl 0.6b '$' to dump current settings" If you enter $ followed by return you will get a list of options. You must change the steps/mm for X and Y axis to 53.333 on both. Kickstarter.com | The MicroSlice | A Mini Arduino Laser Cutter & Engraver. by Gregory L Holloway.
Here's what you need to know. Kickstarter is a place for creative projects. Kickstarter was founded on the belief that creative works and creative expression are essential to a healthy and vibrant society. We think of it as a way around the gatekeepers in all kinds of creative fields, from music to tabletop games. We use an all-or-nothing funding model. When you back a project, you won’t be charged unless it reaches its funding goal.
This helps ensure that creators have the funds they’ll need to make their projects come to life. Backing ≠ buying. Making something new is hard. Collections Sections Categories On Our Radar Start a projectStart Sign in Explore About Support Hello More from Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC © 2019. The MicroSlice V1 | A tiny Arduino laser cutter. The MicroSlice uses Grbl v0.8 for motion control. Grbl converts G-Code into commands that the EasyDriver stepper motor controllers understand. We need another program to send the G-Code to Grbl, for this I'll be using Zapmaker's Grbl Controller v3.0. Before you can begin you will need the Arduino IDE, available from the Arduino website. Make sure your Laser Diode is not connected to the power lines while you are configuring your MicroSlice.
The Laser will power on & off during the setup & configuration process if it is connected. Only connect the Laser Diode when you are ready to cut or engrave. Grbl's wiki shows you how to flash the pre-compiled Grbl hex file onto your Arduino. For those of you who have a Raspberry Pi, as I do, you'll be pleased to know that you can control the MicroSlice using your Pi! We'll need to generate some G-Code. Before we can use our new G-Code we'll need to configure Grbl to use the stepper motors and end-stops. The settings we are interested in are $0 & $1. Microcontroller Contest. The MicroSlice V2 Aurum | A gold mini laser cutter & engraver. The MicroSlice story began back in 2013 with an entry into the Instructables 2013 RadioShack Microcontroller Contest.
The MicroSlice V1 won the Grand Prize and set the foundations for a successful Kickstarter Campaign a few months later. It has been an exciting past year and the MicroSlice has evolved from a small 50mm x 50mm workspace into a machine with four times the space at 100mm x 100mm. The simple screw-drives have been replaced with precision stepper motors which use belts & pulleys and the Gantry now moves smoothly on linear bearings. To mark the occasion I have built a one-off special edition of the MicroSlice V2 where the Upped-Deck has been gilded in 24ct gold and I have customised just about every aspect of the machine. I have called it the MicroSlice Aurum. I'll be using this Instructable to share some of the new skills I have learnt over the past year and I'll hopefully inspire some of you to push yourselves with your own creations and ideas :) Steps.