Things are accelerating rapidly.
I had reached out the world's largest 3D printing filament supplier, Esun who is based in Shenzen, China.
After explaining that we may require 4 spools for each of the potential 2,500 printers (aka 10,000 spools), the CEO wants to meet me in person on April 28th. He's going to fly here.
Need to brush up on my Mandarin
Last edited by MR2 Fan; March 30th, 2018 at 07:32 AM.
You speak Chinese? Wow.
Don't hesitate to ask me if you need help... , but my Chinese is probably only 6th grade level.
not really, twas a joke.Originally Posted by Crazed_Insanity
You speak Chinese? Wow.
Don't hesitate to ask me if you need help... , but my Chinese is probably only 6th grade level.
I learned some cantonese when I visited Hong Kong but Shenzen is a primarily mandarin speaking area apparently
UPDATE:
Yes, the project is still going strong though I've been a bit too busy to post here, we're nearly ready for the kickstarter. The final hurdle of printing 4 colors/materials took a bit more hardware and software changes than anticipated, but it's finally getting there.
Additionally, I have come up with a way to edit the Gcode file (The file the printer uses to print) on the fly based on user input. No other 3D printer on the market has anything remotely close to this!
Basically we're using an SQL database and PHP to edit the gcode file. What that means for users is when they have a multi-color model, they can choose which part of the model gets which color with a couple of touchscreen presses and BOOM! the printer knows what filament to print each section with.
You can even test this feature out, here:
http://www.venturi3d.com/model3.php
The ability to preview the 3D model like this, choose a filament color (It knows the information based on a QR Code that you scan when you load the 4 filaments), and print exactly how it previews is light years beyond other printers on the market.
Awesome!
Get that shit locked down with a patent (if possible).
This is open source, no patents, for several reasons. One, patents don't matter in China anyway, two, that can be a long expensive process, three, the 3D printing community as a whole is very much dedicated to open source things and get quite negative when something is closed source/patented.
Also, we're going to have an advantage with our online marketplace of models designed specifically for our printer.
Forgot to add that pretty much all of the parts we're using are "off the shelf" in a new form factor...we're not really customizing much except for the software side. Again, this is like how Xerox/Apple/M$ revolutionized the PC using the GUI, at least that's what I'm hoping
I hope it works out, mate.
Can I give you $10 that you'll turn into $10,000?
Maybe but I'm not selling stock right now
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