Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
While Monstrous Menagerie 2 is mostly composed of brand-new monsters, we did take the opportunity to expand on some classic creatures that we think merit some more consideration. One of the monsters we revisited is the humble goblin.
Over the past few years, goblins have taken a real face turn–so much so that a few years ago, Oxford Dictionary named “goblin mode” its word of the year. To Oxford Dictionary, it means “a behaviour that is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations,” which seems to me like a pretty negative way to describe staying home to wear sweatpants and eat ice cream.
Here’s the thing: the idea of goblins as adorably antisocial little guys is, I think, fairly new. If we look at the history of goblins in fantasy literature, there are some interesting, unexplored through lines.
Let’s start with the wellspring of so much of the fantasy genre: Tolkien. Goblins are a major adversary in The Hobbit. Far from being feral little fellows, we find that goblins are high-tech, with what appears to be a well-ordered society. Their leader, the Great Goblin, as he questions the dwarves about their intrusion into his realm, is rather urbane–until a goblin produces Thorin’s sword, Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, which understandably throws the Great Goblin into a rage.
According to my cursory research, it seems like Orcrist was mostly cleaving goblins around the year 510 in the First Age, while The Hobbit takes place in 2942 in the Third Age. I’m not an expert in Middle Earth chronology but that seems like… a long time. With historical memory like that, these aren’t “Garg Eat Rocks” goblins. Tolkien has lots of bad words to say about goblins—”ugly”, “cruel”, “wicked”, and “lazy”, and with gross flat feet—but he doesn’t deny that they’re historians. (And possessed of a series of national alliances to boot: when Gandalf kills the Great Goblin, in revenge another goblin monarch raises an army of many thousands of goblins.)
Prior to Tolkien the history of goblins is a bit muddied: in English-language literature the words for all the fey creatures are often used interchangeably. “Goblin”, “dwarf”, “kobold”, “gnome”, and “fairy” are often the same thing. But there are some books that specifically mark out goblins as a specific species. The Worm Ouroboros, by E. R. Eddison, is a 1922 fantasy classic, admired by Tolkien, in which Goblinland is a mighty nation. The lords and kings of Goblinland, like everyone in The Worm Ouroboros, are characters of towering Shakespearian dignity. And I’m not kidding about Shakespearean: here’s some of the goblin Lord Gro’s dialogue:
“How shall not common opinion account me mad, so rash and presumptuous dangerously to put my life in hazard? Nay, against all sound judgement; and this folly I enact in that very season when by patience and courage and my politic wisdom I had won that in despite of fortune’s teeth which obstinately hitherto she had denied me: when after the brunts of divers tragical fortunes I had marvellously gained the favour and grace of the King, who very honourably placed me in his court, and tendereth me, I well think, so dearly as he doth the balls of his two eyes.”
(Imagine running a game of D&D and saying that in character as a goblin!)
Now let’s go further back, to George MacDonald’s 19th century The Princess and the Goblin (also admired by Tolkien, and therefore also part of the DNA of modern fantasy literature and fantasy gaming). Unlike The Worm Ouroboros and like The Hobbit, MacDonald presents his goblins as grotesque, bestial, cruel creatures with gross feet. (Typical human propaganda!) However, once again these goblins are technologically adept miners, and they have all the trappings of a strong and sophisticated monarchy. Here’s the Goblin King and his court addressing his people:
At the other end of the hall, high above the heads of the multitude, was a terrace-like ledge of considerable height, caused by the receding of the upper part of the cavern-wall. Upon this sat the king and his court: the king on a throne hollowed out of a huge block of green copper ore, and his court upon lower seats around it. The king had been making them a speech, and the applause which followed it was what Curdie had heard. One of the court was now addressing the multitude. What he heard him say was to the following effect: ‘Hence it appears that two plans have been for some time together working in the strong head of His Majesty for the deliverance of his people. Regardless of the fact that we were the first possessors of the regions they now inhabit; regardless equally of the fact that we abandoned that region from the loftiest motives; regardless also of the self-evident fact that we excel them so far in mental ability as they excel us in stature, they look upon us as a degraded race and make a mockery of all our finer feelings. But, the time has almost arrived when–thanks to His Majesty’s inventive genius–i0t will be in our power to take a thorough revenge upon them once for all, in respect of their unfriendly behaviour.’
When we put these three versions of goblins together, what do we get?
Goblins are really into their monarchy.
Goblins are insular.
Goblins have a grudge against everybody else.
Goblins sound vaguely Shakespearean.
In other words, perhaps accidentally, these three English authors invented a fantasy monster that is extremely English.
When original D&D came around, it basically stuck to this script. It didn’t do much to describe goblins except that they hate dwarves and “when in their lair the ‘goblin king’ will be found. He will fight as a Hobgoblin in all respects.” In further editions, goblins descend further and further into ineffective, semi-comic barbarity.
I am here for the “Garg eat rocks” goblin, but I sure like the highfalutin, palace-politics goblin too. Why not have both?
A first thought might be to use hobgoblins for this type of highbrow goblin. And it’s not a bad thought at all. But hobgoblins have sort of developed their own thing. Whereas the goblins of literature are subterranean miner-monarchists who mostly want to be left alone with their ugly feet, hobgoblins are the expansive and outgoing Roman Empire who covet a surface empire.
Here’s my pitch: just as gnomes have deep gnomes and dwarves have deep dwarves, goblins have deep goblins. Surface goblins are the familiar gnaw-on-rocks, battling-to-survive bandits with no social institutions to speak of. They are the heirs to fallen goblin kingdoms, and their small clans are prey to every passing warmonger and adventuring party.
Meanwhile, far underground are the kingdoms of the deep goblins. These kingdoms never fell, and their technology and cultures are just as advanced as anyone else’s, or more so. As Tolkien says of goblins, “wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them.” If anyone in your fantasy campaign manufactures firearms and grenades, it’s likely to be the goblins. Furthermore, deep goblins nurse grudges against most other intelligent creatures. They’re perfectly aware of what happened to the surface goblin kingdoms, and how those goblins have been treated since by the humans and dwarves. (And I bet they don’t much care for grimlocks and dark elves either.) With well-equipped armies in the thousands, there’s no reason why the deep goblins couldn’t conquer a lot of the world, except they don’t particularly care for the sunlit parts of it–but don’t press them too far, because they might change their minds if you get them mad enough (as they’ll happily explain to you, in high Elizabethan diction.)
This is the route we’re going with goblins in Monstrous Menagerie II. Where Monstrous Menagerie presented the typical hard-luck surface goblins and the “I’ve watched 300 a dozen times” hobgoblins, Monstrous Menagerie II brings us deep goblins. They’re tough opponents, suitable foils for mid-level, deep-delving adventurers. Their rulers are politically astute and trained in war, ever prepared to defend their realms. Like all A5E goblins, they’re at least a little fey-touched and armed with strange magic. And one dark night, the deep goblins might just venture “Upstairs” to give the world a taste of their power, and then we’ll all be in trouble.
That’s my pitch on deep goblins! If that sounds cool, or you want to take a look at the other 300 odd monsters in the book, you can get it all in Monstrous Menagerie II: Hordes and Heroes. The PDFs fulfill the very moment the Kickstarter ends, and the books and PDFs are on sale afterwards, so you can get your hands on the book real soon.
>>> When we put these three versions of goblins together, what do we get? Goblins are really into their monarchy. Goblins are insular. Goblins have a grudge against everybody else. Goblins sound vaguely Shakespearean.
In other words, perhaps accidentally, these three English authors invented a fantasy monster that is extremely English.
Yesterday, Prusa Research officially unveiled their next printer, the Core ONE. Going over the features and capabilities of this new machine, it’s clear that Prusa has kept a close eye on the rapidly changing desktop 3D printer market and designed a machine to better position themselves within a field of increasingly capable machines from other manufacturers.
While some saw the incremental upgrades of the i3 MK4 as being too conservative, the Core ONE ticks all the boxes of what today’s consumer is looking for — namely high-speed CoreXY movement with a fully enclosed chamber — while still offering the build quality, upgradability, and support that the company has built its reputation on. Put simply it’s one of the most exciting products they’ve introduced in a long time, and exactly the kind of machine that many Prusa fans have been waiting for.
Unfortunately, there’s one feature that’s ominously absent from the Core ONE announcement post. It’s easy to overlook, and indeed, most consumers probably won’t even know it’s missing. But for those of us who are concerned with such matters, it’s an unspoken confirmation that an era has finally come to an end.
With the Core ONE, Prusa Research is no longer in the business of making open source 3D printer hardware, but that doesn’t mean that the printer isn’t hackable. It’s complicated, so read on.
Death by a Thousand Cuts
To say that Prusa Research pivoting away from the open source hardware (OSHW) principles that guided the company, and indeed the 3D printing community, through its early years is a disappointment would be quite an understatement. It’s a crushing blow. One which critics will use to call into question the viability of building a sustainable business model around OSHW. But it’s also not hard to see how we got to this point.
Prusa XL
The first warning sign came back in 2021, with the announcement of the Prusa XL. With this new high-end printer, the company seemed uncharacteristically hesitant to open things up, which frankly wasn’t entirely unreasonable. The pricing of the XL put it closer into the professional market than a traditional hobbyist machine, and there were some new features like tool changing and a segmented heated bed that were unique enough that they’d want to keep the details under wraps until the machine at least got a foothold in the market. So if Prusa wanted to play this one a little closer to the chest, so be it.
But things took a concerning turn last year with the release of the i3 MK4. Although Prusa still called the printer open source in their marketing, the reality was a bit more complicated. While at least some of the printer’s technical information was made available, especially the elements that were inherited from the earlier i3 models, there were several rather large omissions.
Printable parts were available only as STLs, there were no design files released for the printer’s control board, and the Nextruder (which was introduced with the XL) remained all but completely proprietary. Many argued that the MK4 didn’t meet the standards that Prusa had set with their previous printers, and that continuing to call it open source was misleading.
If it wasn’t already obvious that Prusa’s commitment to open source was beginning to waiver, Josef’s post on the Prusa Blog made his position abundantly clear. Framed as a call for discussion, the post outlined his feelings on the open source community and what he perceived as the failures of common licenses such as the GPL. While he said that the company still intended to make their machines open, the writing was clearly on the wall.
A New Chapter for Prusa
To be clear, the Core ONE is of critical strategic importance to Prusa. The company needed a revamped machine to combat increased competition from Chinese printer manufacturers, and while it’s not being marketed as a replacement for the i3 MK4, it’s not hard to see the direction the market is moving in. The i3 is a workhorse, and won’t be going away anytime soon, but the chances that it will see a MK5 at this point seem exceptionally slim.
Prusa will give you STLs for the Nextruder, but that’s about it.
But the Core ONE also represents a mostly clean slate design, one that shares relatively little with the i3. This frees Prusa from any obligation, perceived or otherwise, to continue releasing the printer’s design files. Indeed, the term “open source” only appears once in the announcement post for the printer — and that’s when referring to the firmware and slicer code, which are.
Although we don’t have documentation or an assembly guide for the Core ONE or the MK4S->Core upgrade kits yet, it looks as if very little of Prusa’s remaining open source hardware has been brought forward.
Potentially the Core ONE is using some variation of the CC BY-SA 4.0 licensed MK52 magnetic heated bed, but beyond that, we already know that Prusa is still keeping the design files for major components such as the Nextruder and xBuddy 32-bit control board under wraps for the time being.
Not Open, But Hackable
So we know that Prusa isn’t advertising the Core ONE design as open source hardware, and that only limited technical data has been released for the few components and subsystems that it inherits from the XL and MK4S. But what does that actually mean for users like us?
That’s where things get a little tricky. While Prusa’s newer printers certainly do not meet the literal requirements of OSHW, they’re still remarkably transparent in a world of proprietary black boxes. We might not get the design files for the printed parts in these new machines, but you’ll get STLs that you can run off if you need a replacement. We can also be fairly sure that Prusa will continue their tradition of releasing wiring schematics for the Core ONE as they’ve done with essentially all of their previous printers, which is more than we can say for the vast majority of consumer products.
While the lack of design files for these new Prusa printers is unfortunate on a philosophical level, it’s hard to argue that they’re any less repairable, upgradable, or hackable than their predecessors. In fact, Prusa’s actually made at least one improvement in that department — announcing that breaking off the control board’s “Appendix” security device and installing a new firmware will no longer void the printer’s warranty.
An increasingly inaccurate message on the Prusa website.
We should also consider that even Prusa’s earlier printers have not always been as open as the company would perhaps like us to believe. Sure, for the Prusa Mini you could hop on GitHub and grab the KiCad files for its mainboard, and the design files for the i3 up until the MK3 are available as GPLv2 licensed OpenSCAD code. But the company has never actually provided a complete Bill of Materials for their printers, and even after years of requests from the community, they have still yet to release the source code for their bootloader as they consider it a separate project from the main GPL-licensed firmware.
Prusa has always used a somewhat piecemeal method of releasing the source and design files for their products. But it’s worked for them up to this point. The bottom line is, makers and hackers will still have plenty to work with, even if things aren’t quite as open as we’d prefer.
Becoming Your Own Enemy
On a personal note, I find myself conflicted. I’d argue that the i3 MK3 is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the “Prusa Experience” — support, reliability, upgradability — is worth spending the extra money on. I’m also confident that the Core ONE is precisely the kind of machine Prusa needed to remain competitive in today’s market.
Who’s copying who?
At the same time, there were issues that I was willing to overlook because the company was producing open source hardware. When a shipping date slipped, or a firmware update introduced a new issue, I let it slide because it was for the greater good. But now that they’re no longer calling their printers open source, I can’t help but feel some of that goodwill evaporating — and I’m probably not the only one having similar thoughts.
Ultimately, the part that bothers me the most about this change in Prusa’s approach is that it all seems predicated on a bogeyman that I’m not convinced actually exists. The company line is that releasing the source for their printers allows competitors to churn out cheap clones of their hardware — but where are they?
Let’s be honest, Bambu didn’t need to copy any of Prusa’s hardware to take their lunch money. You can only protect your edge in the market if you’re ahead of the game to begin with, and if anything, Prusa is currently playing catch-up to the rest of the industry that has moved on to faster designs. The only thing Prusa produces that their competitors are actually able to take advantage of is their slicer, but that’s another story entirely. (And of course, it is still open source, and widely forked.)
So will the Prusa Core ONE be a good printer? Almost certainly. Will I buy one? Very likely. But part of me will always be disappointed that the guy with the open source hardware logo tattoo took his ball and went home as soon as the game starting getting tough.
yeah when I upgrade I'll probably buy bambulabs; their AMS looks better than MMU in terms of desk space required. If Prusa's not open source, why bother?
Microsoft is planning to launch a new purpose-built miniature PC for its Windows 365 cloud service next year. The Verge: Windows 365 Link is a $349 device that acts like a thin client PC to connect to the cloud and stream a version of Windows 11. The Link device is designed to be a compact, fanless, and easy-to-use cloud PC for your local monitors and peripherals. It's meant to be the ideal companion to Microsoft's Windows 365 service, which lets businesses transition employees over to virtual machines that exist in the cloud and can be streamed securely to multiple devices.
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