Makers by Cory Doctorow

I just started reading Makers by Cory Doctorow and I’m really impressed.  He’s managed to capture the giddiness of the dot-com era in a very plausible-near-future sort of way.  I’m reading the HTML version on my ‘Droid right now, but reading the first few chapters has convinced me to go old skool and pick up a meatspace copy.

Hey Doctorow! Your evil plan of reverse psychology has worked! By handing me a free digital copy I’m convinced to buy an analog copy of your work!

As a sidenote, by making his work open source there’s all sorts of amazing things sprouting out of it – the entire novel printed on a cash register roll?  And other wild stuff you and I never thought of…

Who wants a mini-Mendel?

I like the mini-Mendel, don’t get me wrong, but there isn’t nearly the kind of documentation for it as you would find for the full fledged Mendel.  Sure, it’s a little cheaper, but a Mendel gives you nearly four times the build area.  Since the price barrier to entry into the RepRap project just isn’t that high, the bigger issues are probably going to be quality of documentation, support, skill level required, and interest.  Is there a detailed mini-Mendel construction guide somewhere?

How do upgrade your extruder firmware

Just as an FYI for anyone who’s having trouble upgrading your MakerBot Cupcake CNC plastruder firmware, the instructions built into ReplicatorG don’t tell you to unplug the TTL cable from the motherboard and plug it into the extruder board.

So, save yourself 5 minutes of frustration and googling for the answer…  and just plug the TTL cable into the extruder board.  :)

A new design and an old problem

I don’t have killer 3D modeling skills – but am able to build a reasonable model using Sketchup.  It may be closed-source, but it’s got a fantastic UI.  (Heck, Apple has made an entire business model out of this proposition).

I’m trying to design a printable nut and bolt – and have a pretty good design.  The diameter of the threads on the bolt is almost 1cm, so it’s pretty large.  Constructing spirals manually is a real pain, so I used a plugin/script for generating the internal and external helixes.  (Helixi?)

The difficulty with Sketchup is that it’s not really a 3D modeling program – it’s a sketching program that makes really good looking images and reasonably good 3D models.  The problem is that it doesn’t really check to make sure triangles are properly oriented, sides are facing the way they should be, or that it is manifold.  Oh, and when the model is small it will start making little holes in your object.

There are plugins for exporting Sketchup files to STL files, but either due to a flaw in Sketchup or the plugins, they results are not as good as what you would find in other programs.  The end result is that to get a really good STL out of Sketchup I have to design in Sketchup, export as a 3DS model, import into Blender or NetFabb, fix it up, and then export back to a fixed STL.

If you’ve got a better way for transmuting a Sketchup file into a reliable STL, please let me know!

Open Source Monopolies, Unicorns, and Perpetual Motion Machines

Want a hint?  They’re all imaginary.

There’s no such thing as a monopoly on a truly open source hardware project.  So what if someone cornered the market on some critical widget?  The plans are open source and your options are infinite:

  • Build your own widget.
  • Hire someone to make it for you.
  • Design an alternate part.
  • Design a new assembly using more available part.
  • Hack a work around until you can get the part.

Or, my personal favorite:

  • Start your own business producing and selling that very same critical widget.

These are not problems.  These are opportunities for creativity and innovation.

A totally imaginary interview

It’s been an interesting year for RepRap/MakerBot.  We’ve seen demand for parts and electronics increase.  The MakerBot crew reported that for certain components they’ve actually cleaned out every source in the world.  I’m not sure which component they’re referring to, but I suspect it’s the toothed extruder pulley.  I love the idea that MakerBot has created a product garnering such high demand the entire freaking planet ran out of parts.

Can you imagine giving an interview after such an announcement?

  • Reporter: Guys, this has been a great year for MakerBot.  What are your plans for next quarter?
  • MBI: Gosh, we’ve got so many ideas!  The community has been hugely supportive and their rate of contribution and development has helped us so much.  Right now we’re splitting our time between production and development.  Batch 12, consisting of  about 147 robots, is out the door.  Batch 13 has already started to ship as the parts come in.  We’ve come a long way since the 22 robots of Batch 1.
  • Reporter: Fantastic!  What are your plans for Batch 14?
  • MBI: Dang, we were hoping you wouldn’t ask that.  Zero.
  • Reporter: I’m sorry – zero robots?  Why did demand drop off so suddenly?
  • MBI: Quite the opposite – we’ve completely exhausted the entire world’s supply of aluminum toothed pulleys.  We’re hoping to have some custom made, but at this point we’re competing with the Japanese for aluminum.  Some people suggested we start melting down soda cans for the metal.
  • Reporter: <incredulous> You’re competing with the Japanese?
  • MBI: Not every Japanese person, but the automotive industry, sure.  For a while India looked to be a competitor, but with the strength of the rupee I’m just not expecting that much competition.  We’re far more concerned about the ability of Chinese to scale their production to meet demand.  Fortunately, we think we’ve found a toner cartridge factory willing to switch over to aluminum toothed pulleys.
  • Reporter: <even more incredulous> Wait, wait, wait…  You’re concerned about the ability of an economy of one billion people to scale production to meet the needs of a DIY robot kit start up???
  • MBI: Concerned is a strong word.  The Chinese ambassador has been leaving us messages about this issue.  When we finally got around to returning his calls he assured us they’re up to the task.  I’d say we’re cautiously optimistic.