Month: February 2013

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When 3D Printing is (and is not) the Right Solution

This morning after walking the dogs I got a random call from a guy who wanted a 3d-printed “pebble” in clear plastic. I suggested instead he go to the glass works on granville island and get a bead of actual glass, and explained what 3d printing is good for.

To me, 3D printing is great when you have to prototype something in many iterations. Take my work, for example. Just this morning I made four different computer models of the Makelangelo 2 box because I kept making mistakes refining and improving it. See what I did there? That’s where it comes in really handy. The first time I printed the end effector for the four-armed delta robot I discovered that the bolts couldn’t be put in without overlapping in space. 20 minutes later I had a new one printed with the correction. If I had done that in metal I would be out several hundred dollars.

Of course I’m still willing to print anything in off-white ABS plastic. All you have to provide is an STL file of your model. Parts for my kits, stuff you want to prototype, or even parts from Thingiverse. Send me an email with your part and I’ll be happy to give you an estimate.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go use my other favorite prototyping tool – the laser cutter at the Vancouver Hack Space.

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GUI experiment: promoting drive manually

Steve Jobs and Apple said, “Think Different.” So I’m trying a few things. What do you think of this? Better? Easier? Too big? Missing something? Comment below!

The driving controls in the bottom right used to be hidden in a menu. I found that I was opening and closing that menu all the time and that was kind of silly. Does this work better for you? Any other ideas to make things clearer? I want your comments and feedback.

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Makelangelo 2: March 8

If everything goes according to plan the release date should be March 8, international women’s day, my birthday. That’s right: on my birthday women are celebrating around the world. That joke never gets old. Never.

Until then we’re having a sale: buy before the release date and save up to 14%.

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David’s Makelangelo #104 ready for Superbowl Sunday

David sent in this picture of the NFL logo yesterday to show his love of the big game. Thanks, David!

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Four Armed Delta Robot

Last week I posted a video about a 3-armed delta robot. Today I bring you the promised 4-armed version.

While prototyping the parts I had to print two copies of the end effector. I modeled v1 on the 3-armed version and when I tried to assemble the robot the screws in the end effector were impossible – they would have to overlap in physical space. I fixed it in the v2 model and hollowed it out to save on ABS plastic, then printed it on my Prusa Marlin. Next time I’ll have to model every single part to make sure it’s correct.

I realized while filming this that the base was backwards and the motors face the wrong way. Good news is the code works correctly. Bad news is there’s a huge difference between the real world and the picture of the robot in the robot’s mind when I was running it. I expected Z-(anything) to go down. It’s very likely that X and Y are also flipped. When I release the kit I’ll do a whole new video with assembly and unboxing and it will be mounted the right way around.

You can find the 3D printable parts on Thingiverse.