Earlier this year, Makerbot announced in its most recent bloodletting that it would focus more on the education market. Today we're seeing some of the fruits of that decision. First up is "My MakerBot," what the outfit describes as a cloud-enabled br...
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It wasn’t long ago that if you wanted to create precise circuit board prototypes, you’d have to send them out to a shop to be made. That approach isn’t exactly conducive to fostering creativity, and limits engineers’ willingness to experiment. Fortunately, there’s a new technology that lets you fabricate your own circuit boards on your desktop, saving time, money, and providing the freedom to try things you might not have otherwise attempted.
Other Machine Co.’s OtherMill Pro is an impressive piece of desktop CNC equipment that not only makes quick work of creating circuit boards, but is a versatile 3-axis milling and etching machine as well. This makes it ideal for design and engineering teams who might want to prototype both circuit boards and small parts that fit within its 5.5 ” x 4.5″ x 1.35″ (140mm x 114mm x 34.3mm) working volume.
Weighing in at just 17 pounds, the OtherMill Pro easily fits just about anywhere, and is fully enclosed, keeping dust from getting out, and reducing noise made by the milling process. It’s capable of taking printed circuit boards quickly and easily, using the same .brd or Gerber files used for production boards, eliminating production surprises. The OtherMill Pro is extremely precise, etching out traces as narrow as 6 mil (0.006″), and is precise enough to reliably produce double-sided circuit boards.
When it comes to milling parts, the machine’s resolution is an impressive 0.001″. It’s also extremely fast compared to other desktop milling machines, with a maximum coverage of 100 inches per minute, and a top spindle speed of 26,000 RPM – extremely impressive for a machine at this price point. A typical PCB can be output in about 20 minutes.
The versatility of the OtherMill Pro cannot be understated. Its collet can hold any 1/8″ shaft industrial bit, and can carve through a wide variety of materials, including wood, wax, plastic, linoleum, foam, brass, or anything else as with the softness of aluminum or softer. This makes it perfect for prototyping objects using materials that aren’t possible to use in 3D printing, and the objects it can produce have a more finished appearance too. Here’s a small sampling of objects produced using parts made with the OtherMill Pro:
Using the OtherMill Pro is remarkably easy. For etching or milling projects, you can start with vector designs from Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator, then load them into Autodesk Fusion 360 to prepare your job and generate a GCode file specifically for the OtherMill Pro. Other’s own OtherPlan software is responsible for actually controlling the output to the machine, which connects via a USB cable. Once your design is ready, simply place your material on the bed using strong, yet removable tape (Other recommends using Nitto double-sided tape), or clamping it in place. A simple command tells the tool to find its home location, and then it’s automatically calibrated, and you can begin rendering your object immediately.
Whether you’re an engineer, product designer, school shop teacher, or work-at-home craft artist, the OtherMill Pro looks like a great addition to your set of tools. It’s available for pre-0rder now (currently with an 8 week lead time). The base unit sells for $3,199 (USD), including a starter tool set, while a $3,999 advanced bundle includes a precision fixturing and clamping set, as well as a high-precision tool collet.
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A couple of years ago, Autodesk 123D released Creature, an iPad app that makes it easy to create single piece 3D characters. This month the company released Tinkerplay, a mobile app that lets you design poseable characters and prepare them for 3D printing. Fortunately, Tinkerplay is available not just for iOS but on Android and Windowsdevices as well.
Most of Tinkerplay’s features are intuitive enough for kids to understand and use. You can pick from a roster of pre-designed characters or start from scratch, safe in the knowledge that the parts fit perfectly with each other. The app has a strict order of part placement, which is done by dragging and dropping from the toolbox onto the build area. After you’ve built the character, you can customize it by changing its color and textures.
When they’re done designing their characters, kids will most likely need the help of adults to 3D print their creation. YouTuber Gadget Addict has a great demo of Tinkerplay, which you can watch below. You can skip to 6:38 to see Tinkerplay’s export setup and to 10:26 to see Gadget Addict’s 3D printed action figure.
How awesome is that? I think Autodesk 123D should consider releasing this on Steam and on consoles, perhaps with licensed characters as optional purchases. Tinkerplay is available for free from the App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store and Windows Store.
Up until now, the vast majority of 3D printers on the market have been designed to produce plastic models, and if there’s functionality, it’s pretty primitive – like rotating gears. But Voxel8 aims to change that, with their upcoming 3D printer that can not only print plastic, but also circuitry.
Using highly conductive ink, the printer with work with Autodesk developed software called Project Wire to allow for design of both the object and its circuitry in a single application.
Specifications for the Voxel8 printer are as follows:
Build Envelope: 10 x15 x 10cm
Printing Technology: FFF, Pneumatic Direct Write
Layer Resolution: 200 microns
Filament Compatibility: 1.75mm
Conductive Trace Width: 250 microns
Supported Files: AMF, STL, PLY, OBJ, OFF
Resistivity: 5.0 × 10-7 Ω-m
Silver Ink Cure Time: 5 minutes
You’ll still need to add some elements, such as integrated circuits or motors, but a single object can contain both thermoplastic and conductive elements, which should enable some truly interesting builds. In addition, the machine will allow you to insert components in the middle of a print without losing its place.
Voxel8 is accepting pre-orders for their printer now, and expects to start shipping at the end of 2015. The printer will sell for $8499(USD), so it’s definitely not for weekend hackers, unless you happen to have deep pockets.
There’s already a Minecraft port for iOS devices, but a new iOS app called Blokify takes the addictive building mechanic of Mojang’s hit game and makes it much easier to get into. Blokify uses simple touch controls and easy access to different cubes, without the hassles of keeping an avatar alive.
Blokify was designed to be 3D modeling software for kids. First of all, its blocks are organized by themes. The app comes with a castle-themed set of blocks, with two other types – spaceships and pirates – available as optional purchases. It’s also intentionally bare of tools. Building consists of selecting and placing blocks – no more, no less. Users can then share their apps to other Blokify users. Even better, users can order a 3D printed replica right from the app itself.
According to Engadget, Blokify uses Cubify for print orders. But if you have access to a 3D printer, you can also export the 3D model from the app so you can print it yourself.
Blokify is free and is available from the App Store.
Earlier this year, Makerbot announced in its most recent bloodletting that it would focus more on the education market. Today we're seeing some of the fruits of that decision. First up is "My MakerBot," what the outfit describes as a cloud-enabled br...
Rumor has it that we won't be seeing the next flagship iPhone until much later this year, but we may have just the right thing to keep y'all entertained for the time being. Earlier this week, a reliable source in the accessory industry showed Engadge...
There are two typical ways to train a robot today: you can have it watch repeated demonstrations of what you want it to do or you can program its movements directly using motion-planning techniques. But a team of researchers from MIT's CSAIL lab have...
Today on In Case You Missed It: A new Marine Mammal Science publication found that humpback whales slap the surface of the water to communicate with one another, although what they're actually saying is still a mystery. Meanwhile MIT's CSAIL lab...
Valve wants to know what you'd do with its Steam controller if you had a chance to customize it. The gaming behemoth has released the CAD plans for it in an effort to spurn the community to put its own spin on the gamepad be it with accessories or ot...
