Make

The Modular Assembly Kit Elements. Related to the 1K Workshop idea. It would work best as a crowdsource/group-buy thing. See Vulcan Open Lab for current project idea.

A set of components, all designed to interface with each other. All components would be spec'd out to an engineers level, but designed for common consumption. Provide a free set of software tools to design and simulate systems.

Designed for universal consumption, all units will be metric. AC voltages will be something that most countries can step down to.

One goal is to have the MAKE Factory run off MAKE parts as much as possible.

Structural

Erector set style struts. Metal, wood and plastic, as well as composites including concrete. I want to do lots of lattice and trestle design - we should be able to be construct very cheap, light and strong designs. It would be really cool if we could do a made-to-order spec.

Plates, panels and frames. Some of these will be as simple as a sheet of OSB, probably want to do wire shelving

A good metric here is that we should be cost competitive for someone just building some storage shelves.

Rotation

Shafts will squares, unless the hex-bit is metric, then we'll go with that. We'll need threaded rods, bearings, gears and linkages. We'll probably have 3 shaft sizes (for different strength requirements), 2 gear teeth sizes. Need bearings, timing belts and multi-V belts, linear racks and pulleys. Though we may be able to create a linear rack by attaching a timing belt to shaft.

Motors will be standardized to interface with rotating parts. They will have power ratings that increase by factors of 4. We'll want at least continuous and stepper motors. Probably also "high" and "low" quality motors (universal-brushed vs induction).

We probably won't have a linear actuator (at least at first) and offer a rotary-to-linear design (high-power screw, high-speed rack).

Electric Power

Maybe build this around the standard ATX PSU. That would be easy and give lots of options.

Power plugs will be a standard size, but a different size for voltage so that you shouldn't be able to fry anything if the parts fit together. Most wires are black, any wires that allow the user to connect unusual configurations will be red.

Electric Control

This will have a few interfaces. Sensors will have a standard interface, a threaded plug like a switch or port, with one of a few standard connectors on the back (probably 4 wire, 8 wire and 16 wire). Cables will also be standard. At this level, users are working with black boxes - plug a temperature sensor into a recorder.

Any black-box system will also follow a standard layout. It will be composed of 3 pieces - a control interface, a board and box. Removing the box exposes the board and back of the controls. The boxes will fit a modular size so that they can be composed into a single, large control panel. Power plugs are on the side, part of the board. Any black box should allow users to remove the board and remove the components from the interface. This way the individual components of the multiple boxes can be reassembled into a single panel, removing any unnecessary controls.

A level down, all boards will have exposed jumpers for any circuit points that may be useful (keeping in mind that our users may want to use things in unconventional ways). Where possible, boards should use "shield composition" - one main board with simple block wiring and dip (or sip) sockets. Surface mount components should go on the shields.

Similarly, it should be possible to remove a sensor from it's housing. There should also be plugs to convert the standard sensor plugs to bread board pins.

At the lowest level, we have breadboards, standard chips and standard components. The electronic-circuit module will include enough for most projects. There will also be mounting units for breadboards so that a prototype system can be deployed for a long period of time without needing to solder the circuit.

Control Units

These will be processor and microprocessor units. We'll probably just piggy back off the main ones and provide software and housing for them. If I were doing it today, Arduino and RasPi.

Two important notes here - instead of a standard multi meter, the multi-meter core will be a black box that can plug into a control unit or directly into an LCD module. The soldering iron will work in a similar way. The iron will be a peripheral, it can plug into a control unit.

I should actually make some notes on displays too. We'll support a few common ones. Probably 2x7seg with sign and period. 4x7seg with sign and period. Dot matrix in a few sizes and then monochrome and color lcd. Lastly, we'll probably skip some of the older interfaces and go straight to HDMI. We'll have some standard "data" modules for these as well. Taking an analog or pwm value and outputting it to a 7seg or dot-matrix display.

Remote

Construct basic transmitters and receivers for available radio frequencies and using infrared (both LED and laser transmitters). Also, encoding and decoding modules.

Light Module

Light sensors, multi-color LEDs, super bright LEDs, standard lighting styles (CFL). This should allow simple flashlight construction up to stabilized lighting (balance natural and electrical light), color balancing for photography or special lighting.

Audio Module

Speakers, amplifiers. Signal processors.

Thermal Module

For cooling; fans, blowers, piezoelectric elements, heat sinks and temperature sensors.

For heating, we want to be able to do soldering, wood burning, melt plastics (without burning them). It would also be cool to have thermal elements and insulation that could be used for cooking. The combination of a medium-high heater (~250F), a heat-sink and a fan would let us build a space heater.

Maybe add a refrigeration unit.

Pneumatic Module

Compressor pump that can be run by the motors - specifically we'll map the different power and pulley configurations. We'll choose a few different tank sizes. Then we'll want linear pneumatic actuators and controls. Rather than a rotational motor, we'll include designs for several linear-to-rotary plans.

Liquid Module

Not a hydraulic system, not meant to be at pressure. Containers for holding liquids, float sensors, pumps.

Particulate Module

Needs to be food grade (flour, sugar, spices) but should also work with sand, cement. Handles mixing, moving and measuring

Slurry Module

Mixing solids and liquids. This could be anything from mixing concrete to cake batter.

Conveyor Module

Belts, stair lift, screw lift, I can't think of what they're called, but the unmotorized roller panels.

Battery Module

Li-ion and deep cycles. Smart chargers. Buck-boost converters (to emulate the same interface we get from the ATX PSU). It also include battery clips for standard sized batteries.

Odds-and-ends Module

• Standard hand grips
• Weight sensors
• Low pressure sensor (in the 2 psi range)
• Shift register logic grid (this is the core of a keyboard, and many other things).

Specialty Modules

To build specific things, we'll want to produce some specialty modules. Particularly tools.

• Circular saw kit (hand held, miter and table
• Chuck kit (rotary tools, spiral saw, router, hand drill, drill press)
• Cutterhead (planar, jointer)
• Bandsaw (that's really it)