Vulcan Targets
This is the target final state of the lab. This document means that we can keep the paths to achieve it separate. This is important because I want so support at least 3 paths;
- Purchasing as much as reasonable
- Building as much as reasonable
- Bootstrapping from an existing Vulcan setup
Large CNC
A large (8.5'x4.5') cnc bed. Used for routing and welding. Will need to be very rigid and therefor, fairly slow. Could potentially do very coarse printing with materials like concrete or foam.
Since it can work with wood, this handles a lot of the cutting and finishing. Though it will struggle with anything deep.
Small CNC
Functions as a printer, engraver and pick-n-place. Can also do routing on small, soft parts (not metal).
Foundry
Can melt aluminum and copper, so around 1100C. Should also be able to heat treat metals or get iron to forging temperatures. If the control can be made fine enough, also a reflow oven.
Electronics
Programmable High Power Output
This is the heart of electronics control. Efficiently converts voltage levels and produces outputs.
This needs to act in many roles:
- Welding driver
- Bench Supply
- Induction Motor Driver
So it will have at least 3 outputs, probably 5 and probably some specialization to each. The design also needs to be parametric. Some users may be limited to 15A@110V, which will make welding basically impossible. But higher V/A should be possible.
Measurement
Want to be able to replicate the functions of an oscilliscope, multimeter and logic probe. So we need many inputs. But they can be of different quality. Perhaps 1 input that can handle very high bandwidth input with good precision, 2 more that can handle speeds into the MHz with moderate precision and many more (13?) that will only handle upto 1MHz with low precision.