Hi all!
I've been working for the past few months as the engineer on this project, and I'm excited to share it here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dg8/lilm8-easy-quiet-plug-and-playWe spoke to parents, schools, teachers, and kids to find out what we could do to make 3D printing as easy as possible, and what we found were a few main complaints:
1.) Noise:
Most printers were too loud to be run at home or at schools during class, so parents and teachers won't leave them running during the day or over night
2.) Ease of use:
The average person can not use a 3D printer right out of the box, and navigating the printer's firmware can be extremely confusing for absolute beginners
3.) Accessibility:
Learning how to slice files properly is daunting for anyone unfamiliar with 3D printing
We went about solving these problems, with the lilM8 being the end product. On the engineering side, I've put Trinamic's StealthChop drivers on the PCB, and honestly I'm really surprised how well these drivers work. I also re-wrote a large portion of the Marlin code base to make the printer really easy to use. Having my business friend from uni who's never 3D printed before be able to use the printer without instructions was really nice to see.
We also created
https://3dm8.com/ for people post pre-sliced models for the printer, meaning users don't need to learn how to slice models to print things.
To help people learn about 3D printing, we're creating courses and material, along with videos on how to use 3D printers, with introductory terms and explanations so everyone can learn. Our first course is here:
https://learn.3dg8.com/courses/lilm8-guide/Something I want to purse if we get enough funding is developing 3D printable toys that people can print and assemble themselves. Just as an example:
https://v.kickstarter.com/1640057889_873959e3e6ba57374b32ffbf7df2b26577f4a2d4/assets/035/677/266/fa142bb26d1becc66fb9e90cd38d189d_h264_high.mp4I designed a small PCB and 3D printed housing to make a flying hover toy for just a couple dollars. I feel kits like this would really make 3D printing more engaging and fun for people, and I hope we can pursue other interesting kit ideas.
Let me know what you all think, I'd love to hear from you!