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We are back!
Over two years ago, you trusted us with our first Kickstarter (which was funded in just one day and was delivered on time!) -- so, first and foremost, THANK YOU for your support.
This time, we have been working on something even cooler.
Introducing The AstroBox Touch (+Bonuses)...
Now, we are back to deliver a simple, intuitive Touch Screen for your 3D Printer.
It’s called the AstroBox Touch.
It's no ordinary Touchscreen though.
Think of it as a tiny portal that visually (and wirelessly) connects your 3D Printer to the most powerful, well engineered cloud in the 3D Printing industry.
It's an adorable (Plug & Play) touchscreen that's built with simplicity in mind.
It doesn’t require ANY assembly or tinkering.
This means, that it literally works right out of the box.
SERIOUSLY.
No need to be a geek.
With that said...
Our prototype is working great, and we need YOUR HELP to take it into production.
The AstroBox Touch at a glance:
- Beautiful 3.5" touchscreen (480 x 320 pixels)
- Runs AstroBox Touch Software. Easy and intuitive to use – Just plug it into your printer and it's ready to go!
- No self assembly necessary
- Simple, gorgeous user interface built with simplicity in mind
- Wirelessly control your 3D Printer without needing to use SD Cards
- Connected to the AstroPrint ecosystem - which includes the AstroPrint Cloud, Developer API, Desktop App(s) & Mobile App(s)
- Developer friendly
- Powered by the Raspberry Pi
- Compatible with all printers running standard Marlin, Repetier, & Sailfish firmware
That's not all.
We are releasing MUCH MORE than just the AstroBox Touch.
We are also releasing Android & iPhone Mobile Apps, Desktop Software, and a public API.
When you back The AstroBox Touch - you’ll also be helping us launch a suite of software that is currently in beta.
This includes mobile apps (both Android & iPhone) and a cross platform desktop software suite (Windows, Linux, & OS X).
In other words, The AstroBox Touch connects your 3D Printer to a mobile app, desktop app, developer API’s and the AstroPrint Cloud.
All of which will work in TANDEM to give you the best 3D Printing experience possible.
Since the AstroBox Touch has been built with developers in mind - You will be able to install 3D Printing related apps from 3rd parties on your Touch just as easily as you install apps on your smartphone.
For example, you could have a Thingiverse app, a Design Repair app and an app that will send you text notifcations when a print has finished.
Let’s learn about the capabilities of the Android & iPhone Mobile Apps.
These are some of the features currently available:
- Ability to visually inspect your print bed
- Get notifications about the status of your prints
- Start and stop prints from anywhere around the world
- Print from repositories like Thingiverse with a few clicks without having to download anything
- Use our cloud slicer (which uses CURA engine) to slice and print designs directly from your smartphone
Those are the key features for the first version.
Much like everything else, we will be improving the mobile apps based on your direct feedback in the future.
Lets move on to the Desktop Software.
What can AstroPrint Desktop do?
Here's a short list.
- Simple. Intuitive interface with A LOT of workspace
- Cross Platform: OS X, Linux, AND Windows
- Automatically Synchronizes all of your files, print plates, & settings with your AstroPrint Cloud account
- Optimized slicer settings (which are set by the printer manufacturers on our platform) that get smarter over time
- Rotate, scale, position, multiply, and manipulate designs
- Slice with Cura Engine (more slicer options coming later)
- Print Wirelessly via your AstroBox OR Print via USB
What has changed since the last Kickstarter?
A LOT.
As you know, the original AstroBox (now called the AstroBox Gateway) was simply an (evolutionary) catalyst for connecting your 3D Printer to a 3D Printing Cloud platform.
When the original AstroBox was released, the AstroPrint Cloud was in it’s infancy..
It was able to do some amazing things (like remote monitoring), but it has evolved incredibly fast since then.
We’ve spent the last 3+ years building what we believe to be the absolute best cloud platform for Desktop 3D Printing...
....and it was all built based on YOUR direct feedback.
Since AstroPrint is the fastest growing cloud platform for Desktop 3D Printing (with over 500,000+ hours of printing) -- our users are certainly in agreement.
Also..
Our Chief Technology Officer Daniel opened a new R&D office in Malaga, Spain, then quickly brought on 4 amazing engineers and 2 designers to serve you better.
We've also had some major changes.
For example:
Who is the AstroPrint Platform (and the AstroBox Touch) designed for?
Glad you asked!
There are 3 main categories of folks who will benefit from the AstroPrint Cloud Platform and the AstroBox Touch: 3D Printer Owners, Developers, and 3D Printer Manufacturers.
Let’s walk through some of the benefits.
Are you a 3D Printer Owner?
Then the Touch is for you.
Here's why.
If you are a 3D printer owner looking for a simple, intuitive, and plug & play way to print stuff, The AstroBox Touch is for you.
AstroPrint frees you from the hassle of wires, SD cards, and complicated engineering grade software - so you can just focus on 3D Printing.
AstroPrint is also perfect for families and children as it requires no technical know-how to get things going.
AstroPrint (and the AstroBox Touch) is compatible with any printer running standard Marlin, Repetier, or Sailfish firmware - so, as long as your printer fits that criteria, things should work out of the box. A more comprehensive list of compatible printers can be found here.
Other than the obvious simplicity of AstroPrint, you’ll be connecting your printer to one of the most powerful platforms dedicated to 3D Printing.
Which means, you’ll be able to:
- Remotely manage your 3D Printer (No pesky cables or SD Cards!)
- Monitor your 3D Printer with live video streaming (compatible camera required)
- Get email and push notifications of your print status
- Automatic security & slicer updates on the cloud, so you have no software (or maintenance) to deal with
- An app store that can extend the capabilities of your 3D Printer (much like the apps on your smartphone)
- Access your print history and trends (i.e: analytics)
- No need for a laptop/computer to be connected to your printer
- Responsive, mobile friendly and works on any web enabled device
- Simple, clean, intuitive interface
- Intelligent slicing that learns your printing habits and improves your prints over time
Not to mention, you’ll have IMMEDIATE access to all of the 3D Printing apps on our app marketplace.
This lets you tap into the creativity of developers who have developed 3D Printing apps just for you.
You'll be able to extend the capabilities of your 3D Printer by installing apps on your Touch as easily as you install apps on your smartphone.
Which means, the capabilities of the Touch are infinitely extendable.
Let's get to how the AstroBox Touch benefits Developers.
Are you a developer?
If so, you’ll get first dibs into our API when it is released with the AstroBox Touch.
Just like the early days of Google Play and the Apple App Store - early developers on those platforms got a massive, DISPROPORTIONATE advantage as they were able to capitalize on the inevitable growth and network effects.
We are confident that a similar story will transpire with consumer 3D Printing.
Since AstroPrint is the fastest growing cloud platform for consumer 3D Printing, it is certainly the best place to develop your 3D Printing apps and reach 3D Printer owners.
The AstroBox Touch software is brand new, built on an open source framework (called Ionic) and runs on the Raspberry Pi as a native app.
Since we will be using this open source framework for the AstroBox Touch -- it is very developer friendly.
Here’s why that’s important: You will be able to make 3D Printing related apps using just Javascript, CSS, HTML, and deploy it on our platform.
You'll literally be able to make your app available to ALL of our users who own 3D Printers.
That's power.
Your app will be IMMEDIATELY accessible on every AstroBox Touch.
Also, if you develop an app for the AstroPrint.com web portal, it will get in front of our 23K+ 3D Printer owners that use this portal for managing their printers.
At a glance, these are some of the capabilities of our API:
- Creating web socket connections into any 3D Printer
- Running slicing jobs though our cloud slicing engine
- Managing print queues
- Creating payment flows
- Importing/Exporting models/STLs
- Accessing cameras (with permission of course!)
- and more.
Potential ideas for apps: Apps that let people browse and 3D Print models, improve on 3DP workflow (i.e: file repair, auto positioning etc.), improve maintenance tasks (e.g. plate leveling, filament loading), or add 3DP functionality to your existing web application.
If you release your app on our platform, it will be available to all of our users across all devices (Desktop & Mobile).
The AstroPrint API has limitless potential as our platform is the fastest growing cloud platform for consumer 3D Printing.
We believe our platform is much like the early days of Google Play or the Apple App Store.
Are you a 3D Printer Manufacturer?
If you are a 3D Printer Manufacturer, let us focus on the software (after all, that’s OUR expertise).
We can make your 3D Printer cloud connected and wireless and save you a lot of hassle and money.
By integrating AstroPrint with your printer(s) - both YOU and YOUR customers will benefit massively.
For example, with AstroPrint:
- There’s no need for your customers to deal with pesky cables or SD cards
- There’s no need to develop and maintain a complex cloud infrastructure (we already built it!)
- Customers will be able to wirelessly manage their printer from anywhere with any device
- Your customers will be connected to one of the most powerful cloud platforms for 3D Printing which includes a suite of mobile apps, desktop apps and an ever expanding library of 3D Printing apps developed via our public API.
In short, you focus on what you are best at (hardware) and let us worry about what we are best at (software) -- and together, we can partner up and make 3D Printing even simpler for the end user.
We also have the capability to build you a custom, fully branded (with your company name and logo) build of the AstroBox Touch software. You can get a special introductory rate during this Kickstarter (via the associated Reward Tier), or contact us to get more information.
What’s so great about the AstroPrint Platform?
We believe that your 3D printer should be super simple to use.
We are not quite at that point yet, but we are getting closer everyday.
AstroPrint is a suite of software products all designed to make 3D printing incredibly simple.
It is our mission to standardize the software for the 3D printing industry in the same way that Android standardized the software for much of the smartphone industry.
This allows more people to adopt and take advantage of 3D printing technologies by bringing their creativity to life.
Some obvious key benefits of AstroPrint:
- Wireless management & monitoring of your 3D Printer (No pesky cables or SD Cards!)
- Compatible with Marlin, Repetier, and Sailfish firmware based printers
- Ability to save and create custom slicer settings
- File Manager and folders for organizing your file(s)
- An app store that can extend the capabilities of your 3D Printer even more
- Print history, trends, and stats of your prints
- Print notification(s) by email and/or push notifications of print status
- Automatic slicer updates in the cloud, so you do not have to deal with software (or maintenance) upgrades
- No need for a laptop/computer to be connected to your printer
- Responsive, mobile friendly, and works on any web enabled device
- Simple, clean, intuitive interface
- Intelligent slicing that learns your printing habits and improves your prints over time
- Real time video remote monitoring of your prints from any device (you'll need a compatible camera - which is not included with this Kickstarter)
Those are the main benefits…
There's a few more "not so obvious" features:
- Custom Manufacturer Presets: The AstroPrint slicer routes slicing jobs through the best slicing engine and settings for your specific 3D Printer. This is PRE-PROGRAMMED into the system directly by your printer manufacturer. (Of course, you still have the option to tinker and tweak with advanced settings.)
- Plug & Play Slicing Engines: The slicing engine is modular. This means with a click of a button you can use Cura, Slic3r, or a proprietary slicing engine (if applicable). As new slicing engines become available, they can be added easily like lego blocks.
- The app store: Using our API, anyone can submit apps to the AstroPrint app store. The app store is accessible by any user who is on the platform. Several apps have already been submitted (like Leopoly, 3D Slash, Materialise etc.) and more are in development by third parties.
The Team
Meet the team!
We're 10 strong and are on a mission to make 3D printing simple and accessible to EVERYONE.
Seriously, when we aren't eating tapas or paella - our entire life is dedicated to making 3D Printing simple.
Reward(s) Summary
Technical Specifications
Delivery Timeline
Thanks For Your Support!
We sincerely appreciate your support in bringing the AstroBox Touch to the world ❤️
We have one last favor to ask you...
Please consider sharing this campaign with your friends and followers and help us spread the word!
You can do that very easily by clicking one of the following links:
....you can also download this short clip and post it on your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook:
The AstroBox Touch Kickstarter Trailer (0:54 seconds, 9 MB)
Thanks again!
We Love You! ❤️
-The AstroPrint Team
Riesgos y desafíos
Supply chain and logistics: We have already verified bulk pricing of each physical component through multiple distributors.
This includes tooling and injection molding for product cases (where applicable).
However, unforeseen complications from manufacturers and distributors may cause delayed delivery.
The list of printers that we can support is dependent on how open the format is for each printer.
If your printer is open source, AstroPrint should already work with it. However, commercially closed source 3D printers may be more difficult to integrate with AstroPrint.
As a reminder, Astroprint is compatible with standard (unrestricted) Marlin, Sailfish, and Repetier Firmware printers.
Those are the main challenges.
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