As we have received so much good feedback and several people have already asked for an instructable, we are currently developing a new version of the 'Badgemaker' which will improve several things. With the new generation we also intend to publish an instructable. It will be more compact, less expensive and hopefully provide an even more intuitive & comfortable user interaction. One essential drawback of the current version is that with only one device, the creation of one name tag, can take about 4-7 minutes. We try to reduce the time, a user is not involved (which is the time spent on calculations or the engraving process) for the next generation.
We hope to build multiple devices of the new generation in future and want to offer them to children workshops, so that children in these workshops can explore the fabrication technology using the 'Badgemaker'.
Together with the Fab Lab Aachen for the Personal Photonics project, funded by the german Federal Ministry of Education and Research and supported by the Make Light initiative, we are now taking the 'Badgemaker' with us to several exhibitions and Maker Faires. The device did not only seem to excite children yet; we also received good feedback of many different aged visitors and makers of the fairs - enjoying their new illuminated acrylic name tag souvenirs.
-- As the 'Badgemaker' has now fabricated several hundreds of name tags, the machine unveils to be more robust than we initially thought.
To evaluate the device a user study was conducted within a children workshop consisting of children at the age of 8 to 11.
The children did have great success operating the device and seemed to be very interested. Some did even operate the device without any prior instructions. Of course, we also unveiled some problems. E.g. some instructions like how to open the safety door were not clear enough so that shy participants did sometimes ask how to proceed when they were not sure.
At the beginning it was intended to a create a laser engraving machine (prototyping sketches below), but it quickly turned out that a small laser would not be powerful enough to engrave acrylic glass. Because of that a third axis had to be considered. But as the milling tool would be to heavy for the third axis it was now decided to move the working piece.
Moritz Messerschmidt
