uArm swift.

[julianhigginson]

I'm kind of tempted to get one of these.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/uarm-swift-your-personal-robotic-assistant-education-gadgets--2/x/2019952#/

though it has slick videos, most of the operational details are not demonstrated well... and some of the advertised features (well, 3d printing) are really not demonstrated at all. I'd be worried, but they already made and delivered a robot arm before (that simone giertz seems to have used one of, for some of her fun videos) so I'm pretty sure they can deliver what they are promising here.

I like that I could possibly use it to do 3d printing to 0.2mm resolution, as well as laser etching for panels. And maybe in future with the right kind of suction nozzle and a special feeder jig, I could even use it as a simple P&P machine?

But mostly I think I'm tempted to get one because they look like nerdy fun, and I'm a nerd. Though I do recognise that for US$500 plus shipping for the pro kit with the vision system added, I could have plenty of fun with other things, too..


Anyway - is anyone else sitting on the fence with this, or already committed? Or have a fun alternative to this that I should consider?

[julianhigginson]

So... Nobody got anything to say about it?
I guess it's really a toy for me more than anything, so I guess if I buy one, practicality isn't such an issue (though the idea of having something that could also be a simple 3d printer and simple laser etching solution is attractive!)

looking at the Dobot M1, it seems a lot of the features claimed but not yet implemented in the uArm are just a game of catchup with dobot M1 (yet they only mention the original dobot in uarm's comparison table... hmmmm)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dobot/dobot-m1-pro-robotic-arm-for-makers-and-businesses
This makes me think maybe the dobot M1 would be a better thing to get (and combined with the sliding rail extension, wow!) but at 3x the price that's a lot harder to justify as a new desk toy.. :-)

[donotdespisethesnake]

As an educational toy, sure... The only practical use I see there is laser etching. I don't think it would make a useful 3d printer, for $500 you can get a dedicated printer that would be much better. The resolution doesn't seem like it would be good enough for P&P, except for larger discretes. The robot is only part of a P&P system, you also need vacuum system, a good vision system, plus software. Again, $500 would buy a pretty decent cartesian frame which would be a better base for a P&P.

Perhaps with good vision system and software, the resolution of the arm could be compensated for, at the cost of reducing speed, and I did think to see how far such a system could be pushed. Probably much of the system developed could be transferred to a better motion platform later.

[julianhigginson]

well, there's an offer that includes openMV and it *seems* it's able to be integrated into the basic control of the arm somehow, but not really described well so far.  It's probably a while away (if ever) before it could possibly be used to help with the printing though.

At least now they finally got the 3d printing demo up on the site, and can show it doing a print!

Though having had more of a think about how much time I have lately for free projects - as much as I would love to play with this, I probably won't even get to for months after it's delivered... and once I do have time, I can just buy an off the shelf one fully knowing what it's capable of rather than just having a vague collection of features with no specifics of how to tie them together.

Today I'm probably better off spending similar money updating my bench with this funky new EEZ H24005, and the USB active load that's also on crowdsupply. At least the active load relates to a project I've already committed to doing, and a PC controllable power supply has been something I've been keen on having for ages.