Good question. Oddly enough, waffle maker is the 1st thing that comes to mind! Maybe fly-swatter? Weekly pill box?
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We would then get back x,y,z coordinates (assuming that the head had a sufficient range). These values would then be used how?
Possible issues:
- The map is an array that would need to be converted into a usable form for the laser since it hasn’t yet got a “real” 3d capability to accept 3d files. i.e. and STL mesh or other form
- The laser can only accept a greyscale image. How would the min/max values be limited (clipped) for absolute black/white from min/max engraving.
- The laser may incapable of cutting to the depth indicated by the scan. Would multipass cutting (refocused) then be involved?
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The biggest question I would have about laser scanning with the current head is how fast it could handle the incoming information. We know very little about the onboard computing power. I do know the homing process takes a lot of steps and has to access the cloud.
Currently the homing process is like this:
- Gantry and head are in back left corner
- Machine powers on, moves gantry forward to center of bed
- Camera takes a photo of gantry, head position, sends it to cloud
- Motion is calculated based on estimates from photo, head moves closer to center (havent seen it land in the right spot on the first try yet).
- Camera takes another photo to see where everything is, sends to cloud, calculates distance it thinks it needs to go to be centered
- Continue above step until it finally gets to the place it needs to be. Usually takes a couple more moves/photos. Reminds me of how they handle the mars rover etc
So for it to actually scan something and build a full 3d pointcloud profile from it is going to be questionable in a few areas. the first is the dotsize of the laser. Its currently pretty large, but we dont know what they are able to gather from that. Is it small enough to get a scan with enough detail to be usable?
Also can the machine hold enough data/transfer it efficiently enough to move at a reasonable speed. Who knows.
I think it might be possible, but I feel like it would be a lot slower than other things that are on the market already that can scan from multiple angles. I think for it to really be useful for anything actually 3d (not 2.5d) it would have to be a new head.
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That’s not a Belgian waffle - it’s an American Belgian-style waffle. Just a regular waffle with deep holes.
Here’s a real Belgian waffle:
Notice the caramelization and the sheen from the melted sugar. Real Belgian (Leige) waffles have sugar chunks (pearl sugar - size of pencil erasers) folded into the dough (and it’s a dough, not a batter - more like brioche than pancakes). The sugar chunks melt and ooze through the surface to create a glaze. Tres yummy! @bhspalinger should be able to give us the true scoop on these puppies. I make them for family gatherings. We don’t eat Belgian-style ones anymore 
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Oh, my. I REALLY want one now.
Speaking of delicious foods… I was just introduced to something I’d never heard of before… Scotch Eggs.
Have you had these things? They’re delicious… with a capital f. How we bloated Americans didn’t invent this is beyond me. I mean, eggs… wrapped in sausage… wrapped in breading. Are you kidding me?! Where have these things been all my life?!
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We haven’t started to push the boundaries of detailed 3D scanning - we have a lot of ideas for how to make it dramatically faster & more accurate with the existing hardware, but for the moment, all of those are in the hopper.
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Who says you’re not in the cool kids club😉
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Wouldn’t a couple of limit switches be a lot faster?
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No doubt. And give us a physical 0,0 which would be incredibly helpful.
I think they were taking into consideration the potential for breakage when deciding whether to use them or not. I cant say Ive never killed a limit switch before. Theyre fragile and since these machines are for such a wide target audience, including people who might not be comfortable replacing things like that, they prob decided optical was safer even if slower.
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I suppose that $2 switches like this might not last too long:
but there are industrial versions that should last a lot longer:
and some inexpensive inductive switches that should last a long time:
It must be far too late for any of those by now, though, and I’m guessing it would be impossible to add them as a mod other than as a specialized E-stop of sorts.
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@dan talked about this in depth at his talk for the Seattle maker faire, I can’t remember all the details but I remember thinking “wow, that is really smart and a much better way than limit switches”. Here is the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqrfwvDKm0
He talks about limit switches starting here: https://youtu.be/_BqrfwvDKm0?t=27m38s
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I use limit switches like that, but without the lever, on my 3D printers and never had one fail. They only strike once per build and most switches will do millions of cycles when they are only passing a small current that doesn’t arc.
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(Belgian waffle with Belgian chocolate in Belgium) 
Mmmm. Definitely not the same as what passes for Belgian waffles in the US!
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What… That’s not an Eggo w/ Hershey’s syrup?
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All of this delicious looking food is killing me. I must say that you guys (and gals) have excellent taste. 
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Although if you look at something like a Kinect which uses a stochastic dot pattern it does a pretty amazing job of depth without an extraordinary resolution. Stochastic turns out to be better in most cases than regular patterns (kinect 1 was regular grid IIRC). You can make pretty small dots with the laser (because if something is smaller than the laser can focus, do you care? On what technology would you reproduce that?) and especially if you are willing to make multiple stochastic patterns (you can turn the pattern 90 degrees for instance to get around all sorts of defects in your scan). Of course I have no idea if that’s how the GF does scanning internally, but it’s a tried and true solution in many other applications.
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Ok…now I’m hungry…
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The one next to the chocolate covered one was stuffed with something savory…ham and cheese and herbs, I think. Let’s see and Eggo do that!
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Which was what I asked at the beginning of the thread
British is best! 