Attached the fan and LED switch.

This caterpillar track is the first step towards designing and building a printable mobile robot. My finished robot will have four of these modules, but many other designs are possible. A single caterpillar can function on its own as a simple robot that can move forwards and backwards; two modules can be joined together to form a tank-like machine, etc.

This thing is designed to work with a Futaba 3003 servo (modified for continuous rotation) and uses O-rings to make up the transmission and the caterpillar itself.

Transmission O-ring: 3mm thickness, 60mm diameter
Caterpillar O-rings: 3mm thickness, 124mm diameter

This O-ring system was chosen because it was easier to prototype, but it has evident drawbacks. In future revisions I will change it to a "solid" rubber track.

Note that the pictures of the printed robot at the bottom of the page are missing the reinforcement parts. I will upload new pictures as soon as I modify it!

Video of the robot in action!!
youtube.com/watch?v=efXHjjU-yYg (Simple test)
youtube.com/watch?v=mVgXtljqaAQ (Highest inclination: 36º)

Update! (17/4/2011)
Uploaded an HD artistic rendition of the UniTrack created by my brother Hasier Goitia. Expect more images and videos after the Easter Break!

The Bathtub U-Boat,
An Experiment in Large Scale Makerbot Printing.

Along with Westerns, Submarine movies are clinically proven to be universally enjoyed by the male population. Admit it, at some point you have walked around wanting to shout 'FIRE TORPEDOES' at the top of you lungs.

Well now you can, and look marginally less crazy while doing it.

This piece was inspired by some artwork at my friend's house, hence I am naming it after her :)

It is a beautiful piece which will confuse most people the first time they see it, as they try to figure out which part leads to where and how!

A ball maze, designed in 3dtin. You will of course need a bearing or marble to use in it :-)

This is a stylized rose. Most of the walls are only 1.5 mm thick, so this thing does not use much plastic for its size. The print was made with flourescent red plastic.

p.s.: see Andr0id's modification of the flower to accept a flower stem and vase to go with this. see thing:6504.

One of the things that I'm constantly wishing I had more of are coat hooks! I have way too many hoodies and I hate leaving them on the floor. So here's my take on a coat hook. The special feature of this one is that it has 2 hooks for optimum hanging excellence.

The design was a mashup of qcad and openscad. i just couldn't get the curves quite right in openscad and I wanted something with both an angular and curved look.

"If we don't all hang together, then surely, we shall all hang separately."

-Benjamin Franklin

(get it, there are two hooks for hanging...) :X

It is a test tube rack, to present them with a sort of carousel.

More pics here :
flickr.com/photos/watsdesign/sets/72157625557594408/

After getting inspired by the Helicopter ( thingiverse.com/thing:5225 ) that I printed the other day I thought it'd be fun to design a rubber band powered boat. It's still printing so I haven't seen the final results yet.

These are the printed Parts for a Micro-Hexapod, working only with three Mini-Servos.

I need to solder the electronics on an already etched PCB and try everything, after that, you will also get the Files for etching your own PCB, but you can also build the electronics on hole-matrix-boards

I made this thing in Cinema4D. The source-file is attached.

WARNING: I just found out that the back-and-front-legs are badly designed. I dont know why the first came out so great, but than I broke one of them and had big problems re-printing it, because they all broke when I was re-drilling the holes.

I will redesign the legs and change the file! If you rebuild the robot, I am more than happy for every alternative leg-design you come up with!

This is a proof of concept. I have derived this object from the parameterized Battery compartment: thingiverse.com/thing:5051.

It is a Battery comparment for just 1 AAA battery. I have added two embedded nuts in contact with the positive and negative parts of the battery. From the outside, two metal screws are inserted. They will contact with the battery. Now, you have a wonderful electrical access to the battery!!

It works very well.

For the future, I am planning to add this feature to the original parameterized battery comparment.

Many holidays are based around the solstices and equinoxes. If you celebrate any of these holidays, you might want to get in touch with some of the ancient ways of tracking the Sun. This thing is a script to generate a solar calendar observatory that does something special on the solstices and, optionally, the equinoxes.

It comes in two flavors: A "standing stone" and a "cave".

The standing stone version has pairs of towers that the Sun will shine through and onto the gnomon at sunrise and sunset each solstice.

The cave version has an outer shell with slits that the Sun shines through on the correct days.

The script is highly parameterized, letting you control all sorts of things about your observatory.

As a special bonus, I've included several pre-configured site locations special to ancient astronomy in the script.

As a super special bonus, I've included the option to create observatories for any of the eight major planets! You know, just in case you happen to be off-Earth without a calendar.

The two included stl files are a standing stone style correct for Stonehenge, and a cave style correct for Fajada Butte, in honor of the ancient observatories built there.

Happy Solstice!!!

Super miniature pump, derived off my own 'Mini Pump' - thingiverse.com/thing:4839

Please see :- madox.net/blog/2010/11/22/super-miniature-3d-printed-pump-using-up-pp3dp-printer/ for photos and demonstration/test video...

One Leg Articulated Frog

Collaborative work with thingiverse.com/Benoit
Jumping frog leg skeleton with rubber bands muscles.

This bearing has an outer diameter of 51.5mm and an inner diameter of 8mm, making it perfect for making a resistance-free spindle out of an 8mm bolt, for example the one from the stock Rapman spindle. The outer diameter fits perfectly in reels from orbi-tech.de and the photos seen here are made using their amazing custom PLA mix.

This is also just a fun piece to print as it spins freely with hardly any cleaning up!

The standard acrylic involute gears were driving me nuts with their incessant CLICK-CLACK CLICK-CLACK noises, so I designed these herringbone gears to replace them. Now I can't hear my printer from the next room :)

The motor gear has a 'floor' to help you position the grub/nut easily and precisely. The rebate for the nut has also been set back from the shaft a bit to make it easier to fit than ever.

An additional advantage is that they are constantly in mesh, so there is no slack to take up when reversing direction (if you use M227, this happens hundreds/thousands of times each print!) so you will have cleaner prints too.

Rumor is that ABS things stick better to the PET tape than to the supplied mylar. So I'm trying it out.

I might try one made from Kapton tape, too, and sand it. But rumor has it that sanding doesn't make it stick any better either.

I refuse to use painter's tape...yet.

This is a great model to test your machine.

PLEASE COMMENT on your findings if you download this or try printing it.

Experimental propeller blade designed for my Elastic powered Airplane thingiverse.com/thing:4582
and
My Printable Wright bros. Toy Helicopter
thingiverse.com/thing:4630

Designed to be printed in three pieces and snapped together.
or
Print in one piece for smaller applications.

You will need to use support material! For both options.

( looks like it may be possible to print the blades vertically! )