MakerBot Industries

Project Shellter has been getting a lot of love from the media this week. At this rate, Paris Shellton and Tori Shelling (the stars of the Brooklyn crabitat) will be international superstars in no time!

Check out some of the coverage that’s run so far:

Engadget

TechCrunch

Sierra Club

Wired UK

Popular Science

Geek.com

Gizmag

DVICE

Discover Magazine

Crisp Green

GeekOSystem

Care2 Causes

Shareable

MAKE Magazine

Bre also did an interview for the PRI Radio show, Living on Earth. Tune in here starting this Saturday to listen to the Project Shellter segment!

This guest post is the second part of a two part interview with Project Shellter research advisor, Dr. Katherine V. Bulinski. Part one is available here.

Photo credit

Miles Lightwood (ML): Another idea you shared was an alternate approach to addressing the shortage with printed shells. Please explain.

Dr. Katherine Bulinski (KB): One approach that was initially considered is that these printed shells could be distributed in the natural habitat if a hermit crab shortage had been identified.  We discussed the use of biodegradable plastics for such an application so that the environmental impact should be less than if you used a non-biodegradable plastic.  I think it is very important to be wary of manipulating a natural ecosystem by introducing man-made (or in this case, machine made) products as we may not recognize all of the possible effects of our actions.

Another more immediately practical approach would be to encourage people that have hermit crabs to use the printed shells instead of the natural shells available at pet stores. Part of the reason for the shell shortage in some parts of the world is over-collecting of shells in different regions.  In the natural environment, empty snail shells would either be used by a hermit crab,  be broken apart naturally to become carbonate sand, slowly dissolve into ocean water, become buried or become a surface for small organisms to grow on.  When possible we should try to leave natural ecosystems as untouched by people as possible, so printing shells for commercial use so that natural shells can remain a part of the ecosystem would be a positive goal for this project.

ML: Is there any advice or insight on hermit crabs or their shells you can provide for Project Shellter contributors?

KB: Hermit crabs evolved over time to use the shells of certain species of gastropod as homes. Most snail shells curve to the right and hermit crabs evolved to have an abdomen that curves to the right to make effective use of the shape of the snail shell. In my paper I cite research that shows crabs select shells based upon several criteria:

• Opening (aperture) size - the opening must be the correct size for the crab to use its larger left claw as kind of protective barrier
• Opening (aperture) shape - some crabs prefer round openings, while others may prefer oval openings
• Shell length and width - the shell must be the correct size to allow the crab to fully retract when threatened
• Shell weight/thickness - the crab expends energy to haul around the shell and therefore it must not be too heavy. The shell must be sturdy enough to withstand being carried around and to withstand possible attacks from predators, so it must not be too light either.
• Shell damage - in the natural world, many of the shells that are used by hermit crabs are not pristine.  Many have holes and chips along the aperture but are still used because shells are so limited in certain ecosystems.  Hermit crabs prefer shells that are undamaged as crabs in damaged shells are more easily evicted by other hermit crabs and these crabs are also more vulnerable to predators.

When printing shells for this project it may be necessary to experiment with any or all of these properties to create a shell that a hermit crab will call home. Additionally, the interior surface of a natural shell is smooth, so the lines I see on 3D prints might need to be sanded or otherwise smoothed.

ML: Do you have any last thoughts to share with Project Shellter contributors?

KB: Hermit crabs play an important scavenging role in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems and I hope this project helps to conserve the snail shells that are found in their natural habitat. I wish all contributors success and am looking forward to watching the project unfold!

ML: One more thing: do you think a printed shell will have the sound of the ocean in it like a real one?

KB: (Laughs) I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out!

Thank you Dr. Bulinski for acting as research advisor! I look forward to sharing the crowd-sourced science of Project Shellter with you.

Project Shellter is social! Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild!

• ProjectShellter.com
• @ProjectShellter
• @ShellterEast
• @ShellterWest
• Thingiverse
• ShellterEast Crabitat-cam
• bit.ly/​projectshellter

Guess what?! I got a fever, and the only prescription is more USB cables!

One of the coolest features of the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer is the enclosed electronics contained entirely within the base of the machine.  Not only does it help keep the cables organized and electronic bits out of the way, but it makes for a more polished and clean looking machine when sitting on your desk.  Once your bot is assembled, you’re going to be having too much fun making things to ever want to open it up again.

…which is the source of inspiration from today’s Thing-O-Matic pro tip courtesy of resident MakerBot software developer Matt Metts.  Matt suggests running an extra USB cable, A to B, to the extruder board inside and leaving it there.  That way you won’t have to keep opening your Thing-O-Matic each time you want to update your extruder’s firmware!

This guest post is part one of a two part interview with Project Shellter research advisor, Dr. Katherine V. Bulinski.

Photo credit

I’ve asked Dr. Katherine V. Bulinski to serve as research advisor on Project Shellter. This interview was conducted via phone and email before and after Dr. Bulinski journeyed to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands as part of her work as a Professor of Geoscience at Bellarmine University.

Miles Lightwood (ML): I was introduced to your work while researching Project Shellter. Would you please describe your involvement with hermit crabs?

Dr. Katherine Bulinski (KB): Sure. I’ve always been fascinated with hermit crabs and had them as pets when I was a kid, and actually still do! As part of my graduate studies I was fortunate enough to work with hermit crabs in a scientific context as a side project greatly differing from my main research area which broadly speaking, is an investigation of the paleoecology and diversity of fossil marine invertebrates.

The hermit crab project began as a part of a field course on predator prey interactions at Friday Harbor Laboratory on Puget Sound in Washington state.  I designed a study that tested hermit crab shell selection behavior when subjected to a variety of different experimental conditions including the presence of competition by other hermit crabs and the threat of an active predator.  The study revealed that the hermit crabs in the study were least likely to switch shells when exposed to other hermit crabs, which may be an indication that competition for shells is actually a greater danger to the crabs than predators.  This study was published with the title “Shell-Selection Behavior of the Hermit Crab Pagurus granosimanus in Relation to Isolation, Competition, and Predation” in the Journal of Shellfish Research (2007).  I hope some of my knowledge about hermit crab behavior can be beneficial to the project.

ML: In layperson’s terms, please describe what a hermit crab is and its place within the ecosystem.

KB: Sure. A hermit crab is a type of crustacean (the group that contains lobsters, shrimp and crabs among other organisms)  and hermit crabs have a fossil record extending back to the Cretaceous (when dinosaurs were still roaming the earth).  Hermit crabs are different from most other crustaceans in that their abdomen is not covered with an exoskeleton.  For this reason, the crab needs to cover their vulnerable soft body part with a protective covering, which in most cases is the shell left behind by a deceased snail.  As the hermit crabs grow, they need to find larger and larger shells.  When adequately sized shells are unavailable, the desperate crabs either occupy shells that are much too small for them, or may occupy whatever they can find: broken beer bottles, shotgun shells, plastic pipe. It’s sad to see.

One of the reasons why I love hermit crabs is that contrary to their name, hermit crabs are very social creatures. In the wild, they can live in groups of hundreds or even thousands (I saw a huge colony while traveling in Panama a few years ago), climbing atop one another while scavenging for food and are frequently investigating shells (whether they are empty or occupied by a snail or fellow hermit crab) as they search for a better “home”. Living in a colony ensures a wide selection of differently sized shells will be available – essential for growing crabs.

ML: We discussed some of the experiment design for the project, and you suggested several interesting strategies.

KB: Yes, well-designed experiments are critical for good science. We recently discussed the layout of the crab habitat, or the “crabitat” and established that if we wish to encourage shell switching behaviors, it should not be setup as it might be for pet hermit crabs.  While it is important to provide lots of moist sand, water and food,  there should not be any other objects in the crabitat (like sticks to crawl on).  The removal of these items would increase the likelihood that the crabs would investigate the printed shells. Once experimentation is over, the various huts and branches that make for excellent additions to a pet hermit crab terrarium can be introduced to the crabitat.

We also discussed that the various models of the printed shells should also be identified in some way. Since the plastic comes in different colors, coloration is an easy way to distinguish one shell design from another. Numbering them is another.

The interest in the use of printed shells can be assessed in a few ways:

• Examination – Before a crab switches shells, it first investigates the new shell by rolling it around and inserting various appendages into the opening of the shell. If this behavior occurs, it validates that the crab recognizes the printed shell as a type of potential “home” whether or not the crab chooses to occupy it.  When crabs engage in these kinds of behaviors, they are ensuring that the shells are in fact empty, and the dimensions of the shell are appropriate for the crab.  Hermit crabs will often engage in this behavior, sometimes investigating the same shell multiple times before switching shells or moving on to another behavior.  It is not known whether the crabs will be deterred by a shell made out of a material other than the natural calcium carbonate that makes up natural snail shells.
• Switching – If the shell passes examination, the crab may try on the shell, and this happens very rapidly so as to minimize the risk from predators or from other hermit crabs. Sometimes after switching shells, for whatever reason,  the crab has cold feet (or cold chelipeds in this case) and switches back to the original shell. This kind of behavior frequently occurs with natural shells so it may occur with the printed ones.
• Adoption – When a crab adopts a printed shell and resides within it after switching to begin a new kind of behavior (e.g., eating, resting, digging in the sand)  it is likely that the hermit crab prefers the new shell over the old shell.  If this adoption happens multiple times among the different crabs residing in the experimental crabitats,  it is likely that the printed shells could be useful to the pet hermit crab trade

Part two of the interview will be available tomorrow!

Project Shellter is social! Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild!

• ProjectShellter.com
• @ProjectShellter
• @ShellterEast
• @ShellterWest
• Thingiverse
• ShellterEast Crabitat-cam
• bit.ly/​projectshellter

If you’ve been using any recent versions of ReplicatorG, you may be familiar with this dialog box.  It’s Print-O-Matic, a feature that was added to RepG in version 0025 (which should be pronounced “double-oh twenty-five,” as in “double-oh seven”) which is designed to make it easier to find workable Skeinforge settings for various layer heights and speeds.

While Print-O-Matic is fairly straightforward to use, we’ve had some requests from power users who wanted to know a bit more about exactly what it does, and some requests from less-advanced users who want to know good strategies for using it.  That’s why we’ve whipped up this documentation page which has both sorts of information.  You’ll find basic usage info there as well as tips on how to go deeper if you want to.

If you’ve been wondering about that “Print-o-Matic” thing, hopefully this will answer your burning questions.

Chris Fenton is building an electromechanical computer!

Q: “Why build an electromechanical computer?”
A: “Because I have a 3D printer, and I can”

Thanks Eric Skiff! Via NYCResistor

Big ups to Dropcam for supporting the project and being the first official sponsor of Project Shellter. They sent us two dropcams and the first one at the Botcave is live! Hermit crabs are nocturnal creatures so they’ll move around more at night! Do your part to participate in Project Shellter and keep watch over the live feed and drop a comment if you see them do anything interesting like try and climb into one of the printed shells!

MUGNY OpenSCAD Study Group

This Thursday evening at the MakerBot Workshop, the New York MakerBot User Group (MUGNY) will launch a monthly Study Group focusing on the parametric CAD application OpenSCAD. OpenSCAD is cross-platform and open-source, a phenomenally powerful tool that has been getting quite a bit of attention on Thingiverse and beyond. And if it is a wee bit under-documented, counter-intuitive, and eccentric, well….that is where a Study Group comes in!

Those of us pulling this study group together (Liz Arum, Jon Santiago, and Matt Griffin) believe strongly that a wider audience of MakerBot Operators (and Thingiverse Modelers) will embrace this tool and push it even further if many of us roll up our sleeves and do the footwork to compile and generate curriculum, tutorials, libraries, and example files that demonstrate practically how to use this application.

We will be kicking off by revisiting MakerBlock and Allan Ecker’s excellent tutorial series on the Thingiverse and MakerBot blogs, investigating in-development tools such as Marty McGuire’s OpenSCAD Polygon Output for Inkscape, experimenting and reporting on the many many OpenSCAD libraries you can grab from Thingiverse and beyond, and generally digging in deep to see what we can find.

If you are MakerBot Operator in the greater New York area and want to attend, please RSVP via Eventbrite for event location details.

Before you arrive to the first session, please take a look at MakerBlock’s OpenSCAD Basics tutorial series — and make sure to get OpenSCAD installed and ready to go before you arrive:

1. OpenSCAD Basics: The Setup
2. OpenSCAD Basics: 2D Forms
3. OpenSCAD Basics: 3D forms
4. OpenSCAD Basics:  Manipulating Forms

______

Start Yer Own Study Group

Members of MUGNY decided to jump into OpenSCAD for our Study Group, but there are quite a few topics and areas of research out there in the Thingiverse for other MakerBot User Groups to tackle.

If you’d like to start your own Study Group, please do so! Declare a meeting and get started with your investigations. But once you are underway, let us know what topic your group has picked and when you and your fellow MakerBot Operators and Thingiverse Modelers will be meeting for the second and later meetings so that we can share details here on the MakerBot blog to reach everyone in your area who might be available to chip in!

Some popular topics that MUGNY considered before selecting OpenSCAD:

• “Finishing Techniques” — Your MakerBot wrapped up printing a part– now what else can you do with it? What paints, sandpapers, adhesives and solvents work best?
• “Blender for Solid Modelers” — Blender has a reputation for being intimidating that might be shifting away with the release of 2.5 and 2.6. But still, with so many tools and modifiers and techniques — which are the best practices for using Blender for MakerBotting?

Part Catch Basket for Thing-O-Matic by dustinandrews

Designing 3D objects in OpenSCAD can be very quick and simple. ¹  You can create some really amazing designs by just combining cubes and cylinders in a variety of ways.  However, making a design “parametric” isn’t always intuitive.  As an FYI, a parametric design in OpenSCAD is a design that accepts parameters.

There are a lot of OpenSCAD designs on Thingiverse where the author admits their design isn’t very “parametric.”  With a little effort and a few tips, it is possible to incorporate the power of OpenSCAD parameters into your own designs.  Since I learned some of these lessons when designing an OpenSCAD pirate ship, I’ll refer back to it for examples.

1. Parameters first.  It is so much easier to make your designs parametric from the start.  Going back and making a design parametric can be as easy as find-and-replacing, but typically it is much more work than that.  If there’s any chance you might want to have a parametric version of your designs later – just design that way from the beginning.
   
2. Prioritize.  Decide on the most important parameters first.  Most designs only have a few parameters that are really important.  For example, the two most critical features of the pirate ship were the ship’s scale, as in size, and the thickness of parts.  Once these two were known, most of the other features of the design needed to be modified to fit them.
3. Dependents.  Try to make as many of the features of your designs dependent upon the initial parameters as possible.  The easiest way to do this is to design as much as possible in terms of the original parameters.  I like to do this by setting dependent objects as fractions of the original parameters.  In the example of the pirate ship, I made the largest sail on each of the masts equal to 1/2 the size of the masts themselves.  The other sails were even smaller fractions.  By making these features defined in relation to one another by fractions, they will always end up in the same appropriate locations with respect to one another.  Thus, the three sails on each mast should always line up together.  Throughout the design, I tended to design things in terms of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64.  These fractions are easier for me to manage than decimals.
4. Mix it up.  While you’re designing, change some of the major parameters.  If your model suddenly goes haywire, you know you made a mistake somewhere – either by including a feature that doesn’t rely on your parameters or by a feature that is changed by your parameters in unexpected ways.
5. Modularize.  Start by designing just one aspect of your idea at a time as a module.  Doing so will let you define whole regions of your designs in relation to one another.  For example, one of the modules I wrote for the pirate ship was for a single sail.  I wrote another module that would put together three sales of decreasing sizes and another module that added the large triangular sail and mast itself.  Yet another module collected all three sails.  Once the three sails could be created by a single module, I could move all of the sails around as a single piece.
6. Cheat.  One of the parameters for the cylinder function is “$fn”.  This basically dictates how many facets the circumference of your cylinder will have.  A cylinder with 8 facets will look like an octagon and a cylinder with 128 facets would probably look almost perfectly circular.  I cheated by making triangles by creating cylinders with “$fn=3″ or just three facets.  There are a lot of shape libraries for OpenSCAD, but this was a quick and simple way to get an equilateral triangle.  Each of the sails is actually a cylinder, turned on its side, with just three facets along the circumference.

What other suggestions do you have for someone who wants to make their designs parametric?

1. Thanks to dustinandrews for tagging their Part Catch Basket for Thing-O-Matic as with “openscadtutorial” on Thingiverse! [↩]

Here’s another amazing assembly from a fearless thingiverse user, Sublime.

I know what you’re asking yourself — what’s in that box?  Why is he turning that crank attached to the box?  What’s going to— OH WOW!

Yes, that’s right.  It’s a fully-printable Jack-in-the-Box, or as the French say, diable en boîte.  This is a really cool, fully-printable project.  Excellent work!

I do have one small point to raise — most Jack-in-the-boxes (Jacks-in-the-box?) are also music boxes that play a certain melody…what was it…oh yeah, Pop Goes the Weasel!

Jack in the box by Sublime

Moved to Github github.com/Intrinsically-Sublime/Jack-in-the-box

This thing brought to you by