enrico_suave writes "Whoot.org (linked via Coral P2P Cache because the poor guy is hosting on a ADSL line) has cool design pics, a now removed video clip, and some interesting details of the process. From one of the plog entries: 'We've developed a print head that will print 5mm 'pixels' of the consumable. It basically acts as a pump. It's a medium sized lego gear (driven by a worm gear attached to the motor) with four axles that repeatedly squeeze and release a pipe attached to a funnel that holds the consumables. a half-rotation of this wheel yields a blob.'"
by Anonymous Coward
on Friday September 10 2004, @10:15PM (#10218956)
From the glance over the page I took:
The printer is made with two controllers, one for each axis of the printer, which communicate via IR. The X axis is the master, and sends commands to the Y axis controller. The Y axis controller is on the print head itself, where (I suppose) the X axis controller is on the case. Standard plotter design, really. The print mechanism is four axles that rotate and squeeze a tube filled with melted chocolate. Black & Green 75% cocoa, if it means anything to anyone. 5mm dots, but that's sufficient to make a decent picture.
I didn't see any pictures of the device. There were some images of the controller motor setups from Mac Brick CAD, but no real pics. The video was removed from the original site, so it didn't get mirrored.
>Black & Green 75% cocoa, if it means anything to anyone.
I'm guessing that it means Green and Blacks [greenandblacks.com] chocolate. G&B make some of the best organic chocolate around in my opinion. I wonder however if they did extensive scientific testing before they settled on the relatively high cocoa content 75% stuff. I think I should apply for research funding to look into this in more detail:-)
The 3D plastic printer we have at work (granted it's a cheep one), prints exactly like this. The third dimension is simply moving the holding tray down every time it prints a layer. Maybe he's going to add this next. Maybe he already has it. I didn't want to joing the sheep in vaporizing his ADSL line.
This is just a prototype. The next stage in development is to have mechanism after each 2D print to put down some form of powder that can support printing things not directly on top of the previously printed layer. This is what real 3D printers do. You then shake out or vacuum out the powder once you're done leaving a proper 3d object.
We were thinking icing sugar.
Mark (who hasn't really been involved in this apart from talking to James about it over tea every morning)
...the price of chocolate has suddenly skyrocketed to $100 a pound due to its newfound usage as printer ink. Lexmark has patented the new chocolate-printing technology, and their lawyers plan to sue Nestlé for patent infringement for selling chocolate that works on its system under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
You wish... You can get candy bars for 5 cents now. Problem is that you only get 1/4 of the chocolate that you used to and it costs $35 to get the rest.
well, if you look at the new cartridges from HP, thats not far off. The 94/95 have decreased substantially in size (but not in price) from the 56/57 cartridges, which made a similar decline from the 15/45/78.
and all most of you do is bitch about how much lexmark sucks for protecting their revenue stream, while HP is giving it to you and you smile and walk away, blissfully unaware.
You know that really don't seem that far off. Not with confections maybe but it's almost gotten this bad. You should all move to Canada. Or vote. Damnit you Americans need to take a stand against your corrupt politicians. Write more letters, not emails.
by Anonymous Coward
on Friday September 10 2004, @10:20PM (#10218972)
Saul Griffith at Mit Media Lab has worked with 3-D lego printers that put down wax and chocolate. His master's thesis: http://web.media.mit.edu/~saul/mlmasters/sm_master s.pdf [mit.edu] is about "Towards Personal Fabricators: Tabletop tools for micron and submicron scale functional rapid prototyping".
I'm more intested in putting down plaster myself. Then you can cast metal in it...
how could a story like this one get onto/. front page, it's nothing more a 2 axis lego printer with a an exaggerated name (there is one on the back of lego mindstorm invention retail box, and you can build one from the step by step instruction that comes with ULTIMATE BUILDERS SET (3800)) yeah, it can squeeze chocolate, but it's not like we have girlfriends anyway.
Looks like a fatal misunderstanding of the Coral P2P cache. Coral only caches the page/file linked through it, not the images, video, etc. on the page. So people going to the page will be able to read what he says about it, but his ADSL connect will still be slammed on all the images (it's slow now... surprisingly not slashdotted yet).
Also, since Coral doesn't cache links, anybody clicking on his links to look at anything other than the one page linked to by slashdot will further increase the load on his server (or more likely just be disappointed and continue the DoSing of this poor guy's DSL line).
Actually it looks like you misunderstand how relative URLs work:p
Most image URLs on sites are relative, which means they don't store the full URL (IE, "http://foo.com/myimage.png"), but instead only the relative path ("myimage.png" or "./myimage.png").
The hostname is assumed to be the current host, unless that's overridden in the HTML.
Unfortunately, the creator of this website made the fatal error of using fully qualified URLs instead of relative URLs for his image files. If he were to realize what was going on, I'd imagine he'd immediately make that change.
So while you're correct in the context of THIS page, in general the Coral P2P cache will cache most images on most sites.
...it would be nice to see Slashdot using Coral-links *before* an article goes live, instead of "Oh yeah, whoops... We get a lot of visitors, right? Better quickly edit a P2P link in there before someone notices the new arti..."
Here's a JavaScript Bookmarklet I made to make Coral-linking a cinch:
javascript:l=document.location.href;if(l=='about:b lank'){l=prompt('Input a URL to Coralise:','');};if(l!=''){if(l.search(/\.nyud\.ne t\:8090/)==-1){document.location.href=l.replace(/\ b\/(\b|$)/,'.nyud.net:8090/');}else{if(confirm('Yo u are already looking at the Coral-cached version of this page.\n\nVisit the Coral web-site instead?')){document.location.href='http://www.scs.cs.nyu.edu/coral/';}else{void(0);}}}else{void(0); }
Put that in your Favorites or Bookmarks -- make sure it is a single line of text, not those multiple-lines. Then just click it when you want to see a cached-version of the page you are currently looking at. Using it on an already cached page will ask you if you want to visit the Coral web-site.
This is what went through my mind during the split second as I read the title.
"3D Chocolate Printer"
What the crap? Somebody made 3D printer out of chocolate?
"3D Chocolate Printer Made from Legos?" Made from legos? What? This person made it out of chocolate legos? Insanity. That is so awesome.
And then a second later I realized what it actually meant and while it's pretty cool, it just couldn't live up to my above first impressions. That said, I'm going to go see about making some chocolate legos.
[sign on a closed-down movie theatre that reads: Yahoo Serious Festival]
Lisa Simpson-"I recognize all three of those words but that statement doesn't make any sense."
Just when you think you've gotten used to the zany Slashdot titles, you get '3d Chocolate Printer Made From Legos'. We're officially on another dimension now.
These are some development pictures [twoshortplanks.com] I took of the print head testing. Note at this stage James, Nicholas and Leon were playing with the consistancy of the chocolate and managed to print something that didn't totally look unlike something much more worrying.
Here's a couple of more recent pictures [2shortplanks.com] that I found on my digital camera. You can see the whole printer (with chocolate) printing in these shots.
And here are some more pictures [flickr.com] taken by Katrien earlier on in the project. You can see Nicholas (the print head designer) and James (2-axis, software). Oh, and Richard (support). We managed to do this in a three weeks and as we talk James is demoing this at FooCamp2 (assuming he managed to assemble it again). The best bit about this is having the meeting room full of Lego...
...it's "LEGO bricks" or "LEGO pieces". Not Lego, or Legos, or even LEGO. LEGO pieces/bricks, to review to the company (which should always be capitalized) and the actual objects themselves. This is straight from LEGO (who really wants it as "LEGO® bricks" but you can't have everything:))
Not 3D (Score:5, Informative)
Exec Summary (Score:5, Informative)
The printer is made with two controllers, one for each axis of the printer, which communicate via IR. The X axis is the master, and sends commands to the Y axis controller. The Y axis controller is on the print head itself, where (I suppose) the X axis controller is on the case. Standard plotter design, really. The print mechanism is four axles that rotate and squeeze a tube filled with melted chocolate. Black & Green 75% cocoa, if it means anything to anyone. 5mm dots, but that's sufficient to make a decent picture.
I didn't see any pictures of the device. There were some images of the controller motor setups from Mac Brick CAD, but no real pics. The video was removed from the original site, so it didn't get mirrored.
Parent
Green & Blacks (Score:3, Informative)
I'm guessing that it means Green and Blacks [greenandblacks.com] chocolate. G&B make some of the best organic chocolate around in my opinion. I wonder however if they did extensive scientific testing before they settled on the relatively high cocoa content 75% stuff. I think I should apply for research funding to look into this in more detail
Re:Not 3D (Score:2, Informative)
Maybe he's going to add this next. Maybe he already has it. I didn't want to joing the sheep in vaporizing his ADSL line.
eric
Re:Not 3D (Score:5, Funny)
Can you really say that about any 3d printer? It's like saying, "Yes I drive a Ferrari, but it's one of the cheap ones...." hehe
Parent
Re:Not 3D (Score:5, Interesting)
We were thinking icing sugar.
Mark (who hasn't really been involved in this apart from talking to James about it over tea every morning)
Parent
Woah (Score:3, Funny)
No Fair! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No Fair! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No Fair! (Score:5, Funny)
Complain about the coral link, apparently.
Parent
Request... (Score:2)
"Mirror" > Next.
"The Text you entered was not found."
Please change above.
Sorry! (^_^)
"In other news on Wall Street... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"In other news on Wall Street... (Score:2)
Re:"In other news on Wall Street... (Score:2, Informative)
and all most of you do is bitch about how much lexmark sucks for protecting their revenue stream, while HP is giving it to you and you smile and walk away, blissfully unaware.
Not far off (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Not far off (Score:5, Funny)
They're so damned white, they'll blind our politicians stupid.
Not that we'd notice a difference.
Parent
Chocolate ... I'm in love (Score:2, Funny)
Re:"In other news on Wall Street... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:"In other news on Wall Street... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:"In other news on Wall Street... (Score:3, Funny)
The weekly chocolate ration will be increased to 20 units next week.
Also interesting (Score:5, Informative)
His master's thesis: http://web.media.mit.edu/~saul/mlmasters/sm_maste
is about "Towards Personal Fabricators: Tabletop tools for micron and submicron scale functional rapid prototyping".
I'm more intested in putting down plaster myself.
Then you can cast metal in it...
Re:Also interesting (Score:2, Funny)
Then you can cast metal in it...
Indeed, what but do you make your casting model with?
Aha!
KFG
editors on drug? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:editors on drug? (Score:3, Funny)
Ah, you have yet to learn the proper application of chocolate.
KFG
Ooh! (Score:4, Informative)
Also, since Coral doesn't cache links, anybody clicking on his links to look at anything other than the one page linked to by slashdot will further increase the load on his server (or more likely just be disappointed and continue the DoSing of this poor guy's DSL line).
Re:Ooh! (Score:5, Informative)
Most image URLs on sites are relative, which means they don't store the full URL (IE, "http://foo.com/myimage.png"), but instead only the relative path ("myimage.png" or "./myimage.png").
The hostname is assumed to be the current host, unless that's overridden in the HTML.
Unfortunately, the creator of this website made the fatal error of using fully qualified URLs instead of relative URLs for his image files. If he were to realize what was going on, I'd imagine he'd immediately make that change.
So while you're correct in the context of THIS page, in general the Coral P2P cache will cache most images on most sites.
Parent
On P2P linking... (Score:5, Informative)
...it would be nice to see Slashdot using Coral-links *before* an article goes live, instead of "Oh yeah, whoops... We get a lot of visitors, right? Better quickly edit a P2P link in there before someone notices the new arti..."
Here's a JavaScript Bookmarklet I made to make Coral-linking a cinch:
Put that in your Favorites or Bookmarks -- make sure it is a single line of text, not those multiple-lines. Then just click it when you want to see a cached-version of the page you are currently looking at. Using it on an already cached page will ask you if you want to visit the Coral web-site.
Re:On P2P linking... (Score:5, Informative)
Oops... There appear to be a few erroneous spaces in that link. Here are the fixes:
Should be...
And this one...
Should be.../p>
And this one...
Should be...
Parent
Re:On P2P linking... (Score:2, Informative)
Screw it, it's all messed up.
I made a page which has the link on it:
Coral P2P Bookmarklet [nyud.net]
Coral-linked, of course. ;)
Re:On P2P linking... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
A sequence of events (Score:5, Funny)
"3D Chocolate Printer"
What the crap? Somebody made 3D printer out of chocolate?
"3D Chocolate Printer Made from Legos?"
Made from legos? What? This person made it out of chocolate legos? Insanity. That is so awesome.
And then a second later I realized what it actually meant and while it's pretty cool, it just couldn't live up to my above first impressions. That said, I'm going to go see about making some chocolate legos.
Re:A sequence of events (Score:3, Funny)
[sign on a closed-down movie theatre that reads: Yahoo Serious Festival]
Lisa Simpson-"I recognize all three of those words but that statement doesn't make any sense."
What's with all the food articles? (Score:3, Funny)
Great excuse for school (Score:2, Funny)
Teacher
Kid: The dog ate it.
Teacher: What have I told you about missing homeworks? Im sick of your excuses.
Kid: Its true this time. Honest. I printed it out with chocolate ink.
Teacher: *Slap* Thats enough. Principals office now!
Shit. (Score:4, Funny)
Plural.. (Score:4, Informative)
Thank you, and goodnight.
Re:Plural.. (Score:2, Interesting)
WRONG [multicon.de]. Jackass.
Google cache... (Score:5, Informative)
Feeding time (Score:5, Funny)
The only important question is... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The only important question is... (Score:2)
Re:The only important question is... (Score:2)
Gillette Business Model (Score:4, Funny)
More Pictures of The Printer (Score:5, Informative)
Even More Pictures of The Printer (Score:2, Troll)
Re:More Pictures of The Printer (Score:2, Informative)
It's Lego! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's Lego! (Score:4, Funny)
(I can't believe someone had to say "stop spending all your time building sheep and get back to making a 3d printer" to them)
Parent
Actually... (Score:4, Informative)
Mike
Re:dammit (Score:3, Informative)