Fighting with computers

Working with CNC machines and 3D printers and developing CAM software myself I need a tool to quickly display the 3D view of any g-code file generated. For a while I have been using EMC2 software on Linux and Pleasant3D in OSX. The former was a bit picky about certain commands that were not understood that would prevent the displaying of a file completely. The latter is ok, but being oriented to 3D printers, it is not very convenient when handling files of several square feet. It works but your viewing ability and angles are a bit limited. After a bit of searching and playing with several potential candidates I have settled with version 0.2.3 of OpenSCAM that I had used in the past on Windows but somehow was not available at the time for OSX or Linux (or I was lazy enough not to try to compile it from the sources myself). Current version worked nicely in OSX and gave me some minor problems in Ubuntu Linux, that could be solved by installing libv8-dev library and doing a soft lin...

Since the presentation of the Rostock 3D printer, I have been amazed on the kind of motion that these machines make to print a part. While I have found quite hypnotic the way layers are deposited to create plastic part using fused filament fabrication, when the process is done by a delta robot instead of by a cartesian robot, the show is even more interesting. However the Rostock was a big machine, not compatible with the space I have available at home. But when I saw Richard's 3DR printers, I thought it was a good way for me to venture into the interesting world of this type of printers. Contrary to the Rostock, the 3DR had a small footprint so I built one. But that was just part of the challenge. Delta 3D printers use three vertical parallel carriages linked by a set of rods to a central platform where the hotend is placed. But contrary to some other printers, those vertical axis are not screw-driven but belt-driven, which allows very fast motion. As a result, Delta 3D prin...

I have been quite busy lately due to several factors. One of them things not working out as expected. Of course every failure is a learning opportunity and this case, my chance to get familiar with the world of hydraulics and fluid dynamics. As a Computer Scientist, you do not get any training on that matter (other than maybe learning about fans for cooling down electronic parts). I have been working for more than a year on a project where the least I was expecting was to have trouble with what it is eating a lot of my time lately: pushing a viscous fluid in a precise, controlled-way, from a container to the printing area of a 3D-printer we have designed and successfully built as part of our research project. If you are familiar with 3D printing, you can think of us trying to create a reliable paste extruder. There are many open paste extruder designs out there, but many are designed for not so viscous pastes or liquids. Others can handle viscous fluids but only a very small amount...