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Could you just hook new motor controllers to the motors / puncher and add an Arduino to control it?
by cellular 1mo ago
Could you just hook new motor controllers to the motors / puncher and add an Arduino to control it?
- kennywinker 1mo agoPossibly. But i wanted a machine to play with, not to tinker with. At that point it’d be wayyy cheaper and easier to just convert an old CR-10 printer into a vinyl cutter
- tdeck 1mo agoThis is a very Hacker News usage of the word "just".
- CamperBob2 1mo agoThe modern equivalent is "Just" use Fable or Sol to reverse-engineer the protocol, then write new control software that works locally the way you want to work, using the file formats you want to use. There is no longer any reason to put up with hardware like Cricut that doesn't do what you want, or that includes artificial dependencies on remote servers. If worst comes to worst, then yes, have the clanker write a new controller.
- zardo 1mo agoProposing cost to reverse engineer a cricut and cut out some pelican art as a new llm benchmark.
- throwway120385 1mo agoAs long as there's a bicycle under that pelican I think we're good.
- CamperBob2 1mo agoOne of the YouTubers who benchmarks vibe-hackery tried getting GLM 5.3 to reprogram an older iPod Nano. [1] Something like "I just plugged in an iPod via USB. Turn it into a GPU status display." It got pretty far but couldn't close escrow. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TeW8L9wy-Y&t=1917s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TeW8L9wy-Y&t=1917s
- bobek 1mo agoIt it less crazy that it sounds. I have recently replaced firmware on an obscure MCU to revive a flip-dot display. https://www.bobek.cz/buse/ https://www.bobek.cz/buse/
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- ssl-3 1mo agoIt is, but I mean: Many of us do just exactly that with 3D printers. We get a new 3D-printing machine and install our own build of Marlin on it, or move it all over to Klipper. Sometimes that involves replacing the entirety of the brain-box controls and that's just par for the course. At its root, it's only some stepper motors, fans (more motors), sensors, and heaters that are used in very particular ways. That's pretty similar to a Cricut machine, isn't it?
- kennywinker 1mo agoBecause closed source 3d printers grew out of an open source community, it's pretty easy to do this, and you get a pretty similar experience on most printers. Unfortunately, cricuts are not like that. There are a couple projects attempting this but afaik they offer a pretty rough experience.
- ssl-3 1mo agoSo a Cricut machine has more than some motors and sensors and stuff? How much more?
- Joel_Mckay 1mo agoReplacing the hardware with GRBL/FluidNC controller + bCNC + Inkscape migtyscape laser/engraver CAM plugin kit would be trivial. However, modifying DMCA protected hardware is a crime in some places. Best of luck, =3
- ssl-3 1mo agoEh, I mean: I've done some work with GRBL in the pre-bot days. I can probably do more work with it in these post-bot days. That doesn't sound so bad. I just don't have a Cricut or the willingness to get one (or several; stuff will break) to hack on. :)
- Joel_Mckay 1mo ago
- dylan604 1mo agoOnly if done over a weekend
- Junk_Collector 1mo agoCan you build a CNC machine out of nothing but a computer and a CNC machine?
- kennywinker 1mo agoYou wanna know how to get a million dollars? Ok, first you start with two million dollars...