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Introducing the Taxidriver - a fully-DIY, FOSS evolution of the Hitchhiker
The Hitchhiker is a cool gun and I was excited for its release. Unfortunately, upon its release, I found that it wasn't open source:
* The BOM lacked specific details about the springs and other pieces of hardware
* While a 3D model of the bolt was included in the release, no attempt was made to provide jigs or instructions on DIYing this bolt, even though it is actually quite easy to DIY.
The only way to build the gun was by buying a parts kit, but I could see no reason why it shouldn't be fully FOSS. So I immediately set to work trying to DIY my own version. In doing so I encountered several more problems:
* The documentation and naming used on all the parts was obfuscated
* The design employs a mixed measurement standard that makes it difficult to source your own parts
* Most notably, I discovered a major error in the FCG CAD. If the Hitchhiker is built according to the published CAD, you will produce a gun that can barely retain the bolt when cocked back, leading to potential NDs or other unsafe situations. This error is not present in the MAF kits, but it is present in the published CAD.
My work eventually culminated in an evolution of the Hitchhiker which I call the Taxidriver.
The Taxidriver:
* Corrects CAD errors that makes the Hitchhiker potentially unsafe if built to spec
* Improves the design in other ways to facilitate easier assembly.
* Adds all required details to the BOM, making the design fully DIY
* Provides jigs and instructions for how to fabricate the bolt
* Converts the measurement standard to imperial throughout, removing the mixture of metric and imperial
* Rewrites the documentation to provide better, clearer and more comprehensive instructions
This work is marked with CC0 1.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
LBRY Tags: 3d2a; taxdriver; hitchhiker; fosscad; diy
The Hitchhiker is a cool gun and I was excited for its release. Unfortunately, upon its release, I found that it wasn't open source:
* The BOM lacked specific details about the springs and other pieces of hardware
* While a 3D model of the bolt was included in the release, no attempt was made to provide jigs or instructions on DIYing this bolt, even though it is actually quite easy to DIY.
The only way to build the gun was by buying a parts kit, but I could see no reason why it shouldn't be fully FOSS. So I immediately set to work trying to DIY my own version. In doing so I encountered several more problems:
* The documentation and naming used on all the parts was obfuscated
* The design employs a mixed measurement standard that makes it difficult to source your own parts
* Most notably, I discovered a major error in the FCG CAD. If the Hitchhiker is built according to the published CAD, you will produce a gun that can barely retain the bolt when cocked back, leading to potential NDs or other unsafe situations. This error is not present in the MAF kits, but it is present in the published CAD.
My work eventually culminated in an evolution of the Hitchhiker which I call the Taxidriver.
The Taxidriver:
* Corrects CAD errors that makes the Hitchhiker potentially unsafe if built to spec
* Improves the design in other ways to facilitate easier assembly.
* Adds all required details to the BOM, making the design fully DIY
* Provides jigs and instructions for how to fabricate the bolt
* Converts the measurement standard to imperial throughout, removing the mixture of metric and imperial
* Rewrites the documentation to provide better, clearer and more comprehensive instructions
This work is marked with CC0 1.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
LBRY Tags: 3d2a; taxdriver; hitchhiker; fosscad; diy