Mechanical Pencil Hack Dispenses Wire

August 10, 2015 by James Hobson 29 Comments

Looking for an easy way to manage wire when prototyping PCBs? Ever consider using a mechanical pencil to dispense it? Turns out, it works pretty well — and all you need is a 3D printed attachment!

[Proto G] is using a Papermate 0.5mm mechanical pencil, which means if you get 0.5mm wire (or solder) you can use it to dispense the wire without tangling your spool. In the demonstration, he uses 0.5mm magnet wire which has a thin enamel coating on it and melts away easily when you solder it.

The 3D printed wire-spool and guide snap onto the back of the mechanical pencil allowing you to load it up with a considerable amount of wire for prototyping. He has all the .STL files available on his Instructable in case you want to add this tool to your workshop.

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Watch Those VOCs! Open Source Air Quality Monitor

August 9, 2015 by James Hobson 15 Comments

Ever consider monitoring the air quality of your home? With the cost of sensors coming way down, it’s becoming easier and easier to build devices to monitor pretty much anything and everything. [AirBoxLab] just released open-source designs of an all-in-one indoor air quality monitor, and it looks pretty fantastic.

Capable of monitoring Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), basic particulate matter, carbon dioxide, temperature and humidity, it takes care of the basic metrics to measure the air quality of a room.

All of the files you’ll need are shared freely on their GitHub, including their CAD — but what’s really awesome is reading back through their blog on the design and manufacturing process as they took this from an idea to a full fledged open-source device.

Did we mention you can add your own sensors quite easily? Extra ports for both I2C and analog sensors are available, making it a rather attractive expandable home sensor hub.

To keep the costs down on their kits, [AirBoxLab] relied heavily on laser cutting as a form of rapid manufacturing without the need for expensive tooling. The team also used some 3D printed parts. Looking at the finished device, we have to say, we’re impressed. It would look at home next to a Nest or Amazon Echo. Alternatively if you want to mess around with individual sensors and a Raspberry Pi by yourself, you could always make one of these instead.

3D Printing With 2D Inkscape Projections

August 2, 2015 by Al Williams 7 Comments

If you had a formal drafting class, you probably learned about making orthographic projections–engineering drawings with multiple views (for example, top, front, and right). Even if you didn’t take the class, you’ve probably seen drawings like this where you view a 3D object as a series of 2D views from different angles.

These days, you are more likely to create a 3D model of an object, especially if you are going to 3D print it. After all, the 3D printer software is going to expect a model. When [Nightshade] wanted a laptop stand for his workbench, he started trying to do a 3D model. His final product though, was made by creating two views in Inkscape. They aren’t exactly orthographic projections of the final product, but the idea is similar.

Inkscape is a vector graphics program and generally creates SVG files, although it can also save EPS files. [Nightshade] used pstoedit to convert the EPS output to DXF format. DXF files are still two dimensional, but OpenSCAD can extrude DXF files into 3D shapes.

Just having a 3D shape of one view isn’t sufficient, though. The OpenSCAD script rotates the objects to the correct orientation and intersects them to form the final object. This is different from the usual cases of using Inkscape to trace a scan or generate simple text.

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3D Printed Bristle Bots (Robot Cockroaches!)

August 1, 2015 by James Hobson 3 Comments

Bristlebots are one of our favorite projects to teach young hackers the basics of electronics. They’re easy to build, fun, and most importantly — cute. Usually you make them out of the head of an old toothbrush and a cellphone vibrating motor, but [Kevin Osborn] figured out a way to 3D print the entire thing!

He got the idea from [Mark Peeters] who figured out how to turn one of the disadvantages of FDM style printers, into a new way of producing more abstract 3D prints… He calls it the Drooloop method, and you can make some really cool 3D printed flowers with it! Basically, it means you design parts without support structures and design in a droop. If you do it right, you can create the bristles for your Bristlebot!

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We Should 3D Scan People

July 30, 2015 by Mike Szczys 48 Comments

In a perfect futuristic world you have pre-emptive 3D scans of your specific anatomy. They’d be useful to compare changes in your body over time, and to have a pristine blueprint to aid in the event of a catastrophe. As with all futuristic worlds there are some problems with actually getting there. The risks may outweigh the rewards, and cost is an issue, but having 3D imaging of a sick body’s anatomy does have some real benefits. Take a journey with me down the rabbit hole of 3D technology and Gray’s Anatomy.

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96 MacBook Pros: Most Expensive Server Rack We’ve Ever Seen

July 28, 2015 by James Hobson 114 Comments

Ever see a standard server rack stuffed full with 8-dozen MacBook Pros? Well now you have.

Now before the torrential downpour of anti-Mac comments come, this actually has a purpose. No seriously. Besides, what company in their right mind would spend that much money on a rack full of paperweights? Kidding.

[Steve] works for a company that designs electronics, and for a particular launch they needed to perform a lot of testing — using MacBook Pros. There are ways he could have emulated OS X on a much cheaper hardware setup, but the whole point was to test the product with Apple hardware. So he took a stroll down to the local Apple store and picked up two pallets worth. Continue reading “96 MacBook Pros: Most Expensive Server Rack We’ve Ever Seen” →

3D Printing Helps Rekindle Old Love With An Uncommon Truck

July 25, 2015 by Kevin Dady 4 Comments

People may know many name and brands of cars and trucks, and there’s tons of scale models available for the average popular ones. What happens if your favorite truck is a 1960 Bucegi? You could do what [Arin] did and 3D print your own custom model.

[Arin] used to drive these machine back in his youth and it made an impression on him. In the few years of production, the 140HP V8 truck was adapted to all sorts of uses from farm trucks to military vehicles and even cranes. The base truck and the desired configuration is modeled up in quite a bit of detail, then it’s 3D printed.

Once the printing is done the models are smoothed out using body filling primer paint, (and we imagine some fine sanding) , painted with acrylic paint, and assembled into an accurate model complete with working steering systems.

Below is a video showing assembly and painting and a second video showing off the steering system.

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