Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?

[IronBenderII]

Originally Posted by nixiebunny

I'm trying to be objective. It's hard to do so when you read things like the following words on the Cubify website:

"Cubify is the central hub for all things possible with the 3D printed lifestyle. Cubify offers everything from co-creation with favorite brands, a curated shopping experience centered around personalized fashion, décor, toys and more, a community inspiring the latest in 3D design and printing possibilities and access to the easiest home 3D printers and related products. Shop the collections for things to print at home or have printed for you in high-end materials like precious metals, edibles from chocolate to sugar and a range of full-color materials and higher quality plastics; discover the designer in you; join the community and share your print inspirations in the Design Feed; organize and display prints on your Shelf; and design your future, powered by 3D printing. 3D Systems’ consumer technology platform that powers Cubify allows for the safe hosting, publishing and production of branded and licensed content. 3D Systems also manufactures the Cube family of consumer 3D printers, the Sense 3D scanner and a suite of consumer design software, all available on the Cubify hub."

That sounds like the exact opposite of the Maker Credo, as I have absorbed it from years of making interesting things, being featured in Make: Magazine and helping to run a hackerspace.

They gave 1500 free printers to the brightest young engineers in the country, and expect them to be "consumers"? Good luck with that.

I will note that the agreement that we had to sign to get the free printer says nothing at all about re-purposing it to use other brands of filament or a Marlin-based controller, and I expect these to be discussed at length on CD after the build season.

First, cool site and I love the gadgets! Lots of talent there... Now back to it. Why must it be in line with the maker credo? Why are you assuming they are trying to make the students consumers? Who in their right minds would think giving a bunch of 3D printers to robotics teams would make them consumers? Why are we being so negative about a company that gave away a great tool to a bunch of kids?