Electric car doubles as 3D printing lab

The Le Fabshop crew in Paris recently worked with Renault to transform an ordinary electric car into a mobile 3D printing lab.

Equipped with an Atmel-powered Maker Bot Replicator 2, the concept envisions a future where delivery and service vehicles will have a 3D printer installed to produce spare parts on-the-go or at a specific job site.

As the folks at DesignBoom note, the video above shows the EV demonstrating a print job – driving around Paris and on the cobblestones of Versailles, all without interfering with the printing process.

In other 3D printing news, the MakerBot Thingiverse team recently announced the launch of its mobile application – the Thingverse iOS app which allows Makers to more easily explore the world of 3D printing.

“While you’re on the go, you can now like items, add them to your collections, and quickly share them to your social networks or email,” the MakerBot Thingiverse team explained.

“Since the app makes uploading to Thingiverse so easy, it’s simpler than ever to share images of your prints. You can update your profile and cover images from your phone too.”

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered MakerBot? You can check out the 3D printer’s official product page here.

Atmel’s ATmega8U2 powers this Starcraft 2 keypad

A Maker by the name of Andreas has designed a slick DIY Starcraft 2 keypad powered by Atmel’s ATmega8U2.

“A month ago or so I started playing StarCraft 2 again. I’m not really good at it, actually, but it’s fun to play with my friends. I’ve never ever got used to the hotkeys, most of my refuse to practice. As an engineer I’ve tried to solve problems by creating tools, not to practice stupid routines,” Andreas explained in a recent Chaozlabs blog post.

“The grind hotkey system seems a good idea, but it if you think about it, there is a serious design fault. As a right-handed person you have to use the left hand for the hotkeys. The grid on the screen is on the right side and the most used keys are on the left. This means you have to use your little finger for the most common actions – that’s not very comfortable. [Plus], switching between right and left shift is not very intuitive.”

So Andreas set about designing and building a keyboard that more intuitively mirrors the Starcraft grid.

“Mostly, you think from the middle of your view to the outside. The same is true for your hands. The index finger means center, the little finger is your outer side,” he continued.

In addition to Atmel’s ATmega8U2 MCU, the finished product includes salvaged Cherry-MX keys, a 3D printed case, a carbon cover and PCB slices.

“I played some games with it and you learn using the hotkeys incredibly fast. As I thought the mirrored grid is very intuitive. You don’t have to move the hand as much as if you use the normal hotkeys and with the two rows of numbers, every short group is easily reachable. The rectilinear grid of the buttons is more ergonomic than I thought,” Andreas added.

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered Starcraft 2 keyboard? Be sure to check out the relevant design files on Thingverse here.