3D Printer Helps Make A Neat Lyric Video

These days, it’s a lot easier to get attention online if your lovely music comes with some kind of visual accompaniment. Of course, shooting a full-scale music video can be expensive, so lyric videos have become a more affordable, approachable avenue that are growing in popularity. [prash] whipped one up recently with the help of a 3D printer.

The video is a timelapse of a 3D print, something we’re very familiar with around these parts. [prash] embedded words in the various layers of the objects to be printed. Thus, as the prints are laid down on the build plate, the words are revealed to the camera shooting the time lapse. The scene is further improved by shaping the prints to reference the lyrics of the song, and using attractive infill designs like spirals and stripes. There are even some strategically placed clouds and pretty lighting to improve the effect.

It’s a neat use of 3D printing, and an artful one at that. We’re pretty confident that [prash] has put together a highly unique lyric video, and it’s much more impressive than the dodgy 3D printing [Will.i.am] featured in his not-quite-a-Britney song a decade ago. Video after the break.

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Simple Snap Action Mechanism Is 100% 3D Printed

Plastics are wonderous materials, much loved for their ability to elastically deform and spring back to their original shape. They’re a category of materials perfect for creating things like living hinges and similar mechanisms, and this 3D printed snap action device shows that off admirably.

The device consists of an outer housing, into which two printed springs are inserted. These leaf springs are curved and protrude towards the center of the housing. A slide is then inserted into the housing with a cam in its middle. The cam allows the slide to push past the springs when actuated, while also holding it in place at rest.

As demonstrated the mechanism reliably snaps back and forth between its two positions in a satisfying manner. It’s shown with one side of the housing removed so we get a good idea of how it works. It’s 100% 3D printed, as well. Anyone looking to replicate the design should note the importance of printing orientation, particularly in the case of the spring pieces, which won’t work if layered up in the wrong way.

Overall, it’s a neat design that could prove useful for those eager to build printed switches or other mechanical devices. It’s also simply a great way to learn about 3D printed springs and working with deformable plastic structures. Video after the break.

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3D printed fish leaping through waves

A Crazy Wave Automaton

[Henk Rijckhaert] recently participated in a “secret Santa” gift exchange. In a secret Santa, everyone’s name goes in a hat, and each person must pick a name without looking. Each gives a gift to the person whose name they drew.

Henk needed a gift for Amy, a friend who loves the water and water sports as well as maker-y things.  So he built her a wave automaton — a sea wave and fishies, and documented the build in this video.

The build is mostly plywood and 3D printed parts. We have to  think reprising it in a nice wood and brass would make a lovely project for a hobby wood and metalworker.

The bulk of the project is 30 plywood boards stacked up with spacers. Each board is mounted with a 3D printed stepped bushing on one end that rides in a horizontal slot. On the other end is a 3D printed eccentric riding in an oversized (about 5cm) hole. So the board moves in a circle at one end and back and forth at the other for a very nice simulation of an ocean wave. Continue reading “A Crazy Wave Automaton”

partially finished print, with the embedded animation

Flip Book Animations On The Inside Of 3D Prints

We’ve all seen 3D printed zoetropes, and drawn flip book animations in the corner of notebooks. The shifting, fluid shape of the layers forming on a 3D printer is satisfying. And we all know the joy of hidden, nested objects.

Hackaday alumnus [Caleb Kraft] has a few art pieces that all reflect all these. He’s been making animations by recording a 3D printer. The interesting bit is that his print is made of two objects. An outer one with normal infill that gives a solid form, and a layer cake like inner one with solid infill. It’s documented in this video on YouTube.

CAD model of the stack of frames
CAD model of the stack of frames

There are lots of things to get right.  The outer object needs to print without supports. The thickness of the “layer cake” layers determines the frame rate. I had to wonder how he triggered the shutter  when the head wasn’t in the way.

His first, experimental, piece is the classic ‘bouncing ball’ animation, inside a ball, and his mature piece is Eadward Muybridge’s “The Horse, In Motion” inside a movie camera.

We’ve covered [Caleb Kraft] before, of course. His Moon On A Budget piece is wonderful.  And we’ve covered a number of 3D printer animations. and 3D zoetropes.  We particularly were drawn to this one.

Thanks [jmc] for the tip!

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6 panel diagram of process

Add Conductive Traces On Vacuum Formed Plastic With 3D Printing

Surface conductors on vacuum formed parts appear in many hacks, from cosplay armor to 3D touch pads and smart objects. But making them has always been painful. Either they had to be hand painted after forming, which looked sloppy and was labor intensive, or they had to be printed with some difficult to use stretchable ink tech. [Freddie Hong] and his group have another solution, using tech most hackers already have – a 3D printer and a vacuum former.

plastic tray with electrodes to sense foil wrapped chocolates
Smart tray created by this method.

They 3D print the traces with conductive PLA filament directly onto a base plastic sheet, and then vacuum form the whole thing. The filament is happy to deform when heated – it’s printer filament.

We like this process.  We’ve found conductive filament isn’t reliably resistive across vertical layers, but is reliable in the XY plane. Their method only requires one layer. Also, they suggest 3D printing a layer of non conductive PLA atop most of the conductor, like a PCB solder mask.

Conductive filament has a fair bulk resistance. They suggest electroplating it before applying the top mask layer. They also are exploring 3D printing logos, stripes, and such with colored filament, or even making surface detail like rivets on model parts or adding thickness where the plastic thins during vacuum forming.

Designing the 3D print requires guessing what bit of plastic sheet ends up where in the vacuum formed final part.  His group used a commercial program, t-sim,  to do the prediction and Grasshopper to import the result into Rhino3D. This seems a lot for a home hacker. Drawing lines on a test sheet and vacuum forming seems simpler.

We’ve looked at vacuum forming before. We did a piece on 3D printing bucks , and covered [Ted Brull]’s Kevo vacuum former back in 2015.

Thanks to [howielowe] for the tip.

Desktop Performance In A Custom Mac Laptop

Most of us either own or have used a laptop at some point. For traveling, as a student, or even for browsing Hackaday on the couch in front of the TV, they are pretty much indispensable. They do tend to have a sharp performance reduction compared to a desktop though thanks to the thermal and battery limitations of a portable form factor. [Scott Yu-Jan] wanted to solve that in his own life by building a custom Mac laptop with none of these downsides.

Noticing that a modern iPad Mini has exactly the same width of his Mac Mini, [Scott] set about combining the two devices into a single unit that he could assemble when traveling. A 3D printed case with a traditional laptop clamshell design takes care of physically combining these two devices, and a USB-C cable between the two takes care of combining them in software thanks to Apple’s Duet program. While this has better performance than a Macbook Pro it might actually have some perks, since Apple continues to refuse to make a laptop with a touchscreen.

There are some downsides, of course. The price is higher than a comparable Macbook Pro for the iPad and Mac together, plus it doesn’t include a keyboard or mouse. It also has no battery, so it needs to be plugged in. In the follow-up video linked below, though, [Scott] notes that for him this still made sense as he uses the Mac and iPad individually already, and only works remotely at places that have power outlets readily available. For the average person, though, we might recommend something different if you really need an esoteric laptop-like machine.

Thanks to [Varun] for originally sending in this tip!

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Upgraded 3D Printed Tank Gets Better Drivetrain And Controls

When it comes to 3D printed builds, they’re often limited in size due to the small build volume of most printers. However, [Ivan Miranda] has always gone big with his builds, and his latest tank design shows that off in spades.

Looks comfy!

[Ivan] has been working on printed human-sized tanks for years, and his latest revision aims to solve many of the problems that have hampered its performance in the past. A belt drive is the first major upgrade, aiming to improve the reliability of the drivetrain which has been a pain point in the past. The motor mounts also get built out of aluminium this time to help keep things cooler, as melting was a potential concern previously.

The tank’s controls are also upgraded, this time using a simple pedal system to control the brushless motors for easier driving. There’s even a printed seat for better ergonomics. The result is a giant tank big enough for an adult human, with the bonus that it’s now easy to steer and no longer requires [Ivan] to lie down inside to fit.

[Ivan’s] big printers are key to his success on big builds. One new part for the tank weighs a full 5.8 kg, printed in just 2.5 days! We can’t wait to see what giant thing he builds next. Word is the tank will be getting a turret, too. Video after the break.

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