Author: John Spencer

Just as a little break from your regular program, I thought I’d talk about the $600 commercial alternative to our prototype.

The KRC-1000E is the rather catchy name for this unit, and my searching on the internet seems to suggest that it was most commonly purchased with the Brother KH-970.  This makes sense because from what I could find you can’t really program the unit as such.  There is simply a cable that plugs in to the KH-970.

Probably a good thing we didn’t spend any money on one for our KH-950i then.  It almost certainly would have been wasted money.

So, lets have a little look at what design decisions were made by a Japanese engineer in the 80’s vs an Aussie hacker in 2017.

Continue reading “Building a Better Colour Changer – Interlude – The KRC-1000E”

Previously on “I’m cheating on my Colour Changer with a half made prototype”………

My first post on this topic was devoted to the Digital Side of designing a part.  It had lots of images, a fairly waffly bit in the middle where I admitted I hadn’t remembered to take images or notes and ultimately stopped before I put the rubber to the road.  What a cop out.

In this second part, there is still a bit of digital talk while I go through how I get my digital design from farm to table, but there’s going to be a hell of a lot of table too.  There may also be mixed metaphors.

I should also warn you, this is a bit of a long one.  On reflection, it should have probably been two posts.

This post contains 5 chapters (or steps, as it were):
In Step 1, I go in to a bit of detail on the digital steps I use to get to physical.
In Step 2, I put all the pieces together.
In Step 3, I give the project some smarts.
In Step 4, I attach it to the machine.
In Step 5, I cover some of the “corrections” I had to make.

As modern makers we’re really only presented with two approaches when turning our digital ideas into a physical reality,  Additive manufacturing and Subtractive manufacturing.  This project would suit either, I could have 3d printed these parts, CNC milled them or Laser cut them out of stock.  All are tools I have available fairly readily at the Connected Community Hackerspace here in Melbourne.

I guess I like the idea of vaporising plastic though, because friken laser beams is where I went without even a thought.

Continue reading “Building a better Colour Changer – Part 2 – Firing the Lasers”

“Can we make an automatic colour changer?  And can we do it cheaper than $500.”

I think Sarah posed this to me as a bit of a challenge, coupled with a desire not to spend $500+ on a yet another add-on for her knitting machine.

Like a lot of things, I think the answer is “Maybe…”  I mean, I’m fairly confident, but as this is an ongoing project I’m still a little unsure.  Still, the render looks good, so that’s something!

Continue reading “Building a better Colour Changer – Part 1 – Designing hardware”