Oct 18, 2016 | By Nick

A smartphone-powered 3D printer that first surfaced at the World Maker Faire in 2015 is finally ready to go and it still looks amazing.

The ONO uses projection powered by your smartphone screen to produce relatively small DLP resin prints. Because most of the magic happens with your phone and the resin, it’s a simple 3D printer and the makers have managed to stick to the projected $99 price tag.

The photopolymer resin hardens using visible light, rather than UV, which means your phone’s display is all you need to turn your dreams and designs into a physical reality.

The build volume is 7.6x12.7x5cm and the company reckons that you’ll get at least 10 simple prints from each $15 bottle of resin.

You can keep reusing the leftover liquid resin and you can choose between ABS, hard wax, rubber or PMMA-type finishes and you can opt for a translucent finish too.

You can 3D print hard or flexible objects on demand and the special castable, fused resin means you can even create molds for jewelry or other metal casting. You can even 3D print a number of models at once or multiples of the same object. So the only limits really are your imagination, and the size of the print bay.

The 3D printer itself is beautifully simple. You download the app, plug in through the headphone jack and then fill the reservoir with resin. The phone sits safely under a piece of polarized glass under the reservoir and creates the model from nothing with flashes of white light.

It sounds crude, but in actual fact the ONO prints at a resolution of 42 microns and produces incredibly ornate models. The movable print ‘bed’ effectively serves as a print roof, as the model emerges from the resin and the next layer forms on the polarized glass.

Filippo Moroni and Pietro Gabriele spent two years developing the system that it hopes will bring 3D printing to the masses. Their logic is simple, most people have a smartphone and this simple, cost-effective addition opens up a world of creative possibilities. It’s a project that captured the public’s imagination, as well as more than $2.3 million from 16,000 backers on Kickstarter to turn the dream into a reality.

You don’t need design skills, you’ll be able to download a vast number of designs from the company’s own library and online repositories like Thingiverse. Alternatively, you can use any mainstream 3D modeling software. The app is Cloud-based, so you can access your designs from anywhere, on any phone, and you can also send 3D messages to your friends that only truly reveal themselves when the recipient sends them to print.

The creators hope that this community aspect helps fuel take-up of the ONO and there’s a lot to like about a personal 3D printer that you can take anywhere and power with your phone. It’s a lovely thought and there’s definite potential for this kind of 3D messaging, but it hasn’t taken off with other printers and we’re not sure how the ONO is going to change that.

The ONO originally launched as the OLO, but has gone through a rebrand after a trademark dispute. Mechanically, though, it remains the same and the seven-part system sits on top of your Android, iOS or Windows phone and plugs in through the headphone jack. It works with any phone with a screen less than 5.8”

It comes with rechargeable battery packs, a USB port that gives you options and weighs just 1.7lb, so you don’t even need power to print on the go and the ONO is totally portable.

The creators took the ONO back to the Maker Faire this year for a triumphant launch and you can order yours now the company has finished sending out the last of the Kickstarter backers’ printers.

This is a novel concept and we’re not quite sure what to expect from the OLO 3D printer. It could open up the world of additive manufacturing to the smartphone owning masses, though, and anything that brings 3D printing to a wider crowd is a good thing as far as we're concerned.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printer

 

 

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abi wrote at 5/21/2017 2:44:06 PM:

when can i order the ono

A Backer wrote at 11/10/2016 1:22:35 PM:

Quote: "...and you can order yours now the company has finished sending out the last of the Kickstarter backers’ printers." wow wow WOW.!!! hold on a second.!! we HAVE NOT recieved our Printers, Nore have they even sent them yet.! They keep fobbing us off with excuses...

A Backer wrote at 11/10/2016 12:59:02 PM:

Quote: "...and you can order yours now the company has finished sending out the last of the Kickstarter backers’ printers." wow wow WOW.!!! hold on a second.!! we HAVE NOT recieved our Printers, Nore have they even sent them yet.! They keep fobbing us off with excuses...

Rob wrote at 11/9/2016 4:33:45 AM:

"It comes with rechargeable battery packs" - no, pretty sure it doesn't. "you can order yours now the company has finished sending out the last of the Kickstarter backers’ printers" - definitely not true "The phone sits safely under a piece of polarized glass" - where do you get this stuff? Do you guys do any fact checking?

Publius wrote at 10/27/2016 1:44:17 PM:

I believe there is a replaceable plastic film between the phone and the resin, not glass. So the risk of leakage onto the phone needs to be considered.

Redgeneral wrote at 10/18/2016 4:56:02 PM:

The printer is currently undergoing certification, with the shipping to start in 4-6 weeks. The online store will open once all the kickstarter funded printers have been dispatched.

Don wrote at 10/18/2016 4:22:44 PM:

You can't order one now?? I guess you don't need to have all the facts before submitting an article....

jack wrote at 10/18/2016 2:52:09 PM:

I don't believe that the printer is send to the kickstarter backers yet. as one of the backers I have got a message that the printer will be send in about 6 weeks...

craig wrote at 10/18/2016 2:01:26 PM:

Remember the peachy? nuff said



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