Mr Peters from the International School of Prague made a great robot called The Boss. It is a great little robot with MakerBeam, arduino and 3d printed parts combined. Here is a little video to introduce the little guy.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4eTYrZqZ1w
Team MakerBeam.eu
Back in 2009 when Sam Atman launched his Kickstarter campaign for the classic MakerBeam, Evil Mad Scientist helped support this launch. We are pleased we could show an improved version of the classic MakerBeam. And guess what, they loved it!
Here is a link to the MakerBeam article on the website of Evil Mad Scientist.
Team MakerBeam.eu
Warwick Mobile Robotics is a research project carried out by a team of fourth year undergraduate students at the University of Warwick in the UK. The project involves the creation of a search and rescue robot designed to locate survivors in hazardous environments, such as earthquake disaster zones; removing emergency service personnel from danger.
The project has been running for the last seven years. Each team has made alterations to develop the previous robot design. This year, we are designing, manufacturing and programming a whole new, smaller, lighter robot capable of navigating moderate terrain in a smaller environment.
The aim is to develop a modular structure which will allow the robotic platform to be easily modified by future teams. The design will be focused towards achieving a low cost model with key features such as reliability, maintainability and modularity. It must have a maximum turning radius of 0.5 metres and a maximum weight of 25kg which makes it deployable by one person. The long term aim of the project is for the prototype to be further developed by future teams into a commercially viable design.
In order to achieve these design aims we have opted to use MakerBeam and OpenBeam for the chassis and arm structures. The off-shelf beams and fittings provide the perfect solution to our design requirements. The beams themselves have the required structural integrity, are lightweight and can easily be cut to length. Assembly times will be short due to the design of the beams and future years will be able to modify the size of the structure with ease. This suits the modularity of the design.
The team are testing the robot’s capabilities at the RoboCup Rescue competition held in Germany in Magdeburg during the Easter break (April 3-5). The RoboCup Rescue is a competition that tests the robots search and rescue abilities in a simulated disaster environment. The team has decided to enter this competition as it provides an exciting engineering challenge beyond the scope of our undergraduate project requirements and a socially significant real world application for mobile robotics. The team won “Best in Mobility” from 2009-2012, “Best in Manoeuvrability” in 2012 and won the competition in 2010. Last year, the team entered the World RoboCup competition for the first time and placed 10th in the world. Our aim for this year is to enter two robots into the European competition for the first time.
The team is really grateful for the support of MakerBeam in the creation of our robot and we are excited to assemble all of the parts which are currently being manufactured!
24/02/2014
Lauren Rutter (Sponsorship and Publicity Coordinator and Chassis Designer)
OpenBeam stock arrived at the MakerBeam warehouse, all items have been added to the makerbeam website, pricing is in place …… we are ready to sell OpenBeam!
OpenBeamUSA and MakerBeam.eu joined forces. We are happy to tell MakerBeam.eu is now lead importer of OpenBeam in Europe!
It is great to have this addition to our product range. More information about OpenBeam and MakerBeam you’ll find in the blog we published: MakerBeam.eu and OpenBeamUSA.com
From today on OpenBeam can be ordered in our webshop www. makerbeam.eu.
Our current OpenBeam product range is as follows:
> Precut kits:
black and clear anodised. Lengths in kit in mm: 300, 270, 210, 150, 120, 90, 60, 45, 30. In the kit we also sell L-brackets, T-brackets, OB feet, hexagon head screws, button head socket screws, hex nut driver, hex key driver and nuts.
> Beams:
– Precut extrusions, black and clear anodised in different lengths in mm: 1000, 300, 270, 210, 150, 120, 90, 60, 45, 30. Only the 1000mm length beams we sell as a single item. All other lenghts are sold in packs of 4.
– Precut extrusions for Mendel, black anodised (in mm: 390, 300, 450, 240).
– Precut extrusions for MiniKossel, black anodised (in mm: 600, 240).
> Brackets:
L-brackets, T-brackets, Hitec Servo mount, NEMA 17 Stepper Motor, Shaft clamp kit, 608 Bearing to NEMA 17 adapter
> Nuts & bolts:
Screw button head socket cap M3 6mm, Hexagon Head bolts M3 6mm, M3 nuts
> Accessories:
OB feet, M3 hex nut driver, M3 hex key driver, M3 allen key
Soon we will have Kossel en Mendel kits available as well.
Both MakerBeam and OpenBeam are anodised aluminum extrusions with a diameter of under 20mm available in black or clear. Great for desktop projects.
OpenBeam does not need special screws which is an advantage. The screws are a bit small in comparision to the size of the profile though. The surface area of the cross-section of OpenBeam is more than double this surface area of MakerBeam.
Size makes OpenBeam more suited for bigger projects and MakerBeam for smaller projects. The stainless brackets of MakerBeam seem to be more robust than the plastic ones of OpenBeam at first glance. The OpenBeam brackets are injection molded out of EMS Grivory GVX, a high-performance, high glass fiber reinforced polyamide copolymer that is engineered for metal replacement applications.
Why choose the one over the other? Your choice will depend on personal preferences and on what you plan to build. What do you think your project needs?
| OpenBeam | MakerBeam | |
| Diameter | 15x15mm | 10x10mm |
| Surface | With edges | Smooth |
| Bracket material | Polyamide copolymer | Stainless steel |
| Bolts and nuts size | M3, standard | M3, custom made |
| Bolts and nuts material | Stainless steel | Stainless steel |
The two profiles are different, but comparable and in the near future there will be more and more compatible products. For now enjoy our new product range. We as a team are looking forward to see what projects you make with OpenBeam, MakerBeam or a combination of both!
Team MakerBeam.eu
Here it is!! Our square headed bolt with hex hole.
We had already introduced the square headed bolts before. They provide a secure tight grip. Adding a hex hole is just a great finish we thought. For some purposes like the servo brackets a hex hole already is very convenient. The head of this new bolt is also a bit wider. Providing an even better grip.
The square headed bolts with hex hole is available in 6mm and 12 mm. From now on our starter kit includes a bag of 6mm bolts with hex hole.
Team MakerBeam.eu
This summer we will start the sale of OpenBeam. We expect stock coming in a few weeks from now. Because of this we started the preparation for the arrival of stock. In our office we are working on freeing storage space, see picture below.
Secondly we started to enter the OpenBeam products that will be available in our shop system. That is why when you search for OpenBeam you can find the products. Please do not order OpenBeam. We will not take backorders. The best we can do is register your email and send you a message once we have stock available. WE DO NOT SELL OPENBEAM YET!!!
Last but not least a big step was made recently. The website OpenBeam.eu now refers to makerbeam.eu. In time we will welcome you to MakerBeam.eu and OpenBeam.eu
Team MakerBeam.eu
Drumroll please! We have some very exciting news to tell.
MakerBeam and OpenBeam are working together to get OpenBeam available in Europe. Open Source Hardware is good. United Open Source Hardware is better.
What happened? As some of you might know OpenBeam had some serious production problems. Here is a blog post from OpenBeam published in March 2013. It was around that time we were ordering from OpenBeam feeling this Open Source Hardware should be available here in Europe. One thing led to another and now we are working with OpenBeamUSA.com on the new extrusion supplier, and we have reached a joint agreement to produce these extrusions.
Under this arrangement, both MakerBeam.EU and OpenBeamUSA.com will be using the same extruder to manufacture the extrusions, and both companies committed to placing regularly timed orders together. OpenBeam is setting up MakerBeam.EU to become the de-facto lead importer of OpenBeam to the European Union region while keeping prices reasonable. So, for European OpenBeam friends, you will soon be able to buy OpenBeam at very reasonable prices.
MakerBeam is smaller than OpenBeam. The diameter of the OpenBeam profile is 15mmx15mm. As you can see there are more differences between the profiles. It is the similarities though that made us want to start selling OpenBeam as well. Both profiles are under 20mm in size and Open Source Hardware. Companies that sell aluminum profiles usually draw the line at 20mm. In taking OpenBeam on board we also made the decision to specialize in smaller sized aluminum extrusion profiles. Great for desktop size projects!
We are also happy that MakerBeam reseller Technobots has also started carrying the entire range of OpenBeam products.
The picture shows MakerBeam brackets on OpenBeam beams. This is an exciting image. We are curious to see where the addition of OpenBeam to our product range will lead MakerBeam. Projects customers make never cease to amaze us but this will undoubtedly trigger combinations in designs we never thought of. Also we feel there is room to think about additions to our product range that are designed for compatibility. We are growing and maturing as a comany and that is awesome!
If you are interested in becoming a European reseller of OpenBeam, you can contact us directly. Shipping is something that benefits from economies of scale and by concentrating the orders this way we can amortize the freight across a much bigger shipment and get better pricing from our vendors due to the higher volumes.
From the new extrusion supplier we received samples of OpenBeam. We were pleased with the quality and so was OpenBeam. This meant we could proceed with our plans. We both placed orders. It will take some time for the beams to arrive. This will probably be end of July 2013. We will keep you updated by message on our homepage. Stay tuned!
Team MakerBeam.eu
Improvement of the MakerBeam starter kit is always on our wish list. We have several ideas, big and small. And three of those ideas now have been realised!
1. Content sheet
We thought when you open a kit you should be able to see what is inside in a flash. This content sheet is a simple yet nice addition to our kit.
2 Manual
A manual has been on our wish list for a long time. It is one item that will not be removed from our wish list as well. The content sheet gave us the opportunity to make a start. On the backside there was room for one small project and a direction for use. The small project offers customers a chance to get to know MakerBeam a bit. It is an easy and simple project to test how the beams, brackets and bolts look and feel. 
3 A surprise gift
We wanted to add a little extra to our kits. We thought of several ideas. Should we add a product to each order, should we order gifts with MakerBeam printed on it? We ended up combining this idea with another desire we had.
We introduced quite a few new products in the past year. Somehow we should give customers a chance to try these, but how? With the screws with the serrated head bottom we added bags with the specific question to please review the bolts. This led to the idea of a sample bag. The sample bag gives customers the change to try new products themselves and it fits the original idea of a surprise gift. Right now the sample bag looks as pictured below, but we are planning on changing the content from time to time. Surprise!!
Every starter kit contains a content sheet and a sample bag from today on!
Team MakerBeam.eu
On Friday May 17th we were in The Hague. We visited a preview festival called Spheres. Here is a link. We were there to see Daniel Berio his graffitizer at work. Daniel is a MakerBeam customer and he made a plotter frame with makerbeams to ink his artwork. The plotter is set upright in order to make the paintings. The plotter is computer controlled and his program Graffitizer is making the art. It also controls the lights that works together with the painting that appears. The result is like looking at a modern stained glass in the making.
You can find more work of Daniel Berio here and also here.
Here is a video.
httpv://youtu.be/U31VFngZvUc
Team MakerBeam.eu
Wing type bolts and hinge bearings: available in our webshop as of today.
Wing type bolts
On our wish list it still read ‘wing type bolt’. The possibility to slide in a bracket midway between brackets already fastened was our aim.
When fastening a bracket to a beam the square headed bolts need to be slided into the beginning of the beam. This is not a problem when your project is all clear and you know exactly what you want to fasten. But when you decide to add brackets between other brackets you need to loosen and remove a bracket before you can add another one. This is time consuming and our wish was to come up with a bolt that would make it easier to add screws to an almost finished structure.
We’re happy to introduce the wing type bolt: the rectangular screw head of the wing type bolt gives the possibility to add screws midway. You can insert the screw midway of a beam and turn it to ensure tightening. This makes it easier to add brackets.
The wing type bolts come in a bag of 100 pcs and cost € 8,13.
Hinge bearings
We came up with hinge bearings to extend building possibilities. Hinge bearings make it possible to rotate 2 beams relative to each other. You can use the standard bearing to have beams rotate around a fixed point or axis. Making a miniature trebuchet now is possible!
Hinge bearings are an assembled product consisting of
– Bearings (10 pieces)
– Copper saddle band clips (5 pieces)
– Axes (6 long bolts in 3 lengths: 3 cm, 5 cm and 6 cm)
– Teflon tape (18 cm)
– Square headed bolts (10 pieces)
– Nuts (10 pieces)
Hinge bearings cost €17,50.
We plan to include a manual to the hinge bearings soon.
Team MakerBeam.eu