Do 3D Printers Dream Of LEGO Sheep?

December 9, 2024 by Heidi Ulrich 21 Comments

Imagine the power to clone your favorite LEGO piece—not just any piece, but let’s say, one that costs €50 second-hand. [Balazs] from RacingBrick posed this exact question: can a 3D scanner recreate LEGO pieces at home? Armed with Creality’s CR-Scan Otter, he set out to duplicate a humble DUPLO sheep and, of course, tackle the holy grail of LEGO collectibles: the rare LEGO goat.

The CR-Scan Otter is a neat gadget for hobbyists, capable of capturing objects as small as a LEGO piece. While the scanner proved adept with larger, blocky pieces, reflective LEGO plastic posed challenges, requiring multiple scans for detailed accuracy. With clever use of 3D printed tracking points, even the elusive goat came to life—albeit with imperfections. The process highlighted both the potential and the limitations of replicating tiny, complex shapes. From multi-colored DUPLO sheep to metallic green dinosaur jaws, [Balazs]’s experiments show how scanners can fuel customization for non-commercial purposes.

For those itching to enhance or replace their builds, this project is inspiring but practical advice remains: cloning LEGO pieces with a scanner is fun but far from plug-and-play. Check out [Balazs]’s exploration below for the full geeky details and inspiration.

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Improved 3D Scanning Rig Adds Full-Sized Camera Support

May 17, 2024 by Bryan Cockfield 3 Comments

There are plenty of reasons to pick up or build a 3D scanner. Modeling for animation or special effects, reverse engineering or designing various devices or products, and working with fabrics and clothing are all well within the wide range of uses for these tools. [Vojislav] built one a few years ago which used an array of cameras to capture 3D information but the Pi camera modules used in this build limited the capabilities of the scanner in some ways. [Vojislav]’s latest 3D scanner takes a completely different approach by using a single high-quality camera instead.

The new 3D scanner is built to carry a full-size DSLR camera, its lens, and a light. Much more similarly to how a 3D printer works, the platform moves the camera around the object in programmable steps for the desired 3D scan. The object being scanned sits on a rotating plate as well, allowing for the entire object to be scanned without needing to move the camera through a full 180° in two axes. The scanner can also be used for scanning more 2D objects while capturing information about texture, such as various textiles.

For anyone looking to reproduce something like this, [Vojislav] has made all of the plans for this build available on the project’s GitHub page including some sample gcode to demonstrate the intended use for the scanner. On the other hand, if you’re short the often large amount of funding required to get a DSLR camera, his older 3D scanner is still worth taking a look at as well.

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This 3D Scanner Uses A Sensor You Might Not Know About

August 14, 2023 by Jenny List 24 Comments

The huge diversity of sensors and other hardware which our community now has access to seems comprehensive, but there remain many parts which have made little impact due to cost or scarcity. It’s one of these which [Enginoor] has taken for the sensor in a 3D scanner, an industrial laser displacement sensor.

This sensor measures distance, but it’s not one of the time-of-flight sensors we’re familiar with. Instead it’s similar to a photographic rangefinder, relying on the parallax angle as seen from a sensor a distance apart from the laser. They are extremely expensive due to their high-precision construction, but happily they can be found at a more affordable level second-hand from decommissioned machinery.

In this case the sensor is mounted on an X-Y gantry, and scans the part making individual point measurements. The sensor is interfaced to a Teensy, which in turn spits the data back to a PC for processing. By their own admission it’s not the most practical of builds, but for us that’s not the point. We hope that bringing these parts to the attention of our community might see them used in other ways.

We’ve featured huge numbers of 3D scanners over the years, including a look at how not to make one.

Building A Better 3D Scanner With An IPhone, And Making Art

July 14, 2022 by Lewin Day 14 Comments

Apple’s FaceID system uses infrared depth-sensing technology to authenticate people via their faces. It can also be used for simple 3D scanning, and [Scott Yu-Jan] found a better way to do that.

The main problem with using an iPhone as a 3D scanner in this manner is that the sensor is built into the front side of the device. It’s great for scanning your own face, but if you’re trying to scan an object, you can no longer see the iPhone’s screen. [Scott] solved this problem by slapping together a handheld 3D printed device to hold the iPhone along with an external monitor. This allowed Scott to scan while still seeing what was going on.

Having noticed that some of the 3D scanning apps produced strange, glitchy results when scanning faces, [Scott] decided to innovate artistically. He employed [Andrea] to model, took some scans, and Photoshopped the results into some impressive posters.

Overall, [Scott] demonstrates that it’s relatively easy to repurposed the iPhone for improved 3D scanning. With a simple design, he has a handheld scanner that works way better than just the phone on its own. Alternatively, consider getting into photogrammetry instead.

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Left: kids stomping spiders projected on a driveway. Right: the setup.

Make This Halloween A Spider-Stomping Good Time

September 30, 2021 by Kristina Panos 11 Comments

We can count on one hand the number of times that we haven’t needed a coat on Halloween night around here. Even if it was fair and sunny the day before, you can count on Halloween being appropriately windy, cold, and spooky. Trick-or-treating only keeps a kid so warm, and we would have loved to happen upon a house with a spider-stomping sugar-burning good time of a game going on in the driveway.

[Kyle Maas] built this game a few years ago, and it has proved quite popular ever since. It’s so popular, in fact, that they have to have someone on duty with a vaudeville hook to yank spectators off the playing field. The point is to stomp as many spiders as you can in a set amount of time, though you only need to stomp one to win. It can handle one to four players, depending on the size of the projection, but [Kyle] says it’s kind of hard to track more than two at a time.

The setup is fairly simple, provided you can reliably affix your projector to something sturdy. [Kyle] used a Structure sensor for the 3D scanner, but you could easily use a Kinect instead. Conversely, the calibration was challenging. [Kyle] ended up using a DSP math trick known as the inverse bilinear transform to be able to calibrate the system using the 3D scanner itself.

If you’re more into scaring the children, just rig up a coffin bell. Either way, don’t forget about our Halloween Hackfest contest, running now through Monday, October 11th. There are more details over on IO. While you’re there, why not check out the list of entries?

Better 3D Scans Through A Slowed Down Turntable

August 31, 2021 by Tom Nardi 6 Comments

3D scanners aren’t cheap, and the last thing you want to see after purchasing one is bad data. But that’s what [Dave Does] and others were getting from their Revopoint POP scanners until some communal brainstorming uncovered the reason: the motorized turntable that came with the Kickstarter edition of the product was spinning too fast for the software to accurately keep track of the object. So he decided to replace the stepper motor controller in his turntable and document the process for anyone else who’s scanner might be struggling.

In the video below, [Dave] pops open the plastic case of the turntable and reveals a pretty sparse interior. There’s an incredible amount of empty space inside, and even some mounting studs to screw down new components, should you want to get into some hardcore upgrades. But for his purposes, a generic stepper motor controller that featured a potentiometer to adjust the speed was enough. He found a suitable board online for around $5 USD, and got to designing a 3D printed bracket that mates up to the existing screw holes on the turntable.

But it’s not exactly a drop-in replacement. For one thing, you’ve got to pop a hole in the side of the enclosure for the potentiometer knob to stick out of. You’ve also got to solder wires coming from the original DC jack and power switch to the new board to get it hooked up, but at least the motor plugs right in. In the video below, you can see [Dave] demonstrate the impressively deep throttle capability of the new driver.

If you’d rather build than buy, we’ve covered some impressive DIY turntables in the past that could fit the bill nicely, from automatic models that handle camera control to fully 3D printed versions that you’ve got to crank yourself.

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A Phased-Array Ultrasonic 3D Scanner From Scratch

May 15, 2021 by Jenny List 6 Comments

Who wouldn’t want an autonomous drone to deliver cans of fizzy drink fresh from the fridge? [Alex Toussaint] did, and in thinking how such a machine might work he embarked on a path that eventually led him to create a fully functional ultrasonic 3D scanner. In writing it up he’s produced a straightforward description of how the system works, which should also be of interest to anyone curious about phased array radar. He starts with an easy-to-understand explanation of the principle behind phased array beam forming, and there follows his journey into electronics as he uses this ambitious project to learn the art from scratch. That he succeeded is testament to his ability as well as his sheer tenacity.

He finally arrived at a grid of 100 ultrasonic emitters controlled from an Arduino through a series of shift register boards. Using this he can steer his ultrasonic beam horizontally as well as vertically, and receive echoes from objects in three-dimensional space. The ornamental bird example he uses for his scanning tests doesn’t quite emerge in startling clarity, but it is still clear that an object of its size and rough shape is visible enough for the drone in his original idea to detect it. If you would like to experiment with the same techniques and array then all the resources can be found in a GitHub repository, meanwhile we’re still impressed with the progress from relative electronics novice to this. We hope the ideas within it will be developed further.