Community 3D Printer / Assembly / Trading Resources

[MartinB]

I designed the original roto damper and the RD3, I print the parts much cheaper than the price of the pirated version linked above, its not a for profit venture for me... The RD3 fits the standard HM blower. Email me at rotodamper AT Hot Mail DOT COM if you are interested in getting a set of parts.

Will you provide an RD3 printed, assembled and tested
With fan, sg90 servo, lan cable, cable jack, capacitor soldered across servo leads, and shipped to buyer...for $50?

To be fair, if the above link makes $1, its by bulk purchase of parts, and discounting their own time. Doesnt appear to be much of a profit making venture to me. More like a service to some without resources or skills to put together themself. I think an individual would pay that amount just for the parts purchased separately. Maybe more.

[WBegg]

Will you provide an RD3 printed, assembled and tested
With fan, sg90 servo, lan cable, cable jack, capacitor soldered across servo leads, and shipped to buyer...for $50?

To be fair, if the above link makes $1, its by bulk purchase of parts, and discounting their own time. Doesnt appear to be much of a profit making venture to me. More like a service to some without resources or skills to put together themself. I think an individual would pay that amount just for the parts purchased separately. Maybe more.

Thanks MartinB,

Here's an actual breakdown of my costs:

Delta Fan - $15.12
MG90S Servo - $4.20 (I buy direct from Towerpro)
LAN Jack - $2.92
Cable - $2.40
Capacitor - $0.40
ABS Plastic - $3.57
Shipping(US) - $13.62

Total Cost = $42.23 (not including parts shipping costs from suppliers)

The costing does not include machine print time (about 10 hours each as I print at 0.2mm layer height and 50% infill) and my time to put it together, test it, and calibrate.

With a $50 sell price, I make $7.77. As MartinB indicated, hardly a money making venture, especially considering I can only produce about 1-2 a day.
I, like other makers here, produce it to give options to members that don't have the means to print themselves (yes, the files are available to print yourself), or don't want to mess with the assembly process and want a unit that works right out of the box.

I'm pretty sure I could make more money by just selling the print (no parts) for $20 and charge shipping to the buyer.

I always encourage to build your own. I'm more satisfied that there are over 2500 downloads of the design on Thingiverse

[MartinB]

Thanks MartinB,

Here's an actual breakdown of my costs:

Delta Fan - $15.12
MG90S Servo - $4.20 (I buy direct from Towerpro)
LAN Jack - $2.92
Cable - $2.40
Capacitor - $0.40
ABS Plastic - $3.57
Shipping(US) - $13.62

Total Cost = $42.23 (not including parts shipping costs from suppliers)

The costing does not include machine print time (about 10 hours each as I print at 0.2mm layer height and 50% infill) and my time to put it together, test it, and calibrate.

With a $50 sell price, I make $7.77. As MartinB indicated, hardly a money making venture, especially considering I can only produce about 1-2 a day.
I, like other makers here, produce it to give options to members that don't have the means to print themselves (yes, the files are available to print yourself), or don't want to mess with the assembly process and want a unit that works right out of the box.

I'm pretty sure I could make more money by just selling the print (no parts) for $20 and charge shipping to the buyer.

I always encourage to build your own. I'm more satisfied that there are over 2500 downloads of the design on Thingiverse

I think your kind.
By my own price analysis for those without a printer:

Cost to have printed $15-25
Fan shipped from digikey -$19.68
Cable- amazon prime -$6
Jack -1.50 + shipping
Authentic servo -$10 amazon

For an individual making 1.....over $50 for parts alone.

Technically, id call it a screaming deal....

[RalphTrimble]

Delta Fan - $15.12
MG90S Servo - $4.20 (I buy direct from Towerpro)
LAN Jack - $2.92
Cable - $2.40
Capacitor - $0.40
ABS Plastic - $3.57
Shipping(US) - $13.62
Endless justification of intellectual property theft..... PRICELESS!

[WBegg]

Delta Fan - $15.12
MG90S Servo - $4.20 (I buy direct from Towerpro)
LAN Jack - $2.92
Cable - $2.40
Capacitor - $0.40
ABS Plastic - $3.57
Shipping(US) - $13.62
Endless justification of intellectual property theft..... PRICELESS!

Here we go again .... as I've said time and time again, if you're so set on helping people out here on the forum, and state that you're not using the RD3 for capital gain, then wouldn't it be so much easier to post your files on a venue like Thingiverse? Everyone else here has posted files. Tom Kole with several damper designs and the original HM Case, SteveCK with the MicroDamper and MacroDamper, our leader Cap'n Bry with the 4.3 case design, there's a flap damper, and I posted files for the Adapt-a-Damper and HM case stand.

Yeah, you provide files for some people, but the ones I've seen have "RD Free" plastered on the design. Why?

You designed a great device, and there are many satisfied HM owners using it. Great for them and you I say.

[RalphTrimble]

Free because it is free and I don't want anyone SELLING IT.
Take for example a free piece of software or app, if you download it and then turn around and start selling it you will have issues, because that's not right. It is great for the users who get something free, but not so great to take and sell. If you download a free PDF printer app, odds are there will be a watermark on the document that says "free" or something long those lines... because they don't want you to use it in business to make money. See how that goes, fine for personal use, but not cool to take and use in business. Pretty common and not hard to understand.

[MartinB]

6 years later, has there been a case of somebody selling a design of somebody else's for a real profit?

Seems it would have happened by now...
It's actually more difficult to happen when readily available files for printing are open source on thingverse.

When published openly on the internet, the proprietary value of a set of files is exactly zero $.

Anything somebody can charge for it's simply their manufacturing of an item... Which is fair... Since they took the time and materials to print it for a prospective buyer.. But they can't charge for any intrinsic value of a design when it's openly published and accessible to everyone for zero $. Unless the buyer is really stupid.

This is why freeware..... Is free.... And available to everyone. That's how you keep it free.


I think the number of users for this type device is extremely small.

Even if somebody went into business tomorrow just making and selling these with a free set of files.... They starve to death.

Thank you to all that pave the way, and gave us the options we have today for ready-made plastic dampers. you saved me from having to build a small wooden box to do the exact same thing

[WBegg]

Good point, MartinB

This is why I encourage anyone here to print and sell my design, so it's available to more people. I even posted the source files (Fusion360) so anyone can make changes to suit their needs. They're not going to make a living at it. I think we've already established that. You, Ralph, state that you are doing it for the same reasons, to help out people here on the forum. Does it really matter, in that case, if it's printed by you or some other member that just wants to help out other HM users?

If members here didn't appreciate the open source nature of the project, then I don't think they'd be members. They would be buying DigiQ products, or some other commercial ATCs.

I don't know why I'm even responding, other than the fact that you stated that I was in this for capital gain. Not so, as I have proven above.

I really don't care how you get your RD3 out to users. If you make a bit of money, good on ya. Likewise, respect my approach of making an OPEN SOURCE solution that everyone can share. It really shouldn't affect you in that you're not in it for the money (as you stated).

P.S. I don't think I have ever seen a watermark across my Heatermeter LCD screen.

Heatermeter Board Design - FREE
Heatermeter Software - FREE
Barrel Servo Designs - FREE
MicroDamper Design - FREE
MacroDamper - FREE
Flap Damper - FREE
Offset Rotary Damper - FREE
4.0 Case Design - FREE
4.2 Case Design - FREE
4.3 Case Design - FREE
Adapt-a-Damper Design - FREE
15 CFM Fan/Damper Design - FREE
HM Stand - FREE
Temp Probe Wrap - FREE
Sous Vide Design for HM - FREE
Obsessive Justification of Intellectual Property in an Open Source Forum - PRICELESS

[MartinB]

. I'm more satisfied that there are over 2500 downloads of the design on Thingiverse

Wow. Way more than 2500.

4625 to be precise.