DJ,
Great job on a big roll out. I missed the live presentation, but got caught up on the YouTube recording. Here are my 2 cents.
I am speaking from a USA perspective. I think you have created a great resource for adults, kids and schools, but as any revolutionary idea, you may be ahead of your time. Gearing towards schools is a wonderful concept, but here in the US, with federal budget cuts, schools don't have enough teachers to teach, let alone a budget for 3d printers. There are a few who get donations of used machines, but not on the whole. There are some robotics courses being taught, but many schools have after school robotics clubs where money is raised so they can buy materials and build a bot.
The 3d printing evolution is just starting because 24 year patents the "big three" had, just ran out a few years ago and now everyone and their brother are cranking machines for the consumer, for better or for worse. In general the hobbiests who are buying these printers, are just simply supporting the evolving machines. In the end people will want machines with bigger foot prints and higher resolution prints and in general reliable functioning machines.
Where am I going with all this? I suspect there are many scratching their heads on this site and in general the consumers who bought the EZB, wondering how this release will effect, them. Unless you own a 3 d printer or have a friend or uncle with one, it won't. Until 3d printers and the material they use, get to true consumer pricing ( around $200), and they are a one button push to print device, the technology will continue to be an expensive hobbiests-only machine.
I believe the success of the EZ board has always been and should continue to be a unique, powerful and easy to use robot core . My fear is the novelty of the 3d printing may have been a bull in the road, and taken away from evolving the EZB functions, which in my opinion are unique and one of a kind. As the Revolution unfolds, I hope that new functions will begin once again popping up and the EZB continues to revolutionize robotics.
Keep up the fantastic work!
@toymaker, Can I have the links that were referred to in those threads? Thank you!
@Troy, the link to our Ai video has been sent.
Ah! those were the days
A Sinclair Zx81 and then a Sinclair Spectrum 48k with would believe an add on 4 relay card so my first robot had an onboard pc if only I had a 3D Printer then i could have changed the world mad
@DJ - what I learned in custom car stereo is that when you do a really good and clean some aren't sure what you did to make it that way. Its a sign of a good craftsman
@feroze your absolutely right shape ways is an excellent option and the improvements to ARC are enourmous. The idea of printing your own robot parts seems foreign but as creative minds begin making their own improvements and custom parts this will catch on. I myself want to pickup a 3d printer and help community members get their 3d printed PLA or ABS parts quickly.
I remember back when I had a Laser 128 with 5 1/? floppy. Yup I played a lot of moonlander on that thing.
Here is my quote of the day except its mine , anyone feel free to use it- "The Ez Robot Revolution is not a release date of a product but the beginning of the Crusade for improvements on the way the world sees personal robotics. Its the beginning of a whole new way to developed and build."
Attention Mr Coffee , .... Activate drip
@toymaker, thanks for clarifying who you are. Rich sent me a link to the threads you were referring too, very impressive. Looking forward to the roll out.
@feroze, I have 3- 3d printers totaling $30 grand and a large robot arm for milling on the way, so I'm no stranger to rapid prototyping. Obviously I'm not against it, quite the contrary. It is the future of my new business. And that it is still a long ways away to be cheap and user friendly for the average hobbiests/consumer. Ie, many people do not know if you build a model with intersecting polygons that when you slice the model and create gcode, many printers will not be able to correct for the intersecting polys and create a bad print. As DJ pointed out with his reprap, the failure rate is quite high. This is true even for my expensive printers. Failures equal loss in expensive build materials. The part becomes expensive.
My point was the revolution has taken up a lot of DJs time and was hoping that it did not take away from evolving the the core of his business. But as others have pointed out to me he indeed has completely rewritten the code and updated some features.
@fxrst - Your viewing the situation from your perspective alone. What about someone new to the platform, all they have to do is buy the plastic parts from online. They do not have to deal with failed prints. Even if 3D printing never becomes cheap or easy enough for normal consumers this update is still very meaningful. ie Shapeways.com, etc.
Other people will design parts that can be 3D printed from anywhere any service. Then any user can use those parts to custom create a robot using the customizer in EZ-Buidler. Also this IS part of the core of the business. It has melded into the core. It has completed the robotics platform as DJ has said. Again it is not about 3D printing, it is about open source robot hardware design and evolution.
Again I'm not saying the revolution is a bad idea, just ahead of its time in regards to printing. I think i expected more from the Revolution release, but I see it will be expanding over the coming months and years.
Will the available EZ Bits parts come from china with the master molds from DJs prints to keep costs low? You could not turn a profit or keep up with demand printing single parts for customers. In regards to buying parts, how is this any different than buying parts for say a Hexapod already available online at robotics retailers? Just saying.
I'm no stranger to mold making , casting , or vacuum forming so if I had one part , just make a mold pour resin and wait. Its like shake and bake super easy duplicates.