DIY 3D Printer: The CandyFab 4000 Machine

Just when you thought the Fabaloo DIY Fab@Home 3D Printer machine was a big sticky mess by squirting goo onto things, there is a new even more sticky 3d Printer design you have to see. The CandyFab 4000 machine by a company called Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories is a DIY 3D printer that utilizes hot air and sugar to craft real life 3D objects. The low-cost method used in this 3d printer is called Selective Hot Air Sintering and Melting (SHASAM). The printer uses sugar as a powder they is laid onto a flat bed in thin layers, then the CNC hot air blower melts the sugar wherever the 3d computer model has a solid body. As each layer finishes a new layer of sugar is put on and the process is repeated until the entire model is complete. After completed, the heated and melted sugar is very hard and glassy. The finished object is a bit rough on the edges, but can be smoothed out. The 3d sugar printer can fabricate fairly large scale objects.

The software for the CandyFab 4000 3D printing machine is designed to be open source for the DIY do it yourself home builder. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories wants this project to be available for interested hobbyists who want an alternative more affordable rapid prototyping machine. The open source software makes this a project that other people can help improve as well. Hopefully in the near future the designs will be greatly improved with higher resolution prototypes.

The CandyFab 4000 printer is the cheapest 3d printer available today, the total cost of building this 3D printer is only around $1000 plus some spare parts laying around. That is much less than any other design out there. And not only that, you can build it yourself! There are even 3D Google Sketchup models available online for free. All you have to do is order the parts and send some of the parts to local machine shops to make the parts and then you have you very own personal 3d Printer! I think it’s a great project because the materials are so affordable! At the cost of only $1000 you could even build more than one! B)

Links:

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

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Robots Made From Trash

Here is a clip where Paul Merton is in China visiting Mr Woo who designs robots at his home out of junk and rubbish or whatever recycled junk parts he finds laying around. Mr. Woo’s robots are quite inventive, he even designed a 2 legged robot capable of pulling himself around in a rickshaw cart. However, most of Mr. Woo’s robots appear to be innovative, but fairly unconventional. Mr Woo is a rural Chinese farmer who taught himself to build fun kinetic robots. He has no money, no education, and no decent materials to work from but he ends up making pretty sophisticated and quirky-looking robots that can walk, pour tea, and best of all, pull a rickshaw. They are even quite hilarious, he gets great kudos for imagination. >D His wife hates it, but isn’t that always the case with every inventor? :)


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Robo-One Competition in Japan

The Robo-One competition is a competition between biped humanoid robots. The competition typically consists of various battles between the robots that test the capabilities of each.

ROBO-ONE 14 is scheduled for October 11th – 12th, 2008.

Here are a few pics Of past Robo-One competitions:

Robo-One Official Website (translated to english from japanese by google)

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Military Transport Robot: BigDog

BigDog is one of the next generation military assist machines in development right now. Big Dog is a research and development project by Boston Dynamics. The Big Dog project is funded by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Boston Dynamics claims Big Dog is the most advanced quadruped robot on earth. BigDog runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble and carries a 340 lb load. BigDog can even walk over terrain such as ice and snow to reach its destination. It also has amazing balancing skills, in the video you can watch someone kick Big Dog from the side and it knows how to recover itself without falling over. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight. This is an amazing robot, when the final production model makes it to the troops it will be a huge help in areas where it is unsafe for people to travel. From the U-Tube description

“BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog’s legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.”

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Robot Monty Throws and Catches a Ball

Go Monty! You can do it!
This robot named Monty is a dynamically balancing robot designed and built by Trevor Blackwell of Anybots Inc. This robot has been trained to throw and catch a ball. It appears to drop the ball often, but the robot Monty does catch the ball when Trevor Blackwell throws it. I think this robot is cool because it not only balances on 2 wheels, it also is able to catch a ball with it’s mechanical robot hand and throw it back without falling over.

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New 3D Solidworks Models of Hardware and Electrical Components

PropellerCode.com is proud to announce the new addition of free 3D Solidworks Models of various hardware and Electrical Components.

We feel it is important that you design your robots with the best tools avaliable! That is why we here are PropellerCode.com are now releasing these 3D Solidworks models to you free of charge! How could you ask for more!?!

On the main 3D Solidworks models page you will find Solidworks models in native Solidworks 2008 format. The files are all in .sldprt format for your ease of use!

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Music Video: The Robots

Kraftwerk -The Robots(Lost in Space Version)

Lost in Space has got to be one the most classic robot shows ever made. Here is an Old-School video that I believe was done quite well. The Song is called The Robots by Kraftwerk.

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Upcoming Events for Parallax Inc.

Here are the upcoming events Parallax Inc. will be involved with in the next few months.

Conferences:

  • June 10-11, 2008 – Sensors Expo & Conference

Educator’s Courses and Trainings:

  • May 16-17, 2008 – Basic Stamp Educators Course (2-days) at Hartnell College in Salinas, CA. The presenter will be Andy lindsay.
  • June 16-19, 2008 – American Radio Relay league (ARRL) Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology at the Parallax office in Rocklin, CA. The presenter well be Mark Spencer.
  • August 4-5, 2008 – Basic Stamp Educators Course (2-days) at Hartnell College in Salinas, CA. There will be a beginner and intermediate option for those attending. The presenter will be Andy lindsay.
  • August 6-7,2008 – The VTEA Summer Conference Booth and 1.5 hour introductory seminars.

If you are interested in attending a Parallax training session, here is a link to their Educator’s Courses

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Funny Human Robot Fight

Here is some good humor to give you a morning laugh, a brutal robot fight.  This isn’t just any old fight between two people, it’s an epic battle between 2 robots to show who will be victorious. But there can be only one robot champion, and in order to win you must play by the rules of the robots… or not…

error… error… error… :P

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Practical Robots: A Beer Drinkers Heaven

Some people were just born into robotics, and then some people were born to drink beer, and now there there is a happy medium,… mmmm… Beer Robots. :P These beer robots add a whole new dimension to practical robotics. Just think, many devices people make today require a lot of our personal time to use and maintain, but a real robot is able to help you save time and make you life that much easier. Now with beer robots, you can perfectly enjoy that ice cold beer while having a good time as well. No more having to get up out of your chair and missing the greatest moment of the sports game just to grab that one can of beer. I mean geez, what kind of world is this? Well do not worry anymore, because now people have developed the robots we have long been waiting for, introducing the Beer Robots!

The robot waitress server, Now you never have to get up again because this robot is ready to serve you, the beer drinking master. I do admit the waitress may need some redesign to look a bit more feminine, but it’ll do for now.

Now for the critical very last drop at the bottom of the glass, it’ll even shake it for you! How could you ask for anything better. Well, now that you mention it, it could be really neat if the robot set it on a conveyor belt after and sent it away right to your seat. But then again that is what the robot waitress server is for ;)

I especially like how this beer pouring robot pulls off the bottle cap! it uses a nail off the wall of the garage to conveniently pull the cap off. Then it conveniently disposes of the excess bottles.

The Asahi Beer Pouring Robot may be a slightly more affordable robot for your beer drinking needs. Although not nearly as fascinating as the big beer pouring robots, the Asahi Beer Pouring Robot is compact and even works as a refrigerator to cool your beer before pouring you an ice cold beverage. The Asahi Beer Pouring Robot is even a production model designed for consumer use! Or consuming use, but either way I think you will be left completely satisfied.

Ahh, it always makes you feel good inside watching other people getting hurt after doing stupid things. Especially after dressing up in beer can boxes and claiming to be a beer robot. Don’t you agree?

Enjoy :D

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