[Chicago] Repraps

[Carl Karsten]

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 5:56 PM, Jonathan Palecek
<jonathan at creativecommons.org> wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>
> I've been prodded by C'webber and Carl Karsten to volunteer to give a
> talk about RepRaps and 3d printing.  While not strictly about Python,
> most of the software I use is written in Python, so I could talk about
> some of that.  And - of course - it would be obligatory for me to
> bring in my RepRap and print something awesome while talking.
>
> Question is, what do you want to hear about most?  There is a great
> deal of depth involved in building and modifying a home-made 3d
> printer.
> For one, I could talk about all of the stuff I didn't know, and
> venturing out into a reasonably difficult project with little
> qualifications to do so an zero documentation - and all of the cool
> stuff I discovered in the process.  Another thing, the device is
> controlled by an Arduino which receives g-code commands from the
> computer via a serial interface.  I'm sure there's some interesting
> stuff going on in the firmware that I could dig up, or in how some of
> the logic is implemented in hardware; and possible ways either of
> these could be improved.  Or I could talk about the parts where python
> is actually involved:  I use blender for modeling, SFACT - a huge
> intimidating pile of python used for slicing 3d models and generating
> commands to drive the printer; and pronterface - a printer interface,
> also written in python.
>
> Though, the only hacking I've done to any of these things is change a
> maximum value for a tkinter widget in SFACT so that I could cheat on
> my printer calibration.
>
> Another, somewhat related bit, is I did write a 3d model slicing
> program back in college.  It is a hideous combination of all sorts of
> hacks and tape, and probably a great example of what not to do except
> that it actually works quite well for what it is.  And I wrote it in
> an afternoon.  I've been thinking of revisiting some of the (only)
> good ideas in that approach and possibly writing my own g-code
> generator.  If I were to discuss that, this would be primarily a talk
> on using python and glsl in tandem to use the GPU to do awesome stuff
> without really having to deal directly with the mathematics involved.
>
> There is also a lot of interesting community related stuff going on
> surrounding this newfangled 3d printing and open hardware thing.
>
>
> So yeah, discuss.  What sort of stuff would you be interested in
> hearing from me on this, if anything at all?


Oh hell, I am not going to be here for the Jan meeting.


-- 
Carl K