3D Printer Models For Universal Construction Toy Connectors 76
dangle writes "F.A.T. Lab and Sy-Lab have officially released their Free Universal Construction Kit, allowing builders to freely interconnect parts from Lego, K'Nex, Fischertechnik, and other common building sets. ZomeTool and Zoob patterns will be available after related patents expire. The makers have also spent considerable effort investigating and anticipating legal complaints from manufacturers, using an Inverse Think of The Children Argument: Some may express concern that the Free Universal Construction Kit infringes such corporate prerogatives as copyright, design right, trade dress, trademarks or patents of the supported toy systems. We encourage those eager to enforce these rights to please think of the children — and we assert that the home printing of the Free Universal Construction Kit constitutes protected fair use."
Model files are available over at Thingiverse. The designs are all covered by the CC BY-SA 3.0.
I don't think it's the copyright that upsets peopl (Score:1, Informative)
What's the deal with the Kit's name? F.U.C.K? Is it good or is it whack?
Acronym... (Score:5, Funny)
Free Universal Construction Kit... F... U...C... mmmhmmm....
Re:Acronym... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's actually a free Universal Construction Kit, if you check out the Things, they are "uck's Things" and the URL us http://www.thingiverse.com/uck/things/ [thingiverse.com]
You can make a big deal about the acronym if you want, as they are probably hoping for free press. Or you can ignore that part, silently giggling when you think of all the lawsuits that will likely include the full acronym, capitalizing 'Free' and including it.
Re: (Score:2)
But then, the link (http://fffff.at/free-universal-construction-kit/ [fffff.at]) and this [fffff.at] poster... manual... thing, whatever it is, both have the full name on here.
Mildly amusing and the concept for melding all of these different sets of toys together is fantastic, but the low-brow name probably won't appeal to the parents who would buy this for their kids very much. Kinda stupid and short-sighted of them, really.
Re: (Score:2)
The thumb-in-the-eye to the Man is wrapped up in the juxtaposition of that acronym and "Think of the kids".
They want to F.U.C.K. kids.
I can't decide if it's brilliantly subversive or gobsmackingly stupid. Definitely one of those "Can't tell if trolling..." moments.
No Meccano? (Score:2)
Lame.
Re: (Score:2)
I have it on very good authority that the "F.U.C.K" name was intentional. It was developed by the guy sitting 5 feet behind me. Well, one of them, at least.
VUCK (Score:2)
dangit (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Trademarks? I doubt it. (Score:4, Funny)
If someone has really trademarked F.U.C.K, we're f***ed.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Do you mean the one they stole from Borland more than 2 decades ago?
I did a Google image search for borland logo and all I got was the current logo of Borland Software Corporation, which is just the word "Borland" in Impact typeface. Wikipedia's article about Borland didn't have a logo history section. And then I remembered that Borland had used the "Inprise" brand for some of its products for three years starting in 1998. Inprise had a different box, ball, and cone that didn't look quite as much like the old EA logo as the shapes on the "attractive B1 poster". And I though
Re: (Score:2)
BTW, your link to the EA logo is broken - it points back to slashdot :-)
Re: (Score:1)
Oh no, they got those words too:O(
Re: (Score:2)
Trivially easy.
replace:
with
Both execute on the condition only once at most.
Alternatively, use the ?: for an if/else.
This... (Score:2)
Lincoln Logs to Lego adapter? Brilliant.
Though that time spent looking for that *one* piece I think will double, and become increasingly frustrating.
Also, these things look like a huge threats to people heels.
Re: (Score:1)
You buy wooden dowels, You use a table saw to flatten the edges. and cut holes on each end.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm speaking specifically the adapter itself, which are all ingenius, not just the logs themselves.
and grammar nazis bore kids without compassion (Score:1)
8020 (Score:2)
Doing that with kids stuff is pretty safe... when they start trying it with 8020 is when the copyright SWAT teams will literally descend upon them. I would like to see cheap 8020 but I probably will not within my lifetime, which is too bad.
There's at least $10K of 8020 in a artsy architectural detail sculptural framework thing in the entrance at work... Can't wait till they redecorate, although unfortunately it'll probably be scrapped for scrap aluminum prices (probably over a hundred pounds of aluminum) i
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, it allows you to "connect" things (Score:3)
...but why am I immediately reminded of the "genetic fusion" technology from Invader Zim? [wikia.com]
Interesting, but ... (Score:3)
Interesting but, do any of the various "home" 3-D printers have the ability to produce things with enough accuracy? You can't be off even a tiny bit with thickness or sizing for a LEGO to not fit, etc
I've seen the output from a Makerbot plenty of times, and never got the impression it had the ability to make something that fine grained, much less strong enough.
Re:Interesting, but ... (Score:5, Informative)
Nope.
Even the commercial systems used by Shapeways don't have sufficient accuracy.
Here's an old post where I looked up the numbers:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2395582&cid=37191528 [slashdot.org]
The problem is you can't make bricks of the same quality as Lego bricks using any 3D printer currently in existence or on the drawing board --- the tolerances simply aren't tight enough --- Lego uses _tons_ of pressure in their molding equipment, moreover, Lego is constantly doing QA on their production and will pull a mold and grind it up to re-use it at the slightest deviation --- the new Lego bricks I purchase for my kids still work fine w/ four decade old bricks from my childhood. Lego's precision for brick parts is something on the order of 2 micrometers.
By way of contrast, the printer which Shapeways ( http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=tree&goto=1339&#page_top [shapeways.com] [shapeways.com] ) uses has a tolerance of, ``... about .1mm, but the material can change it slightly. Overall, .5 should be fine, just make sure that they are not any sort of support walls or they may get broken during shipping or printing.'' .1 mm == 100 micrometers
If you want to know what its like when the tolerances are sloppy, buy a set of Mega Blok bricks, but even those have tighter tolerance than the tenth of a millimeter which Shapeways quotes.
Re: (Score:1)
Lego tolerance is very tight because when you start stacking brick upon brick upon brick, any deviations can realy begin to screw things up. But if you are talking about a lego-to-tinkertoy conversion, that doesn't really matter so much. You put on one converter brick and now your measurements are in a totally different system. Sure the adapter might be a little loose or tight, but it's good enough to get the job done.
Re: (Score:1)
Stackup's a part of it, yes -- and that's a big part of why Lego are so much better than Megablok (which have a looser tolerance than Lego, but still tight enough to almost always fit well).
But on the 100um tolerance of typical 3D printers, you're not just talking "a little loose or tight", you're talking "may not go together or may fall apart" -- and the latter is a really big problem, since you can always sand/file a bit of interference fit down for acceptable assembly force. I think it'd work out OK in p
Correction: precision for _molds_ is 2 microns (Score:1)
for _bricks_ it's 10 microns / micrometres.
So the difference in precision is 10 to 1, rather than 50 to 1.
Re: (Score:2)
My toddler has built a homebew brick castle which I interpret to mean "Citation needed".
Also, our bricks can have (gasp!) 30 degree angles. Shove than in your high pressure compression mold! http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13531 [thingiverse.com]
Bah (Score:3)
In my day, if you wanted an interconnector for your construction kit you made it yourself with a rusty hacksaw, milliput and a hand drill.
In fact, you made your construction kits the same way. And that's how we liked it!
3d printing??? Uhmm... not yet, guys. (Score:5, Informative)
3d printers have a precision tolerance of something on the order of about eighty to a hundred microns, or often worse... particularly for non-commercial home 3d-printers.
Lego is manufactured to a precision of less than 2 microns.
We're probably at LEAST another 5 to 10 years away from being able to use 3d printing technologies with tolerances in the 1-2 micron range, which is what would be required to adequately fit together with Lego.
For comparison, Megabloks is manufactured to a precision of approximately 10 microns.
Megabloks routinely slip, Lego does not. I shudder to imagine how poorly these 3d printed connectors are going to work.
We're not reliably connecting to Lego anytime soon. At least not with 3d printing.
Re: (Score:2)
Stable in compression, although you're correct, completely unsuitable in tension.
What does work, so I've read, is supergluing a "real lego block" making a sandwich with real lego above and real lego below and printed block in the middle.
Re: (Score:2)
The printing tech is waaay the heck more than adequate for lincoln logs and the like. Only lego needs the special treatment.
Also like I wrote, in compression it's already good enough. you only need to do superglue tricks if you need tension strength. Not that lego is all that strong in tension anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
3d printers have a precision tolerance of something on the order of about eighty to a hundred microns, or often worse... particularly for non-commercial home 3d-printers.
Lego is manufactured to a precision of less than 2 microns.
...
For comparison, Megabloks is manufactured to a precision of approximately 10 microns.
That's absolutely incredible. For comparison, the typical oxygen penetration length in tissue (the diffusion length scale: sqrt( diffusion constant / uptake rate)) is on the scale of 3-D printer precision: 100 microns.
Human cells are on scale of Megabloks precision: 10-20 microns in diameter.
A human cell nucleus is on the order of 5-7 microns in diameter: still larger than the 2 micron Lego precision! 2 microns is on the same order as the size of bacteria!
If you want some more introductory reading on
Re: (Score:2)
I believe the measurement unit mark-t meant to use was micro-meter.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
micron == micro-meter.
re: A few free pubs you can visit (Score:3)
That's it... I'm going to get reincarnated (Score:3)
Shame- it won't be until my grand-kids generation that Makerbots become really good and common cheap house-hold appliances.
I'm officially not going to heaven/hell/land of 16 virgins/nirvana whatever when I die. I demand to be reincarnated so that I get to play with stuff built with 3D printers and get to have these type of adapters whilst still a kid.
Re: (Score:3)
Get enough of them- and you could build a house out of home-made lego.
Building a house with lego has to be better than dealing with drywall.
Re: (Score:2)
Make your 3D printer out of Lego, provide some automation - hey, presto - self-replicating robots who "feed" on the source plastic.
Bonus points for 3-laws interpretations, and not forgetting to put in a "kill switch" somewhere.
Re: (Score:1)
Being worked on right now.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rocknail/filabot-plastic-filament-maker [kickstarter.com]
Currently waiting to receive mine to give a try, last message from the guy (in the comments, not the posted updates) says that the major systems are working and gives an indication that the issures right now are going to be getting parts sourced and kits made and everything. Still definitely at the hobby stage but it'll work great for recycling bad prints or for reclaiming material from other sources.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't copy that-.... car? (Score:2)
So, this article led me on something almost resembling a wiki-walk. While I was reading about the IP implications of all this, I remembered the commercials-... you wouldn't steal a car, so why would you steal music? Well... we're already copying music (which does not take away the original) and I'm sure plenty of us would LOVE to copy a car. Or hell, design their own.
The coming century is likely to become a golden age for consumer industry if we have our way, or a dark age of gradually-reinforcing IP laws i
How about Creating a Open source construction kit? (Score:2)
How about Creating a Open source construction kit? That is unique, easily printable on current 3D printers/ or off the self parts from your local hardware store. and does not violate someone copy right. This way all parts will interconnect and improve over the current line of Toy construction kits limitations.
Eric
Re: (Score:2)
But once you have your Created Open-source Construction Kit in your hand you should let it get in the Free Universal Construction Kit. Cause after all what good is a C.O.C.K if you can't use it with your other toys and F.U.C.K.?
Sorry I couldn't resist.
No, no, no, no! (Score:3, Interesting)
If I didn't know better I'd say this is a deliberate caricature of the misappropriated hype around 3D printers.
3D printers are good for making unique parts. As soon as the worldwide demand for a part exceeds more than about 100, the time and energy cost of manufacture per part will exceed the cost of tooling up one of the many mass manufacture processes available to make the part in bulk. That is highly unlikely to change - not least because the better 3D printing gets, the quicker and cheaper it gets to make the unique tools for a bulk operation.
If it wasn't for the total unsuitability of 3D printing for press fit interfaces, this might have had a niche application for circumventing the IP restrictions on establishing a mass manufacture operation. As it is, it's just another chapter in the myth that one day we will download and manufacture most of our own hardware at home. The world is a big place with a lot of people in it, and against the odds we are actually relatively efficient at cooperating with each other when it comes to products that lots of us want.
Sooooo... (Score:1)
Universal Constructor, huh. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
So it begins (Score:2)
'This has happened before, and will happen again.'
Think of The Children? (Score:2)
Sorry. Children are expendable when it comes to the enforcement of copyright/trademark/patent rights.
What copyright? (Score:2)
You can't copyright a functional part in the US. That was settled years ago, which is why there's a third party auto parts industry. Some other countries allow that, but not the US. Patents may apply, but patents only cover the "invention" part, whatever that may be. Unless someone has a new method of connecting things, a patent isn't likely to cover an adapter.
As far as I can find, there's has never been a US lawsuit over replicating a part with stereolithography.