This RepRap machine is as self-replicating as a DIY 3D printer can get

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This accessible, hackable and customizable RepRap printer features a large 8” x 6” x 6″ build volume.

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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.

Adams has made his project available on YouMagine, where you will find all of its necessary parts, code and designs.

Bartesian makes cocktails from capsules in seconds

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This Keurig-like machine will mix the perfect cocktail with the press of a button.

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Generally speaking, creating more than the simplest mixed drink at home requires several ingredients along with a little bartender know-how. Fortunately, one Waterloo, Ontario startup has developed an automated solution to that problem. Like a Keurig for cocktails, the Bartesian is a capsule-based machine that enables anyone to expertly make their favorite summer alcoholic beverages in a matter of seconds with just the press of a button.

The next-generational kitchen appliance works by inserting a pod and selecting the strength of the drink (from light to heavy pours). From there, the robotic bartender will whip up the perfect amalgamation every time. What’s nice is that, instead of having to stock up on different liqueurs, bitters and juices, the Bartesian packs all of those flavors into one tiny capsule. A user must still supply the booze, of course.

The machine is equipped with four little glass reservoirs that can be filled with any of the basic spirits, namely vodka, gin, tequila and whiskey, which are then used to craft drinks based on the recipes associated with each pod. This is made possible through an intelligent barcode system that automatically reads the ingredients for the chosen cocktail and begins preparing it to one’s liking.

The team has launched six of their favorite blends for its Kickstarter campaign — including classics like Margarita, Sex on the Beach and Cosmopolitan and three signatures — with plenty more to come in the near future. A la carte selections, themed packs and seasonal varieties are also among some of the options that will become available.

Built around an ATmega2560 MCU, the electronics are all housed inside a sleek metal enclosure with stainless steel accents. The Bartesian features an ultra-simple, three button interface that lets users pick the drink, choose its strength and start the process.

Similar to many other startups these days, its inventors Bryan Fedorak and Jason Neevel decided to head to Shenzhen to finalize the product’s design and set up its supply chain, all under the guidance of HAXLR8R — one of the world’s leading hardware accelerators. And now, the crew is ready for mass production.

Sound like a device you’d love to have for your next Friday night party or Saturday afternoon BBQ? Although the team recently completed their successful Kickstarter campaign, Bartestian is still available for pre-order on its website here. Delivery is expected to get underway in April 2016.

Teen Maker builds a Cherry 3D printer for just $70

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This DIY FDM 3D printer may be among the cheapest ones ever.

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For young Makers, bringing an idea to life in the most inexpensive way possible is a top priority most of the time. Making that project look good on a limited budget is sometimes, well, even more of a challenge. That is unless, of course, you’re teenage Maker Johannes Rostek, who has developed an aesthetically-pleasing, fully-functional Cherry 3D Printer. Ever better? It costs less than $70 to create.

While many people out there would prefer to shell out some big bucks for a commercial machine, others rather channel their inner DIY spirt to craft their own printers from scratch. Using what he calls the “the cheapest motors on the planet,” Rostek employed four 28Byj-48 steppers that he had found on eBay, an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and RAMPS 1.4 for its electronics, as well as an all-metal hotend. In addition to that, he was able to obtain a couple MDF plates for the base, frame and print bed, along with nuts and screws from the local hardware store and a NEMA 17 that he happened to find lying around a junkyard.

The rest of the parts — including the Z-motor, Y-end, X-end, X-carriage, hotend and hotend clamp — can all be downloaded from Thingiverse. Plus, Rostke made use of a Bowden Extruder that is also available online.

After modifying the 28byj-48s by rearranging some connections, soldering a few wires and connecting them to the RAMPS 1.4 shield, the remainder of the project entails assembling all of the components. Rostek provides a breakdown of the steps required for piecing together each of the axes and constructing the print bed. From there, the Maker simply connected the electronics, installed the code onto the Arduino and uploaded it to Repetier for the complete firmware.

As one would expect from its composition, there are a few drawbacks when using the Cherry 3D Printer. In particular, the DIY device has a limited build volume of only 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. Nevertheless, it is still capable of printing those small objects pretty darn fast and with a decent resolution for the price. With just some minor calibrations, the 16-year-old Maker was able to extrude a 1cm x 1cm x 1cm cube with a resolution of 0.2mm and at a speed of up to 20mm/second.

Are you a Maker on a budget looking for a minimalist 3D printer? Head over to the project’s Instructables page here.

Seek N’ Sneak is the robotic pet you’ve always wanted

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Need your room cleaned? This Arduino-powered robot can be programmed to find and move objects for you.  

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Let’s face it, who wants to spend hours doing tedious chores when a robotic companion can do the work? Whether it’s tidying up the living room, setting the kitchen table or clearing off the desk, you may soon be able to kick back, relax and watch an Arduino-powered droid take care of it for you. That’s if it were left up to Maker Konstantin Stolpovsky, who has developed the latest DIY kit with hopes of spurring the mainstream adoption of our robotic counterparts. Seek N’ Sneak is a self-controlled device is not only capable of doing “robotty things,” but impressively can chase, locate and even move objects up to three pounds. In other words, we may actually be one step closer to having our own Jetsons-like Rosie or a pet like C.H.O.M.P.S.

Initially conceived as a way to motivate young Makers to clean their rooms, the robot can be assigned to carry out a wide range of mundane tasks. Built around the versatile Arduino Mega (ATmega2560), the open-source machine can be programmed to navigate, seek out or throw items grab with a little coding in the Arduino IDE.

The standard Seek N’ Sneak set is comprised of everything a Maker would possibly require to assemble their very own autonomous bot. This includes an Arduino for its brain, several laser-cut body parts, DC motors with encoders, dual-motor shield and wheels, arm powering servos, IR proximity sensors, and the standard nuts, bolts and wires. What’s more, when it comes to the robots’ arms and chassis, Makers can choose from either 5mm black acrylic glass, 3mm galvanized aluminum or 2mm milled carbon-fiber composite.

As for how it works, the robot is equipped with a pair of driving wheels that are powered by independently-controlled motors and equipped with 128 steps-per-revolution encoders to enable precise manuevering, velocity and acceleration. Meanwhile, two mounted IR proximity meters handle the rover’s 2D orientation, while a third sensor detects nearby objects. Both arms are run by a trio of robust servo motors, which provide enough speed and power to lift up about three pounds, throw object or lift another Seek N’ Sneak pal.

“Though Seek N’ Sneak was designed as a fully autonomous, upgradable robot. There is plenty of space inside the body of the robot to extend Arduino board with extra sensors, or with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth shields to establish communication with a computer or remote control,” Stolpovsky reveals.

Looking for a robotic companion to tidy up your room for you? Head over to its official Kickstarter page, where Stolpovsky is currently seeking $11,161. Delivery is slated for September 2015.

SeraMaker is an open-source, Arduino-powered 3D printer

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This open-source 3D printer was inspired by the RepRap Prusa Mendel i2. 

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The brainchild of an Italian Maker “SebaSera94” as part of his a project at the Istituto D’Istruzione Superiore Giacomo Floriani, SeraMaker is a RepRap-inspired 3D printer.

Based on the Prusa Mendal i2, this FDM machine is comprised of six pieces of medium-density fiberboard ranging in thickness from five millimeters for the base to 12 millimeters for the casing. The windows of the printer are fixed from the inside with the exception of the front, which is attached via hinges to allow for opening as well as magnets and a metal plate located behind the handle for closure.

Like with a vast majority of these open-source units, an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and RAMPS 1.4 serve as the brains of the operation, while stepper motors are tasked with generating the motion axes with precision. Five motors are embedded inside the device in total: two to actuate the X and Y axes, two for the Z axis and one to drive the filament through the extruder. In terms of firmware, the printer was configured using Marlin.

SeraMaker boasts a 20cm x 20cm bed which uses imprinted copper coil to act as electrical resistance and heat the print surface. Four LED lamps provide lighting for the machine, three of which shine onto the printing plane from various angles while the other illuminates SeraMaker’s name tag.

All of the electronic components, including the ATX power supply and junction box, are housed inside the lower portion of the structure. There also lies the ATmega2560, control motors, a display to access its navigation menu, a relay to separate the power circuit of the heating plate, a card to control LEDs and a small 50mm fan for ventilation.

“To the rear panel are fixed two connectors and as many switches,” SebaSera94 adds. “The USB connector is an extension of the same port of the Arduino board to allow rapid access to a computer while the power supply is connected to the 230V AC via the connector, which is connected in series with the switch for disconnecting general. The remaining sections switch the lighting circuit from the 12V line.”

Other than the structural and mechanical components, the fiberboard and plexiglass housing, each of the machine’s parts can be 3D-printed. Just head over to its Thingiverse page here.

This 3D printer is made of LEGO bricks

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Don’t let its appearance fool you, this LEGO machine will work just as good as any Prusa i3 printer.

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Reminiscing about your earliest years as a Maker will surely conjure up some memories of interlocking multi-colored plastic bricks. Since its debut in 1949, LEGO has remained synonymous with DIY, especially for the younger crowd. As of late, we have been seeing quite the convergence of the 3D printing and toy worlds, ranging from Disney to Mattel, with hopes of delivering customizable items on demand. And who’s to say that it only has to be for child’s play? One Maker has proven just that by devising a fully-functional 3D printer comprised of, well, LEGO pieces.

The brainchild of Gosse Adema, the so-called LEGO 3D Printer is based on the framework of a Prusa i3 printer. Originally conceived as an A4-plotter with stepper motors from an old HP printer, the Maker had decided to upgrade to Nema 17 stepper motors and transform it into a slick X, Y and Z axis machine.

Though a quick online search may reveal a number of LEGO-based 3D gizmos, none of them may be as impressive as this one. Made up of default-sized bricks (four by two studs at 32mm x 16mm x 9.6mm), this innovative contraption is capable of extruding plastic like any other desktop device. The printer boasts a base of 34 x 64 studs (19.2cm x 51.2cm), which determines the exact location of the Y axis, along with a height of 44 blocks (42cm) and a sturdy L-frame that’s 36 blocks tall. This, of course, dictates how high a printed object can be.

Keep in mind, as with any LEGO project, the taller the structure, the more unstable the frame becomes. For support, the Maker ensured that every fifth piece was a technic brick. And unlike the X axis of a Prusa i3 consisting of a separate left and right side connected by two rods, Adema instead implemented one large X axis using long technic bricks for enhanced stability. Beyond that, Nema 17 steppers are attached to the technics using a felt damper/isolator and M3x15 bolts, giving it a robust base.

Adema makes it known that he did not use any Mindstorms product for this build. Whereas most LEGO printers employ servos, this design worked quite nicely with stepper motors. As with any Prusa i3, this device was powered by the incredibly popular combination of an ATmega2560 MCU with a RAMPS 1.4 shield. The motor responsible for driving the entire operation is held in place with technic bricks at the back. In terms of software, the gadget uses Marlin for the ATmega2560, while running Pronterface on his laptop to control the printer.

In his Instructables post, Adema explains in great detail as to how he assembled the frame, completed the X, Y and Z axes, added each of the three endstops, attached the threaded rod and installed the Geeetech MK8 extruder. What’s more, the heat bed is capable of reaching 110° C, while the printhead starts at 170° C. The Maker notes that prior to installing the Marlin software, a few changes to the printer and its configuration were necessary.

“My first print had some problems with the amount of filament but everything worked. The main problem was the difference in filament settings and extruder nozzle. This was caused by the Pronterface settings,” the Maker writes. “This resulted in feeding too few filament. Next error was the default nozzle size is 0.5 mm with a layer height of 0.4 mm. The actual nozzle is 0.3 mm.”

This simply meant that he had to adjust the settings a tad, aside from calibrating some of its parts.

“Although the printer needs to be further calibrated everything is working properly,” Adema concludes. “By ensuring that all axes move smoothly, no steps are skipped by the stepper motors. This was one of the problems during the first print.”

As with any LEGO project, having the ability to modify the gadget after it’s constructed is certainly an advantage. While it may look like a toy at first glance, this 3D printer can actually create some credible 3D models. Sound like a unit you’d love to try? Head over to the Maker’s elaborate tutorial on Instructables here, or watch it in action below!

Turning an old-school player piano into a modern-day MIDI machine

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This retrofitted player piano is like Disney’s Haunted Mansion meets Daft Punk.

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As seen back at Maker Faire Bay Area, Maker Ramon Yvarra has innovatively transformed an antiquated, 700-pound player piano from the 1920s into a modern-day, MIDI-powered instrument.

Housed inside the retrofitted Hobart M. Cable digital player piano lies a series of two registers and 11 custom circuit boards to drive the system, all chained together to an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and an Ethernet shield. The unit can be connected to his Mac and controlled over Wi-Fi via rtpMIDI.

For those who may not know, old-school player pianos work using vacuum pressure and a series of bellows connected to hammers tasked with hitting each key. A paper roll passes over a tracker bar attached to those bellows, and with each hole in the roll, allows the vacuum pressure through to close the bellow and the hammer to strike the key. Meanwhile, a solenoid valve handles the airflow.

Next, the Maker needed to determine how to proceed with driving the player mechanism digitally. To do so, each of the instrument’s control boards have a single shift register.

“I knew that I could turn on eight items at a time and therefore only need 11 registers to control 88 keys. I started out by reading the specifications for the 74HC595 shift register, but the voltage and current supported by that chip was insufficient to control 12V solenoids, so I found a higher current chip that looked like it would fit the bill perfectly,” he notes.

While it may’ve strayed just a bit from its near 100-year-old aesthetics, the Maker inserted a massive 49.5″ x 15.25″ LCD panel into its existing wooden frame for enhanced visual effects.

“I think people forgot player pianos existed and making it digital makes it all more enjoyable,” Yvarra tells MAKE: Magazine.

Those wishing to learn more can head over to the Maker’s elaborate write-up, which takes you through the entire build process. Otherwise, watch it in action below!

This Arduino device can accurately dispense liquids and powders

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This Arduino-based system dispenses the right amount of ingredients as you follow your Betty Crocker cookbook.

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If you enjoy baking or cooking, chances are you’d appreciate an easy-to-use system capable of accurately measuring the amounts of liquid or powdered ingredients for you, rather than having to whip out those spoons or cups.

That’s exactly what one team of Makers named “enddev” have done. This simple solution is based around an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and employs three buttons (green for go, red for stop, yellow for selecting menu items) and an LCD display at its interface.

To use, the person in the kitchen selects either liquid and powder, then enters the desired measurement. If liquid is chosen, the peristaltic pump is engaged to deliver the specified amount through silicone tubing. Meanwhile, for powder substances, the system utilizes a kitchen scale and a shaker motor. The shaker agitates the ingredients enough to move them onto the scale, where they are then weighed and properly dispensed.

Its creators note that the powder delivery system is geared more towards leafier substances, opposed to much finer powders and seeds. Also, while the current setup includes a kitchen scale, future iterations would most likely benefit from using a volume auger and stepper motor instead. Needless to say, the scale can be hacked to use its load cell with the Arduino.

“The easiest way to find the threshold is to hook the scale up to the Arduino. Using the serial read example from the Arduino code should be plenty. You can take out the voltage part and just take the number from 0-1023. It also helps to have a scale standing by or a good variety of gram weights to use on the scale. What you’re looking for is the weight that the number the Arduino gets changes by one value for one gram,” the Makers explain.

Tired of having to use then wash those teaspoons or cups? Then this DIY solution is for you. Get started on making one of your own by following the Makers’ project on Instructables here, and accessing its code on Github.

NEA is bringing stylish and upgradeable 3D printing to the masses

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This sleek, unibody and affordable 3D printer comes in three different sizes. 

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Amid the countless 3D printers that have entered the market in recent years, there are always a handful of startups that truly captivate our attention. Toronto-based NEA is one of those, and rightfully so. In an effort to provide Makers with an FFF 3D printing device that is affordable, accessible and easy-to-use, the team has unveiled a set of sleek, stylish machines in various sizes. After all, additive manufacturing isn’t always a one-size-fits-all sort of thing.

Not only pleasing to the eye, each of the NEA printers — the Pro Mini, the Pro, and the Pro+ — boast an impressive build-volume-to-footprint ratio for their class. Driven by an ATmega2560 MCU, the versatile desktop gadgets combine small incremental stepper motors and custom slider blocks to handle all axis of movement. Meanwhile, their robust cylindrical, unibody metal frame, along with the help of NEA’s proprietary vibration dampening technology, allow Makers to experience incredibly precise print jobs.

While their overall size and print volumes may differ (Pro Mini: 250 in³, Pro: 1,100 in³, Pro+: 2,612 in³), the entire family features a print resolution of 25-300 microns, customizable LED lighting, a 150mm/second print speed, a dual-fan cooling, and a Wi-Fi module for wireless connectivity.

Most printers waste space by moving their print heads up, down and around an immobile print bed. With efficiency in mind, NEA’s print bed actually moves back and forth along the Y axis, while its head moves left and right as it climbs upwards on the Z axis. Meaning, no more wasted space around the outside of the print bed. The machines all come loaded with a self-leveling bed, non-proprietary filament ranging from PLA to nylon to a metalized plastic hybrid, and open source Repetier software. However, NEA is also compatible with other programs, including Cura, Autodesk Spark and Simplify3d.

“With each iteration of our prototype stages, NEA 3D printers have improved overall print quality. Early on, we were excited just to get something printed, but since then our focus has been on reaching the perfect balance between accuracy, speed, reliability and repeatability,” the team writes. “Maintaining a standard of quality can only be achieved by acquiring and designing the most precise components with the entire printer in mind.”

As we’ve seen with other Maker projects, modularity is becoming increasingly more important by the day. With technologies like 3D printing constantly evolving, having to keep up with latest advancements can time-consuming, let alone costly. Instead, NEA has been designed to be entirely interchangeable with a range of upgrades in the works, including multi-color, multi-head, and even full-color printing.

“Expect us to tackle higher print speeds and multi-mediums as well. Gone are the days of buying a brand new printer every time a new feature comes along. Your investment in NEA won’t leave you behind,” the startup urges.

Each NEA is equipped with a detachable head, a removable head cover, a drop-and-lock shelf, a sub-assembled unibody, as well as an easy-access core drawer for viewing, cleaning and upgrading its components. Should any mechanical or electrical component on a NEA break or malfunction — which is bound to happen, of course — simply pop it off and snap in a new module.

What’s more, the team has introduced a custom filament cartridge. The so-called “Cool Spool” automatically lifts, providing users with an additional two inches in the Z-axis once the drop-and-lock shelf reaches its vertical limit.

As an added bonus to its campaign, NEA has revealed that for every Pro and Pro+ printer that is pre-ordered via Indiegogo, the startup will donate $25 to $30 to the e-NABLE Foundation that supports volunteers using 3D printing to make life-changing prosthetics for children.

Interested? Head over to its official Indiegogo page, where the team has exceeded its initial goal of $75,000 in less than 24 hours. Delivery is slated to begin in October 2015.

Game:ref is an Arduino-based anti-cheat device for online gaming

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Can this device eliminate software-based cheats in competitive gaming?

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Cheating has always been a bit annoying when it comes to multi-player video games. And while these tricks are simply a nuisance at the most recreational levels, it has become part of a much bigger problem with even bigger stakes in eSports. In an effort to curb these occurrences in tournament settings, software engineer David Titarenco has developed what he calls Game:ref, the world’s first hardware-based, anti-cheat device.

You may recall back in 2007, a pair of Intel engineers devised a hardware-based anti-cheat system dubbed “Fair Online Gaming” with similar aspirations as Titarenco. However, this research project never came to fruition, and so, this Maker has set out to finish what the company started nearly a decade ago.

Recently launched on Kickstarter, Game:ref is capable of identifying mouse-based cheats — which includes auto-clicking, auto-last-hitting, aimbotting and triggerbotting — typically seen in FPS, MOBA, RTS and other competitive games.

How it works is relatively straightforward: The device connects to both the mouse and the PC, gathers raw controller inputs and compares them to actual game movements. If the two don’t match up, it can detect that a player is cheating. Meaning, if your hand motions don’t complement what’s going on in the game, you’re busted!

“My prototype only detects a certain kind of cheat for now. Specifically cheats that relate to input methods, whether it’s the keyboard or the mouse,” Titarenco explains.

At its core, the Game:ref is built around an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560). In his prototype, Titarenco monitored the output in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive by creating a small server-plugin for CSGO that relays player view angles back to a local server. Meanwhile, LUFA-powered firmware enables the Arduino to be “seen” as an HID device.

“As soon as I started getting data from both the Arduino as well as the game server, I had a realization: ‘Holy crap, this is working.’ First if all, I could catch triggerbots with 100% accuracy. This alone has amazing ramifications,” the engineer writes. “Triggerbots don’t only affect first person shooters like CS and the Battlefield series, but they can be generalized to DOTA2 and League of Legends where new ‘instant click’ or ‘instant ability’ cheats have started cropping up — cheats that simulate either mouse button presses or keyboard presses.”

While there are still many ways to sneak software into secure events, the Game:ref doesn’t have to look for every possible software-based cheat. Instead, the device simply has to detect when behaviors don’t sync up with the game itself. It doesn’t matter what the cheat does or how it works, the hardware just has to know that it’s there.

Once turned on and in a supported game, Game:ref sends input data to an anti-cheat server acting as a USB pass-through. The device itself is super tiny and has a sub-one millisecond input latency. Meanwhile, an AC server ensures that the input data matches the game data.

Despite its incredible ingenuity, the project still comes with a few limitations. For one, getting the hardware to be used by all tournament participants may be a bit difficult. Beyond that, Game:ref is only targeting input-based software, and all it would take is for someone to physically access the device itself to beat the system. In the future, the Maker says that he will look into preventing wallhacks and extrasensory perception (ESP).

“I’d like to approach some LAN organizers and owners and get the device going there. But the cool thing about the device is that it also works as a consumer product, it would eliminate all non-hardware cheats.”

Whether the solution becomes widespread throughout the professional gaming community, time will only tell. Titarenco does hope, though, that Game:ref’s adoption will spread to non-pro, everyday players too. And so, he needs your help. Head over to its official Kickstarter page, where the Maker is currently seeking $200,000.