Goodbye ClawGuy

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789]

It's the end of an era for me. My Arduino claw machine is off to the dump 😭 second child along the way and need the space. Couple of photos posted up for the sometime in the future when someone else goes to build one of these and they want to see how the mechanism worked.

Edit: if it makes anyone feel better, the phrase "the dump" is a catch all term where I live. It will actually go to a rubbish recycling facility who likely will place it in the larger appliances area for quite a long time and someone else will come along and think "I want that" and take it away to play with the whole things or the parts.

[u/MJY_0014]

It would be a waste, especially given the effort you put into it. You could sell it on facebook marketplace, or at least part it out.

[u/Brtrnd2]

do you happen to have writeups about this?
My daughter would go crazy about it!

What did you use for claw? is it built around an old ender 3d printer?

[u/Brtrnd2 → u/Brtrnd2]

already found that they sell the claws as replacement claws. Now I need to figure out if htere's a decent documentation

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789 → u/Brtrnd2]

Yeah and the trick with the claws is to have three relays which provide three different voltages to it (12, 18 and 24 if I remember) and that allows you to control the grip strength in software.

[u/Katent1]

Why tho? Sell it, just parts itself are promising for many in hobby.

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah I'm definitely in a position where my parts bin is overflowing, the individual parts aren't really worth anything (you can build one from an Ender3 and we all know what they are worth now), then if I sell it to someone I become technical support if it breaks and liable if it burns their house down. Off to the dump with it.

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789 → u/[deleted]]

Insurance company lawyers: "you sold a dangerous custom mains voltage electrical product and it burnt my clients house down, destroying all their possessions and killing their mother"

Me: "I got them to sign a bit of paper to say it's not my fault"

Insurance company: "that's not how any of that works"

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789 → u/[deleted]]

Let's just say it wouldn't pass consumer testing if I was actually going to launch it as a product for a whole multitude of reasons. The sort of testing you need pass to sell mains electronics in the UK.

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789 → u/[deleted]]

Your fine if you use low voltage and off the shelf parts, but if you have something with mains voltage going into an A4 sized PCB you etched in a tupperware tub on your kitchen counter, you wanna be careful haha.

[u/Decipher → u/Accurate-Donkey5789]

So sell it on marketplace or somewhere where you can leave the conversation once the transaction is complete and block if needed? Just make sure the ad says “as-is” etc and you’re fine.

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789 → u/Decipher]

I think you and me have had very different marketplace experiences. Back in the day when I had Facebook I sold a secondhand car. For the next month the guy sent me questions about it and what work had been done and stuff like that. Eventually I got bored and blocked him because it was sold as seen. 6 months later I got messages from a new profile and then another one and then another one that I had to block because the car had broken down.

With a second child days away and family stress levels generally through the roof right now as is expected, I'll be dropping this off to the place which they call "the dump". Where I live, that means it first goes into a big shipping container full of electrical appliances where people are free to salvage and scavenge. If it's still there in a couple of months it gets broken down and recycled.

[u/Sleurhutje → u/Accurate-Donkey5789]

Agreed, people expect endless support or even free upgrades. Even if they accept it as-is and promise to maintain it themselves. Been there, done that. The garbage bin it is...

[u/Accurate-Donkey5789 → u/Sleurhutje]

Yeah and if someone picks it up from the recycling facility and takes it home, they will find that it does actually work. But they won't be able to phone me if it breaks haha

[u/SantaNeil]

Sell it on facebook, or donate it to a local makerspace / art gallary

[u/pekoms_123]

Just put the baby inside. Or donate the thing to your local hacker space. Not the baby, the claw machine.

[u/0xA79D2E]

At least salvage the parts

[u/processedmeat08]

By chance did you document your build? Would love some photos of what components you used to put it together. Maybe your Arduino code? I have an old 3d printer that I want to make a claw machine out of. Collecting information right now...

[u/KINGstormchaser]

Well, if you're giving it to a recycling facility, at least let me know where so I have a chance of retrieving it. I'd love using it and working with discovering it's functions and how it is made.

[u/Square-Singer]

This looks like it used to be a 3D printer.

[u/KodSquad]

For all the people saying part it out... this stuff is so incredibly niche, trying to even give it away would take more time and effort than its worth. it sucks but its one of those things that really probably only has value to the individual - easiest path is likely just tossing it

[u/gm310509 → u/[deleted]]

Did you read OP's post? Your comment seems quite irrelevant.

Are you a "promote ESPNow" bot by any chance?