Clockwork Library & Printable Clock Script by syvwlch

Thingiverse citizen Pattywac recently organized a team design challenge called “MakerBot United.”  The winning team receives $60.00 from Pattywac plus $100.00 in MakerBot store credit provided by MakerBot Industries!  Without further ado, the results are now in!

First, I’d like to apologize for the delay.  I have been extremely busy lately and kept putting off the judging and announcement…. until now!

There were some great group entries to the design challenge, but the one that seemed to click (tick?) with the community, had the largest working group, and was one of the more complex entries (yet still well designed) was the “Clockwork Library and Printable Clock Script” by syvwlch.  syvwlch collaborated with rustedrobot, barrychuck, and MakerBlock to iterate and improve on the design, making it a great entry for the challenge.  The $66 from me (~$6 from various Flattr donations) will be distributed to the team members via Paypal and the rest will be coordinated through MBI.  Congrats to everyone for the great entries.  I really enjoy seeing the creativity in designs that I hope is at least partially sparked by the design challenges.

Since MakerBlock assists in part of the design challenge process but still wanted to partake, we agreed ahead of time¹ that if he was on the winning team his portion of the winnings would be split amongst the remaining team members.  This means that the $166 total prize pool will be split between syvwlch, rustedrobot, and barrychuck.

It has been really amazing to watch the evolution of the printable clock.  These kinds of cooperative exercises are what open source is about.  Rustedrobot and barrychuck were able to print and test multiple components of the printable clock even as they helped contributed to the improvements of the design.  The amount of dedication from these guys in printing multiple test rigs and revisions is pretty incredible.  And, let’s not forget that Syvwlch has been designing all this time without the benefit of ever getting to use a 3D printer himself – having to completely rely upon his teammates for feedback on the designs!

Congratulations to Syvwlch, rustedrobot, and barrychuck!

1. MakerBlock: In case it matters to anyone, I don’t take part in any of the criteria selection, judging, or decision making process. [↩]

United We Stand

Thingiverse champion Pattywac has another challenge for you (and your friends)! ¹  The chosen design will receive $60.00 from Pattywac and $100.00 in MakerBot store credit provided by MakerBot Industries!  Here are the details:

I purchased Makerbot #182 and for a long time just made improvements based on forum and thingiverse posts….. until I started meeting with other Makerbotters in the Madison area (thanks to MBI for the push on this one).  I was inspired by how much better my Makerbot prints are turning out since discussing it with others face to face and so I thought…. What better way to make designs better than to get people working on them together in the “United We Makerbot” Design Challenge.

The prize will be $60 cash (xferd via paypal from me) split between the team members and $100 in Makerbot store credit also split between the team members.

Here are the rules :

1. Needs to be printable (at least partly… Unicorns and Frostruders included) on a Makerbot
2. Each design needs to be the combined work of two or more people (one person will submit the design and anyone that helped will post a comment on that thing)
3. Post submissions on Thingiverse by 8pm CST on May 1, 2011.
4. Multiple entries are allowed, but they must be distinct from one another.
5. To enter be sure and tag your Thing with the word “MakerbotUnited”

The entries will be judged using the following criteria (each category is weighted):

• Number of Likes on Thingiverse
• Number of times it has been made by someone else
• Average Thingiverse rating
• Printability (not just fitting it in the space but also how many separate prints are required)
• Effort put into design (based on testing and revisions (if at all needed), how well does it fit the challenge)
• Mechanical design (based on # of pieces, possible modes for failure, etc)
• Does it build on previous challenge winners?
• Future for use in other Thingiverse designs
• Are multiple (editable) file formats provided?
• Number of Thingiverse citizens that took part in the design and implementation (no more than 7 people on a team…. I’ve seen first hand how quickly larger teams can turn to frustration)

I’m normally a lot more excited about these design challenges.  But, I just know I’m going to get picked last again…

1. Photo courtesy of Randy Wade [↩]