You may have noticed 'Use Firefox!' pictures on many websites. There's a story behind this which applies to me as well.

As a web developer, even when you only use Linux, you inevitably get frustrated by the enormous pool of problems caused by deliberate non-compliance of Microsoft's browser "Internet Explorer". Just like there are standards to drive on the right side of the road in one country (for people to drive safely), there are standards that ensure everyone that uses a web-browser can work reliably. But now we can't even afford to have differences between countries, since the internet is an inherently global network. While non-compliance of web-browser technology doesn't result in lives lost as directly as car safety standards, it is an enormous economic loss and makes the web a much less fun place than it could be. It is clear that if, for example, an office of a financial institution can't use e-mail for an entire day, this results in lost productivity. Imagine what it would mean if the browsing experience is limited for over a decade... Browser non-compliance is why websites often don't work well, despite extra effort of web-developers trying to get it to work mostly in the most important browsers, and most versions of them. It is not unwillingness of developers, things just become much more complex that they would need to be. When different versions react differently you have to add exceptions that run in one of the two browsers (within an if condition). But sometimes the amount of combinations of 'browsers times versions' becomes so big, that you cannot write exceptions anymore. This is when you need to start using a framework that abstracts away version issues. Essentially, you're adding extra software to reduce the complexity. This software can be written and improved by many people, since many sites can use it. It has even become quite sophisticated. This does not mean that it wasn't a responsibility of the browsers to conform to standards, so everybody can view the same content reliably. Also, learning a framework is like learning a new language, and more importantly unlearning the old way of doing things.

Many web developers use jquery (I do) or scriptaculous (I tried, too big for my purposes) to make up for the non-compliance to CSS in Internet Explorer. It only takes one browser (internet explorer) to ruin it for everyone, because we are all forced to design for it. When you know this, it becomes increasingly frustrating when you're mixing up 'the old' ways of doing with the new ways and finding out about the quirks of the new framework.

I'm now sure that I spend more than half the time of making a website on making it work in multiple browsers at the same time. Yet, when it works in Firefox, I'm can be pretty confident that it works in Google Chrome or Safari, since they adhere to standards much more than Internet Explorer. The few problems I have with those are pretty easy to fix or usually not even perceived by most web-visitors.

You can't really change the browser population much by asking people to download another browser. People are too lazy to change and that's the main reason why Internet Explorer has enjoyed a major market share for all this time. Facing reality, I'm now forced to start understanding jQuery and why it isn't behaving either... when really get stuck, I have to rewrite everything to scriptaculous I guess...

So thank you Microsoft for making web development a whole lot less fun (and elegant) and making the web a much more unreliable medium.

When researching the distributed user-centered innovation process, I came across this lecture by Eric von Hippel (see below). Also, in my presentations I've quoted Eric von Hippel a couple of times. He researches how innovation driven is often driven by users and what the effects of that are. It is very applicable to what the emerging FabLabs and RepRap project are doing.

When extending the open source concept from software to 'hardware' (as in actual, physical things) von Hippel says the following:
"... In the case of open source software this is possible because innovations can be “produced” and distributed essentially for free on the web, software being an information rather than a physical product. In the case of the sports innovation example, however, equipment (but not technique) innovations are embodied in physical product that, to achieve general diffusion, must be produced and physically distributed. These activities generally involve significant economies of scale. The result, in the case of the windsurfing example and for physical products generally, is that, while innovation prototyping and field trial and refinement can be carried out by users and within user innovation networks, production and diffusion of the physical products incorporating those innovations will usually be carried out by manufacturing firms. ..."
Source: von Hippel, E., Horizontal innovation networks - by and for users, Industrial and Corporate Change Advance Access, published May 16, 2007, p. 22

In 2007, the RepRap project was not well known (an still isn't know to the average person) and had not produced many visible results. But right now (Q3 2008), there are more and more people printing 3D designs to actual physical objects and they are blogged more and more often adding to the publicity for RepRap. Also, thingiverse.com (a project initiated by RepRapper Zach Smith) allows 3D printable designs to be shared with the world, or downloaded for printing. Von Hippel acknowledges the trend of user being in control of designing and innovating objects and RP (3D print) service bureaus to offer manufacturing as a service. Along with that, RepRap now has the potential to really to reach every home that wants a 3D printer

"In a sense, hardware is becoming much more like software, up to the point where you actually fabricate an object," von Hippel says. "That's why you're starting to see open source techniques in hardware. Design is largely going to shift out from manufacturers to the communities."
Source: Eric von Hippel, MIT



In his talk I noticed a strong resemblance with C.K. Prahalad's when it comes to turning manufacturing on it's head. C.K. Prahalad, in his book "The new age of innovation", argues that companies should service users so that they can innovate the products. In this co-creation process, where much of the innovation comes from the customer, it becomes possible to tailor products to the needs of a market segments as small as a single individual, while utilizing a global pool of service providers.

There is considerable talk about a revolution that awaits us in personal fabrication. A lot of the news reaches me, but mostly not the mainstream media, YET. Fabrication tools (Fabbers) such as the RepRap and Fab@Home are becoming increasingly accessible for the average user. This is in terms of price (starting at 500 euros), ease of obtaining 3D printer parts or kits, quality of documentation, quality of the 3D printers themselves. These factors are being further improved as we speak by a huge network of active volunteers and fabrication enthusiasts.

At the same time, there are more and more FabLabs!

Grotere kaart weergeven

Also, there are many RepRappers close to you.

A nice quote about the FabLab Utrecht is:
"[..] FabLab is equipped with: a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter, a milling machine and a full colour 3D printer. The impressive bit of FabLab is not the fact that the type of machines it offers exist. The impressive part is that you can get these machines to do your bidding by feeding it things as simple as PDF files. You create your model or drawing and then basically hit the print button, select ‘laser cutter’ instead of your regular ink jet printer, and watch the machine get to work."

At a FabLab, you can use PDFs for the RepRap laser cut parts and press print. After that, you need to put the pieces together just like you (used to) do with lego! It's so easy, you almost forget that it's an advanced machine and that the end result are machine parts for a machine that can produce objects out of any arbitrary shape! You can use "industrial grade High Impact Acrylic" or.... use simple plywood...

Click To Play

Also, the tools to generate 3D models are becoming better and newer, and much easier to use methods are developed. SketchUp is a good example of what you can use, but also games provide the option to create characters or avatars that can be exported for printing (e.g. Spore)!

Thingiverse.com

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"The dream behind Thingiverse is that someday in the not so distant future, when everyone has a RepRap machine, they will be able to go to Thingiverse.com, find a useful/interesting/cool thing, download it, print it, and 15 minutes later be able to hold the actual thing in their hands. This is the coming revolution of digital fabrication and we want to help you make it happen."


Now there is a new repository for 3D models, but also 2D designs for laser cutters, drawings, electronics designs, etc. along with pictures (rendered and photo's of end results), construction guides and much more.

Some time ago, people didn't really see the need for computers. Now, because they are so useful because you can do almost anything with them, everyone has a personal computer. Now, personal fabricators are becoming more and more available, powerful, easy to use and fun. I'm talking about the near future: Especially 3D printers that can mostly copy themselves (for just about 20 euros worth of plastics) have the potential to be in many people's homes.

These are some tools that saved me a lot of time and frustration building my RepRap. I should have bought some of these tools sooner though!


On the left is a 2.5 mm allen key (inbussleutel in Dutch). You can buy it at a hardware store for about 1.50 euros. A more expensive varant, but probably good, is this: VDE-INBUSSCHROEVENDRAAIER 2,5 (Conrad Electronic). Of course you can 3D print the plastic part and embed an ordinary Allen key in it... it would then cost about 6.00 euro less

On the right is a good wire stripper (striptang). This will save you time if you used a knife's blade to strip wires and for some it may save you your teeth . STRIPTANG KNIPEX 1262 (Conrad Electronic). There are much cheaper (5 euros) and much more expensive (> 65 euros) wire cutters. This one is a good in-betweener that won't fail on me quickly.



The above tools are an absolute must-have. There are places where it is almost impossible to get with an ordinary allen key (inbussleutel in Dutch), but under a slight angle, it is no problem. I bought these at the HORNBACH in the Netherlands, a big hardware store.

A couple of weeks ago, the day before I was about to give a talk at the Wikimedia conference, I had a small set-back.

After changing from electronics platform earlier on, my RepRap machine is not as neatly arranged as it has been. There are several places where a wire could touch a circuit board and cause a short circuit (not good). I connected the motor of the extruder and heard something tick and fall. It was the debris of the L293 chip. This chip provides (or provided) power to the motor. It had a fracture completely across the top face.



I knew not too worry too much, reordering such a chip costs just 3 euros, and I wanted to order some other things anyway. But my wikipedia talk was just one day away, so it would not arrive in time.



Luckily I could use a board of the old design together with the new electronics. Actually, you could use anything with an H-Bridge quite easily. This means that you have many backup options or alternatives paths towards RepRap. Also, you could use one of the available ports on the PWM board, but you can then only move the filament down the extruder, and not up (to stop the flow of plastic more quickly). I had an H-bridge that came with a lego mindstorms kit, but I only had one of those and didn't want to use that.



I connected the pins to the Arduino (enable wasn't even needed), I did need to connect the ground of the UCB to the ground of the arduino.

I did need to make minor changes to the Arduino firmware, so that it didn't generate a PWM the enable, but the FWD or BACKWARDS pins. Normally there is a direction pin that is high or low (for backwards and forward direction). This is a pretty straightforward change. After that I had a running extruder again!

Today I replaced this system again, but decided to document it before removing it so others can use this information. If you have any more question about this, just ask! B.t.w. you don't need the DC motor driver if you still have Universal Controller boards or any other H-bridge.

Nederlandse versie: zie onderaan

At FabLab Utrecht, a.k.a. Protospace several RepRaps are going to be built (five to start with). I'm supporting the group with advise (and of course encouragement ). It will be a unique opportunity to improve all the participants' skill-set. Everyone of us has a different 'specialization' so I'm sure we'll learn a lot. Also, besides just the team being 'up for it!' , protospace is very well equipped to handle this project. More specifically: they have a ZCorp 3D printer and a laser cutter (for instance).

Some highlights:

We are planning to make 3D prints and make moulds to make more rigid parts.

We will probably use the excellent Nanotec stepper motors of 400 steps per revolution (so we have better than 0.1mm positioning resolution).

We probably will opt for a mixed version that lies somewhere between a 3D parts and 2D sheet material in terms. This is because of the ZCorp 3D printer being able to print some parts, but for the more demanding parts in terms of strength and durability. Also, because we have the possibility to make changes to any part we wish, this is a wonderful opportunity to incorporate the best of both worlds in the Protospace RepRaps.

It will be a wonderful experiment of building several RepRaps in parallel and in multi-disciplinary groups. Many people make RepRaps rather independently and with much fewer resources. If anyone wants to join in: the official starting date is next monday (10 November!).

--- Nederlandse/dutch version ---

In FabLab Utrecht (ook bekend als Protospace) zullen een aantal RepRaps gebouwd gaan worden. Ik vervul vooral een adviserende rol en zal de RepRappers in spe vooral aanmoedingen. Het is een unieke kans om ieders skills te verbeteren, die ver uiteenliggen. Juist daarom verwacht ik dat het heel leerzaam zal zijn. Behalve dat een geschikt 'team' is is Protospace bovendien zeer goed uitgerust om dit project te ondersteunen. Iets specifieker: ze hebben o.a. een ZCorp 3D printer en een laser cutter.

Highlights van de uitvoering project:

We zijn van plan enkele 3D prints te maken en daarmee mallen te maken voor meer rigide onderdelen.

We zullen mogelijk de steppers van Nanotec stepper motors gebruiken. Daar hebben RepRappers goede ervaringen mee en 400 steps steppers zijn nog een stuk nauwkeuriger.

We kiezen waarschijnlijk voor een gemixte versie, ergens tussen een 3D reprap en en uit laser-cut plaatmateriaal in. Dit is omdat we beide tot onze beschikking hebben en we onderdelen waarvan we dat van belang achten, op maat kunnen maken.

Ik weet zeker dat dit een mooi project wordt. Ik ben ook benieuwd hoe het in groepen werken gaat bevallen. We werken parallel aan diverse sub-assemblies in multi-disciplinaire groepen. Dit terwijl de meeste RepRaps momenteel bijna 'in isolement' gemaakt worden (ik spreek voor mezelf) en met lang niet zulke mooie geweldige hulpbronnen.

Wil je meedoen, wees snel bij want maandag 10 november gaan we al beginnen!