About Bitbeam
What is Bitbeam?
Perspicaciously, Bitbeam is just holes in poles.
The marketing tagline would be something like this: "Bitbeam is the building toy for grown-ups." Or perhaps: "Lego + Grid Beam = Awesome".
Lego + Grid Beam = Huh?
Most people are already familiar with Lego. Lego Technic is a geekier version of standard Lego bricks that can be used for building more mechanical and sophisticated structures like toy cranes or robots.
Similar to Lego Technic, grid beam is a modular building technology. Unlike other building toys, however, grid beam and Bitbeam are open source hardware designs. You can make grid beam parts in your garage using simple tools like saws and drills. People use grid beam to build bigger things like real tables, beds -- almost anything!
Bitbeam is a Lego Technic-compatible building technology inspired by grid beam. Bitbeam is a smaller version of grid beam made with a laser-cutter. It's an experiment to combine two favorite prototyping tools: balsa/basswood and Lego. The idea is to miniaturize grid beam and make it Lego Technic compatible.
Why create Bitbeam? What's wrong with Lego?
Nothing's wrong! Lego is awesome stuff. I love Lego, my kids love Lego; I even proposed to my wife at Legoland! Believe me, I love Lego. However, the defining trait of this high-tech post-industrial economy we're building here is that designers won't (necessarily) dominate or control the means of production of the things they design. If someone wants Bitbeams, and I no longer make them, you'll still be able to make them yourself. And you'll have the licensed freedom to do so. Bitbeam-wanters will have the means to create beams themselves to meet demand. Open source hardware democratizes the supply chain.
The advantage of building your own Bitbeam parts over Lego is that 1) the materials are cheaper to source yourself, 2) you can make parts in sizes that Lego doesn't make, and 3) playing with lasers is fun!
How is Bitbeam made?
With a laser cutter. First, I design a bitbeam kit in an open source design program called OpenSCAD. I then export to the DXF file format, import into CorelDraw, then send to the laser cutter to be cut. Here are some beams getting cut at TechShop in San Francisco:
Bitbeam height and width is 5/16 inches, and each hole is 8mm apart -- just like Lego Technic. The hole size is 4.8 mm wide, also just like Lego Technic.
