Users of shared 3D printers rejoice! Here’s a follow up to the news we shared a month ago that Github had built a 3D printer server so that all of the staff could make use of their system. Well, they have now released the code so that all of us who share printers together can try this!
A few months ago, GitHub HQ 2.0 got a MakerBot Replicator 2. GitHubbers started printing almost immediately due to the easy setup but having to leave a laptop connected was painful. We quickly learned how to print from the SD card but then people without a way to write SD cards were out of luck.
What we needed was for Hubot to handle talking to the printer for us. We bundled up some open source projects on GitHub, specifically MakerBot’s fork of s3g, MakerBot’s MiracleGrue, and @sshirokov‘s stltwalker and put a small API on top. Today, we’re releasing that as make-me!
Make-me makes it easy for anyone to print, primarily controlled by your favorite Hubot instance. The HTTP API only allows for a single print at a time and requires a manual unlock to help prevent others printing while another print hasn’t been removed from the build platform yet. In addition to this, it uses imagesnap to take pictures via web cam to give you an idea of how the print is going.
We’ve been using make-me to power all of our 3D printing needs including decorating our office with various prints and making useful trinkets.
Adafruit now has three 3D printers at the office. Hmmmm.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!