Kickstarter Suspends Crowdfunding Campaign For Electronics 3D Printer (3dprintingindustry.com)

Kickstarter has suspended a crowdfunding campaign that promised its backers "a high-end multi-material 3D liquid jet printer" that could print circuit boards. Slashdot reader PrintBetter writes: With just three days to go, backers were pulling out of Next Dynamics' NexD1 Kickstarter amidst fears the creator exaggerated progress on their prototype and tried to pass off prints purchased from Shapeways as their own... [T]he Berlin company's campaign was a darling of Kickstarter, carrying their "Projects We Love" endorsement and receiving praise from publications like TechCrunch, 3DPrint.com and Make magazine for its purported ability to mix up to six plastic and conductive resins in a single print.

But as pledges grew to over half a million euros, backers started to sense things didn't add up. Kevin Holmes commented "Wow, I'm stunned -- I cancelled my pledge already ... Did they really buy parts from Shapeways and pass them off as their own?" while Anthony Webb remarked "I've backed over 100 projects on Kickstarter ... but this one takes the cake for a complete scam." The company was a no-show at events it scheduled this week, including a demonstration Monday and a live stream Tuesday.

Comments

The difference being?

[0100010001010011]

How is this any different than 90% of the kickstarters? Did they exaggerate just a bit too much?

Re: The difference being?

[Yosho]

91% of Kickstarter projects that get funded deliver their products, so there's that.

It's been a while since I made semiconductor

[thinkwaitfast]

conductor electronics, or even electronic circuit boards, but aren't all the conventional production methods essentially printing albeit with a mask (like a printed t-shirt), ot even mentioning epitaxy here. Usually there's an etching step in there too, but so too with "3d printing" and acetone vapor.

Re:It's been a while since I made semiconductor

[guruevi]

Semiconductors and circuit boards are made by lithography, basically a photography method, you make a design of your circuit including all the traces, then you project that onto an area of a light sensitive substrate, shine a really bright light onto it and then etch out (with chemicals) all the areas that had light on them. It gets more complex as you add layers.

In the end all a circuit board is, is a very fine layer of copper. For small, one-off designs, the masks, the chemicals etc. is relatively time consuming and expensive. At home for very small repairs there are alternatives where you can simply draw traces with a conductive material (such as a pen). Technically, it should be possible to 'print' metal, but I can imagine drawing full, complex circuit boards would be insanely expensive and the machine and substrates themselves would be very rudimentary due to the melting points involved.

Re:Pastebin link - adblocker

[0100010001010011]

Here's 2 PDF mirrors of the pastebin:

https://www.docdroid.net/2MEWa...
https://www.scribd.com/documen...

And an Archive.is mirror:

http://archive.is/q9E44

According to Kickstarter? Your imagination?

[raymorris]

Just curious where you got that number. From Kickstarter? Does Kickstarter say that Kickstarter is often good?

Of course on Slashdot, 83% of statistics come directly from the poster's imagination*, so that's a possibility too.

* Including this one

Re:According to Kickstarter? Your imagination?

[mysidia]

Over the past few years; i've chosen and backed a total of about 15 projects, and 100% of them ultimately did the project and delivered the backer reward they promised me, in a few cases there was a delay in expected timeline, and they wound up delivering even more goodies than promised....

So I could come to the provisional conclusion that 100% of kickstarter projects deliver :)

Re: According to Kickstarter? Your imagination?

[Yosho]

I'm citing a study done by the University of Pennsylvania . Do you have anything more reliable?

Re:According to Kickstarter? Your imagination?

[thegarbz]

Just curious where you got that number. From Kickstarter? Does Kickstarter say that Kickstarter is often good?

Of course on Slashdot, 83% of statistics come directly from the poster's imagination*, so that's a possibility too.

* Including this one

Not every kickstarter is some "we'll make you a perpetual motion machine for $20" offer. The vast majority of them are easily funded mini projects often no different than group buy adventures from back in the day. There's a very wide variety of projects that are "finished" and just need funding to get shipped, e.g. pretty much most of the books and art sections, where the funding is going to the minimum production run required from a printer for example.

I myself ran a kickstarter ages ago for a project which had a minimum order quantity for an electronics part. Nothing much to see. I had the entire design finished I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to end up with a box of 50 of the things and no way to get rid of them.

So really the 91% figure is not at all surprising in the least.

Re:Smear Campaign or Legit Concern?

[ColdWetDog]

Let's see - passing off a 3D print made by Shapeways (not the device in question).

Doing things that are physically impossible (printing overhangs without support).

Sounds like a good start to me.

Why does their web page lack an Impressum?

[ffkom]

I would never invest into a company that does not even have an Impressum containing a postal address at their web page - and I could not find one at http://next-dynamics.com/

At least the "Handelsregister" knows their postal address - Prenzlauer Allee 242, 10405 Berlin - so I guess those who still consider investing into them might want to take a look at what they invest into, there, first.

Thanks

[raymorris]

Thanks for that information, and the citation.
Sorry if I was a bit skeptical.

Re:Smear Campaign or Legit Concern?

[serviscope_minor]

You can print limited overhangs without support on an FDM printer. Despite having a dual head printer (so I can print soluble supports), I've successfully got well over 45 degrees, probably nearly 60 on small parts. But you have to use a relatively thick bead and a really really really slow speed to get acceptable results.

Re:Smear Campaign or Legit Concern?

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor communication ?

They had one of the founders posing as a happy backer who was so impressed he'd backed them again for a second machine !

And they tried avoiding the points about the Shapeways saga, claiming they can't release the files due to copyright, totally ignoring the fact that the creator of one of those designs took part in the discussion pointing out that she'd never given them to anyone.

Then they tried to wash over the whole "sandstone finish" by claiming it's a result of the support material used, but never explained why the whole print had that finish (you don't print supports over the top do you?).

They've been caught out, but just don't have the balls to admit whatever the truth is and were hoping it would just blow over if they kept quiet.

Thanks for the house!

[MindPrison]

...Suckers!