MakerBot Industries

Gnome and Gnome

There is no doubt Tony Buser has definitely done more for the 3D printing community than anyone else when it comes to advancing gnome duplication and teleportation technology.  However, I’m convinced that his SpinScan open source software and hadware has a larger potential besides assisting in the controversial practice of gnome cloning. ¹  Tony hasn’t finalized the materials list, but the final project would probably involve a decent web camera with good low light performance² , a cheap laser³ , a stepper driver, a stepper motor, an arduino, a few bearings, threaded rod, and some nuts and bolts.  The whole lot would set you back around $200 and significantly less if you can scavenge a few parts.

So, if you could scan and print anything, what would it be?⁴

Spinscan by tbuser

Gnome Scan #3 by tbuser

This one came out pretty well and is the most complete 360 degree gnome scan yet. It was also the first scan using my new printed turntable and spinscan software from thingiverse.com/thing:9972 Spinscan isn't calculating the Z axis correctly, so if you download the point cloud you'll see it was stretched. I had to shrink the Z axis in blender. Other then that and 2 steps in meshlab, it required no cleanup or merging of multiple point clouds, spinscan got a complete scan of all sides in one go.

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1. I mean, the anti-gnome-stem-cell lobby is just insane! [↩]
2. Perhaps around $100 [↩]
3. He got a $4 laser from eBay [↩]
4. But, perhaps a better question is…  what are you waiting for?! [↩]

See that compact grid of 36 white LEDs in the picture? It’s called the openVolver. Just about the size of a wrestler’s fist, the openVolver can store thousands of animation patterns on a memory card that you can design individually on just about any computer.

Friends, this is no ordinary blinky project.  Those 36 LEDs are diffused, have 255 levels of thumb-wheel controlled brightness, run on a single 9V battery and can be worn on a lanyard (oh, you’ll be noticed).  We’ve already included 59 separate animations with intriguing names like ‘edgewerks‘,  ’snuggles_butts‘ and ‘4 drunks‘. I’ll give you a hint on that last one, 4 friends (as LEDs of course) trying desperately to find each other in the night, but never quite pulling it off.

If you’re too modest to wear it on your chest, we’ve included a plexiglass faceplate that can turn it into a great desktop companion (it’s very easy to use with a DC power supply). And if you have access to a makerbot, we can’t wait to to see what kind of holders and cases you’ll upload to Thingiverse.

The openVolver comes as a kit that anyone with some modest soldering skills can build. To get a sense of it, take a look at the clearly laid out instructions and the animation software right here.

the openVolver is a lovely design by our very talented friends at the New York art collective Image Node . They’ve been making the openVolver in various incarnations and taking them to Burning Man for many years – so we know this Blinkytronic  can in the very least withstand playa dust.

So why wait? Go to the makerbot store and order one today!

Here’s something a bit different: an abstract, decorative pattern printable in hexagonal sections.  Thingiverse creator fdavies‘ descriptions are more than a bit opaque, but it seems like clever makers could come up with any number of pretty awesome uses for something like this.  I’m thinking of printing a bunch of these to line a window and create a light-filtering-through-arabesque kind of effect.  I’m hoping it will make my bathroom seem like Granada.  (I might have to make a loop of some Spanish guitar music to enhance the effect; some tilework wouldn’t hurt either.)

What other decorative designs are hiding in plain sight among the down-to-earth engineering solutions found on Thingiverse?  Has anybody used something like this for a striking, high-design installation in their office/apartment/dorm room/nerd cave?  Let us know in the comments.

Hexagonal lattice by fdavies

An attractive pattern I found in an old book.

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Hexagonal lattice 2 by fdavies

Another attractive pattern from an old book.

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