where do all these nifty parts come from?

[WayOutWest]

I noticed that a lot of the collars and mounts in the kit have part numbers that seem to indicate they come from a large line of products (SCCN**, SK12). Is there some uber-catalog somewhere that is sort of a one-stop shop for these sorts of mechanical widgets?

For example, in the US there's a company called DigiKey that actually sells a dead-tree paper catalog with almost every electronic part known to man in it. Actually buying the physical catalog isn't such a bad idea for people new to electronics, because it's a great way to browse what's out there when you don't know what you're looking for. Is there something like this for these mechanical widgets?

I just picked up this red line laser from seeed. It's quite nifty, I'd like to use it to automate alignment tasks, and it has basically the same form factor as the camera so it should be easy to mount to the head.

[mrandt]

Hey Adam,

are you referring to the mechanical parts?

Many of those codes refer to part numbers by Misumi - a Japanese distributor for mechanical engineering parts:
http://jp.misumi-ec.com/top/

They offer more than 30k standardized mechanical parts and have a world wide distribution network. Parts are rather on the expensive side but very high quality and their logistics are the most reliable I have ever seen. They can tell you weeks in advance when they'll be able to ship a specific part...

Many commercial and open source hardware projects seem to use Misumi part numbers to specify components. Even if you end up buying yours from somewhere else, you will easily find the specs at Misumi given the part number.

Similar to DigiKey you can order their paper catalog to get an idea of what is out there

Have fun!

Regards
Malte

[JuKu]

As Malte said. I don't think I could have been able to get the kit done without the Misumi book. Not only does it show you what is available and give you lots of ideas about how you could build something, it also tells you if you are looking at a 3€, 30€ or 300€ part. Misumi tends to be on the expensive side and some parts are surprisingly expensive, but there are enough low or regular costing parts there too to get a kit done at this pricepoint.

Misumi web page also has downloadable CAD models for most of the parts.

[WayOutWest]

Many of those codes refer to part numbers by Misumi - a Japanese distributor for mechanical engineering parts:
...
Similar to DigiKey you can order their paper catalog to get an idea of what is out there

Thank you Malte, this is exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for!