From Your PC to Reality in 3 Easy Steps

aelbric writes "PC Magazine is running an on some entrepreneurial businesses that are taking an interesting approach to prototyping and one-off manufacturing. Apparently, you can send in schematics for circuit boards to Pad2Pad, where they will quote, build and ship you a part based on your exact specifications. There is also reference to eMachineShop, for those of you more mechanically inclined, for building some home projects. Design the part on your PC, send it to the shop electronically, recieve custom built component(s). "

Comments

It's not really the design

[Space cowboy]

that's difficult (at least for electronics), it's the realisation. If I have a spartan-3 FPGA in an FG456 package, I need it professionally soldered onto the board - finding that facility for small runs (ie: 1 :-) at reasonable rates is a far harder proposition than firing up Eagle and creating a design.

I know pad2pad will assemble some of the more commonplace components, but I can't see them running to large-sized chips, and anything up to a QFP100, I can do myself anyway...

Simon

Re:It's not really the design

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because most machine shops are run by people with so many more pressing matters on hand just dealing with local business that they don't have time to develop sophisticated websites. Generally they spend so much time correcting customers' horribly faulty schematics (to make it possible to even make the part) that there's no reason for them to seek out horribly drawn blueprints from around the world.

Re:It's not really the design

[CommieLib]

This is a good point. If these firms became large and commonplace enough, perhaps they would influence the design of the components, i.e., components would be specifically designed so that they could be easily and cheaply fabricated in this manner. This has some really interesting implications.

For example, imagine buying a DVD player that a local fabber "printed" off for you. You purchased it online at a site that functions essentially as a services broker for local suppliers, i.e., enter your zipcode and search a catalog of products that is determined by a database of the capabilities of fabber companies within a certain delivery zone of your house.

If fabber scientists are really clever, they'll design the components so that they can be easily disassembled as well, so that components can be endlessly recycled. When this happens, the hardware business model becomes much more like the software model, with users turning in their DVD players each year for a newer model.

Upon a moment's consideration, there are not that many products that couldn't be produced in this manner. Where the business model allows it is another question of course, but in ticking off the last few non-grocery items I've purchased (DVD, charcoal grill, game controller) there's no structural reason why they couldn't all have been produced by a local (if speculative) fabber shop, with an interplay of some design changes and an increase in price.

Re:I wonder

[vasqzr]

Why would they?

Does Kinkos proofread your brochures, or ask if your graphic designer is colorblind?

Re:Killotron 5000

[AuMatar]

Did you know that your local grocery store carries everything you need to make WMDs? Its absolutley true! Chlorine bleach and ammonia, they mix into an extremely poisonous gas. You then need a way to store it (I suggest a complex gaseous storage device called a baloon). All 3 of these things are available at any grocery store. We need to ban these dens of sin! For the sake of the children, won't someone please think about the children!

Welcome to life. If someone wants to kill multiple people, they don't need a giant bomb- a sledgehammer works just as well. You can't live your life in fear and paranoia of it, down that road lies insanity.

eMachineShop is being grossly underrated!

[LesPaul75]

Here, and in the comments following the original post about eMachineShop (5 days ago), everyone is talking about Pad2Pad and hardly even mentioning eMachineShop. And the truth is that eMachineShop marks a huge, huge milestone in our history. Ok, that's just my opinion, but think about it for a second. You can draw up a three dimensional object, click a few buttons, and have that object delivered to your doorstep within two weeks! I know what the cynics are saying... "You could already do that" and "It's too expensive" and "You can't build ridiculously complex shapes" and whatever else... but forget about all that obligatory naysayer BS for a moment.

You can download their software, for free. You draw up your part, and immediately get a price quote. Then you modify your design, experiment with different materials and different machines, and get as many price quotes as you like, until you find the one that you can afford. Then you click the "buy" button and you get the part delivered right to your doorstep.

Yes, of course there's no really new technology involved here, but there really is genius in this business model. This idea has put more power in my hands (the average home PC user) than anything I've seen in a long time. What were my options before? Buy a CNC machine and rent space in a warehouse? Draw my design in a CAD app and then send it to a B&M machine shop a dozen times until it finally meets their design rules, only to find out that it's too expensive?

And, finally, and most importantly, just think for a minute about what this could mean in the very near future. What if this idea catches on, and suddenly there are websites that do the same thing as eMachineShop, only with fabric? Or clothing? Or more sophisticated stuff, like motors and gears and robotics?

This really could mark the beginning of a new era. Imagine a world where people use P2P programs to share designs for CARS, rather than Eminem albums. Hey, you got that new Ferrari? I'll trade you this custom convertible that some guy designed and posted to Usenet. What's happening is that the advancing technology of the internet is making all forms of information accessible to everyone. 3D objects are nothing more than information, just like music, movies, pictures, etc... Some day piracy of music and movies will be the least of the **AA's worries. Maybe AAA will be the next "Association of America" to try to stop P2P.

Re:eMachineShop is being grossly underrated!

[MickLinux]

There's another huge advantage here, as well. This software will let the average person figure out designs that are inherently cheap. Then, when they want mass production (not an emachineshop specialty), they will already be fairly well optimized to get low cost parts. That's pretty impressive.

Re:Mod me as flamebait if you need...

[blinder]

Why no meta stories on Slashdot?

Yeah, i've always wondered about this... is it because taco and crew are just that terrified? I mean... with all this talk of open source and YRO and on and on and on... why not turn that spotlight around on themselves?

Are they that affraid of what they may learn? That there are legitimate grievances here with users?

Why the fear of an open and transparent exchange of those grievances? Insecurity on the part of Taco and crew? I think so.

Yes moderators... this is way the fuck offtopic. But that doesn't mean these things shouldn't be said... heh, and in the context of this thread... it *is* on topic.

Re:Mod me as flamebait if you need...

[Em Emalb]

true.

But oh well.

If nothing else, maybe the editors will pause and realize that:

1) banning entire subnets to get rid of problem posters deprives legitimate PAYING customers at the same time. It's a YRO issue that they are ignoring. Do you have the right to get what you pay for? Yes.

2) I seriously think no one here would have a problem if the coders would merely state "Hey, it's time for a code push, we are pretty sure it's solid, but if something breaks, email us." We don't get that. Again, as someone who has paid money for this site, this is WRONG. Imagine if MS or some other website did something like this? Slashdot would be all over it. But if it occurs on their own turf, it's ignored, or flippantly remarked about in the creator's journal. Whatever.

3) Moderation is BROKEN. BADLY.

4) Duplicate stories. I don't expect the slashdot team to catch every article, I don't. But it does get ridiculous some times.

The bottom line is this:

a lot of us PAY for the content here. Granted, you can't have everything, but our voices are NOT EVEN BEING HEARD. We are after thoughts. I can't post what I think to Taco's Journal because I'm not his "friend". If you email him, you often get either ignored completely or treated like you don't matter.

This site started out in his dorm room. It's not a dorm room job anymore. Things are different in the real world. Perhaps they'll learn someday.