Category: Hardware

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MakerBot Hotness Lives at Hive76

We love MakerBot, but we needed a better way to print larger objects (like parts for a Mendel). So I started experimenting in the lab at UPenn for how to get a heated platform up and working on 3D-PO.

The first design involved multiple layers of silicone fused together around a nichrome core. We told MakerBot about it, and they wanted more! Then Eberhard Rensch in Germany heard about it (go Internets!), and he went to town on a simplified software design. Awesome!

Of course the design is very simple, totally open (and transparent!). Hooray for Universities. So Mike and I bought a bunch of materials, refined the design a bit, and made a bunch more platforms. It was pretty risky but we trusted our gut and listened to all the awesome members right here at our favorite hackerspace. And we also made use of plenty of Hive resources to get the job done.

But we had gotten ahead of ourselves a bit… we don’t have the infrastructure to sell/invoice/ship/advertise this type of product. We could build that infrastructure, but we really love the core MakerBot community and don’t want to see market fragmentation. So we shipped them off to MakerBot to sell through their store. Check out this blog post and also the wiki page explaining how it works and how to use it.

It’s been an awesome experience: idea -> it works! -> invest in yourself -> Success!!

And about that Mendel… Fynflood’s assembling like gangbusters, check it out!!

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heated build stage success!

our custom made heated build stage for our MakerBot CupCake CNC is working extremely well. here you can see 4 pulleys being printed at the same time. there’s no raft (saves time, plastic, and headache), and ZERO warping. excellent! the etched acrylic may stick a bit too well. we’ll have to try regular, unetched acrylic next (which will be less expensive anyway).

say hello to mass manufacturing.

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heated build platform for MakerBot

check out our work on making a heated build platform for MakerBot. The primary goal was to make it as light as possible since the stage is actively moving, so that means just some nichrome, a thermistor, and some silicone as a carrier. The silicone is also an insulator (very important!!) so no kapton tape is needed and we can see clearly what’s going on inside because the silicone is also clear. we currently use a reprap motherboard and extruder to drive the heat, looking at simpler electronic design soon (but this setup has the excellent PID in the extruder firmware 1.6!).

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TGIMBOEJ lands at Hive76

TGIMBOEJ (The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk) has landed at Hive76! What’s in it?photo

A gravimetric multimeter?

A samurai dagger converted into a soldering iron?

Augmented Insanity Sunglasses?

Your guess is as good as any.

Since the contents will likely change instantaneously upon exposure, the ONLY way to find out is to stop by Hive76 tomorrow night for the grand box opening, Schrödinger’s cat be damned.

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Nintendo Hacking with nonfinite on Oct 11

8static has it’s one year party this coming Saturday night, Oct 10th, and they are bringing nonfinite of Nonfinite Electronics into town for the show. While he is here in town, we’re going to wring every drop of DIY and Electronics out of ’em, with a Gameboy Modding class ( Oct 11 from 5PM-8PM) at Hive76.

Gameboy’s are the chiptune machine of choice, with most artists doing the audio (or video) bending off of the tiny platform. This class will show you how to mod a gameboy (provided as part of the cost) so that you can create your own art with it, with one of the best gameboy modding experts in the USA. The $45 entry fee covers material costs, including one GameBoy as well as all parts needed for modification will be provided for you. Additional items, such as cartridges for loading music software, link cables, etc. will be available for purchase as well. If you want tickets, you should get them soon, they’ll move fast.

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I Can Haz Printable Upgrades

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!

no… actually it’s our first printable upgrade to our MakerBot 3D-PO. This printable z-crank was designed by a hacker in Germany, uploaded to Thingiverse, and then printed and in use by us. No more yanking the z-belt for moving the z-stage or trying to precisely position the z-axis.

superb.

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Music Night This Monday

On Monday the 21st, we’ll be having our first ever DIY music night. Anyone with an interest in music –whether its assembling analog effect pedals, designing custom MIDI plug-ins, or modding up a fretless bass — is welcome. Come with your own personal secret project, team up with like minds, or get some guidance from our resident experts. There will be copious supplies of common electronic components (no digikey necessary), several computer workstations, and a good deal of geeky comraderie for inspiration and assistance. This study-group/workshop is open to novices and pros alike.

And feel free to bring a guitar/synth/childrens-toy to jam out on!

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Holy petabyte rack Batman


Data storage is expensive, but raw hard drivers are cheap, and with big data centers measuring capacity in petabytes it’s become pretty clear storage is big money and big business. And when something becomes big business or money, some of those customers (who don’t want to pay big money) are going to get into the ‘Open Source The Thing And Make It Cheap For Me’ game. Which is exactly what backblaze has done with petabytes on a budget.

These guys have designed a fracking Rack System with 67 Terabytes of data in 4U for less than a small car. Then, to make sure it’s cheap and stays cheap, they are sharing the design. 45 Drivers in a 4U Rack, with room to spare. Also amazing is that they run their access to the system via HTTPS instead of something like Fibre Channel, SQL, or SCSI. So my main question is: How long till we get one at the hackerspace? For, you know. uuuhhh, Backups?