3D Printed Camera Combines 35mm Film with Sony Lenses

3D Printed Camera Combines 35mm Film with Sony Lenses
By Bulent Yusuf

Coming soon to a crowdfunding platform near you, Lex is a protoype 3D printed camera that shoots 35mm film using modern Sony lenses.

Alexander Gee, a programmer and engineer based in Austin, Texas, has been developing a 3D printed camera body that shoots with modern Sony lenses using 35mm film. It’s called Lex.

“There is a particular aesthetic to shooting on film that gets lost when you use digital cameras,” Gee says.

“Like most people, I’m not shooting on film every day. My daily driver is a Sony A9. But sometimes I want to be able to use the lenses I can use with that camera with film emulsions.”

The Lex 3D printed camera accepts Sony’s E-mount lenses, the type designed for its higher-end cameras like the new Sony A7 III (whose digital image sensor is the same full-frame size as a shot of 35mm film). Currently, the Lex prototype offers auto exposure but not autofocus.

Gee estimates the prototype’s cost at about $450, including 3D printing and a shutter ordered from Sony’s parts catalogue.

Lex 3D Printed Camera is a Work in Progress

According to the Lex Optical website, the 3D printed camera has been in development for over a year. It is planned to be released as an open source project eventually. But first, a crowdfunding campaign is being put together for the production of a small batch.

The scope of the project is that it should be simple enough to build a Lex with just a 3D printer and a soldering iron. With full access to the designs, users can change any component of Lex they require. For example, if you don’t have Sony lenses to hand, you can design a Canon FD mount instead.

Finally, all makes of 35mm film should be compatible with a Lex. You can select any ISO between 6 and 512,000.

Gee is optimistic that others will help him to develop and improve Lex; momentum for the project may grow after he’s shared the STL files for 3D printing.

“I’d love to see others pick this project up and run with it,” he enthuses.

“I’ve got a day job and I’m not a mechanical engineer by trade, so there are huge leaps and bounds people with more skills than I could make on a project like this.”

Source: CNET

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April 30, 2018 at 08:45PM
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EnvisionTEC Prints Huge Chain, Announces New Durable E-RigidForm Material

EnvisionTEC Prints Huge Chain, Announces New Durable E-RigidForm Material
By Matthew Mensley

To announce its newest material, E-RigidForm, EnvisionTEC 3D printed a ridiculously long chain. Measuring out at 328 feet, the links demo the material’s tough properties and the possibility of such parts for end use.

Michigan-headquartered 3D printer manufacturer EnvisionTEC broadened its already pretty vast pool of materials this month with the announcement of E-RigidForm. Positioned as tough and durable, the polyeurethane-like material is comparable to nylon 6 and polycarbonate.

To show off the new material ahead of this month’s RAPID + TCT show, the company turned to its own 3D builder Robert Montes, who devised record-setting print: the longest continuous single-print chain.

Almost entirely filling the 18-cubic-inch build volume of the company’s largest resin printer, the Xede 3SP, the chain consists of 6,144 links 1.5-inch links and requires just shy of 100 hours print time.

It took Montes (with some colleagues in support) two weeks to design, and required an extremely graphically powerful computer to process for printing, generating supports and divining the layers to be printed.

In all its a remarkable print, and incredibly satisfying to see pulled apart into the single chain. Check out the video below and see for yourself.

Solid Chain, Even More Solid Material

The material EnvisionTEC shows off with this chain will perhaps be as interesting as the chain itself to non-manufacturers. Dubbed E-RigidForm, this new tough material boasts a high tensile strength, measuring 68-73MPa at 7% elongation at break.

Speaking about the new release, EnvisionTEC CEO Al Siblani said “A print job of this size and complexity would not have been possible before, simply because of the stiffness required during the 3D printing process for so many links and layers.”

You can see the full material profile over on the EnvisionTEC webpages.

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April 30, 2018 at 06:56PM
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Futuristic Metal 3D Printed Motorcycle Frame Teased by BMW

Futuristic Metal 3D Printed Motorcycle Frame Teased by BMW
By Bulent Yusuf

Carmaker BMW showed a 3D printed motorcycle frame at their Digital Day 2018 in Munich, an S1000RR superbike with a frame and swing arm fabricated using metal powder laser melting.

Don’t Miss: BMW to Establish Additive Manufacturing Campus in Munich

Every year, the BMW Group hosts a Digital Day at their illustrious headquarters in Munich. It’s a platform for the automaker to showcase some of their latest and greatest developments in automotive technology.

Front and center to these innovations, naturally, is additive manufacturing. The group is already using 3D printing to produce car parts, but the presence of a radical 3D printed motorcycle frame this year showed that the technology still has plenty of road to run.

The S1000RR superbike features a 3D printed aluminium chassis and swingarm. Details on the precise construction method used on the superbike are not provided, but it’s a safe bet that it’s metal powder laser melting.

This is a process where a laser fuses layers of metal powder in a vat to form a shape, layer by layer. BMW is already using this technique for their cars to produce lighter but structurally stiffer components.

3D Printed Motorcycle Frame is Showpiece of Digital Day 2018

Beyond the eye-candy of a 3D printed motorcycle frame, the BMW Group also drew attention to other areas of their 3D printing activities.

An additively manufactured water pump wheel was fitted in DTM racing cars for the first time back in 2010. And the new BMW i8 Roadster features a soft-top cover with an aluminium bracket made using a metal powder laser melting technique.

Elsewhere, the new MINI Yours Customized product line enables customers to personalize the design of selected components and then have them produced via 3D printing.

Last but not least, there’s the grand opening of the Additive Manufacturing Campus at the BMW Group Research and Innovation Centre (FIZ) in Munich in Spring 2019.

Overall, the advantages to the BMW Group are clear; 3D printing provides them with the ability to custom-build highly-complex objects. That, and they can rapidly prototype new components quickly and cheaply. Indeed, the automaker says that it’s already producing over 140,000 prototype parts per year.

Source: BMW Group

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April 30, 2018 at 04:39PM
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Weekend Project: 3D Print Your Own Honeycomb-Designed Card Wallet

Weekend Project: 3D Print Your Own Honeycomb-Designed Card Wallet
By Tyler Koslow

Need a safe and sleek place to store your credit cards, gift cards, and your other wallet inhabitants? This fully 3D printed Card Wallet is extremely easy to make, and has a card pusher to give you instant access to your plastic money!  

Most of the projects we share at All3DP are primarily focused on 3D printing, but some of them require other components and technologies to bring the idea to life. Unfortunately, that could end up being quite a drain on your wallet, so we decided to bring you a fully 3D printed that will not only save you money, it will also store your credit cards too!

The 3D printable Card Wallet by Instructables user mdavisgtm is a simple, yet sleek design, a unique fusion of minimalistic style and functionality. The wallet uses card inserts to individually hold each card in place so they don’t slip out. It’s also equipped with a card pusher that is activated by sliding a knob on the side of the print.

Not only is this impressive design fully 3D printed, it doesn’t require any support structures, and can also be assembled in under one minute without any glue or screws.

Let’s take a closer look at how to assemble the fully 3D printed Card Wallet.

3D Printed Card Wallet: Putting it Together

The Card Wallet comes in seven individual parts, all of which can be 3D printed without support structures. The STL files are all freely available on the Instructables post that details the project.

There are four different models, but the card insets must be printed four times at a .08mm layer height. All of the other parts are printed at a .16mm layer height. You can even print a multi-colored version by switching filaments after the first couple of layers of the Top-print 1.STL.

Once you’ve finished printing the parts, the rest of the assembly process is a cinch. Take the bottom part of the wallet and stack the four Card Insert parts on top of one another. Then, snap the Card Pusher onto the designated post at the bottom of the model. Finally, slide the honeycomb-designed top into place and there you have it. Pretty easy, right?

Now that you have your 3D printed Card Wallet ready, pick your four most important cards and slide them into the slots. You now have a secure place to keep your cards without taking up too much space in your pockets. If you want, you can even tape the card wallet to the back of your phone case!

If you’re more of a visual learner, be sure to check out the short assembly video below. You can find the STL files and learn more about this project by heading over to Instructables.

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April 29, 2018 at 07:05PM
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Skateboard Trucks Optimized for Downhill Racing with Metal 3D Printing

Skateboard Trucks Optimized for Downhill Racing with Metal 3D Printing
By Bulent Yusuf

Engineering student Philipp Manger designed a pair of custom skateboard trucks for downhill racing — combining topological optimization and lattice structures — and had them 3D printed in metal.

Downhill longboarding is an extreme sport combining skateboarding and surfing, capable of speeds of more than 90 miles per hour. Naturally, optimizing your gear for performance is important, not least of which are the skateboard trucks.

The truck of a skateboard sits on the underside of the deck. Made of axles, bushes, and pins, the truck is the interface between the wheels and deck. It provides the rider with the necessary control when they shift their weight, bending and reacting to the travel of the board.

Precision-engineering student and downhill skateboarder Philipp Manger combined both passions in developing new skateboard trucks. Project TOST (Topology Optimized Skateboard Trucks) is specifically concerned with downhill longboarding. Where traditional skateboard truck designs are best for thrashing in the streets; a style called the reverse-kingpin truck is better for longboarding and high-speed skateboarding.

“It’s the only skateboard part I haven’t made before, and it fit perfectly to try out these new technologies,” he says. Drawing on more than 15 years experience in engineering, learning CAD and 3D design to work on — among other things — steering columns for the Mini Cooper, the German native was ready to tackle skateboard redesign.

“It gave me a lot of preparation. No matter what you’re doing, engineering is engineering,” he enthuses.

“If you design a part for a car, it’s not a lot different than for a skateboard — they’re both design. And I had the opportunity to learn a lot about design methods, what’s called parametrical constructions or parametric modeling. I tried out a lot of different CAD tools, and it’s very hands-on.”

Project TOST are a New Breed of Skateboard Trucks

To optimize the reverse-kingpin truck, Manger set out to achieve the same stiffness while reducing the overall weight. He used Autodesk Fusion 360 and Netfabb to generate a lattice structure. Lattice designs are intricate constructions that offer significant improvements in weight, performance, and strength; this is a big deal to industries like aerospace, but is it really necessary for a skateboard?

“In terms of downhill skateboarding, if you try to brake from 80 kilometers per hour on a board weighing 5 kilograms, it’s harder than a board of 3 or 4 kilograms, so it makes the whole handling easier,” Manger explains. That, plus any reduction in weight will make the board easier to carry when trudging back uphill.

But topology-optimized designs like Manger’s skateboard trucks are impossible to manufacture traditionally. Milling or casting techniques are not able to provide the necessary detail or precision. Undeterred, he turned to Fraunhofer IWU, a German production-technology institute.

“The Institute’s focus is on metal additive manufacturing and other lightweight designs, so it was the perfect partner,” Manger says.

“I was happy to find such a big organization to work with, and they supported me with the access to the building and manufacturing facilities, especially a GE Concept Laser M2, which is a laser-beam-melting machine. It gave me a lot of know-how.”

Currently, Manger has no formal plans to commercialize his futuristic new skateboard trucks.

“The project wasn’t really about creating a skateboard truck. It was more about finding new ways for lightweight designs for metal additive manufacturing,” he says.

“Project TOST shows new approaches from the combination of organic forms and lattice structures. The skateboard trucks just happen to be a demonstrator that everyone can understand.”

Source: Autodesk

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April 29, 2018 at 02:50PM
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Auction Finds Combined For A Unique Desoldering Station

Auction Finds Combined For A Unique Desoldering Station
By Jenny List

If you are in the market for a high-quality soldering iron, a rewarding pursuit can be attending dispersal auctions. It is not unusual to see boxes of irons, as anything remotely iron-like is bundled up together by the auctioneer into a lot with little consideration for what combination has been gathered. [Stynus] found himself in this position, the proud owner of a Weller DSX80 desoldering iron from an auction, but without its accompanying solder station required for it to work. Fortunately, he had another Weller solder station, not suitable for the DSX80 as it stood, but which provided a perfect platform for a home-made Weller DSX set-up.

The old station had a side-mounted valve and a 24V input, so he had to install a toroidal mains transformer and move the valve frontwards. Fortunately, this style of Weller station case was frequently available with just such a transformer installed, so there was plenty of space in the enclosure. A custom board was then created for a temperature controller centered upon a PIC microcontroller, and a new front panel was crafted to accommodate a Nokia 5110-style LCD display.

The resulting unit with its upper half repainted, is a pleasing and professional-looking project. Heated desoldering irons are an extremely useful tool that anyone should consider for their arsenal, but not all of them are as good as this Weller-based one. We recently reviewed a much cheaper example, with comedic results.

April 29, 2018 at 01:00PM
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Open-source Circuit Simulation

Open-source Circuit Simulation
By Bryan Cockfield

For simple circuits, it’s easy enough to grab a breadboard and start putting it together. Breadboards make it easy to check your circuit for mistakes before soldering together a finished product. But if you have a more complicated circuit, or if you need to do response modeling or other math on your design before you start building, you’ll need circuit simulation software.

While it’s easy to get a trial version of something like OrCAD PSpice, this software doesn’t have all of the features available unless you’re willing to pony up some cash. Luckily, there’s a fully featured free and open source circuit simulation software called Qucs (Quite Universal Circuit Simulator), released under the GPL, that offers a decent alternative to other paid circuit simulators. Qucs runs its own software separate from SPICE since SPICE isn’t licensed for reuse.

Qucs has most of the components that you’ll need for professional-level circuit simulation as well as many different transistor models. For more details, the Qucs Wikipedia page lists all of the features available, as does the project’s FAQ page. If you’re new to the world of circuit simulation, we went over the basics of using SPICE in a recent Hack Chat.

Thanks to [Clovis] for the tip!

April 29, 2018 at 10:00AM
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Core Memory Upgrade for Arduino

Core Memory Upgrade for Arduino
By Al Williams

Linux programs, when they misbehave, produce core dumps. The reason they have that name is that magnetic core memory was the primary storage for computers back in the old days and many of us still refer to a computer’s main memory as “core.” If you ever wanted to have a computer with real core memory you can get a board that plugs into an Arduino and provides it with a 32-bit core storage. Of course, the Arduino can’t directly run programs out of the memory and as designer [Jussi Kilpeläinen] mentions, it is “hilariously impractical.” The board has been around a little while, but a recent video shined a spotlight on this retro design.

Impractical or not, there’s something charming about having real magnetic core memory on a modern CPU. The core plane isn’t as dense as the old commercial offerings that could fit 32 kilobits (not bytes) into only a cubic foot. We’ll leave the math about how much your 8-gigabyte laptop would have to grow to use core memory to you.

Honestly, this is purely a novelty, but we do miss core memory somewhat. It was inherently nonvolatile. You could turn the computer off, turn it back on, and everything was just how you left it. Sure, it was peculiar that reading a bit also destroyed it, but many of the old computers had the write after read cycle built into the CPU architecture so that it wasn’t a big deal.

If you want to look at how it was to repair a big core system, we looked at that earlier. Surprisingly, though, this isn’t the first Arduino core memory rig we’ve seen.

April 29, 2018 at 07:00AM
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The Interesting Fate Of Kenya’s First Computers

The Interesting Fate Of Kenya’s First Computers
By Jenny List

If you are an enthusiast for 1950s computer hardware, you are probably out of luck when it comes to owning a machine of your own. Your best chance will be to join the staff of one of the various museums that preserve and operate these machines, at which you can indulge your passion to your heart’s content. But what if we told you that there is a 1950s computer available for pick-up at any time, to whoever is prepared to go and get it and has suitable transport? You’d be making plans straight away, wouldn’t you? The computer in question is real, but there’s a snag. It’s at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, just at the start of international waters off the coast of Kenya. The story of Kenya’s early computing and how the machine met its fate is the subject of a fascinating article from a year or two ago on owaahh.com that had us riveted from start to finish.

Like large state-owned enterprises worldwide, the Kenyan railway and power monopolies were among the first commercial customers for computing. In the final years of the British Empire, those were ordered from a company in London, International Computers & Tabulators, and it was their ICT1202 that served the railway company. The article goes into detail about the history of the company’s East African operation, the problems of running a tube-based computer in an African climate without air-conditioners, and the 1202’s demise and replacement. We’ll not spill the beans here on how the computer ended up on the seabed and how its replacement ended up being spirited away to China, for that you’ll have to read it all. It’s worth saying, the author also has a personal website in which he goes into much more detail about his experience with computers in the 1950s and ’60s.

Not had enough ancient computer tech? A couple of years ago we toured the primordial electronic computer, Colossus, and also took a look at the National Museum Of Computing that houses it.

April 29, 2018 at 04:00AM
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The Cake Robot is No Lie

The Cake Robot is No Lie
By Al Williams

[52 Skillz] didn’t know anything about building robots. So he decided to not just read about it or make a simple robot. He jumped right in and wanted to build a robot that could make a cake. It took about a year and a half but it now — mostly — works, as you can see in the video below.

Granted it isn’t perfect and it isn’t really all that practical. But as a learning exercise, it was certainly ambitious and successful. Apparently, you still have to scrape the bowl a little by hand to get some of the flour off the bowl walls. Also, loading the ingredients might be more work than just making it by hand, but that really isn’t the point.

As far as we can tell, there aren’t any specific plans provided to duplicate the robot. But we didn’t think that was such a bad thing. You wouldn’t be making one to actually produce cake. And if you just copy the existing design, you’ll miss out on the process of learning, which is described in detail in the video. If you do want to go down the same path, be warned that [52 Skillz] estimates he put in about 300 hours of effort.

However, it is fun to watch all the mechanisms employed to do the work. It is almost like a Rube Goldberg machine, but a little higher tech.

If we had a cake bot, we think it would only be fair to add electronics to the finished products. Then again, you could skip the cake and go to full virtual reality. Well. Perhaps not full, but certainly low calorie.

April 29, 2018 at 01:00AM
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