[Chicago] Repraps

[Jonathan Palecek]

I'm fine with delaying until february

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 6:13 PM, Adam Jenkins <emperorcezar at gmail.com> wrote:
> NOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!
>
> On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 6:11 PM, Carl Karsten <carl at personnelware.com> wrote:
>> 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
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