Science Projects

Stratasys Acquiring MakerBot In $403M Deal, Combined Company Will Likely Dominate 3D Printing Industry @ TechCrunch. Today Stratasys announced that it has acquired MakerBot, as we reported, in a stock deal worth $403 million based on the current share value of Stratasys. The combination of the companies brings together a leader in 3D industrial printing and manufacturing, with the emerging leader in desktop 3D printing, which the companies said in a press release should help drive “faster adoption of 3D printing” across all categories. MakerBot will continue to operate as a separate company from Stratasys as part of the deal, which is reportedly stock-for-stock transaction. It’ll be a subsidiary of MakerBot, but will serve the consumer and desktop market segment while Stratasys continues to focus on its existing industry placement. MakerBot was founded in 2009, and has since sold over 22,000 3D printers, with its most recent model making up 11,000 of those sales coming from the Replicator 2, which it launched back in September 2012. That means traction is on the upswing in a big way, something which no doubt helped pave the way for the deal.

[Saeid Momtahan] made a couple of attachments that let him use his angle grinder as a bench grinder. It may be better to refer to it as a bench motor, as he uses both a grinding wheel and a wire brush while showing off his project. The attachments come in two parts. The first is a piece of square tube that runs parallel to the body of the grinder on the side opposite the handle. This doubles as a larger gripping area when using it as an angle grinder, as well as giving him something to clamp in his bench vise. The second attachment serves as a rest for the work piece. Above you can see him brushing some rusty stock clean with the wire attachment. It’s nice to have the option of doubling up a tool’s tasks rather than buying yet another item that may not get used all that much. We also love the idea of building your own tools. If you don’t have a welding rig to fabricate these add-ons here’s a li-ion battery based system to get you thinking. [Thanks Rob] Filed under: tool hacks

Hipster Circuits has started a page to document the problems he runs into with the BeagleBone Black, and the solutions to those problems.  The first problem posted: Unable to log in via SSH  I’ve had a lot of trouble with logging in via SSH. One of the reasons is that the dropbear RSA key is corrupted. I think it might be related to having two BBBs.

Art Basel in Switzerland is arguably the epicenter of the contemporary art scene. As technology creeps in amidst more traditional mediums, illumination has taken the limelight. Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson showcased an LED orb similar to last year’s and American Spencer Finch created a colorful modern twist on 60s modernist lighting with colorful fluorescent tube lighting. via coolhunting: Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson is best known for his elemental use of basic materials to enhance his large-scale sculptures and installations. For Basel he presented “Your Two-Tone Dawn Light”, a hanging sculpture made of colored glass and LED lights encased in an aluminum and steel skeleton. Spencer Finch’s “49 Years Ago (Starlight)” Olafur Eliasson’s Orb from 2012′s Basel show.

Courtesy of the United States Navy comes this incredible introduction to analog mechanical computers. The context for this is that massive, mechanical computers were used aboard US Navy ships ranging from destroyers to battleships, from about 1944-1969, as part of the “Fire Control” system.  This type of computer would take up to 25 continuously changing input variables in order to calculate the proper bearing and elevation for heavy caliber guns aboard the ship.  This calculation— to ensure that a projectile will land at the place where the target is going to be —is marvelously complex, taking into account variables such as wind speed and direction, relative velocity of the ship and target, and parallax between the different guns on the ship.  What’s truly remarkable is that it was all done with mechanical  mechanisms such as gear differentials, cams, and mechanical integrators. This two-part training film, from 1953, introduces the basic mechanisms that made these computers work: Basic Mechanisms in Fire Control Computers, Part 1 discusses shafts, gears, cams, and differentials (19:39). Note that the first couple of minutes are not so much about the mechanisms, but more of an explanation— to the servicemen —of why they needed to learn about them.  (Video embedded above; link here) Basic Mechanisms in Fire Control Computers, Part 2 discusses component solvers, integrators, and multipliers (23:25).  (Video embedded above; link here) If you enjoy these training films, you may also want to read through the little book entitled Ordnance Pamphlet 1140: Basic Fire Control Mechanisms, available here in PDF format, which covers much of the same ground.

Startups and Investors Bet on the Drone Economy @ Entrepreneur.com. Entrepreneurs and investors are betting on a future full of flying robots that can be programmed to do anything from survey crops or wildlife to delivering vaccines to remote villages in Africa. It may sound a little like something out of an episode of The Jetsons, but the reality is the Federal Aviation Administration is required to implement regulations to integrate commercial drones into the national airspace by 2015, meaning flying robots are going to become a lot more common in the U.S. But entrepreneurs aren’t waiting for the FAA deadline before building their startups. The moment is too ripe with opportunity to not jump in the commercial drone business now, those in the burgeoning space say. “It’s just one of those moments,” said Chris Anderson, co-founder and chief executive of 3D Robotics, which makes unmanned automated vehicles (UAVS). “It’s the economy at scale. Those technologies that used to be incredibly expensive are now very cheap and getting better and faster than any other technology in history.”

Trandi made this simple DIY Servo tester based on ATTiny85: I had to test a RC speed controller that I wanted to use to control an electric car window motor, and for the 100th time I was facing the same dilemma: find 8 batteries for my remote control, dismount the RX part from the quadcopter and use that, OR grab the Arduino and write quickly some code to generate the corresponding signals? Neither of which was actually particularly handy… So I finally decided to build a small stand alone servo tester. DIY servo tester based on ATTiny85 - [Link]

Kevin Rye built this E-Paper clock and wrote a detailed explanation on his blog describing the build: I still have to put the finishing touches on the code. Instead of having the display constantly update, I’d like to set an alarm on the DS3231 RTC to go off once a minute, and only update the display on alarm. Hopefully I’ll save some battery power that way. As of now, the battery only lasts a couple of days. I built in a USB battery charger to make it easier to charge it. I got my PCBs in from OSHPark and put it all together in an 80mm x 80mm Sick of Beige case. Check it out! [via] E-Paper clock in a Sick of Beige case - [Link]

Do you think programming is difficult? Did you think Robotics is just for programmers? We don´t think so. Our aim is to make robotics accessible to everyone.At Minirobots we have developed mOwayduino, an open source robot, based on Arduino technology. mOwayduino robot is ready to program, with multiple built-in sensors, motors and more.You don´t need to have any robotics background to start working with mOwayduino. Let’s play robotics with mOwayduino - [Link]

It looks like a consumer good, but this PBX server blade was built by [Benoit Frigon] over the last couple of years. It brings multiple telephone extensions to his home service. The device runs Asterisk open source PBX software. Because it will be on all the time he wanted something that doesn’t draw a lot of power. The 500 Mhz system seen on the left has just a half a gig of ram. It’s enough to do the job and at 10 Watts it’s not going to break the bank when it comes to paying the electric bills. The board in the middle is used to interface the analog handsets with the land line. From the look of it he’s got it rigged for two extensions. That’s all somewhat par for the course with PBX rigs, but the enclosure is where he really shines. [Benoit] used 22 gauge aluminum sheet to fabricate the enclosure which is designed to blend in with the rest of his home’s rack mount hardware. To provide control at the rack he added his own LCD and touch-sensitive button interface to the front of the case based on a PIC 18F2520. The system can also be accessed via the web thanks to a custom interface he coded. Filed under: home hacks