3D Printing

Lessons in Vendor Lock-in: 3D Printers

Kyle Rankin — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 11:30:00 +0000

The open nature of the consumer 3D printing industry has made for a much more consumer-friendly world.

This article continues a series that aims to illustrate some of the various problems associated with vendor lock-in. In past articles, I've given examples showing how proprietary systems from disposable razors to messaging apps have replaced more open systems leading to vendor lock-in. This article highlights an ecosystem that, so far, has largely avoided vendor lock-in and describes the benefits that openness has provided members of the community, myself included: 3D printing.

I've been involved in 3D printing for several years. I've owned a number of printers, and I've seen incredible growth in the area from an incredibly geeky fringe to the much more accessible hobby that it is today. I've also written quite a few articles in Linux Journal about 3D printing, including a multi-part series on the current state of 3D printing hardware and software (see the Resources section for links to Kyle's previous Linux Journal articles on 3D printing). I even gave a keynote at SCALE 11x on the free software and open hardware history of 3D printing and how it mirrors the history of the growth of Linux distributions.

The Birth of 3D Printing in the Hobbyist Market

One interesting thing about the hobbyist 3D printing market is that it was founded on free software and open hardware ideals starting with the RepRap project. The idea behind that project was to design a 3D printer from off-the-shelf parts that could print as many of its own parts as possible (especially more complex, custom parts like gears). Because of this, the first generation of 3D printers were all homemade using Arduinos, stepper motors, 3D-printed gears and hardware you could find in the local hardware store.

As the movement grew, a few individuals started small businesses selling 3D printer kits that collected all the hardware plus the 3D printed parts and electronics for you to assemble at home. Later, these kits turned into fully assembled and supported printers, and after the successful Printrbot kickstarter campaign, the race was on to create cheaper and more user-friendly printers with each iteration. Sites like Thingiverse and YouMagine allowed people to create and share their designs, so even if you didn't have any design skills yourself, you could download and print everyone else's. These sites even provided the hardware diagrams for some of the more popular 3D printers. The Free Software ethos was everywhere you looked.

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3D-Printed Firearms Are Blowing Up

Kyle Rankin — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 18:48:03 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

What's the practical risk with 3D-printed firearms today? In this opinion piece, Kyle explores the current state of the art.

If you follow 3D printing at all, and even if you don't, you've likely seen some of the recent controversy surrounding Defense Distributed and its 3D-printed firearm designs. If you haven't, here's a brief summary: Defense Distributed has created 3D firearm models and initially published them for free on its DEFCAD website a number of years ago. Some of those 3D models were designed to be printed with a traditional home hobbyist 3D printer (at least in theory), and other designs were for Defense Distributed's "Ghost Gunner"—a computer-controlled CNC mill aimed at milling firearm parts out of metal stock. The controversy that ensued was tied up in the general public debate about firearms, but in particular, a few models got the most attention: a model of an AR-15 lower receiver (the part of the rifle that carries the serial number) and "the Liberator", which was a fully 3D-printed handgun designed to fire a single bullet. The end result was that the DEFCAD site was forced to go offline (but as with all website take-downs, it was mirrored a million times first), and Defense Distributed has since been fighting the order in court.

The political issues raised in this debate are complicated, controversial and have very little to do with Linux outside the "information wants to be free" ethos in the community, so I leave those debates for the many other articles on this issue that already have been published. Instead, in this article, I want to use my background as a hobbyist 3D printer and combine it with my background in security to build a basic risk assessment that cuts through a lot of the hype and political arguments on all sides. I want to consider the real, practical risks with the 3D models and the current Ghost Gunner CNC mill that Defense Distributed provides today. I focus my risk assessment on three main items: the 3D-printed AR-15 lower receiver, the Liberator 3D-printed handgun and the Ghost Gunner CNC mill.

3D-Printed AR-15 Lower Receiver

This 3D model was one of the first items Defense Distributed shared on DEFCAD. In case you aren't familiar with the AR-15, its modular design is one of the reasons for its popularity. Essentially every major part of the rifle has numerous choices available that are designed to integrate with the rest of the rifle, and you can find almost all of the parts you need to assemble this rifle online, order them independently, and then build your own—that is, except for the lower receiver. That part of the rifle is what the federal government considers "the rifle", as it is the part that's stamped with the serial number that uniquely identifies and registers one particular rifle versus all of the others out there in the world. This part has restrictions like you would find with a regular rifle, revolver or other firearm.

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Best of Hack and /

LJ Staff — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 11:40:59 +0000

by LJ Staff

Secure Server Deployments in Hostile Territory; Preseeding Full Disk Encryption; Own Your Own DNS; Learn How-to Secure Desktops with Qubes; What's New In 3D Printing

Secure Server Deployments in Hostile Territory
Would you change what you said on the phone, if you knew someone malicious was listening? Whether or not you view the NSA as malicious, I imagine that after reading the NSA coverage on Linux Journal, some of you found yourselves modifying your behavior. The same thing happened to me when I started deploying servers into a public cloud (EC2 in my case).

In this article, I discuss some of the techniques I use to secure servers when they are in hostile territory. Although some of these techniques are specific to EC2, most are adaptable to just about any environment.

Preseeding Full Disk Encryption
Usually I try to write articles that are not aimed at a particular distribution. Although I may give examples assuming a Debian-based distribution, whenever possible, I try to make my instructions applicable to everyone. This is not going to be one of those articles. Here, I document a process I went through recently with Debian preseeding (a method of automating a Debian install, like kickstart on Red Hat-based systems) that I found much more difficult than it needed to be, mostly because documentation was so sparse. In fact, I really found only two solid examples to work from in my research, one of which referred to the other.

Own Your Own DNS
I honestly think most people simply are unaware of how much personal data they leak on a daily basis as they use their computers. Even if they have some inkling along those lines, I still imagine many think of the data they leak only in terms of individual facts, such as their name or where they ate lunch. What many people don't realize is how revealing all of those individual, innocent facts are when they are combined, filtered and analyzed.

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What's New in 3D Printing, Part IV: OctoPrint

Kyle Rankin — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 19:10:51 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

This is the last article in a four-part series on the current state of 3D printing. In the first part, I gave an overall introduction to differences in 3D printing since I wrote my original articles on 3D printing three years ago. The second piece focused on advances in 3D printing hardware, and the third column covered 3D printing software. In that last article, I mentioned one particular piece of 3D printing software, OctoPrint, that I felt warranted its own article, so I am devoting this final article to how to set up and use OctoPrint.

In the past, the process to print a 3D object involved creating or downloading a 3D model in STL format, using slicing software to convert that STL file to the GCODE language your printer understood, and then using other host software that knew how to communicate to the printer (like Pronterface) to load that GCODE and send it to the printer. More recently, there has been software that combines the slicing and host software into one interface (like Cura), and while that's certainly convenient, it also means that the computer you have connected to the 3D printer to control it must stay connected throughout the entire print.

Although many printers these days support loading GCODE onto an SD card for "headless" printing, in my opinion, OctoPrint is an even better approach. OctoPrint combines 3D printer control software with a Web interface so you can control your printer and monitor its progress over the network. Even better, although OctoPrint can run on any Linux machine, the OctoPi distribution is a customized SD card image designed to run OctoPrint off a Raspberry Pi. Since most geeks tend to have a Raspberry Pi lying around (and if you don't, it's relatively inexpensive compared to a full-fledged computer), this makes for an easy way to control your 3D printer from anywhere in the house.

The Installation

To get started with the installation, you need to download OctoPrint. The official downloads page is at http://octoprint.org/download, and you can find links to the source package and the GitHub repository there. I'm going to assume that the majority of the people who want to set up OctoPrint will do so on a Raspberry Pi though, so my instructions are geared to installing OctoPi. On the download page, you will find links to a few OctoPi mirrors, so choose one and download the most recent OctoPi image in compressed zip form.

OctoPi is based on Raspbian, so once you have the .zip file, installation works like most other Raspberry Pi images you may have worked with in the past. Unzip the file, insert an SD card in your computer, and then use dd to write the image to your SD card device:

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What's New in 3D Printing, Part III: the Software

Kyle Rankin — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 19:25:19 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

This article is the third part of a four-part series that examines some of the changes in 3D printing that have occurred in the past three years since my first articles on the subject. Because this is Linux Journal, instead of discussing the entire 3D printing world, I'm focusing on the sections of the topic most relevant to open source and open hardware. In the first article, I gave a general overview on the current state of 3D printing. In the second, I covered what's changed in 3D printing hardware during the past three years, including the shift away from open hardware and which printers still hold onto their open hardware roots. In this article, I discuss the changes in 3D printing software, and then in the final piece, I'll walk through setting up OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi to control your printer remotely.

The software side of 3D printing three years ago was a model example of the power of open-source software. Just about any popular hobbyist printer you could choose used open-source software, all the way from the firmware (often Marlin) on the Arduino-based boards, to the software that sent Gcode to the printers (the Printrun suite of tools), to the slicers that took 3D models and converted them into the Gcode the printer understood (Slic3r and Repetier among others), to the software you could use to create the 3D models to begin with (OpenSCAD, FreeCAD and Blender, among others). All of this software ran on Linux, so you could work with every part of the 3D printing life cycle without proprietary software. As interest in 3D printing grew, the open nature of all the software helped drive a lot of the innovation we see today.

Unfortunately, if not predictably, as 3D printing grew in popularity and new companies entered the market driven more by profit than by the health of the community, we saw the software side of 3D printing close up and become proprietary, just as we saw with the hardware side. In many cases, a company would enter the market with a proprietary 3D printer but still rely on open-source software to drive it to buy time to write up a proprietary alternative. Just like we saw Makerbot start to close up its hardware designs, we saw once open-source software like Repetier (previously under an Apache license) switch to be closed source. A number of companies that produce commercial CAD software, such as AutoCAD, also have entered the consumer market with proprietary host- and cloud-based CAD software, along with software to slice 3D models and control the 3D printers themselves.

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What's New in 3D Printing, Part II: the Hardware

Kyle Rankin — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 20:48:14 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

This is the second article in what will be a four-part series on the current state of 3D printing compared to how things were three years ago when I wrote my first series on 3D printing. Of course, this is Linux Journal, so the focus will be on Linux and open-source-specific aspects in 3D printing. I won't dwell much on proprietary products. In my last article, I gave a general overview on the state of 3D printing; in this one, I focus on the hardware side.

If you were to compare 3D printers three years ago to today, probably the first thing you would notice is just how polished and consumer-focused the overall look of the machines are now. Three years ago, most printers were based off the RepRap line of 3D printers. They had a hobbyist look, with 3D-printed gears and other parts combined with nuts and bolts you could get from the hardware store. Those printers that didn't consist of a series of threaded and smooth rods for their structure were made from laser-cut wood. The focus was much more on community and sharing designs freely to improve the quality of the printers as rapidly as possibly while still using parts easily purchased from a hardware store or on-line. Many of the commercial 3D printer offerings at the time also were some form of a RepRap printer sold pre-assembled and calibrated with some refinements and improvements, plus support from the company if anything went wrong.

Fast-forward to today, and the selection of 3D printers is widely different. As the focus has shifted from the hobbyist to the consumer, you see modern designs that hide away the electronics and wiring, forgo laser-cut wood for painted metal and acrylic cases, and look more like something you'd put on a desk in your office than a work bench in the garage. It reminds me a lot of the early attempts to polish the Linux desktop to appeal more to the end user, and both changes have received a similar backlash from the original community.

One of the best examples of the difference between old and new is a comparison between the original Ultimaker and the current Ultimaker 2. The original has the classic boxy laser-cut wood case, while the modern printer has a frosted acrylic case.

Figure 1. The Original Ultimaker

Figure 2. The Current Ultimaker 2

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What's New in 3D Printing, Part I: Introduction

Kyle Rankin — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 20:01:32 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

Three years ago, I wrote a series of articles titled "Getting Started with 3D Printing" that discussed the current state of the hobbyist 3D printing market from both the hardware and software angles. This is an incredibly fast-moving industry, and a lot has changed since I wrote those columns. So much has changed in fact, that this first article will serve just to introduce what likely will be a three- or four-part series on the current state of 3D printing. In my next articles, I'll dive deeper into particular 3D printing topics, so consider this article as an overview and sneak peek to those topics. 3D printing is a big topic, and this is Linux Journal, so I'm going to approach this topic from a Linux-using open-source perspective and stick to tools that work in Linux.

Open Source in 3D Printing

One of the things that has interested me most as I've followed the 3D printing industry is just how similar it is to the story of Linux distributions. In my articles from three years ago, I discussed all of the open-source underpinnings that have built the hobbyist 3D printing movement, starting with the RepRap 3D printer—an open-source 3D printer designed to be able to build as many of its parts as possible. Basically every other 3D printer you see today can trace its roots back to the RepRap line. Now that commercial interests have taken the lead in the hobby though, it is no longer a given that you will be able to download the hardware plans for your 3D printer to make improvements, even though most of those printers got their initial designs from RepRaps. That said, you still can find popular 3D printers that value their open-source roots, and in my follow-up article on hardware, I will highlight popular 3D printers and point out which ones still rely on open hardware and open-source software.

On the subject of open-source software, many 3D printers still depend on open-source software to run. Open-source 3D printing software works well, so I can see why many companies would prefer to focus on their hardware and use the common, popular and capable open-source options. That said, some 3D printers on the market, particularly those from larger companies, ship with their own proprietary software that you must use with the printers.

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Designing with Linux

Joey Bernard — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 19:15:15 +0000

by Joey Bernard

3-D printers are becoming popular tools, dropping in price and becoming available to almost everyone. They can be used to build parts that you can use around the house, but more and more, they also are being used to create instruments for scientific work. Although a growing library of objects are available in several on-line databases, there is nearly an infinite number of possible things you might want to build. This means you likely will want to design and build your own creations.

In this article, I take a look at FreeCAD, an open-source parametric 3-D modeler (http://www.freecadweb.org). A parametric modeler builds the structures in the design based on a set of properties. Changing the design, thus, is simply a matter of changing the properties of said design.

FreeCAD can read and write several different file formats used in modelling and 3-D printing. It is built as a core application, with plugin modules made to handle specific jobs. Python is the language of choice, because there actually is a built-in Python engine. Additionally, FreeCAD itself can be imported into your own Python script. This gives you access to all of the geometric tools for use in your own code.

FreeCAD already should be in your distribution's package management system. In Debian-based ones, it is simply a matter of using the command:


sudo apt-get install freecad

In the latest version of Ubuntu, the latest version of FreeCAD actually is available. But, you always have the option of building FreeCAD from source, if you need some non-standard option.

To start it, you can just run freecad. It will pop open a window with a blank workspace in it (Figure 1).

Figure 1. On start up, FreeCAD gives you a blank workspace so you can begin working.

FreeCAD uses a workbench concept to give you groups of tools based on the task you are doing at any particular time. You can access the available workbenches by clicking on the View→Workbench menu item. Here, you will get a drop-down list of all of the available options.

As I'm focusing on the idea of building a 3-D object, let's start by activating the parts workbench. Clicking on the View→Workbench→Part menu item will rebuild the interface and introduce all sorts of new tools for you to use (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Selecting the parts workbench will change the interface, giving you access to all sorts of new tools to use for building.

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Getting Started with 3-D Printing: the Software

Kyle Rankin — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 23:52:04 +0000

by Kyle Rankin

This column is the second of a two-part series on 3-D printing. In Part I, I discussed some of the overall concepts behind 3-D printing and gave an overview of some of the hardware choices that exist. In this article, I finish by explaining the different categories of software you use to interface with a 3-D printer, and I discuss some of the current community favorites in each category.

In part due to the open-source leanings of the 3-D printer community, a number of different software choices under Linux are available that you can use with the printer. Like with desktop environments or Web browsers, what software you use is in many cases a matter of personal preference. This is particularly true if your printer is from the RepRap family, because there's no "official" software bundle; instead, everyone in the community uses the software they feel works best for them at a particular time. The software is still, in some cases, in an early phase, so it pays to keep up on the latest and greatest features and newest releases. Instead of getting involved in a holy war over what software is best, I cover some of the more popular software choices and highlight what I currently use, which is based on a general consensus I've gathered from the RepRap community.

In part due to the rapid advancement in this software, and in part due to how new a lot of the software is, in most cases, you won't find any of this software packaged for your distribution. Installation then is a lot like what some of you might remember from the days before package managers like APT. Each program has its own library dependencies listed in its install documentation, and generally the software installs by extracting a tarball (which contains precompiled binaries) into some directory of your choice.

If you are new to 3-D printing, you might assume there's a single piece of software that you download and run, but it turns out that due to how the printers work, you need a few different types of software to manage the printer, including a user interface, a slicer and firmware. Each piece of software performs a specific role, and as you'll see, they all form a sort of logical progression.

Firmware

The firmware is software that runs on electronics directly connected to your printer hardware. This firmware is responsible for controlling the stepper motors and heaters on the printer along with any other electronics, such as any mechanical or optical switches you use as endstops or even fans. The firmware receives instructions over the USB port in the form of G-code—a special language of machine instructions commonly used for CNC machines. The G-code will include instructions to move the printer to specific coordinates, extrude plastic and perform any other hardware functions the printer supports.

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