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3D printers were first invented in the 80s. There's a combination of several factors why they took off in the 2010s: 1. Cheap stepper motors and electronics fr
by Legend2440 2y ago
3D printers were first invented in the 80s. There's a combination of several factors why they took off in the 2010s:
1. Cheap stepper motors and electronics from China
2. Expiration of Stratasys patents in 2009
3. Widespread availability of CAD software and desktop computers powerful enough to run it
4. Reprap project made it easy for companies (and individuals!) to develop their own printers
- Onavo 2y agoNumber 1 is huge, it's also the primary driver of the shift from "model planes" to quadcopter drones with enormous capabilities. The crucial parts were brushless motors and ESCs. The Chinese scale brought the pricing down from ~3-4 figures to under 3 figures which was a watershed moment for hobbyist and commercial use cases.
- dghlsakjg 2y agoThe other big one for drones was sensors and the processing to run them. Trivially small cheap gyro position sensors, accelerometers, GPS, pressure sensors, etc... needed to exist since quadcopters are more or less incapable of flying without a computer in the loop.