Maker attaches an RGB LED to his RepRap 3D printer to paint with lights.
Indian architect Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi has taken the practice of light painting into the third dimension by 3D printing with light. To accomplish this, the Maker has created a new system that swaps out filament for LEDs and captures the resulting print with long-exposure photographs.
Kalsi began by connecting a 5mm RGB LED to pins 4, 5, 6 on the RAMPS board of his AVR based 3DR Delta printer. With the LEDs attached to the working end of his machine, he was able to use light to trace a shape line by line. Though the object can’t be seen by the human eye while in progress, when combined with the time-lapsed camera, the end result is a floating, hologram-like image.
Additionally, he programmed his NIKON D3100 camera so that it starts and stops automatically, preventing the need to hold down the shutter release button for extended periods of time. Using an Opto Isolator, he joined one of the RAMPS pins to the shutter release button, which enabled him to capture a 3D scan of his daughter’s face and then paint it with light.
Kalsi produced Gcode for all of the different angles of the face model, while the final results are built as a rotating GIF file of the scan. Beyond that, he wrote a custom Grasshopper 3D script that was capable taking any 3D model and converting it into Gcode. This script is tasked with controlling the path of the LED as well as turning the light source on/off.
Pretty sweet, huh? You’ll want to see it in action below!
Project Pyra demonstrates the convergence of 3D printing and the Internet of Things.
Pyra is the world’s first 3D-printed smart oven. The brainchild of FATHOM, the convection oven combines the versatility of fused deposition modeling with advanced cloud-based intelligence, ultimately defining the convergence of both direct digital manufacturing and the Internet of Things. Or, as 3DPrintingIndustry.com puts it, “a cross between a tiny ancient Egyptian tomb and an Easy Bake oven.”
As you can see from its 45-degree, self-supporting sides, Pyra is not like your typical oven — it has no flames, no buttons and no switches. Instead, it utilizes forced air convection to evenly heat what lies inside the cooking enclosure. Through an intricate system of air ducts and 3D-printed fans for heat circulation, this ingeniously-shaped machine is able to achieve uniform temperatures up to 375° F inside its entirely plastic chamber.
“From cell incubation to roasting marshmallows and everything in between, the need to heat objects exists across all industries, making the Pyra a transformative device that can serve as anything from a tool in a science laboratory to a grill at your next barbecue. Using professional-grade 3D printers like the FDM-based system from Stratasys at FATHOM used in Project Pyra, this innovative thermal chamber gives a glimpse into the future of how products will look and function.”
As you can imagine, there were a few challenges along the way with regards to heat flow, the geometry of the design, and of course, finding materials that could stand up to extremely high temperatures without melting. This is where Stratasys’ ULTEM 1010 resin came in handy, which not only is durable enough but has a NSF 51 food-contact certification.
Impressively, the team was successfully able to slow cook a dry-rubbed cut of beef — and it looks delicious! While it may be fun to employ Pyra for some BBQ ribs or s’mores, FATHOM points out that the thermal chamber is intended more so for cell culture incubation and a number of other applications, such as lab experiments and thermoforming packages.
According to its creators, the plan is to make the thermal chamber open source so that anyone can download, customize and 3D print their own models. This will enable Makers to adjust the scale, change the pattern texture (to make grill marks or to hold cupcakes), as well as revise the design for outdoor cooking.
Pyra’s physical makeup isn’t the only customizable element; in fact, its accompanying mobile app can be personalized as well to do things other than just control the temperature and heat time. In terms of hardware, the project is based on the combination of a Raspberry Pi and Arduino board, packs a 12-bit digital temperature sensor and features Wi-Fi compatibility to connect to the cloud.
“The Pyra is just one item that benefits from extensive physical and digital customization. In a larger sense, the device serves as a glimpse into the future of how products will be designed, manufactured, and used on both consumer and commercial levels. FATHOM is elated to be a part of this future by making the unmakeable and sharing innovative applications at the forefront of the manufacturing industry.”
Galatéa is a robotic arm that can design fully-customiszable furniture on demand.
When you think of piecing together your own furniture, IKEA is surely the first brand that comes to mind. However, instead of having to assemble it all by hand, wouldn’t it be much easier to allow a machine to take care of it for you? That’s the idea behind a recent Kickstarter project from Paris-based startup Drawn, led by entrepreneur Sylvain Charpiot.
Once an industrial robot that dismantled auto parts,Galatéahas been converted into large-scale 3D printer that is capable of making fully-recyclable furniture, like chairs, in a matter of two hours. Like other 3D printers on the market today, the machine heats plastic up to 440° F and extrudes the material layer by layer to create any shape and size. Right now, the objects can reach four feet tall and six-and-a-half feet wide.
Everyday people aren’t necessarily the target audience for Galatéa, but more so interior designers who can now deliver customizable furniture to customers right before their eyes. This should please those who are seeking a very specific item for their house yet can’t seem to find the perfect piece. With this robotic arm, a user can simply decide which kind of decor they would like, including the color, dimensions, shape and materials, and let the device take care of the rest.
Looking ahead, the Drawn team is hoping to develop newer and sustainable materials such as wood, miscanthus and linen that will give the printed products a unique and much more natural feel. Intrigued? Head over to its official Kickstarter page, where the team has already surpassed its initial goal of $17,029.
This accessible, hackable and customizable RepRap printer features a large 8” x 6” x 6″ build volume.
Desktop 3D printers pretty much seem to be a dime a dozen these days. And whereas some Makers would prefer to simply go out and purchase one, others would rather take on the challenge of building their own from scratch. Take Ryan Adams, for example.
The Maker is collaborating with mapleMaker Media to provide open source 3D printable designs for 3D printers that are aimed towards those DIYers who like constructing their own machines with various custom elements. Their latest project, mapleMaker Mini V2, differentiates itself from a majority of RepRap devices in the sense that it is consists of a frame that is entirely 3D-printed.
What’s more, the project only calls for 36 hours to print out all the components necessary for assembly. The mapleMaker Mini V2 boasts a large 8″ x 6″ x 6″ build volume and employs an all-metal E3D Lite6 hot-end. Aside from its 3D-printable parts, the rest of the electronics will need to be sourced, which like most DIY machines, include an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560), a RAMPS 1.4 shield, NEMA 17 stepper motors, an LCD panel and an MK8 extruder drive gear. Beyond that, the Maker is running Eric Zalm’s Marlin firmware.
“The aim of this kit was to reduce costs and create an accessible, hackable, upgradeable, and ultimately, user customizable 3D printer. We believe that a 3D printer should evolve with it’s users needs and knowledge, and become a platform for any number of future upgrades and additions without the need for costly re-works or additional components,” its creators explain.
The Ripple Maker combines hardware and software to stamp an image or message onto your morning latte, cappuccino or any other foam-topped drink.
As any coffee aficionado will admit, there’s something about a barista charming you with a gorgeous piece of art on the foam of your morning latte. Up until now only the most skilled of baristas were able to craft such masterpieces which range from iconic leaves to cute hearts. However, thanks to a new system from New York-based startup Steam CC, that will all change.
TheRipple Makeremploys 3D printing and inkjet technology to adorn the top of your hot beverage with complex designs that could take the form of someone’s name, their face, or even a personalized message to the attractive customer behind you. The machine itself is small, measuring just 8.5” by 10.5,” and connects via Wi-Fi to a library of designs. Users have the option to choose from a menu of themes and messages to stamp onto the milky foam canvas using natural coffee extract, also known as Ripple Pods.
Even suitable for the morning rush, the machine takes all of 10 seconds to produce a selected design on top of any cup up to 7″ high and 4.5″ wide. In addition, the Ripple Maker comes with a mobile app that enables baristas and companies to create custom designs, or upload and edit images straight from their smartphone camera roll. This makes sending a personal image as simple as devising a social media post.
“Latte art is one the most shared images on social media,” explains Yossi Meshulam, CEO of Steam CC. “When you put something beautiful in someone’s hands, they want to share it. That’s how we’re making a ripple on the world.”
It should be noted that, as cool as it may be, the Ripple Maker isn’t aimed at in-home use. Instead, the machine is tailored more towards coffee shops and other commercial settings throughout the world. Among its notable customers already is Lufthansa. So, the next time you fly Business Class, don’t be surprised to receive a personalized message thanking you for choosing the only airline that can whip up a slick design in your espresso.
If you ask us, pair this with some 3D-printed pancakes and you have quite the Maker-iffic breakfast! Priced at $999, Ripples will begin shipping in September 2015. In the interim, watch it in action below!
3D printing could cut the building time by 50-70% and labor costs by 50-80%.
While we’ve already seen the emergence of 3D-printed cars, bridges and homes, Dubai has revealed plans to take the technology to new heights by constructing an entire office building. Not only will the exterior walls of the 2,000-square-feet structure be printed, but its interior and furniture will be as well.
In hopes of reducing costs and time by over 50%, the one-story prototype building will be printed layer-by-layer using a 20-foot tall printer with reinforced concrete, gypsum reinforced with glass fiber, and plastic. The project is a collaborative effort between the city of Dubai, Chinese 3D printing pioneer WinSun, as well as architectural and engineering firms Gensler, Thornton Thomasetti and Syska Hennessy.
When all is said and done, officials plan to utilize the office as the temporary headquarters of a recently announced, $136 million “Museum of the Future” that is expected to open in 2017. No stranger to impressive undertakings, Dubai is already home to a number of manmade islands and the world’s tallest building.
The lives of animals are being changed thanks to advancements in 3D-printed prosthetics.
The field of animal prostheses (much like that of humans) before the advent of 3D printing was limited in terms of design, accessibility, and most of all, affordability. Fortunately, the Maker Movement has opened the door to a number of low-cost machines and open source files, which have made it possible to give several of our four-legged (and not-so-four-legged) friends a new lease on life. From tiny wheelchairs for chihuahuas to new shells for turtles, 3D printing has demonstrated the tremendous impact it can and will continue to have on both humans and animals alike.
This Maker’s mini cleaning machine that is like a Roomba on steroids.
As our world continues to get smarter, it seems like many of us are becoming increasingly less fixated on taking care of our homes and more on our homes taking care of us. While we await a Rosie The Maid-like robot sidekick that can take care of the mundane tasks around the house, from folding our clothes to washing the dishes, Maker Jake Lee has took a stab at creating a DIY cleaning machine that can do a little bit more than the typical Roomba.
The Panda, named after his soon-to-be-born son’s nickname, is a robotic device that boasts a number of enhanced features like air suction, a sweeper and a roller brush. Lee had originally devised a project two years ago, however found it to be a bit too small and that it had to be connected to a power source, like a PC, with the cable dangling in the air. As you can imagine, that’s not the most convenient set up for a freely moving machine.
Back with his second iteration, the new design is a little larger, measuring in at around 6” x 6” and is capable of sweeping and vacuuming not just the floor but his desk as well. The mini robot chooses its directions randomly, and can even detect cliffs or other obstacles that may stand its way.
The top, bottom and mid-housing components, along with its two battery covers, gear box and dust cabinet were all 3D printed on Lee’s MakerBot Replicator 2X. As for its hardware, Panda is based on an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) and runs on a pair of 135 RPM gear motors for the wheels, a 1000RPM motor for the roller and sweeper, as well as a DC 3V motor for the vacuum and fan blade. Beyond that, Lee used PRO_E modeling software, but notes that just about any program would suffice.
To reinforce the suction capabilities form his earlier model, the Maker added a roller with brushes and a sweeper. Perhaps one of the more challenging steps of the project was determining a way to use the gears rather than a motor to power the roller and sweeper, since it would consume less battery power. According to Lee, not only does this setup save battery power, it also works like a charm.
Maker creates his very own 3D-printed, ATtiny85 powered binary watch.
What can we say? Makers just love finding new ways to tell time. Testament to that, Tim Keeley recently took it upon himself to devise a slick, 3D-printed binary watch. The wearable reveals the hour and minutes by flashing two LEDs in sequence to represent two 4-bit binary numbers — the left LED represents the 0s, while the right denotes the 1s. The first set of flashes indicates the hour, the second set of flashes is the minute.
“It has three pieces that pressure fit together very nicely. The body and the face pieces have an oval so that you can align the parts up evenly when the two pieces are together. The face piece has two tabs to help hold the circuit board in place. It also has pin holes to add your own strap,” the Maker explains.
Powered by an ATtiny85, the circuitry is comprised of two resistors, two LEDs, a momentary pushbutton and a CR2032 battery holder. Meanwhile, the sketch flashed onto the MCU was derived from fellow Maker Sam DeRose’s Nerd Watchwith only a few minor changes.
“The circuit board should be about a 37mm diameter circle and the components should be positioned in a window 28.5mm wide by 22.5mm high in the middle of the board. I put all the components on the top with only the batter holder on the bottom. This is a little tricky but can be done,” Keeley notes.
Maker creates a Delta-style 3D printer using recycled parts from an old dot matrix printer and flatbed scanner.
When it comes to the Maker Movement, DIYers never cease to amaze us with new ways to recycle electronic waste. Take Instructables user Hesam Hamidi for instance, who has impressively created a Delta-style 3D printer using parts from an old dot matrix printer and flatbed scanner.
Whereas FDM printers typically posses an aluminum or precision shaft frame, the Maker had swapped it out for five pieces of 16mm MDF, fixed together by wood screws. Three adjustable cabinet legs were attached under the body to keep it level, while another beam was added to the top of the body to support the filament spool. Attached to the trio of vertical MDF frame pieces are rail and carriage assemblies taken from the dot matrix printer, which fortunately already had their stepper motors and belts installed.
“Each slider has a step motor that moves carriage by a timing belt for about 430mm. At the end of sliding course, there is a home position sensor that senses the tractor motion end. Each step moves the carriage for 106 microns and in case of using micro stepping drivers we can reduce this length. Dimensional specifications of our 3D printer were specified based on slider motion,” Hamidi writes.
The end effector is also a unique attribute of Delta-style printers. In this project, it was made from a steel plate and provides a mount of the extruder, which is driven by another scavenged stepper motor along with a timing belt pulley and pulley tightening mechanism.
“A U-shaped profile was used to support stepper motor, ball bearings and hotend. Support plate is a CNC cut circular steel plate that has six holes for ball end supports with 120 degrees to each other. Hotend was purchased from a Felix printer with nozzle diameter of 0.3 mm,” the Maker adds.
For the print bed, Hamidi repurposed an Epson flatbed scanner, which was selected due to its durability and smoothness. The inner workings of the device were removed and replaced with a 220V 300W flat heating element beneath the glass. Meanwhile, the bed heater has a 12V element and NTC thermistor to regulate temperature, and is controlled separately by way of a household thermostat.
In terms of its electronics, the 3D printer is based on an Arduino Leonardo (ATmega32U4) and four different stepper drivers that take the place of the common Arduino Mega/RAMPS 1.4 combination. Beyond that, three analog inputs were employed to sense signals of home position sensors, while eight digital outputs send pulses to four stepper motors. Temperature of the hotend and heater are managed separately by individual controllers.
What’s more, the DIY machine boasts a size of 600mm x 650mm with a build volume of 200mm x 200mm x 200mm and can achieve printing speeds of up to 80mm/second in all three directions. Interested in constructing one of your own? Head over to the project’s Instructables page, where you’ll find a detailed breakdown of the build including its schematics and code. In the meantime, watch it in action below!
