One of the nice things about being an open source hardware based company is that we don’t need to keep our R&D efforts under wraps. Infact, we do all of our R&D out in the open. Our public facing subversion repository (http://svn.makerbot.com) is where you can find the latest developments that we’re working on. As all of our hardware designs are based on digital files, its easy for us to post them for all to see.
The reason behind this post is two-fold. First, I’d like to start blogging regularly about new developments. Things like new prototypes, new ideas, and stuff like that. Some of these things will probably be failures and would otherwise never see the light of day. Others may work but not be practical or useful. Some lucky ones will work great and fit with what we want to do and get turned into products. All of this information is useful and valuable the community and should be shared.
The second reason is that I’d like to give a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ look into MakerBot, how we operate, what we’re thinking about, and perhaps show ways in which the community can participate in the development of our shared technology. If it shows that we’re not some faceless MegaCorp of just 5 people, well thats a nice bonus too. To start, I’d like to give a tour of the various resources where development is taking place:
MakerBot Subversion
URL: http://svn.makerbot.com
This is the main repository where most of our development takes place. This is where our electronics, cupcake cnc, plastruder, frostruder, and many other things are stored. Each of us also has our own personal directory where we do more experimental work. Here’s a few useful directories:
http://svn.makerbot.com/trunk/ – this is where the main development happens. we try to keep it stable, but dont assume things from this folder work. this is where the latest and greatest stuff is though. http://svn.makerbot.com/tags/ – this is where we ‘tag’ the releases once they’re ready for public consumption. you can get it from here or our google code project. http://svn.makerbot.com/users/ – these are our own personal directories where Bre, Adam, and I do our hacking. We usually put stuff in here that is highly experimental that may or may not work. Sort of a playground for hacking, if you will.
We are trying out Github as our repository for the Firmware and ReplicatorG. Github and git in general are really great for distributed development. Since people are more likely to collaborate with us on the code side of things, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them. If this experiment works out, we may switch over our entire repository to Git. Who knows?
Community
Of course all the sourcecode in the world is meaningless unless you have a community. Most of the Makerbot community resides on the MakerBot operators group. There’s also a growing dev list for ReplicatorG. If you’re interested in helping out… just dig into the source and see what you think. Hit us up in the makerbot operators group with any progress you make!
A few weeks ago, we attended the awesome Yahoo Open Hack Day in Times Square. We brought along a couple makerbots, some prototype extruders, and some half formed ideas. Over the course of the 24 hour hackathon our ideas solidified. We had a prototype frostruder, various things to frost with, and we set forth to print ‘All the news thats fit to eat.’ Along the way we bumped into Richard Morris, a producer for CNN that shot some video of the bot. Somehow we even made it into the final cut. Yahoo hack day was a really great experience and we had a blast. Yahoooooo!
MakerBot got to take the stage at Web2.0Summit this last week in San Francisco. Check it out and then watch the other companies including Daniel Fletcher (CellScope), Rolf Herken (mental images GmbH), Jacquelyn Ford Morie (USC Institute for Creative Technologies), and Dennis Crowley (foursquare).
I’ve been at Noisebridge a lot while in San Francisco and I hung out with Orion as he tuned up the resident MakerBot. Orion says:
Just in time for Halloween is this skull throwie. I used a quick and dirty approach to prep this model from 3dcool.net for printing using blender. you will most likely want to tweak the model for higher quality since this was intended as a test. Enjoy! Instructions: Print Model. Tape two leds to a lithium battery (CR2032 or similar). Affix to bottom of skull using hot glue or more tape. Feed the protruding leds through the eye sockets. Add a magnet and chuck at any ferrous surface.
FLOSS stands for Free Libre Open Source Software and the FLOSS Weekly podcast is a great open source focused podcast. They had Bre of MakerBot Industries on the show to chat about, well, MakerBot. Give it a listen. Here’s the MP3!
I asked him some questions about MakerBotting and he wrote his answers all up on his wiki!
You got a MakerBot. What were you thinking?
I was fortunate to be going through university in the early ’90s right when Linux was making the rounds – Math and Engineering, Control and Communications Systems program at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. (Cool! There wasn’t a Control and Robotics option back then.) That box of a hundred-odd 3.5″ floppies landed on my desk and I was plunged into the second emerging wave of Open Source software – the first being the BSD origins of UNIX. With healthy wiki, forum, google group and twitterextended participation (to name a few channels), the RepRap+MakerBot+Thingiverse projects feel like they could be leading a third wave of open source innovation and community.
ShopBot was a possibility, but even the small model would have taken up sizable space in the garage. With small children in the house, noise was a significant factor; subtractive CNC is rarely quiet. A laser cutter would have been cool, but I couldn’t justify the cash with a service like Ponoko at hand with a broader range of materials and community experience to pull on. They do steel too!
I watched Desktop Factory development make progress and start taking pre-orders but couldn’t bring myself to pull that trigger. There were too many unknowns for me around input material which made it feel too much like the old 2D printer ink/toner game; we’ll sell you the printer cheap and make money on the proprietary ink/toner cartridges. Also, with an opaque development process it’s hard to grow a community beyond the hard-core, existing (ab)users of the tech.
I’ve been a closet Industrial Design (ID) enthusiast for years. The local ID school (http://id.carleton.ca/) recently started a Masters program, but what with parental obligations and startup-style work schedules there’s little time left to entertain that sort of additional commitment. My Makerbot provides me with an outlet to explore the whole design process at my own pace. Perhaps one day I’ll enroll… At least by then I’ll have something in the way of a portfolio!
No matter what happens in the future, since all aspects of the hardware and software are open sourced, my MakerBot will always have a repair and upgrade path. It’s very much about reconnecting with the materials around me. My tools are extensions of me, the cyborg me if you will.
What was it like building it?
It took many short morning and evening sessions over the course of two months to get my MakerBot operational – unboxed on May 5th, 2009 to first-print on June 27th, 2009. Such is life with parental obligations and a day-job that pays well.
On the other hand, my Basement Isolation Booth took from August 31st, 2006 to February 24th, 2007 to reach a useable state. Slow build-time is relative.
Figuring out how to do SMD for my first-edition cupcake was worth the price of admission. Looking back on it, I can’t believe I waited that long to gear up for that skill!
What excites you about the future?
I’m watching RepRap Mendel intently, particularly the bit about it making its own electronics. Being in the microelectronics and by extension MEMS industry, coming up with ever-smaller makerbots using the previous generation is a most intriguing proposition. It’s now a question of how long will it be until – not if – we will have home atom-pusher replicators? Closed-cycle fabrication. All that is old shall be remade anew. I’m saving up all my spent rafts and trimmings for this part.
Loke Uei got a MakerBot and filmed the unboxing. You can see what’s inside a MakerBot Deluxe Kit! It looks like he ordered some extra ABS too! Happy MakerBotting Loke!
We can only guess that this is the Hot Proceed folks making this video. They’re showing how strong the parts are, but really it’s a chance to check out their awesome robot head!
Besides having an awesome hackerspace in a cave. The CCCKC crew put together an awesome MakerBot with a custom case. Also, check out their beautiful ABS winder! Click through for more details!
