Conversation with Alex about 3D Printers, electronics and ML
I was talking with Alex about 3D printing. During the conversation, we covered a lot of topics. Here are some interesting projects we covered:
- Prusa Mini: the smaller version of the Prusa MK3.
- Prusa Mini - YouTube video
- Blog post
- We talked about the extruder, which can have a filament sensor
- Prusa offers their own slicer
- Slic3r:
There’s a lot of 3D modelers available:
- Sketchup: I’ve used Sketchup with an STL exporter plugin. But that was years ago.
- Autodesk Fusion 360: as a modeling tool. With a free license for hobbyists
- I went ahead and installed it using Homebrew
- FreeCAD
- Ultimaker Cura: modeling software
- OpenSCAD: parametric 3D modeler
Markets to share
- Thingiverse: it is still the preferred place to share models. I didn’t know that they were owned by Makerbot.
The conversation then shifted to electronics… 😎
- sigrok: a framework for signal analyzers.
- saleae: the maker of the tiny FPGA signal analyzer
- Bus Pirate: I still think of it as a signal analyzer, but it is more like a multiprotocol translator. It requires the protocol to be consistent for it to function well.
Moving back to 3D printing:
- OctoPrint is a server that can expose the 3D printer to the network. They offer a Raspian-based image for the Raspberry Pi, with all the software in place.
- Timelapses of 3D prints
- Materials you can use to print. Even some with wood powders. Though printing with wood filaments can be complicated.
- It’s cool that Prusa uses their printers to print their printers.
Going now to machine learning: 🤖
- GStreamer framework used to stream video feeds
- NVIDIA Jetson. It is a family of boards with GPUs and arm cores. Alex thinks the Nano can handle basic algorithms in a couple of video feeds.
- Single camera depth perception. An example of what people use ML for.
- Low light image enhancement. Another example of ML for image/video processing/understanding.
- Seeing Motion in the Dark. Cool paper from Chen Chen.