Since Aviva decided to post about it (and credit me, thank you) on her new and burgeoning blog, I thought I might make a rare post and add some thoughts about the Lumenlab micRo.  The micro is a low cost CNC machine available in variously complete kits up to a fully assembled and tested package.  It very standards compliant and uses a PC as a controller; cheap old Dell minitowers preconfigured with Ubuntu and design and control packages.

Let’s get this out of the way: it is great and geek lust worthy; I have spent the better part of today not buying this kit.  That said, it has issues.  I suppose it is a consequence of the size (which is wonderfully tiny), but the work area is too small and it could use at least one more axis (i.e. object rotation).  If the base were extensible (hinged foldover or a notched edge with a lay in extension)  with the rails thread tapped for extension rails, this would be much more valuable.  Additionally, It would be nice to not need the PC as a controller:  take an Arduino and slip it a SD card with G-Code on it, and there is no reason to need to have the computer next to it.  Or even networked: HTTP POST via Ethernet, anyone?

(As an aside, how does the title of this post only result in six Google hits as of this writing?   So obvious.)

This entry was posted on ‍‍כ״ז אייר ה׳ תשס״ט - Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 21:36 and is filed under hardware, open tabs, product, software, tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.