rapman-education's posterous

rapman-education's posterous

Dave White  //  A place for educators, teachers, lecturers and students to find "stuff" about RapMan,BfB3000 and BfB 3DTouch printers... The unofficial Blog by Dave White, Advanced Skills Teacher and Head of D&T in Clevedon School UK.

Jan 18 / 3:09pm

I've moved!

I have unfortunately had to move my blog to another platform.

But the good news is that I can now be found here... http://3dprintineducation.wordpress.com/

Like the new name, eh?

Why have I moved? Nothing sinister, it's simply because I use the Blogsy iPad app to do most of my blogging and since early December 2012 Blogsy has not been able to access my blog through the Posterous API.

My apologies to those who regularly visit my blog (and there are quite a few of you according to the analytics).
If you are a regular visitor please update any favourites or bookmarks to my new address, and if you are a new visitor please add this link to keep up to date with the news http://3dprintineducation.wordpress.com/

Filed under  //  Teaching and Learning   dt   education   media   printing  
Jan 7 / 9:18pm

Cubex A new 3D printer

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Introducing the new 3D printer from 3D Systems ... The Cubex (big brother to the Cube printer).
It has a huge print bed (just like its predecessor the Bits from Bytes 3D Touch). 3 colour printing and new software.

Cool!.... I'll have to start saving for one of these!

Further details from the Cubify website http://cubify.com/cubex/index.aspx?tb_cubex_learn

Filed under  //  hardware   news   printing   software  
Dec 31 / 4:15pm

Carbomorph 3D Printing with conductive polymer

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My first 3Dprinting with Carbomorph... It's the school holidays so I have a little bit of spare time to get down to some serious 3D printing!

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be contacted by Simon Leigh from the School of Engineering at Warwick University, he wondered if I would like to try out some of their new printable conductive polymer "Carbomorph". At that stage the research hadn't been published so it was all a bit hush-hush and a rather busy time in school meant that I didn't have much time to play. With Simon's permission I was able to discuss with some of my students how Carbomorph could be used and coincidentally one of my GCSE Product Design students is looking at designing new ways of controlling his iPad .... And an idea was seeded in my brain... Could Carbomorph control a capacitive touch screen? After some simple tests the answer was yes! So, after a quick bit of designing using PTC Creo2 and processing the files for multi material prints in Bits from Bytes Axon 3 I was able to print my first version of a touch screen stylus.... Although its not the most elegant or ergonomic design it does actually work.

Hopefully next term Simon Leigh will be able to visit us at Clevedon School and my students can share some of their ideas of how they would 3D print with Carbomorph.... And maybe Simon will explain to the students how Carbomorph was developed. We are really looking forwards to meeting up.

And finally I would like to thank Simon for letting us have some samples of Carbomorph... And letting us be some of the very first people to use it outside of the university.

The research paper can be found here http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0049365

 

Filed under  //  printing  
Dec 1 / 7:22pm

VEX claw

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In an earlier post you may have seen that our VEX robotics group at my school made a bit of a mistake by starting to build a robot when we didn't have all the parts... Oops!

So we 3D printed some parts instead using our Bits from Bytes machines.

Here is a picture of the first trial... Just to see if the parts fit together. A bit more "tuning" to make sure they move properly is needed, as the bolts are a bit oversize, before we try it out with a motor.

Filed under  //  education   printing   robotics  
Nov 25 / 10:09pm

VEX robotics and 3D printing ... And new goodies!

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At my school I have a group of year 9 students building a VEX robot... An extra curricular after school club.

In a fit of madness we decided to not build the standard "protobot" and do a hybrid "clawbot/protobot". All very well but part way into the build someone noticed that we don't have the claw in our kit... Beginners mistake!

So, being a bit brave about it I said to the students that I would search the web and see if I can download the 3D CAD files so that we could print the necessary files.... And I found them!

Talk about a steep learning curve... I fired up Autodesk Inventor (I usually use Creo!) opened the .step file and exported the parts as .stl (then discovered that I could have used Creo anyway!.... Dohh)

So now they were printable files. Most of them are a bit challenging as they need support material, but with Axon 3 (alpha) the support generation looks to be superb, so I was up for the challenge.... And the photos show the results.

Having so much fun I printed most of the parts... I'll have to leave a few for the students to do in school. I don't think the PLA plates will be strong enough, maybe a bit of a redesign for these, but that's an extra project for the students to do :)

There can't be many clawbots out there with printed claws, maybe this is a first ... If it works! I'll post some more photos later (if we are successful of course).

Oh, nearly forgot about the new goodies mentioned in the title of this post.... I have just received (and fitted) a new bed and waste bin (commonly known at BfB as a snot box) and a new wiper (snot flicker?) to my 3D Touch.... Wonderful!.... I'll post some more info about these later.

Filed under  //  Robotics   dt   printing  
Nov 22 / 7:58pm

3D printing at university

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Some wonderful new 3D printing developments have been happening over the last few weeks that I couldn't omit from my blog...

Early in November Ian Major from 3DS / Bits from Bytes presented a 3D Touch printer to the University of Bristol for use by their students. See the attached photos.

On the BfB forum the university also posted the following .... "The 3DTouch in the atrium of the Merchant Venturer's Building in the University of Bristol has been available to the students for just over a week now and has been in almost continuous use. So far the student have mostly been using it to print cases for their Raspberry Pis, though there has also been a Rubics Cube and I did a Venus de Milo to decorate my desk".

In another development the University of Warwick has just erased some information about some amazing new composite material that they are using for 3DP. The material that they are calling "Carbomorph" is conductive and is being used in some really interesting ways... Flex sensors, capacitive interfaces, and more. Check out this web page for more information http://www.3ders.org/articles/20121122-printing-electronic-sensors-using-low-... . This new material looks like it could have some real impact on 3DP projects made by students in schools if/when it becomes available.

Filed under  //  University   education   media   news   printing   student  
Oct 19 / 9:47pm

The DfE and 3D printing in STEM

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Department for Education: 3D printing in Physics, Maths and D&T.

 Up before 5am and boarding a train to London at the sort of time I would normally be stirring myself to get out of bed... All a bit keen really!... And the sort of thing that I normally have to have a good reason to do. And the good reason was that I was asked to do a presentation about 3D printing in schools for the Department for Education (the DfE is our government body in charge of education here in England). I must say that it was a real honour and privilege to be asked to do this.

 One of the reasons I was asked to do this was because the DfE is setting up a pilot project to look at how 3D printing can be used in STEM subjects... With special emphasis on the mathematics and physics areas.

 If you are a return visitor to my blog then you might realise that I am a D&T teacher at Clevedon School, but I have some experience of developing teaching and learning projects and resources in other subject areas... In fact I'm currently working on some new projects to try out with my own science department very soon (more of this in a later post perhaps)... And that's why I was asked along to share my previous experiences.

 Anyway I think my presentation kicked off the day ok... Some of the delegates even laughed (or raised a smile) at my feeble jokes (yes I do have a very strange sense of humour) ... Quite proud really as presenting in the first slot of the day can be difficult, people need to warm to the atmosphere and are often wondering what they have let themselves in for!

 But I expect you are wondering where the physics and maths fits in with all this and what the pilot project is all about. I suppose in a nutshell it really boils down to the fact that 3D printing has so far really only been in the domain of designers, technologists and engineers. This project is looking to break out of this and involve mathematics and science. And why not? I have exported some cross curricular links before but this project has really got my mind buzzing with the potential uses for this technology in these areas other areas of the curriculum and there should be more to follow in a later blog post about this.

 So, what else happened at the meeting? The other presentation was led by Stuart Douglas from Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy. Stuart's school is lucky enough to have some very high end 3D printing equipment and he brought a very different perspective to the project. The delegates were given an opportunity to explore what their first steps will be in introducing this technology to these other STEM subjects and Makerbot gave a demonstration of the equipment that is being made available.

 I have just got home and its now 9:30pm... Feeling pretty exhausted, but it has been a fantastic day. I would just like to say thank you to the DfE for inviting me along to the day, and my school for letting me attend (and also the teachers who covered my lessons during my absence) and of course 3DS/Bits from Bytes for the support they give me (and my school) which has enabled me to have a bit of a head start in "3D printing in schools".

Oh, and finally, I hope to publish my presentation a bit later... It's a bit big to upload at the moment so ill have to do a bit of pruning and editing!

EDIT.... here is the powerpoint... it gives an idea of what my presentation was about, but without the verbal content it may not give the whole story.

 

Click here to download:
DfE_presentation.pdf (2.73 MB)
(download)

 

Filed under  //  conference   education   news   printing  
Sep 4 / 8:49pm

3DS Cubify web apps... In education?

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As most people who follow my escapades in 3D printing in education will have probably gathered I a great fan of the 3D Systems / Bits from Bytes machines... currently RapMan kits and the fantastic 3D Touch. But I Also keep an eye on what is happening in the 3D printing world in general. So unsurprisingly I came across Cubify and the Cube printer (unsurprisingly because it is part of the 3DS portfolio of machines). Anyway, one of the impressive things about Cubify is that they are supporting the use of their machines with web apps to generate parts that can be printed on any 3D printer (they export as .stl files).

At the present time there are web apps to create bracelets, earrings, tags, rings, defenders, UFO's, robots, licences and crowns. The apps can be accessed here http://cubify.com/apps.aspx

Now I'm very keen for students to 3D print their own designs but the Cubify apps open up all sorts of new educational opportunities. Now students can easily customise basic designs using the apps that are very easy to use and then print their own ring, bracelet, tag etc. So exposure to 3D printing technology need not only be for those students who have a working knowledge of 3D CAD software! And of course this also means that we can capture these youngsters at an even younger age.

Unfortunately I couldn't get the app to work on my iPad, so I'll have to fire up my trusty old laptop and see how I get on with this. Hopefully in the near future I shall report back and share my experiences.

 

Filed under  //  education   primary   printing   software   student   teachingandlearning  
Aug 31 / 9:33pm

RC revolution ... And a new competition!

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Checking in on the Bits from Bytes blog I came across a brilliant example of a RC car designed and built by one of the BfB crew using a 3D Touch printer. All the parts (apart from electrical ones and the nuts and bolts) have been printed in ABS or PLA. Very impressive!

I couldn't help but notice that the guys at BfB have also launched a new 3D printing competition with some fab prizes. Check out their blog http://rapmanv3.blogspot.co.uk/ ... Information is inside the RC revolution post. Judging is by "likes" on their Facebook page... And as for rules... Very few, so why not send in your entry and maybe you (or your school) could be a winner.

photos courtesy of BfB

 

Filed under  //  article   printing  
Aug 19 / 2:44pm

3D Printed iPad Sound Deflector

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I've been ferreting around looking for new project ideas for 3D printing with my year 9 students and where better to look for inspiration than Thingiverse? Ok this "research" has spawned a few ideas... But more of that later... But I did come across an intriguing device to fit onto an iPad. This device designed by "tomlombardi" clips over the speaker grid on the rear of the iPad and redirects the sound forwards. I was a little sceptical about the idea but thought I would give it a go... So I downloaded the file http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16140 and printed it out.... Amazing results... The sound is most definitely redirected towards the front, it sounds louder and clearer and of course with the iPad on a stand to watch video or listen to music there is probably a little less sound disturbance for others in the room.

Anyway that's deflected me away from doing some proper work... Suppose I had better get back to it.

 

Filed under  //  printing