3D schemes Robotics

For the first time ever, the FIRST Robotics affray sponsored by America Makes, the Oak Ridge nationwide lab and the U.S. Department of Education is supplying 3D printers to its contestants - approximately 450 3D printers in total. There are some businesses on the FIRST Robotics affray 2014 copier, programs and Services Donors List, encompassing both 3D Systems and Stratasys! You can read 3D System's blog mail on the "winning" the tender here.
 
"We see a great promise to elaborate the use of 3D printing in FRC," FRC controller open Merrick said. "From the new choices in prototyping to on-demand components, 3D publishing undoes up a entire new world of possibilities in technology, and we're very excited to introduce this capability to our juvenile competitors and glimpse what our participating groups arrive up with."
3D Systems, in come back for the big order, is donating its entire Cubify programs conceive suite, encompassing Cubify Invent, Cubify conceive and Cubify Sculpt, to every group taking part in the affray, along with some cloud publishing coupons. (psst - you can get a exact replicate of this conceive suite, too, by going into the Scholastic Art & composing accolades’ Future New Challenge, boosted by 3D System's offer of free software! Deadline is soon!!)
 
I learned that FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and acknowledgement of Science and expertise" and is sent an account as "the varsity sport for the mind." If you desire to glimpse an intriguing documentary on FIRST Robotics, I suggest this 43 minute display - "i.am.FIRST: research is Rock and Roll" - self-produced by Will.i.am from the very dark Eyed Peas. My favorite quote is when Will.i.am states "If the very dark Eyed Peas can play at the halftime at the Super basin, we can play at the FIRST Robotics competition"! (To learn more about this project

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3D publishing Tips boasted in THE Journal

Today, my scholars and I are happy to announce the publication of an item boasting. them! It's called:

3D publishing in the Classroom: 5 Tips for conveying New Dimensions to Your Students' familiarity
Advice from a middle school research teacher who uses 3D printing to help scholars discover conceive, production and persistence.

The article distilled our interview into the following 5 "tips" -
Let the Printer Be the message
address the After-School Club Approach
accept You Don't Know It All
Don't degree the outcomes
Don't Underestimate the children
My very popular quote they encompassed is "Your students will help you discover, Mytko said. "Be really honest," she advised. "I believe educators are used to being the professionals in the classroom. We need to accept to children when we're not the professionals and inquire them for their help in discovering simultaneously. We approach the entire manufacturer Monday thing as a team effort."

Mytko acknowledged that while approaching clean can be "academically humbling," it avoids the added embarrassment of having the children "see right through that — particularly at the middle-school level.

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Vicious Turkeys, LBJ and 3D Scans of Cadets

Perennial vacations have a way of conceiving and recalling recollections of those same vacations from the past.

That is especially factual for THIS Thanskgiving,

Thanksgiving 1948 and the Surly Turkeys

My first Thanksgiving recollection is one that makes eating turkey especially satisfying. My relish at the considered of eating turkey began at the age of 4. We dwelled in what was then a rural area and one of the ways the local Burke volunteer fire department increased capital was to sponsor a turkey fire. My father occurred to win two turkeys at that event.

These weren't iced turkeys. These were reside turkeys. And, not the household kind either. They were surly wild turkeys widespread in the surrounding woods. What set them apart of your mean surly wild turkey was their dimensions. These things were gigantic Toms!

Unbeknown to me, he decided to dwelling the turkeys in the outhouse over evening. Early the next morning, I had to go and as shortly as I opened the doorway I got a impolite shock. The turkeys bolted for the doorwaywayway of the outhouse strait at me! I banged the doorwaywayway closed, only to trap one in the doorway by the neck with his head doing everything possible to destroy me.

finally, my dad perceived my shouts and came to my release. But, by then I no longer needed to proceed. To this day, I recall the sugary feelings of revenge when that bird showed up at the table on a platter! And, it resides with me each and every Thanksgiving when a bird is set before me.

I think that must show that I might have a bit of a inclination to hold a grudge.

Thanksgiving 1963 and LBJ

I was employed in Giant Food #14, a very little grocery store in 1963 when the assassination of John Kennedy was announced. The shop was in the upscale neighborhood of jump Valley in Washington, DC., the dwelling of Lyndon B. Johnson. In those days vice-presidents stayed in their individual dwellings. Mostly we dealt with the cook for the Johnsons. But, occasionally LBJ, himself, would halt in. If recollection serves me rightly, he mostly came in to choose up some cigars.

That was a chaotic time for the Johnson family and it wasn't clear, until the last minute, where they would consume their Thanksgiving evening meal. They eventually determined to consume Thanksgiving in their personal dwelling, perhaps in deference to Jackie Kennedy. But, no one had thought to buy anything for the serving of food! The gave our shop an crisis call.

Dick Cunningham was the manager of Store #14. The minute he wise the position, he sprung into activity. Since he commuted by coach and had a car, he recruited me into rapidly accumulating up anything and everything that might be remotely considered a part of a Thanksgiving serving of food. Being one of the oldest and smallest stores in the monster nourishment string of links, we didn't have a turkey fitting for a leader. So, Charlie McCort, the supervisor of a nearby shop came to the release with a suitably large bird. And, we rushed over to the new president's individual home.

On arrival, the thing that hits me now is that I don't recall seeing a lone security guard. But, what hit me then was the tremendous number of empty liquor containers rejected in a number of what I thought were fairly large oil drums! I don't understand if it was LBJ, himself.; but, a famous person was putting away a LOT of booze around that location!

possibly because this is the 50th year since that happening, it is the first time I've in writing about it. In the past, I always attributed the need for our help easily to the disorder round that horrific happening. But, as I wrote this, it dawned on me, for the first time, that it was likely as much as an act of consideration to Jackie Kennedy and her young kids, giving them a little more time and space. I don't understand; but, it would be intriguing to understand.

Thanksgiving 1966 and Mammouth Cave

The Vietnam War was in full swing. I connected the Army book and was called for active obligation training at outpost Knox Kentucky in September of 1966. So, I found myself, for the first time, away from from family as Thanksgiving revolved around. I determined to visit Mammoth Cave. It was there, as I stared at my turkey and dressing dinner, that it really hit me that Thanksgiving is not just about the turkey and the food. It truly was about family.

I don't think I have ever sensed more lonesome than on that day. 

Thanksgiving 2013 and Cadets

This Thanksgiving I am thankful that I was adept to not only conceive NEW Thanksgiving memories for myself'; but, for the cadets that I educate and their families. That is because the Sense 3D scanner reached just before the Cadets going home for the vacations. While we were only able to scan a couple of before they left, every one of them understands that someone they love is going to get a very exceptional gift this year... a 3D published bust of the cadet. We'll complete the scanning when they get back and publish their busts before they graduate in December.

I wish you could have been there to see the reactions of the cadets when they glimpsed the scanner in action. More than one said they knew precisely who would be getting their 3D publish. Yes, we aim on centre STEM (Science, expertise, technology and Math) concepts utilising 3D publishing in the class. But, there is more than enough time to spend a little bit of it to deal with building connections, too. construction connections is just as much a key for their achievement as any subject matter.

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Of the Sense 3D Scanner

Engadget has dispatched an excellent and bery methodical reconsider of the Sense 3D Scanner from 3D Systems. 

Brian Heater wrappings all the bases with a large composing style.
3D Systems Sense reconsider: a 3D scanner for the masses (almost)
I actually realise the thoroughness of the reconsider. But, in reading through the replies to the review, it is obvious that many persons don't understand how to put price/performance into the proper viewpoint. This isn't isn't a +10K apparatus! It's a low cost buyer device that works well for its proposed submissions.

numerous furthermore have trouble realizing that one needs to discover their devices before making a definitive worth judgement. possibly I had an simpler time of it because of my know-how with utilising 2D photo to 3D submissions in which some of the same skills are required. But, even so, I can currently sense... no pun intended... that like any new expertise, there is more for me to discover if I am to get the most out of the Sense 3D scanner. And, I'm eager to put in the time and effort to discover it.

possibly if I proposed to use the Sense scanner for creating highly textured things for game play, I might not be as excited as I am about it. But, I'm not. I intend to conceive and print, on a Cube 3D copier, unique gifts of lasting worth of people and for the people that care about them. And, that is priceless.

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Design and print a funnel (with basic Sketchup video tutorial).

In the winter time we refill the bird feeders regularly. Invariably I'd get bird seed all over the floor as I'd try to refill the container from a large bag of seed, so I decided to resolve the issue once and for all, and have some 3d printing fun along the way!

The solution was a funnel with a wide exit, and a shoulder that would enable it to sit securely on the top of the container being filled.

Didn't spill a single seed!

I drew the funnel in Sketchup, using a simple construction method, first drawing the cross-section of the desired shape and then using the "follow-me" tool to rotate that shape about a vertical axis. I've also been playing with various screen-recording tools, to find ways of enhancing blog presentations. As an experiment I've recorded the Sketchup drawing technique in "screencast-o-matic" and shared it below.

Finally...
The birds were very happy with the refilled feeders!

Thanks for viewing!
NumberSix

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The Penrose Triangle Illusion...

The Penrose Triangle...

It's a great illusion of impossibly stacked little cubes, and readily printable, believe it or not! The STL file and full detail is posted here on Thingiverse. Credit goes to Jonathan Wong for explaining how he constructed the printable version of this illusion and providing instruction on how you can draw your own version. Some additional reference to the famous triangle may also be found here.

The printing challenge:
This is a challenging print in a number of respects. The nine "inverted pyramid shapes" have a very small area of contact with the print bed and don't actually support each other until over halfway built. You need to have laid down a good first layer, well bonded to the print bed. Even then, what may happen is the print head will clip any slightly curling edge as it moves about, and knock one piece over, destroying the entire print. However, there is one version of the STL file in the Thingiverse share that has a bracing piece between all the pyramids to give greater support on the print bed.

Above is what happened when my print head clipped off a slightly curled edge of one of the pyramids. I had to abandon this attempt. 

For my second attempt I used a Z-Lift feature in Slic3r (the STL slicing package) which raises the print head by a prescribed amount as it moves between printing sections, lowering it again to resume printing. (Z axis lift is discussed towards the end of this older post here by RichRap.) This feature worked ok but as the object grew there seemed to be degradation of print quality with a lot of gapping in the print, even though I had only changed one parameter  i.e. the z-lift. My observation was that this z-lift may have been allowing a little bit more time for retraction to take place and plastic would not resume extruding until a good length of print path had been travelled. While my retraction settings may not have been 100% initially, this setting seemed to exaggerate the problem. 

Rather than spend more time examining g-code and tweaking settings I said I'd give Kisslicer a go at slicing this object. I know from past use that Kisslicer prints sub-sections to completion before moving on to the next sub-section on the same layer; meaning it prints perimeters then in-fills that section before moving on. In contrast, Slic3r prints perimeters then returns later to infill after completing all perimeters. With an object like this, with its nine base triangles, Slic3r does a lot of zipping around in contrast to Kisslicer. My hope was that Kisslicer's approach to printing would decrease the risk of knocking one of the pyramids off its base, and the less zipping about would result in less retraction movements, maintaining print quality.

Kisslicer actually printed the object to completion first time (above photo), but my choice of settings produced some quality issues also. Kisslicer has different Retraction terminology, with what it calls Destringing (Suck & Prime), a whole other evening of experimenting! The "Destringing" settings I had, resulted in quite a scraggy print and left me with a bit of clean-up to do, quite the opposite of the gapped print Slic3r produced with too much retraction.

Finally, here's a short video clip showing it rotating in and out of its illusion position.

Tech Notes and Conclusions:

The object was printed in ABS plastic with a layer height of .3mm and a layer width of .45mm. It was printed on a RepRap style 3d printer, with 3mm filament fed to a .5mm j-head hotend, on a heated bed. Gentle cooling by a low powered fan was used across the object once it climbed off the print bed. This is not my typical practice when printing in ABS (usually no fan), but helped strengthen the narrow walls as they grew.

This object has very little surface area in contact with the print bed, has many thin walls growing to points, and leaning at angles. At its default size it's a challenging print with a .5mm print head nozzle. It might be worth scaling up to a larger size or else using a finer nozzle if you have one.

I'd be interested to learn how others may have got on printing this object. If you have any tips or even quentions then feel free to add a comment below.

Regards and thanks for viewing!

NumberSix

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A simple door hook...

Quick post...
There are many hooks on Thinkiverse, but I noticed this Headphone Hook by Misguided had employed a curve on the hanging tab to add strength to what otherwise would be it's weakness, a 90 Deg bend with a flat tab. A few minutes in Sketchup enabled a modification of the design to produce a very useful door hook!

I narrowed the "U" so the door would close, even with the hook over the top (3mm gap). I also added two ridges to the "U" to grip the door and give the hook a snug fit. The printed item looks well and is very strong when printed in ABS plastic.

I've seen hooks on sale in the shops but they tend to be for narrower doors. I was able to print a hook that fitted our internal doors perfectly (45mm - 1 3/4"). I've placed a bunch of sizes in the Sketchup file and posted it to Thingiverse .

Enjoy!

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