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PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

kickstarter.com

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Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#11

Post by moepstar »

ghein wrote: post #8
taskstrike wrote: post #3

I love 3D printers, but this is the third one I've seen this week in addition to MakerBot and Form 1. I'm really not understanding what the differentiator is after seeing the video except a slight change in price.

We think price is important and that the true power of 3D printing will come when we break out of the niche and into the mass market. Beyond price, we're designed from the start as a manufactured product, which led to much different component selection and engineering choices. These different design decisions gave us a much more rigid, robust, and quiet machine, while also allowing us to leverage the economies of sca…

Speaking of rigid - what's it with the heatbed (?) bending to the left as soon as it changes direction in the video (at around 0:50 - 0:55)

Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#12

Post by braum »

The Ultra-Bot 3D Printer Kickstarter ends in less than 22 hours and has a full assembled unit at $899 ($99 more).

It's based on the original Makerbot Cupcake but upgraded and improved from trial and error. And there is a version with a larger build area (8x8x8"), which is the one I've pledged to receive. And with the heated build platform you can run ABS or PLA.

The thing that bothers me about the PandaBot is the lack of details on the build area size (update: 11x11x11" Print Envelope" and heated platform). Also the price isn't that great compared to other fully assembled 3D printers with the same tech. Also I'm not a fan of the base moving instead of just the print head. I can't think of any wide format printers that move the base instead of the entire head assembly/gimble.

I do love the snap together setup process and the look of the machine. It looks like something you would buy in a store and almost anyone could setup and start using immediately.

Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#13

Post by kellyjrose »

braum wrote: post #12

The Ultra-Bot 3D Printer Kickstarter ends in less than 22 hours and has a full assembled unit at $899 ($99 more). It's based on the original Makerbot Cupcake but upgraded and improved from trial and error. And there is a version with a larger build area (8x8x8"), which is the one I've pledged to receive. And with the heated build platform you can run ABS or PLA. The thing that bothers me about the PandaBot is the lac…

The build area is 11x11x11"

The snap together process and self-calibration make it a much more useful experience. We've been bringing it all around town and usually have it set up and printing in minutes.

You can especially see it in our BNN interview. Liav had to set it up in minutes because he couldn't be on set any longer than that. :)

Full disclosure, I'm Kelly John Rose of Panda Robotics.

Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#15

Post by ghein »

braum wrote: post #12

The Ultra-Bot 3D Printer Kickstarter ends in less than 22 hours and has a full assembled unit at $899 ($99 more). It's based on the original Makerbot Cupcake but upgraded and improved from trial and error. And there is a version with a larger build area (8x8x8"), which is the one I've pledged to receive. And with the heated build platform you can run ABS or PLA. The thing that bothers me about the PandaBot is the lac…

Thanks for your comments.

We've found that moving the bed horizontally helps reduce the size of motors necessary to move the head as well as simplifies the required inertial calculations to properly model the fluid flow to give a detailed, low defect object.

We're definitely aiming for a store bought look. We've violated the sacred law of demos time and again and not yet been caught. To do Canada's CNBC we dragged it out of a cab and had it set up and printing in 5 minutes with no adjustment, with an alpha prototype! On live, national TV! So it's a decently robust design.

Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#16

Post by jlgreco »

stephengillie wrote: post #2

I'm waiting for the 3d printer you download and assemble entirely from 3d-printed parts.

This is what the rep-rap project is working towards.

One of the first obvious issues is how do you print motors? How to print circuit boards (with 3d printing hardware that is) is another obvious question, though that seems a bit more approachable. Wires are also another obvious one, though printing internal leads into pieces seems like a decent way of avoiding wires after you have gotten the "print a circuit board" thing down.

Less technical issues are "Why do you even want to print the entire thing?". Right now most rep-raps use many metal rods. These could be replaced with printed parts, but is there really a reason? The metal rods are cheap, easy to source, and reliable.

This all said, what rep-rap has accomplished to date is pretty impressive; they have snatched up most of the low hanging fruit and most of what is left isn't stuff that makes sense to print anyway.

Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#17

Post by kellyjrose »

cdawzrd wrote: post #6
taskstrike wrote: post #3

I love 3D printers, but this is the third one I've seen this week in addition to MakerBot and Form 1. I'm really not understanding what the differentiator is after seeing the video except a slight change in price.

This is a FDM printer that is a lot cheaper than the MakerBot ($800 vs $2100). The Form 1 is a SLA printer, which means it is better at making small, precise parts; but worse at making parts that are durable enough for actual testing in assemblies (as opposed to just looking pretty). It is interesting to see competition to the MakerBot, since $2k is still a bit high, and if the PandaBot's "calibration-free" design wo…

Thanks.

The basic thought was to get it to a point that we could provide it to designers and university students with little to no engineering experience and they could start printing their 3d models right away. Hence, the heavy emphasis on self-calibration and ease-of-use.

The price range just works because we also designed it from the start to be a manufactured product, so we get an economy of scale very quickly as more people pick it up.

You can see print quality examples on ponoko, Derek swung by our office to see it close up in action yesterday: http://blog.ponoko.com/2012/10/04/pandabot-3d-printer-launch...

Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#18

Post by braum »

ghein wrote: post #15
braum wrote: post #12

The Ultra-Bot 3D Printer Kickstarter ends in less than 22 hours and has a full assembled unit at $899 ($99 more). It's based on the original Makerbot Cupcake but upgraded and improved from trial and error. And there is a version with a larger build area (8x8x8"), which is the one I've pledged to receive. And with the heated build platform you can run ABS or PLA. The thing that bothers me about the PandaBot is the lac…

Thanks for your comments. We've found that moving the bed horizontally helps reduce the size of motors necessary to move the head as well as simplifies the required inertial calculations to properly model the fluid flow to give a detailed, low defect object. We're definitely aiming for a store bought look. We've violated the sacred law of demos time and again and not yet been caught. To do Canada's CNBC we dragged it…

awesome job on the look and ease of use and good luck on the project.

Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#19

Post by ghein »

moepstar wrote: post #11
ghein wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We think price is important and that the true power of 3D printing will come when we break out of the niche and into the mass market. Beyond price, we're designed from the start as a manufactured product, which led to much different component selection and engineering choices. These different design decisions gave us a much more rigid, robust, and quiet machine, while also allowing us to leverage the economies of sca…

Speaking of rigid - what's it with the heatbed (?) bending to the left as soon as it changes direction in the video (at around 0:50 - 0:55)

It is prototype hardware and some elements are not where we'd wish them to be. We have a fully revamped design for the bed carriage and drive assembly.

Re: PandaBot: A friendly, affordable 3D printer

#20

Post by chc »

anigbrowl wrote: post #9
pxlpshr wrote: post #7

The video mentions they've only been working in the 3D printer world for less than a year. So now they know how to fix "all the problems" to make 3D printing available to the masses? The leadership page doesn't give me a lot of confidence in that blanket statement. Regular 2D printing isn't something that's been easy for most people after 20 years of modern computing. It's a toss up whether or not software, hardware,…

In effect, you've reduced costs to make the PandaBot accessible to a class of people who aren't really your customer And you know this how? I've been surprised at the consistent hostility of some people on HN to innovating on price. This is the same mentality that led to the US car market going temporarily insane and assuming that everyone wants the biggest SUV possible.

It's because, in practice, most so-called price innovation is of the form "I just bought 2 million sticks of butter for $1 million. I think I'll sell them for 25¢ apiece." Being unprofitable or even just barely scraping by is not actually innovative, but too often that's what passes these days. (I'm not saying PandaBot is that way. I'm just offering a reason for the pushback against "innovating on price.")
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