…The Idea Builder, announced today at MakerCon in New York City, is the first 3D printer to be released by a major tool manufacturer, and represents further maturation of at-home additive manufacturing. With initial sales being handled by traditional tool-sales outlets Home Depot, Amazon, and Canadian Tire, it promises to help expose 3D printing to a new range of users.
…Dremel has a long history of working with partners around the world to manufacture their tools and products, so it’s no surprise that the Idea Builder was conceived in partnership with Chinese manufacturer Flashforge, makers of the popular “Creator” Replicator clones. The Idea Builder is based on the Flashforge Dreamer, whose electronics utilize the ARM Contex-M4 CPU processor, instead of the ATmega chips used in the Flashforge Creator line. The company is also working with Autodesk to create design software options for their customers.
…With Dremel’s entry into 3D printing, it’s clear that the race to mainstream 3D printing is heating up. The Idea Builder’s attractive price point and features make it worth considering for a variety of user types. So how did this machine perform in our serious testing? We’ll be posting our full review in the next issue of Make: magazine, along with 25 other new 3D printers. And look for the release of our test models later this week so you can play along at home.
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! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. 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!
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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