Is this project still alive?

[rwillett]

Is this project still alive? Looks interesting but dead😩

Thanks

Rob

[domiluci]

Is this project still alive? Looks interesting but dead😩

Thanks

Rob

To @sandy9159, please excuse my self-promotion. I mean no disrespect by it. In fact, I'm extremely grateful and honored as you and your project inspired my design.

But @rwillett, I've actually been developing a variant of this machine, as well as an accompanying easy-to-use PC software and mobile app(s) offering multiple extensive and intuitive methods of local and remote control. But the hardware itself is easily expansive and modular, allowing simple swapping of motor drivers and off-the-shelf MCU modules. This provides the ability to add/remove features and alter performance at will. And since I'm doing most of the heavy lifting, as far as coding goes, you can swap, flash, and start using those non-proprietary, open source, already readily available MCU modules with just a few clicks, all in less than a minute or two of your time. Furthermore, there are intuitively placed expansion headers for the entire PCB, as well as multiple ways to connect the stepper motors to the PCB, making the entire machine extremely customizable and flexible. And the PCB looks really good, if I may say so myself 😜

But finishing this project (and, frankly, almost everything else) has become extremely slow and difficult as of late. I have a genetic disease called NF2; there are benign tumors all over my brain/spine/nerves. I've had many surgeries. I've been on chemo multiple times. The previous drug perforated my stomach and nearly killed me, leaving me in a coma for 10 days after two surgeries. But the latest drug I was on ended up amplifying the progression/level of neuropathy and nerve damage/death, taking my last good decade away. I went from being mostly functional and independent to needing significant help with almost everything, all within the course of a year. And before this, even with all the surgeries and damage from other tumors, I'd barely lost any functionality in the 20 years since my diagnosis. Suffice it to say I'm having a rough time now and, though I'm grateful, it's beyond frustrating having to talk caregivers through increasing portions of my projects for me.

I’d really like to finish my pickup winder project. I’d really like to finish a lot of my other projects. But my point is that I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon unless I have some assistance. There’s only a handful of things that I have left to finish before this project is complete. The complete working prototype machine is mostly finished. And then there’s the matter of acquiring financing for the materials and components required to produce and put together kits for people to build the finished machine, or at least to pay for PCBs for folks to use for their own builds. I’d like to make something available to the public so this machine is easily accessible and as simple to create on their own as possible. Especially considering the cost (and asinine markup) of the already available, ready-to-go pickup winding machines, and even just guitar pickups in general. I’d very much like to make custom pickups more accessible and affordable for everyone.

So, if anyone out there is interested in the original pickup winding project by @sandy9159, or you find my next gen pickup winding machine's project concept intriguing in any way, and if you feel you'd be willing to help me complete and maintain that project, please get a hold of me here at your earliest convenience. But please keep in mind that I don’t move very fast anymore, so there may be a lag in response time. So a little patience may be required and very much appreciated! 😁

I look forward to speaking with you!

Dominic M. Luciano Engineering Scientist Digital Media Artist