Complete Assembled Electronics Kit for RepRap for $215.00

Just posted this in the comments section of the Makerbot blog after reading Bre's post there [blog.makerbot.com]


Hopefully this is just another little storm in a teacup but everyone should use this as a learning experience. I see the original situation as someone wanting to do the right thing, being a little unsure of how to do it but trying their best … then Bre comes along and stirs things up.

I was in a similar situation a while ago and also got “jumped on” for my troubles so I can understand how it feels. I took it as “thats what you get for dealing with people over the internet. Everyone assumes you have the same/more experience with these things as they do and don’t give you the benefit of thinking your problem is just ignorance, not malice”.

On behalf of the Reprap community I’d like to extend the hand of friendship to Kimberly and say “Sorry, we’re only human.”

Bre, maybe a better way of handling things next time would be to contact the person via a quick email and see what the problem with releasing the source is. I’m sure you’ve got a big enough name that if it is just ignorance on how to go about it, they would jump at the chance of an offer to mentor them in some small way. You are not just a nameless somebody on the other side of a computer, your words have power. Please try and use it to build people up.

So, everybody just kiss and make up already!

FWIW - I purchased these exact electronics from Kymberly and her husband about a month ago. I first learned about Makerbot in early Feb (wired mag article) - I was anxious to purchase a CupCake from MBI but wasn't willing to wait until late April to get one so I started looking for other options. That's when I learned about about RepRap and Mendel...

I have virtually no experience with electronics and wanted a 'turnkey' solution. I was told that the MakerBot electronics with some modifications were the way to go. I was once again disappointed to see that MBI was out of stock on what I needed (a good problem for them to have though). So back to square one. Then I came across this post and ordered a set. *bonus* - no mods for the mendel were required and the boards are tiny enough to arrange in a variety of ways.

I found Kymberly and her husband to be very knowledgeable and professional to deal with the whole way. In talking to them I learned that they designed their own boards based on Zach's design for their own RepRap needs (they have the background for this)...They had to order multiple PCBs as a min order and easily sold the extras (and some other batches because of the high demand).

I'm happy to say that I successfully hooked up everything and had my first extrusions last Thursday - still tweaking software to get good prints but thats not due to electronics.

Honestly, I'm not interested in the core argument here about the files/rights/etc. They said they'd put them up and I believe they will. I know from talking to them that the demand hit them by surprise and they were working furiously to keep up with that and people like me bugging them...and I later learned they were doing this while expecting a new baby who was born a couple of weeks ago (congrats!).

At the end of the day I'm just a guy that wanted to get up and running quickly and this was a GREAT option for me.

I have much respect for MakerBot (and especially Bre for all the MakeZine stuff - love that mag) and am not looking to stir anything up. However, I feel like the recent comments in this post might hurt their efforts/image and I just wanted to speak up on behalf of Kymberly and her husband.

Bottom line: If you're reading this and are on the fence about making this purchase I would say to you, "Go for it!".

OK...

I guess that now I am caught up and done dealing with a very hectic week, it is time to make some sort of response.

The files are posted, along with much better description on the RepRap Wiki, they can be found here: [reprap.org] however, I was not able to upload my original "source files" or an editable vector that is in Corel Draw format, since the file upload doesn't seem to allow me to upload .zip or unknown file types.... I'll work on that.

I also posted the files which contain the pin outs used for connecting this stuff all together, so if you are needing those, please check it out there.

I would love it if those of you who have received your electronics from us would go there and share your experiences/innovations (I made a section at the bottom of the page for that purpose).

I am not in the least offended at Bre's comments, since I haven't read them. I am not sure if I am going to read them; maybe in a week or two, I have other projects I am working furiously on. Like a web site, better documentation, additional parts... stuff like that.

I do appreciate all the support and positive comments I have received from everyone. It has been a generally positive experience to find that the community is concerned about a member being offended.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2010 12:07AM by kymberlyaandrus.

Hi Kymberly,

I noticed the files are up. Most of them. Could you ping me with a list of the filenames that didn't work? Vanilla mediawiki is locked down a bit, for very good technical reasons. But I now need to open it up a bit.

I spent a little while just now tidying up the page and crosslinking it with other wiki pages, most significantly, the original gen 3 electronics pages. Me and other Library staff and volunteers actually need to clean those up as there's some cruft from the twiki->mediawiki transition we just did.

---

Bre's blog post and comments were pretty serious - basically, a public (and false) accusation of GPL violation in the open source world is like a public (and false) accusation of plagiarism in academia. (I'm assuming that you and 99.5% of everyone else here already knows what the GPL is and loves it, because we're all RepRap user-developers here.)

I chose to put on my official RepRap core-dev hat and respond. At the same time, everyone has already said everything that needs to be said; I don't know if it is worth your time to respond.

Happily, you'll be pretty unaffected by this; most people will end up seeing you as the wounded party and that will be the end of it. Although I'm hoping you'll get more orders out of it.

I don't think the greater community is going to jump on Bre or that a flame war will take out his blog, but he's used up a bit of good will. I imagine he'll be a lot more polite and circumspect from now on. Blogs and twitter feeds are great for web 2.0-type marketing; they're not very useful for public (and false) accusations of wrongdoing.

---

Returning to the subject of documentation, sales and support: Kymberly, if it's ok, I'd like to lock this thread within a day or two. People who come in wanting to buy boards can do so in a new thread created by you. They shouldn't have to wade through all this stuff.

Please let me know if it's ok.

---

Also, Kymberly, everyone else reading, let me know if you're planning on doing Bay Area Maker Faire:
[forums.reprap.org]
(It doesn't have anything to do with the Gen3-Tech_Zone_Remix boards, but I'm trying to see how many people we can get out there.)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2010 06:55AM by SebastienBailard.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

My electronics arrived.

Good service. And fast email response.

Tian Chang

Has anyone that is using these boards redesigned the motherboard-plate and the stepper-plate dxf files that the boards get mounted to?
EDIT: I realise that the existing ones would fit, but I'd like one that is more space efficient since these are smaller.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2010 04:22PM by Azdle.

---

----------------------------------------------------
Build Progress Blog

Well, Bre has apologized, so it's all good. Technically, he's promised to apologize, but will delay it until the zip files is up, at which point he'll do up a kiloword apology/essay on the nature of full disclosure and historical revisionism.

I'll confess I did have a bit of fun with him in his blog. "Dead End Derivatives" and all that.
[blog.makerbot.com]

---

Erik, next time, please remember, we have to always assume good will on the part of the fellow users. It's most helpful to just show our new colleagues how to upload and contribute rather than getting confrontational or worse, using the language, "MakerBot's electronics", and cognitive frame [en.wikipedia.org] of someone who attempts to be in an antagonistic relationship with us.

---

At Kymberly's request, I'm locking the thread.

---

-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

---

Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!