Japanese startup AgIC is aiming to streamline the circuit prototyping process with a new conductive ink that can be used in ordinary household inkjet printers, and that offers an interesting set of flexible properties.
Normally, breadboarding an envisioned circuit can be a sloppy affair, and when you have it working you’re still left with the task of generating the PCB design, having it made, and verifying that it too will work as desired.
With AgIC’s creation, the process skips straight to the PCB. Create your layout in Eagle, 123D Circuits, or even Illustrator, print it, affix the components, and test it out. If changes are needed, they can be tested in minutes.
The inkjet system, currently with a few days remaining on Kickstarter, uses a re-filled cartridge and a Brother inkjet printer. It requires the use of glossy photo paper, or plastic transparencies, and the components can be connected with conductive glue or tape. We even tested the ink with hot solder and were surprised that it held together, although not reliably enough to use normally. Once printed, adding a piece of cardstock to the pack firms it up and lets you replicate the feel of a hard plastic PCB.
But without the hard backing, interesting options open up. The ink has a surprising amount of flexibility, and can be easily bent and folded. With it, creating fast wearables becomes easy, and building circuits into items like paper airplanes offers interesting creative options as well.
And the ink can be manipulated to create resistance, to make paper antenna, and a variety of other electronic aspects.
AGiC also offers the conductive ink in a pen format, similar to the wildly successful Kickstarted CircuitScribe, but the inkjet printing aspect is what has captured our imagination. If you get one, let us know what you make.
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Maker Pro Newsletter - 04/03/14
“Prototyping is solved.”
From the editors of MAKE magazine, the Maker Pro Newsletter is about the impact of makers on business and technology. Our coverage includes hardware startups, new products, incubators, and innovators, along with technology and market trends.
Please send items to us at makerpro@makermedia.com.
Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.
Are you a Maker Pro? We’re compiling a list of Maker Pro Twitter handles, so please send us yours. Subscribe to the Maker Pro Twitter list here.
* Now you can use an inkjet printer to quickly prototype circuits. MAKE demonstrates how.
* A new VC firm in Los Angeles, TYLT Labs, is targeting hardware startups.
* 3D Hubs and the Francis Bitonti Studio are planning to launch a new, distributed Cloud Collection this week. First up: vases and bowls that let you choose the level of milling and scoring on the surface, below.
* A former reporter, now working for Celery, has written a no-nonsense report on the realities of PR for startups. One tip that shows he knows what he’s talking about: Don’t bother writing a press release; they only work for established companies.
* CircuitHub has partnered with Worthington Assembly to create a cloud-based fabrication service to grow your product quantity from 1 to 10,000.
* The Singapore Maker Map for hardware startups sets a standard for other cities and regions to emulate.
* AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, and Intel have joined together to form the Industrial Internet Consortium, to “improve integration of the physical and digital worlds.” If you’re trying to remember the other IoT industry alliance, announced last year, it is the AllSeen Alliance.
The Additively model.
* Additively wants to crowdsource additive manufacturing according to the model above: post the parts you need, and they will help you select the right 3D printing technology based on offers from various service providers.
* SF’s Lemnos Labs has raised a new round of funding to support early-stage hardware startups.
* The Lix pen, a sleek, aluminum 3D printer pen, will be taking preorders on Kickstarter soon.
* If you’d rather stay virtual, you can wait for the Gravity sketch pad, above.
* Have you been inspired by emerging trends like social innovation and conscious capitalism? You may be a member of the The Purpose Economy.
There’s a new filament maker on the upswing: nature.
A German company, twoBEars, is working with renewable raw materials to create biodegradable filaments. That’s their mixing board, above.
Sierra Resins and 3D Printlife have partnered to introduce a “bioplastic” filament.
Finally, Le FabShop, in Paris, just announced that it is working on a green 3D printing filament, made from seaweed, in partnership with another French company, Algopack.
Benjamin Joffe (@benjaminjoffe), general partner at the HAXLR8R accelerator, has put together an energetic slideshow, fronted by a Google-Glass-wearing dog, that sums up his take on the state of hardware manufacturing.
Among the new developments, according to Joffe: “prototyping is solved.” The presentation also has a lot of advice for startups, including a list of 12 “wares” to avoid, including FUNware (“no business”), EASYware (“not defensible”), and ten others.
Ales Spetic (@alesspetic), the CEO of CubeSensors, has also collected some advice for hardware entrepreneurs and investors, after his first foray from the world of software into the hardware scene. If you, or your investors, see the startup world through a software lens, Spetic has news for you: the difference is “substantial.”
Limor “Ladyada” Fried (@adafruit) has been shopping for manufacturing equipment at the giant Apex Expo in Las Vegas, and it’s been fun to follow along. That’s her, above, checking out a Speedline Momentum Elite stencil printer, which she already owns, and loves.
Limor visited, and offered commentary on, more than a dozen similarly huge industrial tools, making them seem almost accessible — something she’s good at.
From the editors of MAKE magazine, the Maker Pro Newsletter is about the impact of makers on business and technology. Our coverage includes hardware startups, new products, incubators, and innovators, along with technology and market trends.
Please send items to us at makerpro@makermedia.com.
Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.
Are you a Maker Pro? We’re compiling a list of Maker Pro Twitter handles, so please send us yours. Subscribe to the Maker Pro Twitter list here.
News
* Now you can use an inkjet printer to quickly prototype circuits. MAKE demonstrates how.
* A new VC firm in Los Angeles, TYLT Labs, is targeting hardware startups.
* 3D Hubs and the Francis Bitonti Studio are planning to launch a new, distributed Cloud Collection this week. First up: vases and bowls that let you choose the level of milling and scoring on the surface, below.
* A former reporter, now working for Celery, has written a no-nonsense report on the realities of PR for startups. One tip that shows he knows what he’s talking about: Don’t bother writing a press release; they only work for established companies.
* CircuitHub has partnered with Worthington Assembly to create a cloud-based fabrication service to grow your product quantity from 1 to 10,000.
* The Singapore Maker Map for hardware startups sets a standard for other cities and regions to emulate.
* AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, and Intel have joined together to form the Industrial Internet Consortium, to “improve integration of the physical and digital worlds.” If you’re trying to remember the other IoT industry alliance, announced last year, it is the AllSeen Alliance.
The Additively model.* SF’s Lemnos Labs has raised a new round of funding to support early-stage hardware startups.
* The Lix pen, a sleek, aluminum 3D printer pen, will be taking preorders on Kickstarter soon.
* If you’d rather stay virtual, you can wait for the Gravity sketch pad, above.
* Have you been inspired by emerging trends like social innovation and conscious capitalism? You may be a member of the The Purpose Economy.
Briefs
Go Natural
There’s a new filament maker on the upswing: nature.
A German company, twoBEars, is working with renewable raw materials to create biodegradable filaments. That’s their mixing board, above.
Sierra Resins and 3D Printlife have partnered to introduce a “bioplastic” filament.
Finally, Le FabShop, in Paris, just announced that it is working on a green 3D printing filament, made from seaweed, in partnership with another French company, Algopack.
Reports from the Hardware Front
Benjamin Joffe (@benjaminjoffe), general partner at the HAXLR8R accelerator, has put together an energetic slideshow, fronted by a Google-Glass-wearing dog, that sums up his take on the state of hardware manufacturing.
Among the new developments, according to Joffe: “prototyping is solved.” The presentation also has a lot of advice for startups, including a list of 12 “wares” to avoid, including FUNware (“no business”), EASYware (“not defensible”), and ten others.
Ales Spetic (@alesspetic), the CEO of CubeSensors, has also collected some advice for hardware entrepreneurs and investors, after his first foray from the world of software into the hardware scene. If you, or your investors, see the startup world through a software lens, Spetic has news for you: the difference is “substantial.”
Lady Ada Goes to Vegas
Limor “Ladyada” Fried (@adafruit) has been shopping for manufacturing equipment at the giant Apex Expo in Las Vegas, and it’s been fun to follow along. That’s her, above, checking out a Speedline Momentum Elite stencil printer, which she already owns, and loves.
Limor visited, and offered commentary on, more than a dozen similarly huge industrial tools, making them seem almost accessible — something she’s good at.
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