
OLO – the $99 box that transforms any smartphone into a 3D printer - fastball
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/olo-3d-printer-smartphone/#/1-3
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madebysquares
Looks beautiful, but been burned too many times by Kickstarter, seems like a
great concept but I will only believe it when it hits the market.

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gergesim
\- Will you need to put your phone in airplane mode to prevent a call or text
from ruining your print?

\- Your phone is unusable for the likely 2 - 12 hours it takes to print

\- In the video they show what is apparently light sensitive resin in clear
plastic bottles

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goda90
This seems like a great use case for an old smartphone that still works.

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elbigbad
Or $20 unactivated smart phones from Best Buy.

[http://www.bestbuy.com/site/motorola-motorola-moto-g-3rd-
gen...](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/motorola-motorola-moto-g-3rd-gen--
4g-with-8gb-memory-cell-phone-unlocked-black/4533692.p)

~~~
01Michael10
I guess thanks for the listing of a phone that is unavailable and doesn't
exist at that price?

Here is the full list of all the Moto G phones at Best Buy-->
[http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=Moto+G&_dyncha...](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=Moto+G&_dyncharset=UTF-8&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&keys=keys)

Prices start at $99 and the model you linked to is really $179.

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elbigbad
It was just an illustration, I wasn't meaning for you to go buy it. I don't
know enough about phone prices to be able to say whether that's a normal price
or not. I used it as an illustration because I have picked up plenty of smart
phones on sale at Best Buy. Most recently the Moto E for about $20 on sale.

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saulrh
Photosensitive resin printing using a cell phone with a grate above it for the
pattern rather than a projector. Simple and ingenious. I am impressed.

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jaxomlotus
It's clever but so impractical for consumer use. You're going to put away your
phone for a few hours while this prints and be OK with that?

And if you're going to have to buy another device just to use this in a
practical way, why not already just include a cheap android wifi-only device
into the base?

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bunnymancer
I put away my phone for about 8 hours a day.

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saulrh
Printing overnight is probably the intended use case, yes.

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pjc50
Other people are questioning the "visible light cure" resin. Assume that it
exists and works fine, it's a bit of a handling hassle, as you need to treat
it like unexposed photographic film. As soon as you open the lid to take your
print out the unexposed resin in the bottom of the box is going to start
curing.

~~~
TD-Linux
Other SLA printers like the Form 1 and 2 from Formlabs also cure with (barely)
visible light technically (405nm laser). It normally doesn't cure fast enough
for the problem you describe to be a problem, though stray light will in
general cure it over time.

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bryanlarsen
It'd be interesting to see a comparison with the other $100 3D printer:
[http://www.peachyprinter.com/](http://www.peachyprinter.com/)

That also uses photosensitive resin printing, except they use a laser and
mirror rather than your cell phone.

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HCIdivision17
I immediately looked into that as well, since I'm still waiting for mine to
ship. It's about two years late, and all the delays seem to be due to the
fairly standard Kickstarter stuff (inexperience, shocking misunderestimatings
of manufacturing, typical defect and spec failures, etc.)

The really cool thing about the Peachy Printer is the mechanism for the laser
and such - sophisticated results for just a few parts. And the super cool
thing about the OP printer is how simple the mechanism is. I look forward to
see which ideas win in the end (or at least for which types of products - some
resins are certainly better than others).

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ccozan
I wonder why just didn't add a LCD screen and a controller [0] ? All you need
something that emits light, not a full fledged smartphone.

[0] [http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-2-Nextion-HMI-
Intelligent-S...](http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-2-Nextion-HMI-Intelligent-
Smart-USART-UART-Serial-TFT-LCD-Module-Display-w-Touch-Panel/32419462943.html)

~~~
mdorazio
In addition to what mankyd said, this printing method ties precision to the
pixel density of the screen. Low resolution screens like the one you linked
give lower quality prints. You would really need to step up to a higher-
resolution small tablet or large phone (something like [1]) to get a package
that works well for the average consumer. That's going to add at least $50 to
the BOM and make overall development trickier.

[1]
[http://www.aliexpress.com/item/12/32579900233.html](http://www.aliexpress.com/item/12/32579900233.html)

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Namidairo
They mention that it works with larger screen sizes, but I wonder what kind of
problems could appear at the smaller end.

The detail on some of those prints they're showing off in the pictures and
video look decent though, none of those layered striations that you get with
some of the more conventional printers? Can't really tell for sure though, not
without some better pictures.

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skykooler
I'm curious as to how the higher layers of the print will work, considering
the light has to shine up through the whole thing?

~~~
kefka
SLA printers (resin) print the models upside down. Thats because they pull up
to break from the bottom container with the liquid, and lower back down to do
the next layer.

Usually for post processing, you'll use a UV lightbox to cure the parts
completely.

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pawelkomarnicki
Can I get a $149 printer that doesn't block usage of my phone for countless
hours or potentially ruin my phone? :P

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ortusdux
For 50$ you can easily get a used phone off ebay/craigslist/a friend. Heck I
have two droid bionics and two HTC M8s collecting dust.

~~~
swsieber
Heck, you can get a new phone for $50 from Best Buy:

[http://www.bestbuy.com/site/blu-advance-4-0-l-4g-with-4gb-
me...](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/blu-advance-4-0-l-4g-with-4gb-memory-cell-
phone-unlocked-green/4627628.p?id=1219780604890&skuId=4627628)

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y04nn
Wait a minute, people doing this with projector where using DLP projectors, do
you need a OLED smartphone then? Because as far as I know, most screen emit
light on black. Or is it reactive to a specific color. I have some doubt about
the quality of the printing.

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slamus
Not being able to use your smartphone during hours is just the worst.
constraint. ever.

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jalfresi
I suppose you could use it whilst you charge your phone at night?

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andrewvc
What could I build with this that's actually interesting?

Who are these people who need tiny crappy plastic objects on demand?

I get 3d printing on serious hardware for more complex objects. This kind of
stuff just seems like a novely for toy projects.

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jbob2000
How fast is this? I feel like leaving my smartphone on with its screen at its
brightest setting (presumably) for hours at a time is a great way to burn out
my phone.

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arsenide
If I were to use this myself, I would have no problem keeping my phone plugged
in. I always have my laptop anyway, and if I'm at home I can just use a wall
charger.

~~~
kefka
The underlying problem with this method is that the OLED screens put out
almost 0 UV radiation.

UV is what the resins need to harden.

"Because of submitting too fast..."

REPLY:

Ok. I just came back from MRRF (Midwest RepRap Festival), and nothing came out
about the accessibility of visible light cured resins.

It may be a cool lab invention right now, but if I cannot buy it in 200ml
quantities to experiment with it on my own, it effectively doesn't exist.

It also makes me very skeptical that you are wont to correct me about "there
are visible light curing resins"... yet their own media material shows clear
bottles holding the resin. I would expect a nice semi-hard cylinder of
somewhat cured resin if that's what they are using. My guess is they are using
a FormLabs, printing the pieces, and then putting 'liquid' in the clear
bottle.

Something doesn't add up here. I'm surmising a scam.

Edit 2:

Really now? I highlight a problem with the __physics __of what they are
showing, and downvotes? How about a discussion rather than silent disapproval?

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nkurz
I'm not familiar with them, but one of the comments in the Kickstarter
mentions this company as source of "daylight" (non-UV) resins:
[http://www.photocentric3d.com/#!daylight-
resin/nen21](http://www.photocentric3d.com/#!daylight-resin/nen21)

Perhaps not coincidentally, these resins seem to be sold in less photogenic
opaque black bottles, but this does make it more likely that a resin actually
exists.

The part of the article that bothered me more was the explanation of the
principle of operation:

 _At the bottom of the reservoir, there’s a piece of polarized glass which you
place your phone underneath, facing upward._

 _The polarized glass then takes all this light (which shines outwardly to
give your phone a wider viewing angle) and redirects it so that all the
photons are traveling straight upward._

I don't think that's how polarizing filters work. But perhaps this is just an
issue with the 3rd party reporting rather than with the product itself.

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kinai
It's all cool but what for? I might have needed a 3D printer once in several
years. Those who need it regularly for hobby buy a professional machine.

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brian_
My browser tab says [Y]OLO!

