
First reprapped circuit - ph0rque
http://blog.reprap.org/2009/04/first-reprapped-circuit.html
======
Hexstream
Am I the only one who's clueless as to what this is about?

~~~
ph0rque
Reprap (<http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome>) is an open-source 3D
printer that can print out most of the parts of itself. The things that can't
be printed out include "trivial" things like the metal rods and the flat
platform, and "non-trivial" things like motors and electronics.

This is a step towards printing out the electronics. I believe there were
efforts in printing out motor components as well, although no results so far,
as far as I know.

~~~
anigbrowl
It's a step forward for RepRap...but to be cruel, this is like your disabled
child learning to use a spoon at age 6.

I love the project a lot; I was friends with one of the founders ~15 years
ago, until we got separated by geography. He had an amazing hack/DIY ethic
then, and clearly still does - I'm very impressed with what he's achieved.

But as you can see from the RepRap homepage, funding comes from donations,
t-shirts and kit sales. Ideologically pure DIY is laudable but we've all seen
software projects that were a triumph of individual achievement and a true
labor of love, but where v1.0 finally landed with an interface that was >5
years out of date.

The problem at bottom is that RepRap can't do things on a very fine scale, and
you can't build a new RepRap from an existing one - you can make bits, but not
the motors or the extruder, which are exactly the (relatively) expensive and
hard-to-source parts in shortest supply in places like Africa.

Given the increasing quality and affordability of commercial RP and 3d
printing machines, it might make a lot more sense to raise a few hundred k or
a few million in capital, buy the good commercial stuff, and skip several
generations, just as the OLPC was (presumably) designed on the most up-to-date
computers available, rather than being bootstrapped on 8086 machines for
reasons of ideological purity.

Reprap is a great venture, but it's never going to get there by itself, and
the founders are never going to dirty themselves asking for a big check in
exchange for any kind of commercial license. It's held back by it's 'techno-
Amish' origins.

~~~
anigbrowl
Or in short, their lack of interest in scaling up limits the hardware's
ability to scale down. I talk too much.

~~~
ph0rque
Are you aware of MakerBot (<http://makerbot.com/>)? This is exactly the thing
they're doing: they've launched a company whose first product is based on
reprap.

~~~
anigbrowl
I am now :-)

and I think their emphasis on low cost and general utility (as opposed to
self-reproducibility) will net them more users and $. I've also been following
the Desktop Factory, who promise 3 desktop printing for $5k:
<http://www.desktopfactory.com/> Still vaporware commercially speaking, but ti
doesn't hurt that they look a Real Company.

I hope I don't sound too down on the RepRap or on you for posting it. I've got
a classic case of the 'introverted total DIY = unfinished project' myself.

------
cosmo7
Pouring molten solder into a mold seems kind of crude; solder is rather blobby
even with flux.

I'd have thought that using printer technology would be easier. You could
print conductive areas and semiconductors and resistors directly onto an
insulator. You could make 3D objects as papercraft.

