Sunday, August 07, 2011
Around the RepRap Community 08/06/2011
RepRap Cousins in Zero G!
Made in Space, a space startup founded to leverage 3d printing as a manufacturing tool in space, has operated 2 RepRap Cousin Projects in Zero G. They took what looks like a Makerbot Cupcake with what looks to be a stock DC gearmotor extruder in this image, a Makerbot Thing o Matic, and a Bits from Bytes 3000 on a ride doing Parabolic dives in a Zero G airplane. Can't wait to see the results, but I wish they had added a RepRap kit like Makergear Prusa, Emaker Huxley, or MendelParts Orca instead of 2 Makerbots and a closed source 3D Systems printer, but who cares, FDM in Zero G is awesome.
Sfact by Action68
Sfact might look like Skein forge, but it's a long way from it. What Action68 has done is cut down skein forge to just the pluggins that are still in use, and normalized all the defaults so that 90%+ of people will find that once you have set 5-6 parameters within skein forge you should be getting good prints. This is huge for Reprap because one of the biggest challenges is getting over the monstrous Skein forge learning curve. I really hope Enrique rolls some of these changes back into the master of skein forge. Instructions can be found at the RepRap wiki, and tech support can be found in the RepRap IRC.
Pronterface, Kliment's Host program for RepRap, is evolving like no program I have ever seen. The comment log will show you why you really need to download the program at least once a week. The Additions since the last post are just entirely to long to add in this post (go check out the commit log), but just a brief overview
-Executable versions of both Pronterface and Sfact can now be found here. No install needed and Sfact is preintegrated with Pronterface
-Garyhogdson has added a truly amazing quick setup menu for Sfact integrated into Pronterface, you can change all the most tweaked settings from 1 screen... Amazing
-Integrated Gcode editing
-SD card support
-Custom Gcode buttons addable in GUI
-LOTS more
Finally I can stop missing ReplicatorG, Pronterface to me is now MUCH easier than RepG because of the Gcode simulation view and Gary
Hostless (computerless) RepRap printing with RAMPS, SDRAMPS, SJFW, an LCD and keypad by ScribbleJ
ScribbleJ, a long time designer on Thingiverse has developed an awesome piece of firmware that allows a basic keypad and LCD to be attached to a RAMPS electronics with SDRAMPS. This gives you the ability to warm up, center, and execute a print all without ever having to turn on your laptop. This is hugely important for the long term development of RepRap, and part of the Gada Prize requirements, so when you win your $20,000 be sure to send ScribbleJ a case of beer. Instructions can be found at the RepRap wiki, and tech support can be found in the RepRap IRC.
Hall-O Hall Effect Sensor by Ruben-Ikmaak
For some people a limit switch that is only accurate to .1mm is just not going to be nearly accurate or cool enough. For those people RepRap has the Hall-O Hall Effect Sensor.
A Hall sensor is much more accurate than a mechanical, has no physical contact, and can act as a linear encoder within it's sensing range.
Ruben-Ikmaak and Kliment are selling it in the RepRap IRC
