gCreate goes big with two new 3D printers

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gCreate has introduced the next big thing in 3D printing. Meet the gMax 1.5+ and 1.5 XT+. 

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Last fall, Brooklyn-based startup gCreate unveiled a pair of 3D printers in their gMax line: the gMax 1.5 and gMax 1.5 XT. Despite already having one of the larger build volumes on the market, the team has decided to once again improve upon its capacity by increasing the printable height by nearly two inches.

The newly-revealed gMax 1.5+ and gMax 1.5 XT+ boast volumes of 16’’ x 16’’ x 12’’ and 16’’ x 16’’ x 21’’, respectively, and feature interchangeable bed plates and extruders that enable print jobs in a variety of materials including PLA, ABS, Ninja Flex, Carbon Fiber, water soluble PVA, WoodFill, Bronzefill and stainless steel, among many others.

Like the rest of its family members, both the 1.5+ and 1.5 XT+ are embedded with an Arduino Mega 2560 (ATmega2560) along with a RAMPS 1.4 shield and run Marlin firmware. All gMax machines are comprised of 80/20 aluminum frames in either black anodized or natural silver. Additionally, each kit ships with 3D-printed plastic parts in four different colors: red, yellow, blue or carbon fiber.

Aside from that, it boasts a redesigned LCD screen with an integrated USB connector, better wire management and 2D pen plotting capabilities. By using 8mm four-start precision stainless steel screws, gCreate has also drastically increased its Z-axis speeds while maintaining a minimum of 80 micron layer heights.

Since coming to scene in 2013 with a successful Kickstarter campaign, the team led by Anna Lee and Gordon LaPlante has taken into consideration a vast amount of feedback from its users in order to enhance the overall 3D printing experience. Some of these improvements include its all-aluminum carriage for hassle-free calibration and bed swapping, as well as a metal X-axis extruder plate for simplified leveling and tool head changing.

• Printer size: 28.5” x 24” x 21.5”
• Build volume: 16″ x 16″ x 12″ (1.5+); 16″ x 16″ x 21″ (1.5 XT+)
• Nozzle diameter: 0.5mm J-Head Mk V-BV
• Layer thickness: 80-360 micron
• Power supply: 120V/240V 300W Micro ATX
• Connectivity: USB, SD card, OctoPrint and MatterControl
• Software: Compatible with all major slicing engines and host software (slic3r, Simplify3D, Cura, Printrun, MatterHackers)

Both printers are now available and will ship fully-assembled, calibrated and tested. The gMax 1.5+ starts at $2,495, while the 1.5 XT+ at $2,995.

Argentum is like a 3D printer for PCBs

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Cartesian Co.’s rapid prototyping machine is putting the “print” back in printed circuit boards.

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Despite how far 3D printing has come over the past couple of years, a number of startups have been looking for new ways to take it one step further. Rather than just spit out odds and ends in plastic, what if you could quickly extrude something a bit smarter, like circuit boards, on demand? That’s the idea behind Cartesian Co.’s rapid prototyping machine dubbed Argentum.

While it admittedly may not be the first startup to come up the idea of putting the “print” back in printed circuit boards, it is among the very few that have squeezed the price down to Maker-friendly levels. If the New York-based company sounds familiar, that’s because there’s a good chance you may have come across their incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2013 — called EX¹ at the time — which garnered over $137,000. Since then, Cartesian Co. has shipped nearly 200 units and has worked diligently on improving the reliability of its inks and substrates

Simply put, Cartesian Co. is hoping that Argentum will transform electronics and prototyping in the same way that conventional 3D printing revolutionized traditional manufacturing. The gadget works by layering down silver nano-particles through an inkjet process onto almost any substrate you could imagine.

First, a user must generate the artwork for their electronics design. From there, the image is exported and processed by the Argentum’s custom control software, which generates code that the printer can directly interpret. The printer can then receive the command file via a USB interface, through the stock SD card port or even through a web interface if the user has the RasPiFi add-on. This enables a Maker to go from a circuit board design to reflowing solderable PCBs in a matter of minutes, without all the overhead costs of low production runs — something that is tremendously valuable for hobbyists, engineers and startups on a limited budget with time constraints.

“This lets you create electronics, just as you’ve envisioned — wearable electronics, paper circuits, printed computers or whatever you imagine. A 3D printer creates the objects of your imagination; the Argentum lets you create the electronics of your imagination,” company co-founder Ariel Briner explains.

So, how does the innovative machine work? Essentially, two inkjet cartridges (similar to the ones in a standard printer) print images on a substrate, but instead of ink they lay down two different chemicals. When these two chemicals mix, a reaction occurs, producing silver nano-particles, leaving a silver image. Aside from only conventional circuit board materials, the Argentum can employ a variety of other substrates that might not be commonly associated with electronic circuitry. These include paper, wood, ceramic, Kapton, fiberglass, and looking ahead, fabric.

Take this “Simon Says” game, for example, that the team printed on fiberglass. It has an ATtiny4313 running Arduino and capacitive touchpads for user input.

“One capability of the Argentum that we’re really excited about is the ability to print straight onto fabric. Anyone who has used conductive thread will tell you how frustrating it is when the thread breaks but you can’t find the break! With the Argentum, you can print circuits straight onto the material of your choice,” Briner adds.

The electronics, including an ATmega2560 at its core, are housed inside a sleek, black acrylic enclosure that would be an aesthetically-pleasing mainstay in any Makerspace. The Argentum boasts a build area of 6.7” x 4” with an overall footprint of 16.9” x 14.1” x 5.2” — meaning, it will fit perfectly on a workbench or desktop. On top of that, the Cartesian Co. crew offers complete flexibility with its software from importing an image with default settings and clicking print, to exerting control over every printing variable.

The device prints at a native resolution of 300DPI, which can be enhanced to 600DPI using its software. What’s more, Argentum can print, assemble and test a circuit board in less than two hours, while eliminating the hassle and dangers typically associated with hazardous chemicals.

“This means you will be able print footprints as fine as TSSOP (0.65mm pitch) on our treated G10 substrate and SOIC (0.8mm pitch) on all our other materials including polyimide, linen paper, stone paper and more,” the team writes.

Circuits printed on G10, polyimide and paper can be hand soldered as well. This will, of course, require a bit more skill and needs to be done relatively fast to avoid damaging the silver traces.

Intrigued? Head over to Cartesian Co.’s official site to learn more, and pre-order your own unit for $1,599. Delivery of the next batch is slated for September 2015.

 

Student makes a 3D-printed, voice-controlled robotic arm

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A 17-year-old Maker has created a voice-controlled robotic arm with the help of 3D printing and Arduino.

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You know, the Maker Movement just keeps on amazing us. It goes to show that, with nothing more than some low-cost hardware, a 3D printer and a little ingenuity, an idea can go on to have a life-changing, lasting effect on the world. Take 17-year-old Nilay Mehta, for instance.

The Irvine, California-based high school student has developed an inexpensive, 3D-printed robotic arm programmed to mimic the movements of a human hand, such as pinching, grabbing or holding a utensil. Using voice commands through a small, two prong microphone attached to the limb, the hand carries out specific actions at the request of its wearer.

“You can say ‘spoon’ and the hand will make a shape that will be able to hold a spoon,” Mehta explains.

In terms of hardware, the award-winning project is comprised of an Arduino, a set of servo motors, sEMG electrodes, a Bluetooth module and an EasyVR shield.

“With the software side of the project, I split up the different components for EMG (for muscle control) and voice control. In order to maximize my efficiency, I split up the project into several smaller projects and combined each segment one by one. I first worked with the EMG side and determined that a conditional statement between three variables gave the most accurate results.” the Maker writes.

This project is only one of countless examples that demonstrate the pivotal role 3D printing continues to play in making prosthetics accessible to those in need — all at a fraction of the cost of its high-end counterparts. Compared to the $3,000 to $30,000 families used to have shell out for an artificial limb, resources originating from the Maker Movement have allowed Mehta to bring his idea to life for under $260.

“For kids who are growing, they have to change their prosthetics every six to eight months,” Mehta adds. By using inexpensive 3D-printed components, the robotic arm can be resized without having to dig deep into wallets. Looking ahead, the student hopes to revamp its design so that it would be more functional.

[h/t Daily Dot]

Maker 3D prints the world’s tiniest working circular saw

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Lance Abernethy has 3D printed a fully-functional saw that’s no larger than your thumbnail.

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Last year, Lance Abernethy 3D printed a mini, fully-functional cordless drill. But why stop there? The New Zealand-based Maker has now added another tiny tool to his collection: a fingernail-sized circular saw.

Abernethy designed each of the saw’s four components — two body pieces, a saw guard and a blade holder — using Onshape CAD software and printed them out on his ATmega2560 driven Ultimaker 2 machine. The itty bitty parts were made of PLA at a layer height of 21-40 microns and shell thickness of 0.5mm. The printing process itself took just under an hour to complete.

Not unlike its brethren, the circular saw is powered by a small hearing aid battery and starts working at the press of a button its handle.

While the wee saw may not be powerful enough to cut through anything (other than tearing a piece of paper, maybe), the Maker does hope to make another iteration that has a bit more oomph to rip through small pieces of wood, in addition to creating other equipment that would fit inside his miniature toolbox (or what he calls “little brief cases”).

[h/t 3DPrint.com]

Building a DIY pedometer watch with Arduino

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This Arduino watch can sense direction, count steps, tell temperature and measure altitude.

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Sure, you can always go out and buy a smartwatch with a tracker and compass already built-in, or you can do what Ben Hur Goncalves has done and create one of your own with the mighty Arduino.

Having been fixated on the idea of devising an all-in-one wearable device for quite some time now, the Brazilian Maker finally got around to mastering the concept. And it’s not just an ordinary timekeeper either. Aside from revealing the time and date, the wrist-adorned piece can measure altitude, monitor temperature, count steps and even help guide you in the right direction.

To accomplish this feat, he used the combination of a 10-DOF sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetic, barometric pressure and temperature), an I2C OLED display, a button on its side for switching between modes, an old 3.7V cellphone battery for power, and an Arduino Pro Mini 3.3V (ATmega328) for its brains.

Before bringing the gadget to life, he had to first overcome a series of challenges, including working with a compass and Bluetooth, reducing its size and thickness, communicating wirelessly with his Windows Phone, and writing a custom app. However, he quickly found that Bluetooth consumed a bit too much energy, the battery life was dismal, and several of its features were unnecessary. So, he got started on a second iteration of the wearable, which would ultimately lead him closer to his final design.

“I tried to make another with Bluetooth, but one that you could turn it on with a switch. It turned out that switching it on and off resets the Arduino. I figured out that I didnt need the Bluetooth, so I made a second version, with an MPU9150 (compass, accelerometer and gyro). It was a pretty better unit, also with two buttons (I still used resistors on them), larger in size, and less thick than the original,” Goncalves writes.

Although it possessed a steampunkish look, it still wasn’t something that the Maker would slap on his wrist and head into public wearing. This time, though, the battery life was much better. Whereas the original only lasted about 60 minutes, the second prototype was able to run for nearly 14 hours. By tweaking its insides and casing, Goncalves was on his way to having a stylish DIY watch that could stay powered for at least a day.

Not only can it display the time and date just like any watch, a few clicks of its side button will reveal the current temperature, altitude, barometric pressure, steps taken and calories burned. In compass mode, north is shown as the device is turned. Intrigued? Head over to Goncalves’ project page here, or watch his detailed demonstration in the video below.

Pro Trinket powers this brilliant bike POV display

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Light up your nighttime bike ride with this persistence of vision display from Adafruit.

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In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen numerous Maker projects focused around bicycles. To recount just a few, there’s been a smart helmet with turn signals and automatic brake lights, a smartphone-controlled handlebar lighting system, and most recently added to the list of bright ideas (no pun intended), Adafruit’s persistence of vision (POV) for your wheels.

The brainchild of Becky Stern, this POV display allows riders to illuminate the night as they pedal their way along the road or sidewalk. As the tires rotate, a series of embedded lights flash, ultimately conjuring up an image in the viewers’ minds. The project is comprised of two DotStar LED strips attached to a wheel spoke — one facing in each direction — driven by a 5V Pro Trinket (ATmega328) and powered by a 3xAA battery pack affixed near its hub.

To get started, Stern cut a half-meter strip of LEDs, leaving 36 pixels on both halves. She then tinned the solder pads and silicone coated wires to the input end of the freshly cut piece, alternating sides for each wire to help prevent a short circuit.

“If you have a 5V Pro Trinket to spare, we strongly encourage you to build a prototype of your circuit on a solderless breadboard. Not only will you get a chance to test out your solder joints connecting the LED strips, but you can have a duplicate system for programming where you can easily make changes,” she advises.

In terms of coding, the POV uses the same program as Phillip Burgess’ Genesis Poi project. Adafruit not only lays out the installation process on their page, but has made the sketches for the bike wheel available on GitHub. The bike POV requires the Adafruit DotStar library for Arduino as well.

From there, Stern trimmed off the header pins, and tinned the wires attached to the LED strips. These four wires are soldered to the Pro Trinket. After testing the circuit, it’s imperative to waterproof it before sticking it onto the bike. Those wishing to save power can also employ an optional switch and/or vibration sensor, which will only trigger the lights when in motion.

How do the electronic stay on, you ask? As challenging as it may be, the battery pack is anchored near the hub by steel zip ties, while plastic zip ties keep the LED strip and Pro Trinket tightly onto the spokes of the wheel.

Pretty cool, right? Head over to Adafruit’s official step-by-step tutorial, and watch Stern’s latest work in action below!

Leaf Light is an indoor garden monitor

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Build an Arduino-based monitor that will let you know if your indoor plants are getting enough light and water.

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Does it seem like every plant that you keep inside your house somehow dies? If this is an all too common occurrence, you’re in luck. That’s because Maker Kaia Sievert has built an Arduino-based monitor that lets those without a green thumb know if their pots are getting enough water and light.

Named the Leaf Light, this neat little project uses soil moisture and light sensors connected to an Arduino Uno (ATmega328) to alert you know when your plants are a bit thirsty or need to be moved a little closer to the window sill.

Notifications are done through a NeoPixel that will emit different colors depending on what it detects. Green will illuminate if the moisture and light levels are good. Orange signifies that the plant isn’t receiving enough life, blue indicates that soil moisture is on the decline, while red means that it needs both H2O and sun.

The circuit, which is housed in an acrylic case, runs a leaflight.ino sketch. This enables the Arduino to gather and analyze data from the sensors every 10 minutes, and then change the LED color accordingly. Since the ATmega328 powered Uno doesn’t have an internal clock, Sievert needed to manually input the time and date in the code.

Looking ahead, the Maker notes that there several enhancements she hopes to make, including a mirror to improve the spreading of light, a better enclosure for the electronics, maximum values that can sense overwatering or darkness, and a real-time clock.

Ready to keep your indoor plants alive? Head over to the Leaf Light’s Instructables page here to get started.

Mira is the cutest robot you’ll ever see (and hide from)

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This adorable bot uses facial recognition software to play peek-a-boo with humans. 

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While you’ve probably seen countless robots before, we guarantee you that none have made you say “awwwww” quite like this one. That’s because Alonso Martinez, a character technical director at Pixar, has built a social bot that he calls Mira. Whereas other humanoids have been designed to automate tedious tasks and lend a helping hand with chores around the house, this egg-shaped unit has one job: to make life better one smile at a time.

Proving just that, Martinez recently posted a video of Mira playing peek-a-boo with humans. In terms of appearance, the robot is pretty basic — but in the best way possible. The somewhat spherical device is equipped with a pair of eyes, a color-changing base, and if you look close enough at an earlier video, it appears to be driven by an Arduino Uno (ATmega328).

Being a Pixar character director and all, it’s no wonder Mira was inspired by the simplicity of animated robots like Iron Giant and Big Hero 6’s Baymax. Martinez tells PSFK that he began designing the friendly toy with a pencil and paper before migrating to modeling software, and ultimately, 3D printing her parts on an Ultimaker.

The project was originally designed, in collaboration with fellow Makers Aaron Nathan and Vijay Sundaram, as a way to explore human-robot interactivity and emotional intelligence. Over time, she will be able to understand more about the world and feelings, improving her ability to engage with people in a much more meaningful manner.

For now, Mira uses facial tracking technology to play the game of peek-a-boo. She will get sad when a user hides, which in turn, causes her color will change to purple. Yet as soon they reappear, Mira will wiggle in excitement, let out a joyful sound and emit various colors. If you think about it, pretty much like a pet.

While Martinez has yet to reveal if he will bring this cute companion to consumers, it is evident by its rising popularity — already 200,000 views on YouTube — that there are plenty of people out there who’d love a Mira for themselves. (Us included.) Not to mention, she’d be a nice little stress-releiver to have on your desk at work or home. After all, who doesn’t love a game of peek-a-boo?!

As we await to find out more, you can stay connected here. In the meantime, watch Mira in action below.

Maker transforms a vintage toolbox into a portable 3D printer

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This vintage toolbox contains a fully-functional 3D printer along with the filament, spool holder and a power supply.

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A hammer. A screwdriver. A wrench. A pair of pliers. Those are things you’d typically find in any handyman or DIYer’s toolbox. A 3D printer? Not likely. However, if it’s up to one Florida-based bearings company, that may soon change.

That’s because Chad Bridgewater of Boca Bearings recently upcycled a vintage “Blower Repair Kit” toolbox by outfitting it with its very own portable and collapsible 3D printer. While there have been several attempts to create an on-the-go additive manufacturing machine inside a suitcase, this is certainly a first. Not to mention, it will certainly look a whole lot better sitting on a workbench.

“One of the main features that makes this toolbox a good candidate for a printer over other toolboxes is its fold-down front. A spectator is able to view the print from both the top and the front while also allowing extra room for the print bed,” its creators write.

To start, Bridgewater devised a series of mockups to determine what the end result would look like. He employed a 6” x 9” piece of ABS plastic that would serve as his print bed. While prototyping the machine, he decided that the the X and Y-axis would be used to command the bed, while the hotend would be controlled by the Z-axis. Knowing this, he crafted a crude model of the X and Y-axis with parts that he had lying around his studio, and fitted the bed with some linear bearings, a precision cut drill rod and other recycled 3D-printed pieces from previous builds. Once the X and Y-axis were in place, the Maker was able to figure out where the stepper motors might be mounted.

Using the measurements based on his rough draft, Bridgewater began the process of 3D modeling his working model with the help of Rhino. During this stage, he used the program to tighten the tolerances of his design as well.

With a final 3D model of the working assembly, the Maker began the fabrication phase of the project. For this, the majority of the components for the 3D printer were built by hand and welded using measurements referenced from the Rhino model, or were 3D-printed altogether using the actual CAD data and his shop’s AVR based MakerBot Replicator 2. To ensure that the 3D prints were ready to be used as final, fully-functioning parts, Bridgewater put them on the buffer and cleaned them up with some dish soap and a toothbrush. He then sprayed the frame with Harley Black Crinkle from Powder By the Pound, and proceeded to wash and wax the box before installing its components.

“For the bed I used two pieces of aluminum. The top sheet will be the print bed and will be supported by 4 springs that are attached to a piece of aluminum below that. I used my 1930’s Delta bandsaw to cut them out and my early Hamilton and Delta drill presses for the mounts. To make sure all the holes lined up, I used a divider to mark the holes at an equal distance. I then taped both sheets together and drilled them at the same time,” he explains.

From there, Bridgewater put the printer through a rigorous testing process. Once all of the parts had been cleaned, he finalized the assembly by wiring all of the necessary electronics, which were driven by an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and running Marlin firmware.

Beyond that, the Maker installed a 3D printer power supply from Lulzbot, and made a small hole in the side of the toolbox so the power cord could remain plugged in even if the box was closed. After a few minor tweaks, final calibrations and test prints, it was good to go! Interested? You can find an exhaustive breakdown of the multi-step build on Boca Bearings’ blog here.

Retrofitting an NES console with a Nexus Player

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This project doesn’t just boast the features of a media player, it still works as an NES system as well. 

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Chances are that, if you have an old Nintendo system lying around, at one time or another you’ve thought about tearing it apart and rebuilding it with a Raspberry Pi. While Maker Adam Haile could never find the time to get around to doing that, he did recently manage to cram a Nexus Player inside his NES console. Even better, the weekend project doesn’t just work as a modern-day media player, it still functions as a gaming system should he want to relive the days of Mario Bros., Donkey Kong and Blades of Steel.  

The low-cost Nexus Player runs Android and packs much more power than the original Chromecast. With this in mind, Haile  knew that this would surpass the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi and even enable him to run NES emulators.

“My main desires for this build was that the NES look completely stock and unchanged from the front and that original, unmodified, NES gamepads worked via the original gamepad ports. Fortunately, this turned out not to be too bad,” the Maker notes.

Unlike today’s gaming consoles, the NES turned out to be pretty simple to pull apart, requiring nothing more than removing a few screws and the motherboard. To do this, he also had to disconnect the power connector and two gamepad connectors.

The Maker used a custom PCB, an Arduino Pro Micro (ATmega32U4) and an NES gamepad library to interface the original controllers to the Nexus Player. 3D-printed brackets were employed to ensure that everything fit nicely inside the NES case, too.

“The reason I use an Arduino Pro Micro is that it is based on the awesome ATmega32U4 (just like the AllPixel) which includes on-chip USB functionality. This makes it really easy to make the board show up as a USB keyboard and send keystrokes to a computer. 100 lines of code was all it took to convert the gamepad button presses (for both gamepads simultaneously) into keystrokes that could be used on anything that supports USB keyboards,” he explains.

Intrigued? Head over to the project’s official page, where you’ll find a step-by-step breakdown of the build along with all of the necessary files and software.