June 18, 2024 • 32 mins
As you have probably noticed, we’ve been on a bit of a break but we’re coming back with exclusive interviews from amazing events and locations. This summer, we’ve been on the road to Chicago to visit mHub to talk with some of the founders, engineers, and builders of incredible hardware and start-ups. You’ll get to see all that and more, but first, we have an unreleased episode with a previous guest. Vijay Varada is 2023’s Hackaday Prize Grand Prize Winner and co-founder of Fraktal Works an open-source 3D printing company. We’ll be diving a little deeper into the benefits of open-source innovation, Vijay’s printable braille interface for the visually impaired, and why passion projects can change your entire mission.
Hackaday
Design Lab
The views and opinions expressed within this content are solely the speaker's and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Supplyframe or its affiliates.
Hackaday
Design Lab
The views and opinions expressed within this content are solely the speaker's and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Supplyframe or its affiliates.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cause I don't think there's a lot of money in
assistive devices. So even for me, leveraging open source as
a business model, not necessarily to make money, but at
least not burn my own money to get something that
can help people. So if everything is three D principle,
you can get the parts fabricated at a fab house
(00:22):
and get all the parts.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
So for me, that is what sort of makes sense.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
As you may have noticed, we've been on a little break.
There's been a lot of exciting events happening, not only
at the lab but also broad so we've been on
the go for a bit. And one of those recent
trips was to Chicago, where I got to stop by
m hub and ketch up with some really interesting hardware.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Folks.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I can't wait for you all to hear those episodes.
In the meantime, we're going to hear from our good
friend and previous guest, twenty twenty three Hackaday Prize Grand
Prize winner VJ Verata, from a never released interview that
took place at super Con right after VJ found out
that he had won the Grand prize. Hope you enjoy.
(01:04):
We live in a time where design and technology touch
every aspect of our lives. But where did it all
come from? Who designed it? How is it built and
brought to market? What will look like in a year,
two years, one hundred years. From the phones and smartwatches
that help us in our day to day to the
cutting edge spaceships and three D printers that are leading
us into the future. Modern design is constantly shaping the
way we work, communicate, problem solve and play. And every
(01:27):
new design, bigger, small, starts with an idea and a
bill of materials. I'm agenta strongheart and this is the
bomb where we talk to leading innovators in the tech
world and celebrate the transformational power of design.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I am Vija, I am an entrepreneur, but at it's
court an engineer. I'm a mectronics engineer and my day
job is we manufacture three D printers out of India,
And when I'm not making three D printers, I'm using
the three D printers to all sorts of stuff. So
for me, it's always about and that's the reason why
(02:08):
I fell in love with the technology, is that you
know you can do so much with three D printing.
At the same time, for me, it's like what are
the limits of the technology. So so it's a it's
a sort of pursue career, pursuit of mine as as
entrepreneur to build three D printing technology so that my
(02:30):
hobbyist and creative side can sort of use the technology
to do interesting things. So I would say that is
in so when people at whom ask me, like, so,
what do you do during the day, So I'm an engineer,
and what do you do for fun? I mean I
also engineer.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Here, yeah, yeah, I mean, and that's that's okay, is
exactly the people people get it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
So I'd love for you to walk us through the
journey of this project. Is awesome to hear, you know
on the stage yesterday how it started with this prompt
like the challenge kind of prompt out of the n
MIT Media Lab.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, so walk us through that kind of evolution.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Sure, So there's this.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
In twenty eleven twenty twelve, there was MIT Media Lab
India initiative where specifically the camera culture group of them
Media Lab had added by ramashrascazan.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
American Indian.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So he came and thought, okay, held this amazing workshop
and I think for even me, that was my first
exposure to design thinking, thinking from a human centric point
of view rather than so so there was no engineering
in worldy day one. He took us to I hospital
and we interacted with people who are blind, interacted with
people who with all sorts of I related disorders, interactive
(03:54):
with the doctors. So we understood the problems first why
something should exist, and only then later on then exposed
give us all these different electronics and tools and CD
printers and all of that, and then okay, now go
ham and figure out everything out.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Uh and uh.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
One of those the few people from their Mighty media
lab or one of some of the mentors that they
had called specifically focused on brail and brail literacy, they
actually had like a Perkins brailer over there, and talking
about on the challenges israil like even the brailers freaking typewriter.
But still it's so expensive, just that braille typewriter is
so expensive. So that's even say something like the braille wrap. Right,
(04:37):
even though engineering why it might seem like a trivial
project or a simple project, but I've seen the other
side of how much, uh, something like this can be
can be really useful even though the project is similar
so simple. So I think for me that entire experience
with their mighty Media Lab was sort of separate out.
You know, what is engineer learing cool from the engineering
(05:01):
standpoint might not necessarily sort of be useful. The same time,
what is actually useful might not need to be complicated.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
From an engineering standpoint.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So I think for me that was like the shift
that happened, right because until then I'd say, I was,
you know, the latest buzzwords when it comes down to
engineering is what you think is cool, is what I
want to work on. I want to work on embedded systems,
I want to learn this, I want to learn that,
but sort of growing involved beyond that and really think
about from a problems perspective or user center point perspective.
(05:35):
So that that was the kind of it's a attribute
that to the Media Lab initiative. So that was the
first exposure they had, like a ten day hackathon, and
I'm a mecatronics engineer, so this was like it just
pulled me from a perspective. It had electronics, it had mechanics,
you had to figure all this stuff stuff out. One
(05:55):
of the mentors mentioned that he was trying to use
dothmatics sprinter heads and sort of hack that and create
another sort of three D print head on it so
that pins move in terms of Braille. So you know
that ten days I sort of figured that out.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
He was those pretty impressed.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Is like, he got an entire lab of kids working
on it in some other university, but they were not
able to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And you figured it out in ten days.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So for me also again I was still studying in university,
So for me that was a big confidence boost and
just in terms of exploring this as a project, and honestly,
again I didn't think it would go anyway it was.
It was still sort of this is a problem statement,
this is why I'm doing it. Let's see what is
(06:45):
the best that I could do. That sort of stuck
with me. I mean obviously went through the motions of
you know, I graduated, started a company. There were all
bunch of things. I kept going back to this for
one some reason or the other. You could call it
fate title. I helped a couple of my classmates in
(07:05):
their final year project. So in India, in your final semester,
you mean to build a project. So I'm like, hey,
I have this problem statement, I've gotten this far, let's
try a different.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Way of actuation.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So there was micro servers that were coming out at
that point. I'm used for micro area vehicles and microdones
or whatever, so I knew that those existed.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Unlikely instead of using like.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
This dotmatic sprinterhead that had a huge bulky created a
lot of noise. It was scary, like somebody who was
blind was actually reading on that. They would get scared
putting their hand on this thing. So like, these are
the problems that allised came out from the first prototype.
How can we fix that in the next one, something
that was attle more user friendly, something that wasn't as scary,
(07:53):
something that could be much more, much more smaller, And
so then again got a little bit more find and
you know, that project happened. It worked well, but still
again it was still just a couple of braille cells together.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Years later I met.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
A guy named Paul Desoza in India who's also again
amazing in terms of working on braille technology, and he's
a watchmaker. So like he took the mechanics to another
level and went and visited his lab and he had
this watchmaker's lathe on which he was sort of really
making the small mechanisms, and he really took it out
(08:38):
of the ballpark and it comes down to the mechanisms,
and he really got my mind churning and working, and
I'm like, this is what is possible. So he was
doing a lot of stuff at the same time. He's
very old school, like he had this old school watchmaker's
lathe in all this old tech which he was using
to manufacture these things. And when I understood the mechanism
(08:59):
that he was using and I'm like, hey, this is
easily three D printable. So you know, from that, I
thought to make a three D printable version of what
are mechanism that he was using, and he was using
these micro vibration motors and actink that now we sort
of the project will start maturing more towards its current rendition.
(09:22):
So micro vibration motors had sort of like a cam
mechanism on it, so it would turn one direction and
lift the pin, turn the other direction and come down.
It would be like a would have like a ramp
sort of thing on it.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And that was in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I remember that because I had taken that project and
applied to this hacketyprice that was my first hickeredeprisee entry.
Then sort of got into the center open source versus
patent thing along with him. And interestingly if Hacketay covered
that conversation, so I think it was titled the politest
(10:00):
uh open source versus Patent Discussion or something like that.
So that was an interest. So, I mean that sort
of demotivated me for a while saying that he I mean,
I thought we were doing this for the good of people.
What is this entire patent thing coming in between? I mean,
to be honest, I didn't understand much of that entire thing.
(10:21):
Either I'm like, I'm not looking to make money, or
I'm just doing this because I've been stuck with this
problem statement for a while, or I need to get
it out of my system. And I saw somebody do
something that gave me inspiration that let's sort of work
on it this way, and sort of had to sort
of because he was still a good trend. I didn't
want to rub him off the wrong way, So it
(10:44):
sort of dropped that idea for a while.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
And that you were a finalist for the first.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Time, I wasn't wasn't a finalist for the first time,
and that was my first entry. To be honest, again,
I had such imposter syndrome that I didn't even finish,
like the number of requirements, like I don't know, this
is not going to find like I'm not going to
get through. Let's just it's fine. And then I think
(11:11):
it was in two thousand and eighteen or nineteen that
my break keyboard so interesting love. By that time, I
think I've gotten enough into the entire accessibility space.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Again, you could call it fate.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
My uncle used to work at UNESCO specifically for Persons
who disabilities, and it is not because of him that
I'm working on this.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
It was the other way around.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So he knew that I was working on this, and like, hey,
I'm done doing this conference for Persons who disabilities and policy.
Why don't you come and see, you know, if you're interested.
I'm like, yeah, sure, And I met so many people
who are blind who are you know, functional, Like they're
working in places, they're working in see working governments, working
(12:01):
in companies. Uh, and just to start interacting with somebody,
then it's sort of it. You know, until then, it
was just an engineering project and then you're working with
people and talking to people that could actually be users,
and they themselves are talking about how important this whatever
this technology is for them. And interesting that that was
(12:22):
the first time I was a Hackertey Price finalist for.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
The for a keyboard.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
How the idea for the keyboard came up with was
when I was talking to somebody who was blind, uh,
and when we got to exchanging numbers, and she took
out a phone and was fumbling with all the keys
and were extremely slow, And I'm like, how come it
is so hard to use a smartphone to type in,
type in anything? And she was like, yeah, I mean
(12:48):
we're all used to button phones, feature phones, but you
know you have to switch to a smartphone for getting
all of these other features, but just accessibility is just
not there. I'm like, hey, this is such an easy
problem to solve. It just like a keypad that say,
you take the standard braille typewriter interface and stick it
onto a phone.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Why can't you do that?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
So that went out really well, and I mean that
sort of took sort of it was a divergent sort
of brand from what my main goal was, but you know,
getting that product into the hands of people who are
using it and getting feedback from that sort of improved
me as an engineer going through sort of a design
(13:31):
cycle where I'm putting it in the hands of users,
getting feedback, realizing interesting, you don't need to have it
attached to the phone. Phone can be in the pocket
and then you can sort of just use the keyboard
as an interface, so it can be Bluetooth or something
like that. So that went on and got into the
hands of some people who in India leveraged my uncle's
(13:54):
contacts at Unisco to sort of get it, get more
people to try and test it out, and I think
that by this year next you can be sort of productized.
(14:18):
That's another thing when it comes down to this, right,
because I don't think there's a lot of money in
assistive devices. So even for me, leveraging open source as
a business model, not necessarily to make money, but at
least not burn my own money to you know, get
something that can help people. So if everything is three
(14:39):
D principle, you can get the parts fabricated at a
fab house and get all the parts sort of assemble
a makerspace could make a few for the community around them, right,
So you.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Know, for me, that is what sort of makes sense.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I know, there's no way that I can make a
lot of money out of this thing, and that's sort
of the problem with that system devices. That's the reason
why not too many of them exist, because you just
can't make too much money out of wess to devices.
So for me, again, I've been part of the entire
conversation around open source hardware as a business business model,
(15:15):
starting with even three D printing. As you know, a
lot of the RepRap movements started it all off. But
you know a lot of people are closed sources open source,
and how do you really make it as a business
model around here? A lot of open source three D
printing companies are struggling, So how do you sort of
leverage that some of my I got into contact with
(15:37):
some people who are actually working on the the open
source hardware licenses, and you know, started speaking about all
of that. So I really got into not because of a
lot of this, you know, for me as an engineer,
developed me into just understanding how the world works in
terms of open source, open source hardware, the complications and
the gray areas behind it. Where is it actually good
(16:01):
when maybe not? Maybe not the right thing, the right
place to go around, and so many things that sort
of I encountered during those two three years of hiatus
during the pandemic, learned about these really small magnets that
are available. And this again, it's still the same principle
in terms of using CAM and an electro magnetic actuate
(16:23):
or something like a motor and lifting a pin, but
with I'd say, over the years, I learned so much
more about electronics, about design, started using SLA three D printers,
understood resin, undertood types of resin, and sort of my
own understanding of what is possible sort of changed, you know.
In twenty seventeen, when I first applied, I was still
(16:45):
using FDM and tried to figure out how I can
fit everything in an FtM tolerance or changed a nodle
to a two hundred point two mm nozzle, and what
the waterble the size I could get in that. And
now I'm using SLA, so even for me, and I
spoke little bit about this because I'm just realizing, you know,
from from from my college days to now, so much
(17:07):
access to high end technology, to two resources has happened
to me as an individual that and and it's not
that I'm staying in America where everything is this is
in India and here in Bangalore, which is a little
bit more sort of uh forward that way, but still,
(17:28):
I mean I have access to the best of tools,
obviously working with the global supply chain now right, I
think back when I started off part being stocked in
in the US, so I can't get it because it's
just too far away, your absurdly expensive I need to
buy huge m o Q two sort of get it
over here.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
But that's not the case anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
So yeah, I mean in this project also sort of
a lot of luck play play its part, the availability
of the magnets, so the ability of the solnight course
uh and just sort of uh pushing and figuring it
out and sort of veered because in some of the
(18:10):
videos that I was looking at for research record, there's
one video for electromagnet magnetism that I was sort of
research and Sean Hamill Hammill's video and I'm seeing him
here and.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
So it's sort of.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
And I've grown up as an engineer, learned, you know,
I learned Eagle using uh Spark Funds video to for
tutorials and and use their libraries to sort of do
and then those other people that are sort of around
here in this community. So you know, directly and directly,
I have been sort of beneficial from this community in
(18:46):
terms of just growing as an engineer. And I think
that community and that you know, almost osmoses like effect
where it just happens. It's not that I had put
in too much effort. That's just so much open source
content is there on the Internet today that I have
sort of benefited from as an engineer. That has caused
(19:07):
me to sort of be able to make better products
and projects. And to be honest, you know, I don't
realize you know, when the dots started moving up and
down the it was sheer happiness. And because it isn't
something that I've been pursued for such a long time,
I didn't realize that it would work that wall. There's
(19:28):
still sort of some bugs to figure out. At the
same time, I mean, once I put it out there,
the amount of response that I've gotten, like, hey, why
don't you think about using compliant mechanisms for this fight?
Why you even have moving parts? Can you make it
print in place?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I mean those are in just like how it started,
like those interesting sort of problem statements to add on
to this, which just makes the product better and better.
And so for me, you know, I've even that aspect
of open source is great where you have the entire
community channeling your your innovation process and sometimes people even
(20:08):
much smarter and much smarter than you. Like again mentioned
when I was doing the electronics part, you know, a
few months back, I didn't understand the difference between source
and sink. I see what what is the difference connect
to a higher connect to ground. It just you make
a connection right then sort of know that's not the
way things work, and understand h bridges and and uh,
(20:30):
you know, I was researching how flip dot displays work
and then in terms of like hacker it loves flip
flip door display there is so much content on that,
and understood your h bridges and and made like a
circuit based on like a flip door display. So yeah,
I mean it's just been even for me s hach
a great learning experience, uh, through.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
The medium of this project.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
And now it's like this, it feels like okay, this
this this thing can act actually.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Solve a problem. Now.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
It started off as something that I was just doing
as an engineer, as a creative outlet almost right the
same time as with the with the problem statement, with
the user in mind, that's sort of focusing it.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And then I think you sort of you you try
again and again, and you keep at it. I think
eventually you get to that no matter you know, it's
been a long time, and primarily because there have been
a lot of breaks in between. But if you keep
coming back and keep trying, and sometimes even coming back
after a while and trying with a completely fresh mindset
(21:44):
is sometimes very beneficial for the project. So yeah, that
long story, but you're more or less that is that
is the synopsis of the ten year journey of the
diffessional Braille display.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
That's a great way to end it.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
There's two more questions that have we try to get
it done in the next twenty minutes because then I
have to MC over here.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
But I think that's really helpful to see.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
And I love that you're emphasizing just like falling in
love with the problem, because that's something I hear time
and time again, even in the like the the VC
startup world. Is like founders need to prioritize the problem
and not the solution.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Like you said, engineers can so easily fall in love
with their.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Own idea, and just like Chase that how do I
make this idea better and fit it to some problem that.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Nobody has or needs it for?
Speaker 5 (22:31):
And so you have Really that's what I'm hearing, you know,
the common thread throughout the journeys that it was just
how can I continue to improve my solution for this
problem rather than you know, apply my solution to something else,
which is amazing and I think you could lesson for
so many people.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
So the two questions I want to follow up with
One if you could just.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Describe in detail what the solution is, how it works,
just to pain and make sure for our audience if
they haven't seen your project yet, right.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
And then I want to hear kind of where you're
excited to take it next.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
You got fifty thousand dollars now other than paying back
maybe why you've been putting into it right it, do
you have any ideas of what you're excited.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
About for next?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So one I feel, you know, one, until now, it
felt like I was doing it for myself and my
own curiosity of seeing this through and after obviously a
hackertay price. But you know, once I this is the
first time any video of mine on YouTube has more
than fifty thousand likes, and it has like four hundred comments.
(23:37):
I'm like, whoa, and so many of them are people
white daughter is blind or my partner is blind, and
I know this problem exists, and I wish I could
afford a braille display and a braille terminal for my partner.
And you know, hearing those stories in the comments, it's it.
It sort of puts a little bit more weight on
(23:59):
your shoulder, puts a little bit more responsibility. So I
mean that is a new feeling that I'm that is
now part of this and I think I'm gonna I've
been working solo just uh when on my free time,
working here in there, and it's always been the hackety
prices and as an incentive, okay, if I channel my thought, Okay,
let's let's document it, let's let's put it all together,
(24:20):
and it's applyed for this. But now I think take
it a little bit more seriously where I'm get a
team involved. Get And I think the newer generation is
a lot more smarter and has a lot more ideas
and actually is a lot more in a way user centric.
(24:41):
They actually care about problems. Get them involved in and
and mentor them and work with this project and and
leverage some of the ideas and and the people that
have gotten involved over the last few months in this
project make it, make make it a little better.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
And and what I've.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Seen is, I mean, if you probably even the ten
years of the journey of making this, you probably condense it,
condense it. If I was only working on this in
my life, probably I could condense it in one year,
Like I've probably worked one year of my life in
the last ten years on this one project in a
focused manner. But if I actually focus on this, I
think a lot of wonders can happen. And and really
(25:22):
I just want to see it through. I think that
that that has been the thing since the very beginning.
I know that I have not completely solved the problem.
There's still something or the other that that is lacking,
some still something or the other that can be made better.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
So I just want to see through.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
And when I mean see through, I want to get
into the hands of the people that will be using it.
How whether it's a business, whether it's sort of an
open source thing where I'm working with maker spaces to
make sure that they're able to produce these or it's
we get it to make it in a way that
it's a lot of sort of print in place and
(26:00):
not too much manufacturing that is actually required, which would be.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Like the best thing possible. Uh. I think that that
is the next step for me.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
And now if you could just describe in detail the
solution itself.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So, okay, if you.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Start with the name, it was great how you wrapped
up the first fit with the name electro mechanical.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I can't remember the one quite quite a mouth.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Praill display, but yeah, if you can start with that
and then explain what it is exactly in as much.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Detail as you really sure, So.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
The project is the electron mechanical refreshable Braille display module.
Quite quite a mouthful, But I think by breaking down
those words itself, I'll be able to explain the project.
So starting with the electron mechanical bit, uh, it has uh,
it has an electromagnet, it has a CAM. Testingly enough,
(27:00):
and I'm explained this way over here. A lot of
people have asked me what is a CAM. So cam
is a mechanical linkage which follows a sort of rotary motion,
and translated translates it into linear motion. So I have
a you can imagine like a circle which is with
(27:22):
an off centered pivot, and it's pivoting on that off center,
so that when it rotates sort of lifts a pin up,
and when it rotates down sort of pulls the pin down.
Inside that CAM is an embedded magnet, and underneath that
CAM is an electromagnet. So when I reverse the polarity
of the electromagnet, the CAM either moves up or down,
(27:46):
and this again up and down. The rotation motion of
the CAM then pushes a up.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Pin a pin up and down. What is.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Interesting about this is that it just needs a momentary
pulse of voltage to you know, either set or reset.
So it's by stable, which means that it doesn't draw
too much electricity, which means that it could be also
used in portable devices h and also that, uh, the
(28:17):
cost would be much lesser because you don't need a
big bulky battery, which is sort of a drawback of
current devices because they use they use piezo electric actuators,
which you know, have much higher voltage specialized electronics. Only
a few companies in the world manufacture them, so that's
another thing to democrat democratize the manufacturing was a big
(28:39):
part of this as a problem statement, right, So for
me it was not just how to solve the problem
with some complex mechanism. You know, I'm pretty sure you
could use like microsolnoids or like there's some piezo linear motors,
and all of the enough solutions today are there. But ultimately,
how do you how do you make sure that it's affordable,
it's also manufacturable by some somebody everybody, and somebody who's
(29:03):
in the three D printing world as my sort of
day job, understand that, you know, three D printing is
very capable technology, but how do you sort of design
for three D printing? How can you make a print
in place? Can you affordably three D printed at scale?
How do you sort of design the thing so that
(29:23):
the tolerance is such that those tolerances match what three
D printing needs. So yeah, so in a nutshell is
it is a mechanism. But I think what I've done
because I'm not the first to figure out cam mechanism,
you know, after the fact, after putting the project out
to somebody actually may message me on my on the
(29:47):
Hackaday post saying that hey, this have you gone through
this patent and it was the nineteen ninety six award
using a CAM mechanism in an interesting different way, but
still a CAM mechanism. I was disappointed in terms of like, oh,
I was not the first to figure this out, but.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Again, it's a big world. Very rarely do you sort
of figure it out for the first time.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
But I was also happy somebody's actually had a patent
on it and it's expired now, so nobody else can
you know, claim that this is my patent or something,
and so it can.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
It will remain open source whether you know, I like
it or not. You know, I can't patent it.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
So I think that that is a good thing about
using cams in this thing.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
There are still a.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Few I don't know why people do this, but you know,
people were actually you know, this is again great to
be part of the commune. People who are actually sending
me patents of hey, is your thing infringing this patent?
Somebody who's patent using an electromagnet? Why would you do that?
Such a generic thing? Why would who would grant something
(30:49):
like this? So yeah, it's how it ups and downs.
But for me, hey, I mean, I'm not here to
make money. I'm just going to give it away. If
somebody wants to make it and manufacture it and give
it off to people who need it, let them do that.
So yeah, So it is the mechanism. It is the
method of manufacturing. And I think also what I have
(31:10):
to figure out the method of distribution, which is still
in the gray. And I think, to be honest, this
project is sort of a mechanist for me to learn
not only the engineering part, but also all of these
gray areas of open source hardware and open source business
(31:30):
models and how do you sort of get things out there.
So that is all something that I have to eventually
figure out.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
If you like The Bomb, don't forget to subscribe, rate
and share the show wherever you get your podcasts. You
can follow supply Frame and Hackaday on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn YouTube,
and design Lab at supply Frame Design Lab on Instagram
and Twitter. The Bomb is a supply Frame podcast produced
by Me, Magenta Strongheart and Ryan Tillotson, written by Maggie
Boles and edited by Daniel Ferrara. Theme music is by
(32:03):
Anna Hogman. Show art by Thomas Schneider. Special thanks to
Giovanni Selinas, Bruce Diminguez, Thomas Woodward, Jin Kumar, Jordan Clark,
the entire supply from team and you are wonderful listeners.
I'm your host, Magenta Strongheart. See you next week.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
What
Cause I don't think there's a lot of money in
assistive devices. So even for me, leveraging open source as
a business model, not necessarily to make money, but at
least not burn my own money to get something that
can help people. So if everything is three D principle,
you can get the parts fabricated at a fab house
(00:22):
and get all the parts.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
So for me, that is what sort of makes sense.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
As you may have noticed, we've been on a little break.
There's been a lot of exciting events happening, not only
at the lab but also broad so we've been on
the go for a bit. And one of those recent
trips was to Chicago, where I got to stop by
m hub and ketch up with some really interesting hardware.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Folks.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I can't wait for you all to hear those episodes.
In the meantime, we're going to hear from our good
friend and previous guest, twenty twenty three Hackaday Prize Grand
Prize winner VJ Verata, from a never released interview that
took place at super Con right after VJ found out
that he had won the Grand prize. Hope you enjoy.
(01:04):
We live in a time where design and technology touch
every aspect of our lives. But where did it all
come from? Who designed it? How is it built and
brought to market? What will look like in a year,
two years, one hundred years. From the phones and smartwatches
that help us in our day to day to the
cutting edge spaceships and three D printers that are leading
us into the future. Modern design is constantly shaping the
way we work, communicate, problem solve and play. And every
(01:27):
new design, bigger, small, starts with an idea and a
bill of materials. I'm agenta strongheart and this is the
bomb where we talk to leading innovators in the tech
world and celebrate the transformational power of design.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I am Vija, I am an entrepreneur, but at it's
court an engineer. I'm a mectronics engineer and my day
job is we manufacture three D printers out of India,
And when I'm not making three D printers, I'm using
the three D printers to all sorts of stuff. So
for me, it's always about and that's the reason why
(02:08):
I fell in love with the technology, is that you
know you can do so much with three D printing.
At the same time, for me, it's like what are
the limits of the technology. So so it's a it's
a sort of pursue career, pursuit of mine as as
entrepreneur to build three D printing technology so that my
(02:30):
hobbyist and creative side can sort of use the technology
to do interesting things. So I would say that is
in so when people at whom ask me, like, so,
what do you do during the day, So I'm an engineer,
and what do you do for fun? I mean I
also engineer.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Yeah, absolutely, And I think a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Here, yeah, yeah, I mean, and that's that's okay, is
exactly the people people get it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
So I'd love for you to walk us through the
journey of this project. Is awesome to hear, you know
on the stage yesterday how it started with this prompt
like the challenge kind of prompt out of the n
MIT Media Lab.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yeah, so walk us through that kind of evolution.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Sure, So there's this.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
In twenty eleven twenty twelve, there was MIT Media Lab
India initiative where specifically the camera culture group of them
Media Lab had added by ramashrascazan.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
American Indian.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So he came and thought, okay, held this amazing workshop
and I think for even me, that was my first
exposure to design thinking, thinking from a human centric point
of view rather than so so there was no engineering
in worldy day one. He took us to I hospital
and we interacted with people who are blind, interacted with
people who with all sorts of I related disorders, interactive
(03:54):
with the doctors. So we understood the problems first why
something should exist, and only then later on then exposed
give us all these different electronics and tools and CD
printers and all of that, and then okay, now go
ham and figure out everything out.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Uh and uh.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
One of those the few people from their Mighty media
lab or one of some of the mentors that they
had called specifically focused on brail and brail literacy, they
actually had like a Perkins brailer over there, and talking
about on the challenges israil like even the brailers freaking typewriter.
But still it's so expensive, just that braille typewriter is
so expensive. So that's even say something like the braille wrap. Right,
(04:37):
even though engineering why it might seem like a trivial
project or a simple project, but I've seen the other
side of how much, uh, something like this can be
can be really useful even though the project is similar
so simple. So I think for me that entire experience
with their mighty Media Lab was sort of separate out.
You know, what is engineer learing cool from the engineering
(05:01):
standpoint might not necessarily sort of be useful. The same time,
what is actually useful might not need to be complicated.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
From an engineering standpoint.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So I think for me that was like the shift
that happened, right because until then I'd say, I was,
you know, the latest buzzwords when it comes down to
engineering is what you think is cool, is what I
want to work on. I want to work on embedded systems,
I want to learn this, I want to learn that,
but sort of growing involved beyond that and really think
about from a problems perspective or user center point perspective.
(05:35):
So that that was the kind of it's a attribute
that to the Media Lab initiative. So that was the
first exposure they had, like a ten day hackathon, and
I'm a mecatronics engineer, so this was like it just
pulled me from a perspective. It had electronics, it had mechanics,
you had to figure all this stuff stuff out. One
(05:55):
of the mentors mentioned that he was trying to use
dothmatics sprinter heads and sort of hack that and create
another sort of three D print head on it so
that pins move in terms of Braille. So you know
that ten days I sort of figured that out.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
He was those pretty impressed.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Is like, he got an entire lab of kids working
on it in some other university, but they were not
able to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And you figured it out in ten days.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So for me also again I was still studying in university,
So for me that was a big confidence boost and
just in terms of exploring this as a project, and honestly,
again I didn't think it would go anyway it was.
It was still sort of this is a problem statement,
this is why I'm doing it. Let's see what is
(06:45):
the best that I could do. That sort of stuck
with me. I mean obviously went through the motions of
you know, I graduated, started a company. There were all
bunch of things. I kept going back to this for
one some reason or the other. You could call it
fate title. I helped a couple of my classmates in
(07:05):
their final year project. So in India, in your final semester,
you mean to build a project. So I'm like, hey,
I have this problem statement, I've gotten this far, let's
try a different.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Way of actuation.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
So there was micro servers that were coming out at
that point. I'm used for micro area vehicles and microdones
or whatever, so I knew that those existed.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Unlikely instead of using like.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
This dotmatic sprinterhead that had a huge bulky created a
lot of noise. It was scary, like somebody who was
blind was actually reading on that. They would get scared
putting their hand on this thing. So like, these are
the problems that allised came out from the first prototype.
How can we fix that in the next one, something
that was attle more user friendly, something that wasn't as scary,
(07:53):
something that could be much more, much more smaller, And
so then again got a little bit more find and
you know, that project happened. It worked well, but still
again it was still just a couple of braille cells together.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Years later I met.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
A guy named Paul Desoza in India who's also again
amazing in terms of working on braille technology, and he's
a watchmaker. So like he took the mechanics to another
level and went and visited his lab and he had
this watchmaker's lathe on which he was sort of really
making the small mechanisms, and he really took it out
(08:38):
of the ballpark and it comes down to the mechanisms,
and he really got my mind churning and working, and
I'm like, this is what is possible. So he was
doing a lot of stuff at the same time. He's
very old school, like he had this old school watchmaker's
lathe in all this old tech which he was using
to manufacture these things. And when I understood the mechanism
(08:59):
that he was using and I'm like, hey, this is
easily three D printable. So you know, from that, I
thought to make a three D printable version of what
are mechanism that he was using, and he was using
these micro vibration motors and actink that now we sort
of the project will start maturing more towards its current rendition.
(09:22):
So micro vibration motors had sort of like a cam
mechanism on it, so it would turn one direction and
lift the pin, turn the other direction and come down.
It would be like a would have like a ramp
sort of thing on it.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And that was in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I remember that because I had taken that project and
applied to this hacketyprice that was my first hickeredeprisee entry.
Then sort of got into the center open source versus
patent thing along with him. And interestingly if Hacketay covered
that conversation, so I think it was titled the politest
(10:00):
uh open source versus Patent Discussion or something like that.
So that was an interest. So, I mean that sort
of demotivated me for a while saying that he I mean,
I thought we were doing this for the good of people.
What is this entire patent thing coming in between? I mean,
to be honest, I didn't understand much of that entire thing.
(10:21):
Either I'm like, I'm not looking to make money, or
I'm just doing this because I've been stuck with this
problem statement for a while, or I need to get
it out of my system. And I saw somebody do
something that gave me inspiration that let's sort of work
on it this way, and sort of had to sort
of because he was still a good trend. I didn't
want to rub him off the wrong way, So it
(10:44):
sort of dropped that idea for a while.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
And that you were a finalist for the first.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Time, I wasn't wasn't a finalist for the first time,
and that was my first entry. To be honest, again,
I had such imposter syndrome that I didn't even finish,
like the number of requirements, like I don't know, this
is not going to find like I'm not going to
get through. Let's just it's fine. And then I think
(11:11):
it was in two thousand and eighteen or nineteen that
my break keyboard so interesting love. By that time, I
think I've gotten enough into the entire accessibility space.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Again, you could call it fate.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
My uncle used to work at UNESCO specifically for Persons
who disabilities, and it is not because of him that
I'm working on this.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
It was the other way around.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So he knew that I was working on this, and like, hey,
I'm done doing this conference for Persons who disabilities and policy.
Why don't you come and see, you know, if you're interested.
I'm like, yeah, sure, And I met so many people
who are blind who are you know, functional, Like they're
working in places, they're working in see working governments, working
(12:01):
in companies. Uh, and just to start interacting with somebody,
then it's sort of it. You know, until then, it
was just an engineering project and then you're working with
people and talking to people that could actually be users,
and they themselves are talking about how important this whatever
this technology is for them. And interesting that that was
(12:22):
the first time I was a Hackertey Price finalist for.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
The for a keyboard.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
How the idea for the keyboard came up with was
when I was talking to somebody who was blind, uh,
and when we got to exchanging numbers, and she took
out a phone and was fumbling with all the keys
and were extremely slow, And I'm like, how come it
is so hard to use a smartphone to type in,
type in anything? And she was like, yeah, I mean
(12:48):
we're all used to button phones, feature phones, but you
know you have to switch to a smartphone for getting
all of these other features, but just accessibility is just
not there. I'm like, hey, this is such an easy
problem to solve. It just like a keypad that say,
you take the standard braille typewriter interface and stick it
onto a phone.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Why can't you do that?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
So that went out really well, and I mean that
sort of took sort of it was a divergent sort
of brand from what my main goal was, but you know,
getting that product into the hands of people who are
using it and getting feedback from that sort of improved
me as an engineer going through sort of a design
(13:31):
cycle where I'm putting it in the hands of users,
getting feedback, realizing interesting, you don't need to have it
attached to the phone. Phone can be in the pocket
and then you can sort of just use the keyboard
as an interface, so it can be Bluetooth or something
like that. So that went on and got into the
hands of some people who in India leveraged my uncle's
(13:54):
contacts at Unisco to sort of get it, get more
people to try and test it out, and I think
that by this year next you can be sort of productized.
(14:18):
That's another thing when it comes down to this, right,
because I don't think there's a lot of money in
assistive devices. So even for me, leveraging open source as
a business model, not necessarily to make money, but at
least not burn my own money to you know, get
something that can help people. So if everything is three
(14:39):
D principle, you can get the parts fabricated at a
fab house and get all the parts sort of assemble
a makerspace could make a few for the community around them, right,
So you.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Know, for me, that is what sort of makes sense.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
I know, there's no way that I can make a
lot of money out of this thing, and that's sort
of the problem with that system devices. That's the reason
why not too many of them exist, because you just
can't make too much money out of wess to devices.
So for me, again, I've been part of the entire
conversation around open source hardware as a business business model,
(15:15):
starting with even three D printing. As you know, a
lot of the RepRap movements started it all off. But
you know a lot of people are closed sources open source,
and how do you really make it as a business
model around here? A lot of open source three D
printing companies are struggling, So how do you sort of
leverage that some of my I got into contact with
(15:37):
some people who are actually working on the the open
source hardware licenses, and you know, started speaking about all
of that. So I really got into not because of a
lot of this, you know, for me as an engineer,
developed me into just understanding how the world works in
terms of open source, open source hardware, the complications and
the gray areas behind it. Where is it actually good
(16:01):
when maybe not? Maybe not the right thing, the right
place to go around, and so many things that sort
of I encountered during those two three years of hiatus
during the pandemic, learned about these really small magnets that
are available. And this again, it's still the same principle
in terms of using CAM and an electro magnetic actuate
(16:23):
or something like a motor and lifting a pin, but
with I'd say, over the years, I learned so much
more about electronics, about design, started using SLA three D printers,
understood resin, undertood types of resin, and sort of my
own understanding of what is possible sort of changed, you know.
In twenty seventeen, when I first applied, I was still
(16:45):
using FDM and tried to figure out how I can
fit everything in an FtM tolerance or changed a nodle
to a two hundred point two mm nozzle, and what
the waterble the size I could get in that. And
now I'm using SLA, so even for me, and I
spoke little bit about this because I'm just realizing, you know,
from from from my college days to now, so much
(17:07):
access to high end technology, to two resources has happened
to me as an individual that and and it's not
that I'm staying in America where everything is this is
in India and here in Bangalore, which is a little
bit more sort of uh forward that way, but still,
(17:28):
I mean I have access to the best of tools,
obviously working with the global supply chain now right, I
think back when I started off part being stocked in
in the US, so I can't get it because it's
just too far away, your absurdly expensive I need to
buy huge m o Q two sort of get it
over here.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
But that's not the case anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
So yeah, I mean in this project also sort of
a lot of luck play play its part, the availability
of the magnets, so the ability of the solnight course
uh and just sort of uh pushing and figuring it
out and sort of veered because in some of the
(18:10):
videos that I was looking at for research record, there's
one video for electromagnet magnetism that I was sort of
research and Sean Hamill Hammill's video and I'm seeing him
here and.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
So it's sort of.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
And I've grown up as an engineer, learned, you know,
I learned Eagle using uh Spark Funds video to for
tutorials and and use their libraries to sort of do
and then those other people that are sort of around
here in this community. So you know, directly and directly,
I have been sort of beneficial from this community in
(18:46):
terms of just growing as an engineer. And I think
that community and that you know, almost osmoses like effect
where it just happens. It's not that I had put
in too much effort. That's just so much open source
content is there on the Internet today that I have
sort of benefited from as an engineer. That has caused
(19:07):
me to sort of be able to make better products
and projects. And to be honest, you know, I don't
realize you know, when the dots started moving up and
down the it was sheer happiness. And because it isn't
something that I've been pursued for such a long time,
I didn't realize that it would work that wall. There's
(19:28):
still sort of some bugs to figure out. At the
same time, I mean, once I put it out there,
the amount of response that I've gotten, like, hey, why
don't you think about using compliant mechanisms for this fight?
Why you even have moving parts? Can you make it
print in place?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I mean those are in just like how it started,
like those interesting sort of problem statements to add on
to this, which just makes the product better and better.
And so for me, you know, I've even that aspect
of open source is great where you have the entire
community channeling your your innovation process and sometimes people even
(20:08):
much smarter and much smarter than you. Like again mentioned
when I was doing the electronics part, you know, a
few months back, I didn't understand the difference between source
and sink. I see what what is the difference connect
to a higher connect to ground. It just you make
a connection right then sort of know that's not the
way things work, and understand h bridges and and uh,
(20:30):
you know, I was researching how flip dot displays work
and then in terms of like hacker it loves flip
flip door display there is so much content on that,
and understood your h bridges and and made like a
circuit based on like a flip door display. So yeah,
I mean it's just been even for me s hach
a great learning experience, uh, through.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
The medium of this project.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
And now it's like this, it feels like okay, this
this this thing can act actually.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Solve a problem. Now.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
It started off as something that I was just doing
as an engineer, as a creative outlet almost right the
same time as with the with the problem statement, with
the user in mind, that's sort of focusing it.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And then I think you sort of you you try
again and again, and you keep at it. I think
eventually you get to that no matter you know, it's
been a long time, and primarily because there have been
a lot of breaks in between. But if you keep
coming back and keep trying, and sometimes even coming back
after a while and trying with a completely fresh mindset
(21:44):
is sometimes very beneficial for the project. So yeah, that
long story, but you're more or less that is that
is the synopsis of the ten year journey of the
diffessional Braille display.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
That's a great way to end it.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
There's two more questions that have we try to get
it done in the next twenty minutes because then I
have to MC over here.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
But I think that's really helpful to see.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
And I love that you're emphasizing just like falling in
love with the problem, because that's something I hear time
and time again, even in the like the the VC
startup world. Is like founders need to prioritize the problem
and not the solution.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Like you said, engineers can so easily fall in love
with their.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Own idea, and just like Chase that how do I
make this idea better and fit it to some problem that.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Nobody has or needs it for?
Speaker 5 (22:31):
And so you have Really that's what I'm hearing, you know,
the common thread throughout the journeys that it was just
how can I continue to improve my solution for this
problem rather than you know, apply my solution to something else,
which is amazing and I think you could lesson for
so many people.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
So the two questions I want to follow up with
One if you could just.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Describe in detail what the solution is, how it works,
just to pain and make sure for our audience if
they haven't seen your project yet, right.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
And then I want to hear kind of where you're
excited to take it next.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
You got fifty thousand dollars now other than paying back
maybe why you've been putting into it right it, do
you have any ideas of what you're excited.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
About for next?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So one I feel, you know, one, until now, it
felt like I was doing it for myself and my
own curiosity of seeing this through and after obviously a
hackertay price. But you know, once I this is the
first time any video of mine on YouTube has more
than fifty thousand likes, and it has like four hundred comments.
(23:37):
I'm like, whoa, and so many of them are people
white daughter is blind or my partner is blind, and
I know this problem exists, and I wish I could
afford a braille display and a braille terminal for my partner.
And you know, hearing those stories in the comments, it's it.
It sort of puts a little bit more weight on
(23:59):
your shoulder, puts a little bit more responsibility. So I
mean that is a new feeling that I'm that is
now part of this and I think I'm gonna I've
been working solo just uh when on my free time,
working here in there, and it's always been the hackety
prices and as an incentive, okay, if I channel my thought, Okay,
let's let's document it, let's let's put it all together,
(24:20):
and it's applyed for this. But now I think take
it a little bit more seriously where I'm get a
team involved. Get And I think the newer generation is
a lot more smarter and has a lot more ideas
and actually is a lot more in a way user centric.
(24:41):
They actually care about problems. Get them involved in and
and mentor them and work with this project and and
leverage some of the ideas and and the people that
have gotten involved over the last few months in this
project make it, make make it a little better.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
And and what I've.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Seen is, I mean, if you probably even the ten
years of the journey of making this, you probably condense it,
condense it. If I was only working on this in
my life, probably I could condense it in one year,
Like I've probably worked one year of my life in
the last ten years on this one project in a
focused manner. But if I actually focus on this, I
think a lot of wonders can happen. And and really
(25:22):
I just want to see it through. I think that
that that has been the thing since the very beginning.
I know that I have not completely solved the problem.
There's still something or the other that that is lacking,
some still something or the other that can be made better.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
So I just want to see through.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
And when I mean see through, I want to get
into the hands of the people that will be using it.
How whether it's a business, whether it's sort of an
open source thing where I'm working with maker spaces to
make sure that they're able to produce these or it's
we get it to make it in a way that
it's a lot of sort of print in place and
(26:00):
not too much manufacturing that is actually required, which would be.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Like the best thing possible. Uh. I think that that
is the next step for me.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
And now if you could just describe in detail the
solution itself.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So, okay, if you.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Start with the name, it was great how you wrapped
up the first fit with the name electro mechanical.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
I can't remember the one quite quite a mouth.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Praill display, but yeah, if you can start with that
and then explain what it is exactly in as much.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Detail as you really sure, So.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
The project is the electron mechanical refreshable Braille display module.
Quite quite a mouthful, But I think by breaking down
those words itself, I'll be able to explain the project.
So starting with the electron mechanical bit, uh, it has uh,
it has an electromagnet, it has a CAM. Testingly enough,
(27:00):
and I'm explained this way over here. A lot of
people have asked me what is a CAM. So cam
is a mechanical linkage which follows a sort of rotary motion,
and translated translates it into linear motion. So I have
a you can imagine like a circle which is with
(27:22):
an off centered pivot, and it's pivoting on that off center,
so that when it rotates sort of lifts a pin up,
and when it rotates down sort of pulls the pin down.
Inside that CAM is an embedded magnet, and underneath that
CAM is an electromagnet. So when I reverse the polarity
of the electromagnet, the CAM either moves up or down,
(27:46):
and this again up and down. The rotation motion of
the CAM then pushes a up.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Pin a pin up and down. What is.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Interesting about this is that it just needs a momentary
pulse of voltage to you know, either set or reset.
So it's by stable, which means that it doesn't draw
too much electricity, which means that it could be also
used in portable devices h and also that, uh, the
(28:17):
cost would be much lesser because you don't need a
big bulky battery, which is sort of a drawback of
current devices because they use they use piezo electric actuators,
which you know, have much higher voltage specialized electronics. Only
a few companies in the world manufacture them, so that's
another thing to democrat democratize the manufacturing was a big
(28:39):
part of this as a problem statement, right, So for
me it was not just how to solve the problem
with some complex mechanism. You know, I'm pretty sure you
could use like microsolnoids or like there's some piezo linear motors,
and all of the enough solutions today are there. But ultimately,
how do you how do you make sure that it's affordable,
it's also manufacturable by some somebody everybody, and somebody who's
(29:03):
in the three D printing world as my sort of
day job, understand that, you know, three D printing is
very capable technology, but how do you sort of design
for three D printing? How can you make a print
in place? Can you affordably three D printed at scale?
How do you sort of design the thing so that
(29:23):
the tolerance is such that those tolerances match what three
D printing needs. So yeah, so in a nutshell is
it is a mechanism. But I think what I've done
because I'm not the first to figure out cam mechanism,
you know, after the fact, after putting the project out
to somebody actually may message me on my on the
(29:47):
Hackaday post saying that hey, this have you gone through
this patent and it was the nineteen ninety six award
using a CAM mechanism in an interesting different way, but
still a CAM mechanism. I was disappointed in terms of like, oh,
I was not the first to figure this out, but.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Again, it's a big world. Very rarely do you sort
of figure it out for the first time.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
But I was also happy somebody's actually had a patent
on it and it's expired now, so nobody else can
you know, claim that this is my patent or something,
and so it can.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
It will remain open source whether you know, I like
it or not. You know, I can't patent it.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
So I think that that is a good thing about
using cams in this thing.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
There are still a.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Few I don't know why people do this, but you know,
people were actually you know, this is again great to
be part of the commune. People who are actually sending
me patents of hey, is your thing infringing this patent?
Somebody who's patent using an electromagnet? Why would you do that?
Such a generic thing? Why would who would grant something
(30:49):
like this? So yeah, it's how it ups and downs.
But for me, hey, I mean, I'm not here to
make money. I'm just going to give it away. If
somebody wants to make it and manufacture it and give
it off to people who need it, let them do that.
So yeah, So it is the mechanism. It is the
method of manufacturing. And I think also what I have
(31:10):
to figure out the method of distribution, which is still
in the gray. And I think, to be honest, this
project is sort of a mechanist for me to learn
not only the engineering part, but also all of these
gray areas of open source hardware and open source business
(31:30):
models and how do you sort of get things out there.
So that is all something that I have to eventually
figure out.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
If you like The Bomb, don't forget to subscribe, rate
and share the show wherever you get your podcasts. You
can follow supply Frame and Hackaday on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn YouTube,
and design Lab at supply Frame Design Lab on Instagram
and Twitter. The Bomb is a supply Frame podcast produced
by Me, Magenta Strongheart and Ryan Tillotson, written by Maggie
Boles and edited by Daniel Ferrara. Theme music is by
(32:03):
Anna Hogman. Show art by Thomas Schneider. Special thanks to
Giovanni Selinas, Bruce Diminguez, Thomas Woodward, Jin Kumar, Jordan Clark,
the entire supply from team and you are wonderful listeners.
I'm your host, Magenta Strongheart. See you next week.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
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