3D Print Parts For Nybble and Bittle
Periodically, we've seen posts in the forum about 3D printing parts for our robots. But did you know that there is a Petoi GitHub repo of stl and 3mf files for various Nybble and Bittle parts and accessories? These can be found at https://github.com/PetoiCamp/NonCodeFiles/tree/master/stl. Note that when you click on an stl filename (but not a 3mf filename), GitHub renders the part so you can examine it before you download it. You can spin the part, using the mouse, to examine all sides and, when you do spin it, after a few seconds, GitHub will spin it slowly for you which is pretty cool!
If you are having trouble putting those pesky springs into Bittle then 3D printing the springInstaller.stl file might help:
If you have the Mu Intelligent Camera, this Bittle mouth-mount, MuIntelligentCamera_mount.stl, might be useful:
Which looks like this (pictures from petoi.com)
Another one I like is this test stand, BittleTestStand.3mf, shown here as a Cura image (since GitHub can't render it):
Edit: The orientation of 1/2 of the BittleTestStand for 3D printing is now shown correctly.
It works like this (note that this appears to be a computer rendered image, not a picture since you have to print the BittleTestStand.3mf twice and glue the pieces back to back but this image does show any seam!):
Here is a list of the stl files in this repo that I find most interesting (includes the above):
BittleStand (a folder with BittleTestStand.3mf, standWithCalibration.3mf, and standWithCalibration.stl, plus pictures)
BittleNeckLock ( a folder with 2 neck locks, neckLockSmall.stl and neckLockLarge.stl, plus instructions)
Interesting. Then costs could be limited by designing for volume. For example, one could design a flat kit card version of the stand, which would be cheap to print and requires virtually no post-processing. I would suggest the stand as a test case, because it is very useful for programming moves, although ultimately I would like to see a range of alternative heads for Bittle (I'm working on one myself). On-demand 3D printing is normally the answer to not knowing how many customers are interested, but I appreciate the complexities. Ideally you would order a small batch (e.g. 20 pieces) so that Petoi can get them cheaper than a single customer having a single item printed. I'm pretty sure you could still make use of them as promotional material should nobody buy them. Like, instead of a 10% discount when buying a robot, people get the stand. Another possibility is to set up shop with an external 3D printing service and link to it from Petoi's website. e.g. Shapeways. In my view, the main obstacle for people to buy 3D prints is just that they don't know where or how to get it printed.