Robotic CD-ROM Autoloader?

Hi group,

I am working on ripping a few thousand CDs to MP3 for the college run radio station at school. Instead of sticking each CD in one by one by hand, I want to build or find a robot to insert them for me. If you look up "cd-rom autoloader" on Google Image Search you find some examples of what I'm looking for except that they make you pay for the CD-R/DVD-R and the hard drives that do caching. I just need their robotic arm!

Does anyone have any tips or ideas? Especially on how to pick up CDs from a pile without scratching them too much and put them in a CD-ROM drive?

Thank you! Ian

Reply to
Ian
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Couple of servos and a programmable servo board with an external trigger. Pick all that up from Blue Point --

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. Not the cheapest place on the web.

If you're handy with a stamp or a pic or something else programable, you could knock it out pretty simply too.

If you set your software to "burn and eject" you could use a little switch or a lightbeam or something to trigger the pre-recorded actions. It'd be "dumb" but might work.

I'd think a suction cup might be a good way to go for the gripper.

Let me know what you come up with. I have a huge CD collection (I'm a DJ) that I want to backup to MP3 and to CD, since they tend to get scratched out on the job. The hardware isn't difficult for me, but I have no clue how to write the software package to do it...

Open Drawer. Trigger Arm (pick up blank) Close Drawer, open drawer 2) Trigger Arm (pick up original) Close Drawer 2 Rip MP3, Burn CD Copy

Reply to
E. Lee Dickinson

A few thousand but one off job - pay a student to do it! Spread some of that wealth around! :-)

Reply to
e7

Pay someone to sit in front your CD and do it since its a one off job. Spread some of the wealth around. A 400 Gb hard disk will hold about 6000 CDs in MP3 format.

Reply to
e7

package to do it...

THOUSANDS of CDs loaded by hand? Haven't you ever heard of RSI?

Reply to
Tom McEwan

No.

Reply to
e7

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