Showerloop - the Open Source DIY Water Recycling Shower

A friend sent me an interesting and useful open source project for making your own recycling shower. It re-uses 10 litres of water in a loop with filtering and heat reclaiming.

Showerloop presentation video:




More technical concept presentation:



Project homepage with extensive build documentation: https://showerloop.org/

GoFundMe fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/making-the-world-greener

RepRap Stewie Simpson by Nicholas Seward

Interesting design with six degrees of freedom! Hopefully it gets fully developed!

Controlling Laser Cutting with Inkscape by Tech2C

Mulbot - Open Source 3D Printable 3D Printer :-)

Mulbot Thingiverse page with all the files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3432384

DIY Open Source 3D Printable Submersible Glider Drone

Alex Williams developed and built this sophisticated open source submersible glider drone. 3D printed elements are the main components.


Project description:

There has been a breakthrough with low cost autonomous drones and as this capability has matured a wide range of hobby and commercial applications have developed. There are no affordable extended duration underwater exploration platforms and this project aims to address this need. 

Utilising commodity hardware, 3D printed parts and an open-source autopilot, I aim to produce a low cost and versatile underwater glider capable of extended missions of up to weeks at a time. I hope that by having this platform available, it would reduce the cost of underwater projects for all, from hobbyists, amateur scientists to seafood farmers

Video of mechanical motion, buoyancy drive, and central mass movement assembly:





Underwater testing of the glider in a pond:




Project Hackaday.io page with all the details:

https://hackaday.io/project/20458-open-source-underwater-glider

Maslow $350 Open Source CNC Cutting Machine

Maslow CNC is a novel approach to the cutting of large material sheets. It is a hanging or suspended CNC router.
It is open sourced and it comes at $350 price point.

Tech specs:

• Work Space: 4' X 8' 
• Encoder Resolution: 8148 steps/rev
• Repeatability: +- 1/64th inch (.4 mm) or better
• Max feed rate 48 inches/minute
• AC Voltage: 110-250 volts
• DC Voltage: 12 volts
• Connection: USB
• OS for Software: Mac, Windows, Linux
• Size: H: 6' 8" W: 10' D: 1' 7"

Here is the design overview:




Video showing Maslow cutting out an OpenDesk chair:




On Tested show:




Maslow CNC homepage:

http://www.maslowcnc.com/

3D Printable Low Cost Servo Based RobotQuad

If you have some extra cheap servos and an Arduino you can use them to make this open source quadruped RobotQuad. It was developed by Regis Hsu and as open source project and its design is updated frequently. It should be a very affordable thing to build as all the servos needed will cost some 20 USD.
In the linked Instructable there are also possibilities to make a remote control unit and IR obstacle detection.

Here is the version 3.0 whit some dance music:




Detailed build instructions can be found at:

https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Spider-RobotQuad-robot-Quadruped/

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1009659


Hari Wiguna made a video about his build:





I really like the DIY aesthetics of this robot:

Aleph Objects and IC3D Develop First Open Source Filament

Aleph Objects, makers of the LulzBot brand of desktop 3D printers and parts announced a partnership with IC3D to develop the first open source filament. The main goal is to democratize manufacturing.
The filament is Open Source Hardware Association (OSHW) certified.

Video of the talk at the 2017 Midwest RepRap festival:



GitHub repository with filament specifications and other materials:

https://github.com/IC3DPrinters/filament-extrusion/tree/master/Open%20Source%20Filament


Lulzbot is also selling the filament at 35USD per 1kg spool:

https://www.lulzbot.com/store/filament/IC3D-ABS

Source news release:

https://www.lulzbot.com/filament-freedom

Detailed Guide On How To Build Ultimaker 2 Extended Clone

You really want to have an Ultimker 2+ Extended but don't have the money? You support open source and hold a grudge against Ultimaker for going closed source? Well, here is a perfect project for you.
Betrue3d site has a detailed guide on how to make an open source version with all the details you will need.
Great work betrue3d!

Here is the link to the first post in the series:

https://betrue3d.dk/en/lets-build-an-ultimaker-2-extended-clone-part-1/

Marlin 1.1 released!!!

The new Marlin 1.1 firmware has been released with many new features and upgrades!

Here is the description from github site: Marlin 1.1 Release Notes

"Marlin 1.1 represents an evolutionary leap over Marlin 1.0.2. It is the result of over two years of effort by several volunteers around the world who have paid meticulous and sometimes obsessive attention to every detail. For this release, we focused on code quality, performance, stability, and overall user experience. Several new features have also been added, many of which require no extra hardware.

The code has been significantly optimized in several areas, leading to fewer stutters, better delta performance, more reliable USB/Serial communication, and more consistent and deterministic results."

Key improvements are:

• More consistent configuration with sanity-checking.
• Many more boards supported, with sane defaults for most common features. Improved thermal protection, enabled by default with tight margins for error.
• Improved Auto Bed Leveling with Bilinear Mesh and probeless operation.
• Unified Bed Leveling™ – Combining all forms of bed leveling in one package, plus tools like G26 Mesh Validation to improve leveling accuracy even further.
• Option to "fade" leveling compensation out over several layers to save computes on long prints.
• Support for up to 5 extruders with different geometries.
• Support for mixing and switching extruders. Linear Advance compensates for viscosity and pressure to reduce ooze and improve surfaces.
• Dozens of languages including Japanese, Galician, and Simplified Chinese.
• Significantly improved UI performance, especially Graphical Display.
• Display rate adjusts dynamically to prevent print stuttering.
• M600 Filament Change, Nozzle Clean, Nozzle Park, Auto Park on Pause, etc.
• Improved support for Bed Leveling probes and Manual Probing.
• Support for Trinamic steppers, i2c control, steppers as endstops.
• Endstops can use pin interrupts for improved performance.
• M43 Pins Debugging to report about, test, and monitor pins and endstops.
• Print Job Timer
• Sorted SD Card file listings.
• Improved host integration, extended capabilities report, keepalive messages, auto-report temperature, and more!
• Integrated I2C Bus allowing Marlin to interoperate on multiple boards.
• Support for Case Light, RGB LED, LED Strip. Printer events feedback.
• New features too numerous to list here. Read the config files for details!

For complete Marlin documentation and downloads go to the Marlin Homepage:

www.marlinfw.org

GitHub repository:

https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin

LulzBot TAZ MOARstruder for Heavy-duty 3D Printing

For those demanding high-volume jobs on big objects LulzBot has released their MOARstruder extruder.
It is priced at 395 USD.


From produce description:

Bigger. Faster. Stronger. MOAR: The LulzBot TAZ MOARstruder Tool Head is a high output tool head with an extra-long heater block, dual print cooling fans, and a 1.2 mm diameter nozzle. These features enable high-speed printing and tough 3D printed objects.

Here is the video presentation:



MOARstruder homepage:

https://www.lulzbot.com/store/tool-heads/lulzbot-taz-moarstruder-tool-head

Dtto 3D Printable Modular Open Sourced Transformer Robot

Dtto robot is just cool! See it here in the video presentation:





Project description:

The Dtto v1.0 Robot is a modular transformable robot designed to be versatile, flexible and self-reconfigurable. The idea of modular robots is that they can adopt any shape they want, by changing the position and the connection of their modules.

This robot is aimed for research on modular self-reconfigurable robots and educational purposes. It is designed to allow multiple modules to communicate, mechanically connect and disconnect and to work collaboratively in the locomotion, self-reconfigurability and efficient movement.

The versatility of the robot will allow it, in the future, to be able to perform rescue operations, exploration of unknown environments and space exploration.

In future works, the modules will have built in camera, ultra-sound sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer… The possibilities are endless.

Dtto key features:

• Small and self-contained robot
• Fully 3D printable
• Self-reconfiguration capabilities
• Bluetooth + Radio communication
• Multiple locomotion modes (snake, wheel, walker...)
• Rechargable batteries
• Simulation model validated
• Cheap modules (<55 USD)
• Open Source Hardware and Software
• FIRST OPEN-SOURCE SELF-RECONFIGURABLE MODULAR ROBOT!

Dtto is made from modules:

Hackaday project homepage:

https://hackaday.io/project/9976-dtto-explorer-modular-robot

Dtto GitHub:

https://github.com/otrebla333/Dtto-Modular-Robot


Dtto was inspired by high-end MTRAN3 robot system:

Open Source 3D Printable Mechanized Prosthetic Foot

Team Aractapod is developing open sourced 3d printable prosthetic foot that is motorized and has electronic control to make a disabled person walk easier.




Project homepage:

https://hackaday.io/project/13312-mechanized-prosthetic-foot

Bumpy is cool looking minimalist DIY MP3 player

Bumpy is a minimalist DIY MP3 player with 3d printable case developed by Matt Keeter. It plays MP3s from SD card and it's open sourced. I've been thinking about getting rid of my smartphone, buying a dumb-phone and using stand-alone MP3 player and this looks very interesting.

The case is printed on Formlabs machines, but you could also probably do it on other 3d printers:

http://formlabs.com/blog/diy-open-source-mp3-player/

You can find all the information about Bumpy and how to build it here:

http://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/bumpy/

https://github.com/mkeeter/bumpy-pcb

https://github.com/mkeeter/bumpy-firmware

BoxBotix Open Source Robotics Platform

BoxBotix is an open source robotics platform that uses 3d printed modules to create several different types of robots.

BoxBotix introduction video:



Quadcopter configuration:




BBTank with 3d printed threads made from TPE using a Lulzbot Taz6




BotBotix homepage:

https://boxbotix.com/

Project homepage on Wevolver with all the files and build instructions:

https://www.wevolver.com/coby.leuschke/boxbotix/main/description/

Open Source Universal Carriage

Marcin Jakubowski is developing a set of machines that can be made to restart the civilization and is making them available under open source licences. It is very interesting project with many already available designs.

Discover the full ecosystem here: http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Open_Source_Ecology

They also want to make various CNC machines.

First thing developed in this project is universal carriage that can be used on standard Cartesian CNC systems including 3d printers and should be scalable for different sizes:

Here is a demonstration video:




You can see the project developing and all available documents at:

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/3D_Printer_Design_Evolution#Working_Doc

Switcher DIY Power Modules For Smart Home Projects

Hristo Borisov developed and published a set of 3D printable socket and switch modules that are controlled by ESP8266.
ESP8266 is very interesting piece of electronics since it is very small, affordable (some 4 USD) and powerful since it has WiFi and can be used as Arduino.
With this project you can control your electric devices via WiFi remotely and setup a simple DIY smart home project for a fraction of a price of commercial proprietary solutions.

Sockets are fully 3D printable and are of standard European "Schuko" type, designed in Autodesk Fusion 360. Design is modular so you could probably easily change it to any other socket standard.

There is even an iOS app for remote control of modules. Project is also open source so they get extra pints in my book.

Project homepage with all the code and instructions:

http://hristoborisov.com/index.php/projects/switcher-a-wifi-open-source-power-switch/

GitHub repository with all the code and STLs:

https://github.com/hborisov/switcher_box

Stay safe when working with home electric power systems :-)

Update:

looks like there is a simillar commercial system that is also very affordable, but it is not open sourced:

https://www.itead.cc/sonoff-wifi-wireless-switch.html

It may be possible to flash it with custom firmware but it doesn't have a socket but the wires should be connected to it.

PrusaHand Open Source DIY Prosthetic Hand

PrusaHand is an open source 3d printable prosthetic hand project that was developed by Jenik at Prusa Research company. As most of you know, Prusa is well known for his 3d printer designs and I3 kits.




Project homepage:

http://prusahand.org/

GitHub repository:

https://github.com/yenikCZ/PrusaHand

3dpBurner Open Source Laser Cutter and Engraver

3dpBurner is a DIY laser engraver and cutter project that uses 3d printed parts for the structural elements and movements. It also uses many standard parts like laser diodes and Arduino to make it work.

Here is what the developer writes about this project:

It is created with the same RepRap concept, by using 3D printed parts and some easy to find "vitamins" (non printed hardware).
I tried to design as cheap as possible, by using common electronics and a "low power" laser (a laser diode).
The X/Y working area is fully customisable by simply cutting the rods to desired length.
The max object height for working can be up to 50-60mm.

3dpBurner basically uses 3D printed parts, 8mm rods, M3/M8 hardware, some small bearings and a pair of GT2 pulley/belts. I got most parts from my "old" RepRap printer.
Motion is controlled by Arduino UNO, a CNC shield and a pair of Pololu based stepper drivers for driving two NEMA17 stepper motors.

The laser module is cooled by heatsink and forced air (small fan) and is drived by a constant current driver.
Personally I'm using the popular NDB7875 1.6W blue laser diode (note this diode is sold as being capable of up to 3W when overdrived), but you can use your own diode (DVD recorder, BluRay, M140...).

While 3dpBurner can be controlled by mostly GRBL based applications (gcode senders), i create a pair of Windows based ones. They provides an easy control and optimized gcode streaming for the GRBL firmware and also can be used for convert images to gcode files for gray scale engravings.

3dpBurner in action:



Project homepage with all the instructions how to make one:

http://3dpburner.blogspot.com/

Thor Open Source Robotic Arm from Spain

Thor is an Open Source and 3D printable robotic arm with six degrees of freedom developed by Ángel Larrañaga Muro from Madrid, Spain.

Its configuration (yaw-roll-roll-yaw-roll-yaw) is the same one that is used on most manipulator robots that currently exist in the market. In its upright position, Thor is about 625mm and it can lift objects up to 750 grams.

Here is the video showing Thor in action:




Here is the CAD animation of the assembly process:


You can get all the files and learn about Thor at:

https://hackaday.io/project/12989-thor

https://github.com/AngelLM/Thor