OLO – the $99 box that transforms any smartphone into a 3D printer

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/olo-3d-printer-smartphone/#/1-3

by fastball • 10 years ago

69 45 10 years ago

jbob2000• 10 years ago

How fast is this? I feel like leaving my smartphone on with its screen at its brightest setting (presumably) for hours at a time is a great way to burn out my phone.

saulrh3• 10 years ago

Backlight won't be an issue. LEDs like that have service lifetimes longer than your own. The switching elements in the screen burning in is another issue, but it seems like burn-in on modern displays (AMOLED) is a reversible hysteresis effect that you can clear out by flipping the pixels to extreme values approximately.

arsenide• 10 years ago

If I were to use this myself, I would have no problem keeping my phone plugged in. I always have my laptop anyway, and if I'm at home I can just use a wall charger.

kefka2• 10 years ago

The underlying problem with this method is that the OLED screens put out almost 0 UV radiation.

UV is what the resins need to harden.

"Because of submitting too fast..."

REPLY:

Ok. I just came back from MRRF (Midwest RepRap Festival), and nothing came out about the accessibility of visible light cured resins.

It may be a cool lab invention right now, but if I cannot buy it in 200ml quantities to experiment with it on my own, it effectively doesn't exist.

It also makes me very skeptical that you are wont to correct me about "there are visible light curing resins"... yet their own media material shows clear bottles holding the resin. I would expect a nice semi-hard cylinder of somewhat cured resin if that's what they are using. My guess is they are using a FormLabs, printing the pieces, and then putting 'liquid' in the clear bottle.

Something doesn't add up here. I'm surmising a scam.

Edit 2:

Really now? I highlight a problem with the physics of what they are showing, and downvotes? How about a discussion rather than silent disapproval?

saulrh3• 10 years ago

Photosensitive resin printing using a cell phone with a grate above it for the pattern rather than a projector. Simple and ingenious. I am impressed.

jaxomlotus• 10 years ago

It's clever but so impractical for consumer use. You're going to put away your phone for a few hours while this prints and be OK with that?

And if you're going to have to buy another device just to use this in a practical way, why not already just include a cheap android wifi-only device into the base?

jasonkostempski• 10 years ago

It would also be nice if there was no battery in the device so you didn't have to worry about replacing that overtime.

Frenchgeek• 10 years ago

Because "We have a slow 3D printer" doesn't sell as well as "we turn your phone into a 3D printer".

bunnymancer3• 10 years ago

I put away my phone for about 8 hours a day.

gergesim• 10 years ago

- Will you need to put your phone in airplane mode to prevent a call or text from ruining your print?

- Your phone is unusable for the likely 2 - 12 hours it takes to print

- In the video they show what is apparently light sensitive resin in clear plastic bottles

goda902• 10 years ago

This seems like a great use case for an old smartphone that still works.

elbigbad2• 10 years ago

Or $20 unactivated smart phones from Best Buy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/motorola-motorola-moto-g-3rd-gen...

grimmdude• 10 years ago

Seems like there should be an option to use any light source. Why is it specific to a phone?

Someone1234• 10 years ago

Are we sure it is sensitive to ALL forms of light? If the plastic bottle reflects UV, and the material is UV sensitive it could make rational sense.

Although I'll grant I am pulling theories out of thin air. I have no idea if this product is even real let alone how the material/bottle works.

TD-Linux2• 10 years ago

Except that then your smartphone screen would need to emit UV light, which it doesn't.

bryanlarsen• 10 years ago

It'd be interesting to see a comparison with the other $100 3D printer: http://www.peachyprinter.com/

That also uses photosensitive resin printing, except they use a laser and mirror rather than your cell phone.

bunnymancer3• 10 years ago

It seems peachy printer is mainly for creating pocket rockets...

HCIdivision17• 10 years ago

I immediately looked into that as well, since I'm still waiting for mine to ship. It's about two years late, and all the delays seem to be due to the fairly standard Kickstarter stuff (inexperience, shocking misunderestimatings of manufacturing, typical defect and spec failures, etc.)

The really cool thing about the Peachy Printer is the mechanism for the laser and such - sophisticated results for just a few parts. And the super cool thing about the OP printer is how simple the mechanism is. I look forward to see which ideas win in the end (or at least for which types of products - some resins are certainly better than others).

skykooler• 10 years ago

I'm curious as to how the higher layers of the print will work, considering the light has to shine up through the whole thing?

goda902• 10 years ago

It looks like in the video it has the phone underneath the resin and a platform that raises up from the resin so that it's printing in a top down manner.

kefka2• 10 years ago

SLA printers (resin) print the models upside down. Thats because they pull up to break from the bottom container with the liquid, and lower back down to do the next layer.

Usually for post processing, you'll use a UV lightbox to cure the parts completely.

JTon• 10 years ago

From the video it looks like it spends time hardening the layer closest to the phone's screen, then presumably, when that layer is sufficiently hard a mechanism pushes it up and begins working on the next layer.

pawelkomarnicki• 10 years ago

Can I get a $149 printer that doesn't block usage of my phone for countless hours or potentially ruin my phone? :P

ortusdux• 10 years ago

For 50$ you can easily get a used phone off ebay/craigslist/a friend. Heck I have two droid bionics and two HTC M8s collecting dust.

swsieber• 10 years ago

Heck, you can get a new phone for $50 from Best Buy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/blu-advance-4-0-l-4g-with-4gb-me...

madebysquares• 10 years ago

Looks beautiful, but been burned too many times by Kickstarter, seems like a great concept but I will only believe it when it hits the market.

kinai• 10 years ago

It's all cool but what for? I might have needed a 3D printer once in several years. Those who need it regularly for hobby buy a professional machine.

andrewvc• 10 years ago

What could I build with this that's actually interesting?

Who are these people who need tiny crappy plastic objects on demand?

I get 3d printing on serious hardware for more complex objects. This kind of stuff just seems like a novely for toy projects.

pjc50• 10 years ago

Other people are questioning the "visible light cure" resin. Assume that it exists and works fine, it's a bit of a handling hassle, as you need to treat it like unexposed photographic film. As soon as you open the lid to take your print out the unexposed resin in the bottom of the box is going to start curing.

TD-Linux2• 10 years ago

Other SLA printers like the Form 1 and 2 from Formlabs also cure with (barely) visible light technically (405nm laser). It normally doesn't cure fast enough for the problem you describe to be a problem, though stray light will in general cure it over time.

slamus• 10 years ago

Not being able to use your smartphone during hours is just the worst. constraint. ever.

jalfresi• 10 years ago

I suppose you could use it whilst you charge your phone at night?

Namidairo• 10 years ago

They mention that it works with larger screen sizes, but I wonder what kind of problems could appear at the smaller end.

The detail on some of those prints they're showing off in the pictures and video look decent though, none of those layered striations that you get with some of the more conventional printers? Can't really tell for sure though, not without some better pictures.

ccozan• 10 years ago

I wonder why just didn't add a LCD screen and a controller [0] ? All you need something that emits light, not a full fledged smartphone.

[0] http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-2-Nextion-HMI-Intelligent-S...

mankyd• 10 years ago

They'd still need software to control said hardware. We can assume such software would be mobile, based on what they're currently offering.

Then they'd need a way to pair the phone with the controller, or otherwise get the data over. This complicates things for the owners. At that point, you might as well just use the phone itself.

Mind you that this limits the versatility of what they're selling - you can only print something as big as your phone - but they aren't aiming at the high-end market with this.

mdorazio• 10 years ago

In addition to what mankyd said, this printing method ties precision to the pixel density of the screen. Low resolution screens like the one you linked give lower quality prints. You would really need to step up to a higher-resolution small tablet or large phone (something like [1]) to get a package that works well for the average consumer. That's going to add at least $50 to the BOM and make overall development trickier.

[1] http://www.aliexpress.com/item/12/32579900233.html

brian_• 10 years ago

My browser tab says [Y]OLO!

y04nn• 10 years ago

Wait a minute, people doing this with projector where using DLP projectors, do you need a OLED smartphone then? Because as far as I know, most screen emit light on black. Or is it reactive to a specific color. I have some doubt about the quality of the printing.

OLO – the $99 box that transforms any smartphone into a 3D printer

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