I haven't been able to make much lately as my Cupcake has been experiencing some technical difficulties. I did manage to get it working for about a day and a half recently-- long enough to print out the mounts I needed to attach the electronics to the truckbot. thingiverse.com/thing:10349

I loaded up the truckbot with a Linux powered single board computer, a 2 DC motor controller, webcam, 3 axis accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, light sensor, thermometer, humidity sensor, wifi and sonar.

In any case, here are the electronics I ended up attaching to the bot:
phidgets.com/products.php?category=19&product_id=1070
phidgets.com/products.php?category=12&product_id=1064
phidgets.com/products.php?category=2&product_id=1128
phidgets.com/products.php?category=5&product_id=1056
phidgets.com/products.php?category=6&product_id=1125
phidgets.com/products.php?category=6&product_id=1127
phidgets.com/products.php?category=21&product_id=3402
phidgets.com/products.php?category=21&product_id=3702

The single board computer I used has been discontinued. It has been replaced by:
phidgets.com/products.php?category=21&product_id=1072

VIDEO:
youtube.com/watch?v=ZA7mihbLalw

I don't even know what these things are called in german, so here is what they do: Instead of bolting wires straight to the wall, you put them in PVC piping and clip the pipe into these wall-mounted holders.
These clips are made for 16mm pipe, but should be easily adapted to bigger piping. The clips are measured from a ready-made one (see picture) and should resemble it closely. The "full" version has all mounting features from the original and should be compatible with existing ones.
I have changed the location of the connectors to make it printeable sideways. Printing it upright could create problems with layer separation.
The connectors have an extra .2 mm tolerance in every direction, i have no idea if that is sufficient or way too little. Feedback would be appreciated.
I have not yet finished my mendel, so this is untested and might or might not work.

A friend of mine wanted something to plug the headphone port on his iphone since it gets used in a very dirty environment and he doesn't use the headhpone port that often. So I modeled up this dummy plug which I modeled off of a 3.5mm TRS(3 pin) Male ipod headphone connector.

I tested this in my iphone, ipod, and computer headphone jacks and it worked in all of them.

Due to their small size it would be a good idea to print multiples of these at one time to give each a chance to cool more before the next layer is added. I was able to print these without using a raft and used the multiple function in skeinforge to print 6-8 out at a time.

Having some basic Matrix math operations available in OpenScad has been a wonderful thing. I found my life to be somewhat lacking though because rotations are a royal pain in the...

This thing adds Quaternion support to OpenScad

Besides sounding like a cool name for an 80s rock band, or a futuristic diabolical planetary leader, quaternions are a math construct that make doing rotations a fairly painless task.

basically: myquat = quat(axis, angle);

So, to do a 30 degree rotation around the z-axis for example, would look like this:

rotz = quat([0,0,1], 30);

Now, that's not going to do you much good in OpenScad by itself, so you need to turn it into a matrix that OpenScad can easily consume and apply as a transform, so you do this:

rotzmatrix = quat_to_mat4(rotz);

Once you have this, you can use it with multmatrix()

multmatrix(rotzmatrix);

or

multmatrix(quat_to_mat4(quat([0,0,1],30)));

Ok, so wow, big deal!!

OK. So, combinations can be done like this:

q1 = quat([0,0,1],30);
q2 = quat([0,1,0], 15);
combo = quat_mult(q1, q2);

multmatrix(quat_to_mat4(combo));

This will combine the 30 degree rotation around the z-axis, followed by the 15 degree rotation about the y-axis, or visa versa.

This is nice, because you can apply this transform anywhere you like, without having to go through gyrations such as:

rotate()
{
rotate()
}

If you've used an instance of this math library in the past, I've made a couple of changes. I've added more vecxxx calls, to support vec2, and vec3 more explicitly. The biggest change is to the mat4 (matrix4x4) routines. Basically, I was storing the data in 'row order' previously, which required a transpose of the matrix before using it with the multmatrix() module. So, I changed the ordering to be column major ordering (for those in the know). That aligns better with what OpenScad expects, so life gets easier as you don't need the transpose in the end.

At any rate, another batch of goodness for OpenScad.

NOTE: the 'quat_to_mat4()' function is an interesting piece of work. The equivalent 'C' code utilizes a lot of variables, which are not a part of OpenScad functions (as opposed to modules). This poses quite a challenge. So, how it's broken down into a cascade of functions demonstrates a general methodology for dealing with 'variables' in functions. Just turn each 'variable' into a function.

UPDATE: 22072011
I left a few routines out from the first release of this thing, so I've added them in:
quat_conj(q) - conjugate of the quaternion
quat_distance(q1, q2) - distance between two quaternions
quat_norm(q) - the 'length' if you will.
quat_normalize(q) - normalize the quaternion

There is one more monster function to add: quat_slerp (spherical interpolation). As this one is more complex than the 'to_mat4', I'm having to think about it for a while. Not too bad, and it will come. Perhaps this will warrant a new version.

This is a parametric snap in cover to go in a hole in sheet metal (or whatever)

After printing out new handles for our screen door ( thingiverse.com/thing:9882 ) there were 4 extra holes left over that were intended to be used if the door opened the other way.
Now they are filled in...

Nothing is more powerful than the three Stevened Tri-Bert!

One head keeps guard for the right, another head repels the left and the third head (little Stevie) does all the real thinking.

With the legs of an Ox, the wings of a Gnat and the stinger of an African Killer bee, nothing can stop the awesomeness that the Tri-Bert can bring.

Credit for the movement should go to the late Mr. Longworth of the Hunter Valley Woodturning Club, New South Wales, Australia.

Thanks to Hexitex for turning Mr. Longworth's desgin into a printable design.

All the files are oriented and scaled for printing already.

Changes

I Reduced its diameter to 85mm and changed it to a three jaw design. I then designed a system to lock it with out a wrench.

How the lock works

The front face is now supported by three short lengths of 5/16" (8mm) smooth rod that go through large holes in the guide and sit against the base. When you turn the lock ring it turns the planets/nuts that pull the guide back and it pulls the screws holding the jaws back against the now supported face.

( you could eliminate the smooth rods by making the outside of the face extend back far enough to rest on the lip of the base. )

Updates
jun 10/11 . Added jaw_guide.stl It keeps the jaws aligned while tightening.

jun 9/11 . Replaced jaws with angled jaws inspired by MarkU's design thingiverse.com/thing:9186 except mine are sloped on both sides so only one set is needed.

Video
youtube.com/watch?v=V_vG_LOLz4s

This type of train coupler is widely used for passenger trains in Japan.

A fabric-based portable XY gantry. The two driving ideas behind the design are the way in which the string is wound in order to achieve two degrees of freedom, and the notion of 3D printing components with eyelets so that they can be sewn onto fabric.

The components were printed on a Dimension FDM machine with support material. Some post-processing was necessary to enlarge holes for bearing shafts and bearings. I'd imagine that you could print on a Makerbot and still get a useable component after additional post-print work. I'm using surplus gearhead motors which I found on ebay, but stepper motors could be easily adapted by changing the drive holder.


Additional information and media regarding the project can be found here:

newtextiles.media.mit.edu/?p=570

This is part of a study being done by Dr. Salim Azzouz of the McCoy School of Engineering at Midwestern State University. Senior Engineering students were challenged to find and/or design a gearbox that would transform a variable rotational input to an output at a constant angular velocity. This is the resulting study prototype, which uses a printed planetary gear train to accomplish the desired results.

If the single shaft is used as the input, it will drive the output (sun gear) at the same speed, however, if a different output speed is desired, the lower shaft on the other side (hub gear) can be driven faster, slower or even counter-rotated to produce the different desired output velocity.

This was a close collaboration between the students and myself in design and manufacture. Extensive work was done in SolidWorks, resulting in a functional digital assembly. The gears and carrier plate were printed on our Makerbot, the axles turned from aluminum stock on a CNC lathe and the support structure cut from Makrolon, an impact resistant, clear plastic. Delrin bearings were purchased from mcmaster.com.

Further study is planned, connecting the input and differential to motors, monitoring the velocities of each of the shafts with tachometers, recording the results at varying speeds and comparing the observed results with the theoretical calculations.

This is a fully moveable model of a KUKA KR180 industrial robot.
Its about 5x5cm at the base and about 20cm high if the arm is full upright.

You can find more about it at ifeelbeta.de

We had been printing the pink panther woman a few times, but sometimes women would ask why we didn't print any male forms. Yesterday nicholasclewis uploaded this wonderful model. The vertices were very much visible, so I subdivided them a few times and performed a smoothing operation in Meshlab (open source!). There are some other files by nicholasclewis that are not in this derivative post, so be sure to check out those, too!
The model is a little 'dirty' because I was still flushing out some black ABS which keeps coming out of the nozzle even after printing hundreds of grams of PLA. Also, this really made the extrusion less smooth than it could be.

OpenSCAD remake of Mendel's X vert drive nut trap. Part of the OpenSCAD mendel re-work being done here: thingiverse.com/thing:3118

WHY: BFB hot ends are very robust and easily obtainable. BFB even sell them assembled and with various nozzle sizes. They are aluminium+peek+teflon so very strong hence you can use them not only for ABS and PLA but also for HDPE, LDPE, PP, uPVC and some other materials.

WHAT: x-carriage has to be changed (to accommodate for the size of the bfb hot end) and the adapter has to be installed between extruder and xcarriage

This is Thing-a-Week #5, previous things can be found here. iheartrobotics.com/search/label/thing-a-week

Currently this is untested and experimental due to the holiday weekend and since it is still printing.

These parts are used to build a positive pressure glove box style clean room.
The goal is to produce somewhere around a Class 10,000 cleanroom environment in a small space that is useful for taking things like hard drives, cameras and lasers apart.

The current design uses a shopvac air filter part #VF3500, but part #VF6000 is probably preferred.
ridgid.com/Tools/Vac-Filters/EN/index.htm

Based on initial estimates the RadioShack Cooling Fan part #273-0241 should provide reasonable performance when matched with the air filter, however testing has not yet been completed.

Connecting rods are cut from 6061-T6 Round Aluminum tubing, and tapped M4.
OD 0.25" Wall Thickness 0.065"
onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=6844&step=4&showunits=inches&id=71&top_cat=60

The open endcap connects to the fan using M3 countersunk screws and nuts.

The design may require caulk or gaskets to function properly.

A printed spur gear driven extruder for Mendel or Darwin.

This is a model christmas tree printable on the makerbot with a slot to insert a coin battery and an LED to illuminate the piece from inside! Merry Christmas and Happy Printing!

Update: corrected a bug in the model that made it print without the base!
Also, this updated version is smaller then the previous one avoiding some problems while printing the top

Even though there are lots of great gears on thingiverse, I couldn't resist the urge to model some too :)

The combinations of parameters are too many to upload an STL for each, so I just picked a few.

I also made a version for helical gears: thingiverse.com/thing:1339

A hook with a bearing to suspend a basket of plastic to feed a RepRap machine. Full details in my blog: hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2008/11/sky-hook.html

tester for makerbot Hive76 workshop
Here's a video of the process: viddler.com/explore/eagleapex/videos/4/

A small container in the shape of a heart.

This is the printable air vane motor designed by Simen Svale Skogsrud thingiverse.com/svale. Hope you like. p.s. I will be uploading pics of the one my teacher printed today. You can take a look at the actual motor at thingiverse.com/thing:615
p.s. I added a mount so you can actually hook this baby up to an air hose while its mounted!!!

This is for all you blenderheads out there.

This is all 42 mendel parts imported into a single blender file.

They were lovingly chiseled from obsidian blocks and carefully digitised back into blender.

not.

This is a drag chain for the MakerBot extruder cable (or any other cable/wires).

It keeps your extruder cable out of the Z-stage belt and let your MakerBot look professional (kind of...)

The objects need very detailed printing in order to work. You definitely want a good tuned MakerBot and Skeinforge settings to print this (don't say I didn't warn you!).

The ZIP file contains GCode files for all objects, including 6 or 8 chain links on one raft. It might be the best to skeinforge the gcode with your own, tuned settings. The included GCode files worked for me (resp. my MakerBot), but (again): these are some really hairy objects to print.

I designed this a few weeks ago, but I wasn't able to print it successfully because of massive warping of the printed ABS.
Since I've recently pimped up my MakerBot with a heated build platform, warping of ABS isn't an issue anymore!
That said, be sure to print this either with a very strong raft, with PLA or with a heated build surface...

You'll need a standard iPod/iPhone 30-pin-connector/USB cable for this.

This is one I've been tinkering with for a while. Way back in the 70's my Dad had some neat little eggcups that had a teensy compartment for salt and an area to put the shells in. I can't remember exactly how they went, but mine go a lot like this.

I wanted to create a printable part that could take the place of the plywood that makes up the CupCakeCNC. I chose to make a repeating pattern of interlocking puzzle pieces. However, a single layer of these puzzle pieces would not be strong enough for anything but a toy. I added a set of holes that would allow offset layers of puzzle pieces to be bolted together, forming a stronger whole.

I expect to be starting into making corner and edge pieces. I think it would be possible to laser cut these.

The current version is 40mm x 40mm x 4mm corner-to-corner-to-corner. Tongue-to-tongue it is 60mm. The holes are 4mm in diameter and spaced 20mm apart.

Earlier attempts at 60mm x 60mm x 5mm pieces all had to be aborted due to head crashes with ABS shrinkage curling up the corners and breaking the raft from the build surface or, in one case curling up the entire acrylic build surface. This might have been due to the use of an Infill Solidity (ratio) of 1.0

This was created in Art of Illusion. Here is a breakdown of the objects in the .aoi
file:

Camera 1 and Light 1 were just left in there

Puzzle_Curve_No_Clearance is the basic outline of the puzzle piece and does not have any adjustments for the clearance that will be needed for the tongue parts to fit in the mouth parts. It is an approximating curve. The corners are created with three overlapping points.

Curve 1 and its children, Curve 1, Curve 1, and Curve 1 are curves to give an indication of where the holes would be located when I was working with Puzzle_Curve_No_Clearance.

The first Puzzle_Curve_With_Clearance is a modification of Puzzle_Curve_No_Clearance where the tongues are decreased in size. You can see the changes by making visible only Puzzle_Curve_No_Clearance and the first Puzzle_Curve_With_Clearance. The points were offset by 0.25units.

The second Puzzle_Curve_With_Clearance is a triangle mesh of the first Puzzle_Curve_With_Clearance.

The Puzzle_Piece_With_Holes is the final object that was used for .stl output. It is made of Puzzle_Piece, a 4-unit extrusion of the Puzzle_Curve_With_Clearance triangle mesh. and a CSG union of four 8-unit long cylinders that are subtracted (CSG difference) from Puzzle_Piece to form the drill holes in the final object.

The .gcode file uses a hexagonal fill and takes about 16 minutes to print on a CupCakeCNC. The file was created with an Infill Solidity (ratio) of 0.32.

The hex_fill.zip file contains the contents of the .skeinforge directory used in Skeinforge to make the hexagonal fill parts seen in the images and used in the .gcode file.

This is my second prototype of a Sarrus linkage type linear axis. A Sarrus linkage uses hinged joints to make linear motion. The idea is to have a linear bearing suitable for making part of an x-y cartesian assembly without needing long polished metal rods, thus getting a 3D printer that can make more of its own parts.

Notice that there is a set of 4 holes on the top armature that match 4 hole patterns on the end pieces. This means that one axis could mount on two others at right angles.

Drive system: DC motor from a cheap garage sale inkjet printer, using the timing belt from the printer. The pulley at the other end of the belt is a screw/washer/spacer combination with a skate bearing. The skate bearing is mounted in a flexure plate style mount to give tension the belt.

Optical feedback: I took a optical quadrature encoder and encoder strip from the same printer as the motor. The encoder is mounted on the moving armature, and the strip is anchored at both ends in the end blocks.

Hinges: The hinges on the Sarrus linkage are made with 1/16" diam brass rod as the hinge pins. The holes for the hinge pins were reamed out with a 1/16" drill bit.

Frank Davies

In response to the remake challenge, blog.thingiverse.com/2009/08/26/remake-challenge-iphone-tripod-mount/, a portable media tripod mount. The adapter will fit many different handheld devices, and is reconfigurable to have either the single or double support block on top and bottom.

Smallest clamping size: 1.75in
Largest Clamping size: 3in.
Ideal fit: iphone

The two clamping arms fit into each other to prevent lateral movement. The female attachment has a press fit for a 1/4-20 nut, acting as the tripod mount. To eliminate the lateral movement between the female and either clamp arm there is a modeled "peg" and complementing features; however, there is probably a better solution.

Adding a low durometer material to the clamp fingers would make a nice grip without damaging the phone surface.

This is a general bicycle handlebar mount for things like phones, GPS units, lights, bicycle computers, lasers, etc. It may need customization based on your specific device. Let me know if you need anything customized.

Features:
- 1 1/4" (32 mm) diameter handlebar hole. Note it will accommodate a wide range of handlebar sizes.
- recessed mounting screw hole
- recessed nut on bottom for 3/8" or 9 mm nut