Despite the best efforts of the RepRap community over the last twenty years, self-replicating 3D printers have remained a stubbornly elusive goal, largely due to the difficulty of printing electron…
  • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    33·
    2 months ago

    A 3D-printed data strip encodes instructions for the printer as holes in a plastic sheet, which open and close simple switches in the motor controller. These switches control the speed, direction, and duration of the motors’ movement, letting the data strip encode motion vectors.

    LOL, he made a punch card controlled printer…that’s really awesome and fun use of old tech.

  • humanspiral@lemmy.caEnglish
    4·
    2 months ago

    I don’t like purity for purity’s sake, but maybe at 545% tariffs, this starts to be an out.

    3d printing lugs for carbon fiber, bamboo, metal tubes and beams, and fitting in regular motors, electronics, bearings, belts is a good/best path to reduced BOM and high performance/value.

  • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    I find the grey goo discussion in the comments funny, fortunately you can’t actually break molecular bonds that quickly without releasing an enormous quantity of heat.