Tags: 3D Printing
Creat-A-Con February 2015
Posted: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 19:46
Creat-A-Con was a one-day Creative Technology organised by Jason Boomer of SideFest. It took place in the Queens Building at DMU in Leicester on the 21st February 2015. Exhibitors included Leicester Hackspace, Creative Manifesto, Starbase Leicester and Interact Labs. Over 500 people attended the event.
Interact and Interact Labs brought a range of art and technology exhibits along for people to play with.
Our Robot Arm always goes down well, and was joined at this event by a new Edison Mini Robot. This is a great little learning 'bot that is also great value for money.
Our WaterColourBot suffered a little in transport and was not performing at its best, but people still liked it. The 3D Printer also suffered a little, but was eventually set-up to produce a steady stream of whistles for people (mostly children) to take away. For many attendees it was the first time that they had seen a 3D printer in action.
We brought some DIY Virtual Reality headsets along too. However, we also had the Oculus Rift on loan to Starbase and in the end settled on encouraging people have a go with that instead. Reports were that the queue didn't die down all day.
Finally, we seem to have found a new star - the Arduino-powered Jamm Jar computer. This is a new project by Sean Clark that features a neoPixel LED ring, Arduino micro-controller, switch and rechargeable battery, all placed in a glass jam jar (see some pictures here). He has been using this device in workshops and is looking to develop it further as part of a new series of artworks. Attendees seemed to be fascinated by them and enjoyed the LED lighting patterns it produced.
Despite the odd technical problem, it was a great day. SideFest brought a very impressive audience to the event and the DMU student volunteers (and the non-DMU ones too) were incredibly helpful. We're already looking forward to the next one!
See our pictures from the event here on Flickr.
Creat-A-Con is Almost Here!
Posted: Mon, 09 Feb 2015 12:22
Creat-A-Con will be coming to Leicester on the 21st February at the Queens Building at De Montfort University. This free event aims to inspire young people in the key S.T.E.M. areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Interact Labs will be at the event demonstrating:
- The Edison robot and our robot arm
- The WaterColourBot drawing machine
- Scratch programming on the Raspberry Pi
- Our 3D printer
- DIY Virtual Reality headsets
Plus we will be making Arduino-powered interactive lights for use at the MyOptik Festival on the 28th February and testing the wireless video system we are making for the Image is the Servent event on the 27th February.
As if that isn't enough, we will also be showing the Creative Manifesto LED video wall.
Come and be creative with digital technology.
3D Printing / Arduino Projects
Posted: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 21:07
We have a couple of interesting 3D Printing / Arduino projects in the Lab at the moment. Both are being undertaken by final-year DMU Music Technology students and involve the construction of music input devices.
Luke Petterson's project involves modifying a MIDI keyboard to feature transparent keys with coloured LEDs within them to provide a learning and performance tool. The challenges of this project include 3D printing the transparent keys for the keyboard and developing Arduino technology to control the LEDs in the keys.
Evan Campbell is creating a MIDI controller that will contain distance sensors and a switch pad. The distance sensors will allow the musician to be expressive and the switch pad will be used to create a drum sequencer. Again the project makes use of an Arduino, with 3D printing used to create the housing.
Both project are moving ahead nicely. There will be a chance to look at both projects in detail next month at the Creat-A-Con event on the 21st February and in the next Open Lab on the 24th February.
3D Printer Experiments
Posted: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 16:20
One of the great things about the "fused filament" 3D printer we use in the Lab at Phoenix is that you can use it to experiment with different printing materials. It's had wood-based filament run through it recently, as well as flexible BendLay, ColorFabb copperFill and water-soluble PVA.
These newer filaments allow for some quite interesting print effects and let make things that don't initially look as if they have been 3D printed. The copperFill looks particularly impressive once you have sanded-down the model. The PVA has a different use though. On a dual-head printer you can use it to make dissolvable support structures.
Support structures are needed whenever you are trying to print something with overhangs. They consist of thin 'towers' of plastic that hold up the parts of your print that would otherwise sag or collapse if you didn't use them. Support is designed to be removed easily, but this process can take a while and may leave ugly marks on your print.
Enter the idea of using PVA for support. Polyvinyl Alcohol is a polymer that can be turned in to a filament that will run through a 3D printer at a similar temperature to common PLA. When used as a support material for PLA prints it does the job of supporting overhangs during the print but when the printing process is complete there is no need to remove it manually. Instead, you simply pop your model in a bowl of water for a few hours and the PVA support simply dissolves away.
It look us a few attempts to get the process to work but once we got the temperature right the process works pretty reliability. During the build we found that the models can look very messy - the picture attached shows a model that has a mixture of white PVA supports and a red PLA body - but once they have been left in water overnight they look fine.
We obtained our PVA filament from the iMakr shop in London. You'll also find it on eBay.
Robots, Virtual Reality and 3D Printing!
Posted: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 22:27
If there are three things that are sure to draw a crowd at Interact Labs then they are robots, Virtual Reality and 3d printing. These technologies remain very much 'of the moment' and can be a great way to introduce people to creative technology. We've featured them at a number of our events recently.
On July 8th the first of our regular 3D printer nights saw 11 people visit the Lab for an introduction to 3D printing and a safety induction for the FlashForge Creator II 3D printer we use. Given that we have been running sessions like this since we opened in October 2013, it's great to see that interest in these sessions is still high. The next one will be on the 12th August. We also have a more advanced workshop coming up in September.
On July 18th we ran our first 'Open Lab' drop-in afternoon where the device of most interest was the Oculus Rift and, to a lesser extent, the Google Cardboard. Interest in Virtual Reality is on the rise, largely thanks to the Oculus, which seems to impress most users. We might look to run Virtual Reality workshops in the future - perhaps focussed around the low-cost and self-constructured Google Cardboard device.
Finally, just last Friday, we ran the first of our 'Technology Explorer' sessions for young people. While the 3D printer went down well, the most popular devices were our computer-controlled robot arm and the Cubelet robot construction kits. Note to self, kids love robots.
Keep an eye on the www.interactlabs.co.uk website for details of future events and activities.
Making 3D Models for 3D Printing
Posted: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 21:14
We had an excellent talk by Deborah Robertson on Saturday as part of the Digital Makers Group about how to ensure that your 3D models will 3D print. Deborah took us through the common mistakes that you might make with your model and the things to look out for when trying to get the best possible print. She has made the slides available to download as a PDF, so those who couldn't make it can download them. Dale Robertson also gave us an introduction to 3D scanning using the Microsoft Kinect and other devices. We'll be sharing the results of this shortly. We'll definitely be running more sessions like this in the future.
Digital Making in Leicester
Posted: Sun, 12 Jan 2014 23:58
Interact Labs has only been going for two and a bit months and we've already managed to generate a lot of interest in "Digital Making" in Leicester. In fact, there have been over 400 visits to the lab since we opened on October 26th 2013.
The 3D printer has been particularly well-used, with local artists, technologists and workshops attendees all creating and printing their own 3D objects (often for the first time). We've also helped bring together a group of people interested in setting up a hackspace in Leicester. If all goes to plan, we will actually be opening "Leicester Hackspace" at the Makers Yard (just two streets away from Phoenix) in February.
Our plans for 2014 are to do more of the same. We will continue to hold Digital Makers Group meetings monthly, support groups such as Creative Manifesto and Leicester Hackspace, organise talks and workshops, and run a few live events. There will also undoubtedly be a few surprises too. Remember, everything we do is about encouraging people to be creative with technology. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to get involved, whatever your level of expertise (or not!).
To keep in up-to-date with what is happening make sure that visit the interactlabs.co.uk website regularly and join our email list, like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.
Steven Mills
Posted: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 14:15
As part of his residency at Two Queens gallery in Leicester, graduate artist Steven Mills experimented with 3D printing at Interact Labs. Using a Kinect-based 3D scanner he produced 3D images of his workspace and then printed these on our FlashForge 3D printer in PLA plastic.
Interact Labs Open Day Success
Posted: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 19:39
Interact Labs had its first open day yesterday. Over 60 people came along to see the digital makers "Raspberry Jam" in the Midland Room and have a look around the new Interact Labs space. There were also talks by Sean Clark (Interact Labs), John Rance (Phoenix), Paul Brown (Computer Arts Society), Ernest Edmonds (IOCT) and Tony Goodhew (MagPi contributor). The 3D printer was in constant use throughout the day and there was a real buzz around the event.
A number of concrete things came out of the event. Firstly, there will definitely be a monthly Digital Makers / Raspberry Pi event. This will take a similar format to the opening event, with hardware demonstrations a presentations in the Midland Room - but with the presentations focused solely on technical topics - plus access to the 3D printers in Interact Labs. We will set up an Eventbrite for the next event shortly and announce the speakers.
Secondly, there was a 'fringe' meeting about the idea of a "Leicester Hackspace" yesterday. There is lots of interest in establishing a space in Leicester to give people access to manufacturing hardware. We are going to build on this interest by hosting a fourtnightly Leicester Hackspace meeting at Interact Labs. The first of these will be on the 5th November 2013 at 6:30pm. If you want to be involved you can join in the discussion in the Leicester Digital Makers Google Group.
Finally, it was good to see members of the Creative Manifesto arts group attend the event and start working with the 3D printer. Creative Manifesto also meets fortnightly (alternate Tuesdays to Leicester Hack Space) and are keen to initiate futures joint projects with the Digital Maker community.
So, a very useful event indeed and a good start to the Interact Labs project. You can see pictures from the event here. Remember to join the Facebook Group or email list, or get involved with the Leicester Digital Makers Google Group to find out about future activities.
