7 ms·

The Free Universal Construction Kit

191 points by danboarder 14y ago

doctorstupid 14y ago
The FUCK?
- danboarder 14y ago
  I see what you did there. (to people downvoting parent, it's the acronym for this kit)
  - rralian 14y ago
    Right, that jumped out at me right away, and I wasn't sure if this was a parody or not. Seems like an unnecessary inside joke for something ultimately for kids.
ars 14y ago
It's not actually free items, it's free plans. This is not a good title.
- lolnope 14y ago
  Think free as in freedom, not as in beer.
  - chousuke 14y ago
    Maybe they ought to call it Libre Universal Construction Kit instead.
    - LeafStorm 14y ago
      That would certainly form a more palatable acronym.
- biot 14y ago
  I bet you were disappointed by the "Free Nelson Mandela" movement.
derefr 14y ago
After the initial reaction of "Neato!" I started thinking what it would mean if when I first got my legos (a big tub, hand-me-down from an older cousin), they had come with a few dozen of these. I can't imagine what I would have built, but it certainly would have been more interesting... and I might have grown up with somewhat stronger convictions about interoperability and the senselessness of walled gardens :)
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  I don't find walled gardens senseless at all. One of the nice things about a box full of Lego (not legos) is that you can take consistency for granted. It's the difference between a language with a clear grammar and a pidgin language. I'm not against things like this, but there's no guarantee of interoperability producing superior results. You're just as likely to end up with a chaotic mess if you don't build with a plan in mind; one of the other benefits of a single system is that it forces you into more creative problem-solving.
  - danboarder 14y ago
    I agree with your first point that 'walled gardens' or closed systems like Lego provide consistency, however the second video in the linked article demonstrates a kid who I would argue is more creative by thinking beyond one system. ( https://vimeo.com/37778890 https://vimeo.com/37778890 ) In the video he is "thinking outside the box" and building a car by connecting three different construction kits. Of course this requires him to have an understanding of all three systems (rather than just one), but the potential is to build things by that would otherwise not be possible. [edit - link to video]
  - napoleoncomplex 14y ago
    Taking an analogy to programming languages, some languages are much better at specific tasks than others. Having the ability to use those languages interoperably with others makes it possible to construct a much more efficient system than if you would be forced to use one single language for everything.
  - derefr 14y ago
nborwankar 14y ago
This is an interface mapper for hardware. V. cool.
mproud 14y ago
Whether it was intentional or not, it’s hard to ignore the acronym, when spelled out.
kiba 14y ago
I am puzzled by the non-commercial restriction. If someone could produce those kits and sell them at scale, it will make such kits more universally accessible.
- reycharles 14y ago
  "Some may express concern that the Free Universal Construction Kit infringes such corporate prerogatives as copyright, [etc.]. [...] the public is legally allowed to make 3D prints that mate with proprietary parts, especially in cases (the “Must Fit Exception”) where a piece’s shape “is determined by the need to connect to or fit into or around another product”" Further down he notes that this only holds for private and non-commercial use.
Kliment 14y ago
Unfortunately, the Makerbot is no longer open source, which rather ruins their point in mentioning it (the UCK was first published before MB went closed and evil, MB technology is entirely derived from originally open hardware and software).
- jacquesm 14y ago
  What's evil about it? You can simply build the older generation makerbot. It's no different than what Apple did with FreeBSD and NetBSD by way of Next, apart from the fact that Apple did not actually make FreeBSD or NetBSD. Anybody, including Makerbot could make a commercial successor to Makerbot.
  - Kliment 14y ago
    What's evil is taking open hardware and closing it. There is nothing in their machine that is not a direct derivative of GPL-licensed reprap technology, and they give neither attribution nor source back. In addition, they are patenting technology developed openly. It's a pretty disgusting thing to do.
    - jacquesm 14y ago
      I agree it's disgusting. So, the best way to deal with it is very simple: utterly ignore them. Those patents aren't worth the paper they are printed on, prior art abounds. The hobbyist community won't care about those patents at all, but any other commercial entity they plan to sue will wipe them out with their portfolio, CNC stuff is a patent minefield. Okuma, Heidenhain, Bosch, Deckel and tons of other very large, very wealthy and established companies will not be impressed at all and have enough patents of their own that they could probably stop them from going to market at all if they desired to do so. Additive or subtractive, it's a detail and lots of these companies are active in both fields. I really don't see the problem. Simply ignore them, beat them on price and features and they'll go to their deserved end, which is to cease to exist. And if you want to speed it up then you should sue them for taking what's yours (if you were a contributor to some bit that made it into their commercial offering), a lawsuit testing the GPL in that fashion is overdue anyway. Probably they'll fold before it goes to trial, as they always do.
jacquesm 14y ago
I had both Fisher Technik and lego, and combining them in one project required some serious fiddling. I'd rigged my own connector pieces, some lego blocks with the stubs cut off glued to some fisher elements. Even without a 3D printer, if you want it badly enough and you can afford to sacrifice a few pieces there are ways to get what you want. When I was a kid fisher technik was considered better than lego but far far more expensive. There were analog electronic and logic blocks and it was (far) easier to make functioning machinery with Fisher Technik than it was with lego (back then the lego robotics revolution had definitely not happened yet).
csummers 14y ago
So, this is the kid version of The Universal Business Adapter? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOqOxI0K_I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOqOxI0K_I
abcd_f 14y ago
Am I the only one who doesn't find this terribly exciting? I mean, it's a neat idea, but I don't see it to be that interesting to actually play with. The beauty of each set is its self-consistency. If you attached this to that, then there's a good chance that 3rd and 4th will fit right in too. But once you start mixing sets, all the proportions fly out of the window and so to assemble something meaningful you would still need to build modules from the same set and then use these adapters to connect them together. Nice to have, certainly, but it doesn't sound that dramatically more interesting.
spot 14y ago
i don't see how this could really work. the tolerances required for legos to work are quite small. they mention this in the implementation section which says they use 2.5 micron measurement. but 3D printers are not nearly so accurate. makerbot's page says their latest is 100 micron. so if you print the design, it will have the wrong measurements. what's missing here?
- Caerus 14y ago
  It's just a coupling system. If you want to attach Legos to K'Nex, they will work fine in a handful of spots. Building an entire structure out of an AM construction set would be a disaster. Even professional grade printers aren't even close to 2.5 micron.
nezza-_- 14y ago
Is their logo for 'Free Art' just the NBC logo mirrored and with other colors? Even the pecker is in it ...

191 points by danboarder 14y ago

doctorstupid 14y ago

The FUCK?

danboarder 14y ago
I see what you did there. (to people downvoting parent, it's the acronym for this kit)
- rralian 14y ago
  Right, that jumped out at me right away, and I wasn't sure if this was a parody or not. Seems like an unnecessary inside joke for something ultimately for kids.

ars 14y ago

It's not actually free items, it's free plans. This is not a good title.

lolnope 14y ago
Think free as in freedom, not as in beer.
- chousuke 14y ago
  Maybe they ought to call it Libre Universal Construction Kit instead.
  - LeafStorm 14y ago
    That would certainly form a more palatable acronym.
biot 14y ago
I bet you were disappointed by the "Free Nelson Mandela" movement.

derefr 14y ago

After the initial reaction of "Neato!" I started thinking what it would mean if when I first got my legos (a big tub, hand-me-down from an older cousin), they had come with a few dozen of these. I can't imagine what I would have built, but it certainly would have been more interesting... and I might have grown up with somewhat stronger convictions about interoperability and the senselessness of walled gardens :)

anigbrowl 14y ago
I don't find walled gardens senseless at all. One of the nice things about a box full of Lego (not legos) is that you can take consistency for granted. It's the difference between a language with a clear grammar and a pidgin language. I'm not against things like this, but there's no guarantee of interoperability producing superior results. You're just as likely to end up with a chaotic mess if you don't build with a plan in mind; one of the other benefits of a single system is that it forces you into more creative problem-solving.
- danboarder 14y ago
  I agree with your first point that 'walled gardens' or closed systems like Lego provide consistency, however the second video in the linked article demonstrates a kid who I would argue is more creative by thinking beyond one system. ( https://vimeo.com/37778890 https://vimeo.com/37778890 ) In the video he is "thinking outside the box" and building a car by connecting three different construction kits. Of course this requires him to have an understanding of all three systems (rather than just one), but the potential is to build things by that would otherwise not be possible. [edit - link to video]
- napoleoncomplex 14y ago
  Taking an analogy to programming languages, some languages are much better at specific tasks than others. Having the ability to use those languages interoperably with others makes it possible to construct a much more efficient system than if you would be forced to use one single language for everything.
- derefr 14y ago

nborwankar 14y ago

This is an interface mapper for hardware. V. cool.

mproud 14y ago

Whether it was intentional or not, it’s hard to ignore the acronym, when spelled out.

kiba 14y ago

I am puzzled by the non-commercial restriction. If someone could produce those kits and sell them at scale, it will make such kits more universally accessible.

reycharles 14y ago
"Some may express concern that the Free Universal Construction Kit infringes such corporate prerogatives as copyright, [etc.]. [...] the public is legally allowed to make 3D prints that mate with proprietary parts, especially in cases (the “Must Fit Exception”) where a piece’s shape “is determined by the need to connect to or fit into or around another product”" Further down he notes that this only holds for private and non-commercial use.

Kliment 14y ago

Unfortunately, the Makerbot is no longer open source, which rather ruins their point in mentioning it (the UCK was first published before MB went closed and evil, MB technology is entirely derived from originally open hardware and software).

jacquesm 14y ago
What's evil about it? You can simply build the older generation makerbot. It's no different than what Apple did with FreeBSD and NetBSD by way of Next, apart from the fact that Apple did not actually make FreeBSD or NetBSD. Anybody, including Makerbot could make a commercial successor to Makerbot.
- Kliment 14y ago
  What's evil is taking open hardware and closing it. There is nothing in their machine that is not a direct derivative of GPL-licensed reprap technology, and they give neither attribution nor source back. In addition, they are patenting technology developed openly. It's a pretty disgusting thing to do.
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    I agree it's disgusting. So, the best way to deal with it is very simple: utterly ignore them. Those patents aren't worth the paper they are printed on, prior art abounds. The hobbyist community won't care about those patents at all, but any other commercial entity they plan to sue will wipe them out with their portfolio, CNC stuff is a patent minefield. Okuma, Heidenhain, Bosch, Deckel and tons of other very large, very wealthy and established companies will not be impressed at all and have enough patents of their own that they could probably stop them from going to market at all if they desired to do so. Additive or subtractive, it's a detail and lots of these companies are active in both fields. I really don't see the problem. Simply ignore them, beat them on price and features and they'll go to their deserved end, which is to cease to exist. And if you want to speed it up then you should sue them for taking what's yours (if you were a contributor to some bit that made it into their commercial offering), a lawsuit testing the GPL in that fashion is overdue anyway. Probably they'll fold before it goes to trial, as they always do.

jacquesm 14y ago

I had both Fisher Technik and lego, and combining them in one project required some serious fiddling. I'd rigged my own connector pieces, some lego blocks with the stubs cut off glued to some fisher elements. Even without a 3D printer, if you want it badly enough and you can afford to sacrifice a few pieces there are ways to get what you want. When I was a kid fisher technik was considered better than lego but far far more expensive. There were analog electronic and logic blocks and it was (far) easier to make functioning machinery with Fisher Technik than it was with lego (back then the lego robotics revolution had definitely not happened yet).

csummers 14y ago

So, this is the kid version of The Universal Business Adapter? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOqOxI0K_I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOqOxI0K_I

abcd_f 14y ago

Am I the only one who doesn't find this terribly exciting? I mean, it's a neat idea, but I don't see it to be that interesting to actually play with. The beauty of each set is its self-consistency. If you attached this to that, then there's a good chance that 3rd and 4th will fit right in too. But once you start mixing sets, all the proportions fly out of the window and so to assemble something meaningful you would still need to build modules from the same set and then use these adapters to connect them together. Nice to have, certainly, but it doesn't sound that dramatically more interesting.

spot 14y ago

i don't see how this could really work. the tolerances required for legos to work are quite small. they mention this in the implementation section which says they use 2.5 micron measurement. but 3D printers are not nearly so accurate. makerbot's page says their latest is 100 micron. so if you print the design, it will have the wrong measurements. what's missing here?

Caerus 14y ago
It's just a coupling system. If you want to attach Legos to K'Nex, they will work fine in a handful of spots. Building an entire structure out of an AM construction set would be a disaster. Even professional grade printers aren't even close to 2.5 micron.

nezza-_- 14y ago

Is their logo for 'Free Art' just the NBC logo mirrored and with other colors? Even the pecker is in it ...