Todo: Hack the Slice cutter
Note that the designs come on an SD card.
Product
UPDATE: here is the disk image for you: Slice30.iso
About this entry
You’re currently reading “ Todo: Hack the Slice cutter ,” an entry on eagleApex
- Published:
- 7.10.09 / 4pm
- Category:
- side project
Hi,
Any updates on this topic. The cards can be read on the computer. They are basically Bin and DAT files
I see. I have a feeling they are the actual drivers and machine code for the microprocessor in the slice. I’m working on it, but it’s a bit over my head.
Can we just make copies of the SD Cards?
Can we just make copies of the files onto a generic SD Card?
yes, the card is not special, but I want to put my own designs on the Slice card. still to come someday
why not use a common drawing app and then load the drawing on a sd card and have the machine cut it ,I do not have a maching yet but ,I do believe it is the same as a HP plotter in micro format ,The sd card only contains XY start and end point locations and pen/cutter up/down instructions,I need to look at the instructions for a single object on the SD CHIP ,If anyone can send a file via email I will be able to figure it out pretty quick……WCH
why not use a common drawing app and then load the drawing on a sd card and have the machine cut it ,I do not have a machine yet but ,I do believe it is the same as a HP plotter in micro format ,The sd card only contains XY start and end point locations and pen/cutter up/down instructions,I need to look at the instructions for a single object on the SD CHIP ,If anyone can send a file via email I will be able to figure it out pretty quick……WCH
Any news on this subject? I am very interested to be able to create my own design with the slice machine.
I’ve had my hands on the device too. The SD-cards can be copied; at least using a ‘dd’ on a *nix system to bit-copy the cards works fine. Not sure about just regular ‘file-copy’; didnt try.
About the files: there’s a couple of interesting things going on. Both cards I had access to (‘basics’ and ‘think pink’ had the same directory structure. Basically both containing an ’11.dat’ and ’12.dat’; a well as a ’11’ and ’12’ directory. there’s a file called ‘fdata.txt’ containing ‘2’ ’11’ ’12’ on three lines. It seems to be the index of what’s available.
The ’12’ dir was empty on both cards; the ’11’ dir contains a hierarchy that corresponds to the available sections and the designs therein..
First: there’s also the ‘mspboot.bin’ and ‘Utils’ directory; those seem related to the firmware/capabilities; as well as graphics for the built-in dialogs.
As for the designs. Some general observations.
Each design seems to have a series of numbered files associated to it, named ‘*.bn*’ (from memory). And has a .dot file.
The .dot file seems similar in size (1552 bytes, if i recall correctly) in all the designs.
The numbered files contain the actual designs and, if I am not mistaking, are not so much ‘vector-based’, as more an instruction-set for the stepper-motors to follow.
So; a straight line from left to right would contain a series of commands for the horizontal motor to step right, and the vertical motor to stay in place. Think of a kind of punch-card type system for a street-organ or a jaquard-loom.
I got to this conclusion based on looking at the files for the triangle and the square design in the basics set. If you open it with a text-editor/dumper.. you will see a pre-amble; then a number of repeating patterns broken by 3 (triangle) or 4 (square) differently-looking patterns.
There’s gonna be some opcodes in there for raising/dropping the knife, etc, too; as well as going to the origin first; and returning to ‘base position’ when done, perhaps.
In any case; it looks way too convoluted to be simple vector-based design. And it looks too small to be pixel-based (and the device would have to be pretty powerful to go from pixel->outline all by itself).
Another observation is that the positioning-system of the device doesnt seem to be X/Y-based. Instead, it seems that the pen can rotate around the device’s centerpoint and can translate away from there to the sides/corners.
If the design-files are ‘raw commands for the stepper-motors’; there’s a chance that the instructions are based on a polar-grid geometry; not rectangular
So; there goes my braindump. Any comments ?
Wow. What a popular post.
I am still out of my depth with this, but my recent experience with the Cupcake CNC makes me think that there is something resembling Gcode in these binaries. Now, how do we dissect it to make our own?
I’m uploading the disk image if anyone wants to hack around. It will be in the post.
If you look at the Tinnus website, the folk who actually created the Slice, you’ll see they mention computer software for designing your own shapes. I wonder if Making Memories is waiting to release it.
Can someone post info on what the shapes look like from the iso?
It’s hard to match them with the files, but I will find which of these: http://www.whyslice.com/Products/categories/design-cards are on the card.
Any progress on this?
Still any news on this?
Hey i was reading this thread. and was wondering if anyone knows how to correctly backup the design cards? I stuck them in my card reader and copied them to my pc as i do with everything (just in case) and one of my design cards had stopped working( i think it has something to do with my kids touching what they should not!!LOL) anyway i want to copy the files back to a sd card so i dont have to buy another copy (the reason why i back up in the first place) i tried to just copy the files back to a new sd card but it will not work in the slice machine…any thoughts???
osirisandloki, copying the files was good but you don’t get the directory structure that way, and all you get for names is windoze’s interpretation of the names. Since the Slice don’t run windoze you have no idea of silly things like word length.
Can anyone explain to me how to backup a slice card.
I try to copy paste (with ctrl-A) but the machine does not recognize the copied card…
What is the right method.
Thanks for the answer.
I’m intersesting by a method who was working.
I try to duplicate my slice card with usbit a tool who do an image of my SD card but copy was not recognisze by my slice machine
Hey you !!
I wanted to ask if anyone of you has some copies of Design cards on your computer so that you could upload and share it?
That’ll be a great and easy way to get more different shapes and it saves money!
Thanks
Can some please post the correct way to copy / back up the SD Card on a Mac,
Thanks in Advance,
Rey
For anyone interested, this fellow has pretty much solved the Slice problem.
http://www.richud.com/wiki/Slice_Design_Card_Hack
To backup/restore a slice card, you have to create an ISO of the SD card — the iso must include the MBR (master boot record) — the reason for this is because the machine checks the volume serial number located in the MBR as a security measure.
Also, the Volume Name must stay the same as well (it’s the name of the drive in Windows Explorer when you mount the SD card)
You follow those 2 rules, then you can successfully “backup” slice cards.
Check this out: https://github.com/Hunv/Slicer
I’m working on a application to create shapes on your own.