Gina

Working again! Tried a different SD card and that worked so I tried the asc card and that's now working. Must have been a bad contact.

Been pressing on with this project and almost finished the ASC itself including wiring the Peltier TEC and dew heater to the 4 way cable, attaching the waterblock and clamping together all the camera casing parts, and sealing the cables and various parts with silicone sealant. With clear sly now and forecast for tonight I was all ready to get it up on the mast - just needed the focus setting. BUT - in spite of having everything working a few days ago, I now cannot get the router to connect to the RPi using Ethernet. Ethernet sockets show the connection as working but the RPi is not being detected. HELP!!

The non-flatness of the glass having levelled the bed at three points. I've had the bed heater directly against the glass on my Titan printer for quite some time and on the Mini too. Both cases have borosilicate glass though which is supposed to stand temperature variations better than float glass, though I'm by no means sure this is true.

But it isn't. You're manually adjusting the corner bed levellers. I too like everything automatic if possible but I'm not averse to adjusting once if the adjustment stays put. It's having to continually adjust things that I object to.

But it isn't. You're manually adjusting the corner bed levellers. I too like everything automatic if possible but I'm not averse to adjusting once if the adjustment stays put. It's having to continually adjust things that I object to.

Just thought of where the error may be coming from, Dave. You have a thick aluminium plate with glass plate on top. I guess if the ali plate is not perfectly flat it could bend the glass to its profile. Why not have the heater pad stuck directly to the glass?

How about :- Have the three Z motors controlled as one say by connecting the windings in series and running from 24v. Adjust the bed height by turning the motors by hand before any power is applied. Then level the bed manually with the four corner adjusters, if necessary. Finally, if you're really fussy, run the Mesh Grid Compensation. TBH though, I would have thought a glass plate would be flat enough. I have a 500mm x 500mm x 4mm float glass plate on my Concorde printer and having manually levelled the bed I found it showed only 0.1mm RMS error on Mesh Grid Compensation, probing a 400x400 area. I consider 0.1mm accurate enough.

Read this thread again and I'm confused (it's not unusual!). Am I right in thinking you have :- manual bed levelling with four adjusters - one in each corner. three threaded Z drive rods. three separate Z motors. individual control of the Z motors. ? When I feel like a break from current project (ASC) I'm thinking about my next 3D printer with 300x300 bed and wondering about how to arrange the Z drive.

Ah, the continuing pursuit of a better 3D printer! ? I'm certainly not there yet. The space taken up by the Z carriages I'm using for the filament spool but I agree, it does reduce the Z print range unless you increase the overall height to compensate. I shall continue thinking and researching before starting a new printer - I don't intend to start another printer build just yet. The print bed from the Titan seems alright - just the bed, the Z drive is another matter. This bed has a 300x300 mains voltage silicone heater pad stuck directly onto a 3mm borosilicate glass plate of the same size, 12mm thick polyurethane foam underneath and all supported by 6mm plywood and surrounded by a frame of PETG.

The problem with the D-Bot Z system as I see it is that there is insufficient height in the Z carriages to hold the bed level. Here are a couple of diagrams from the design of my Concorde printer where the bed has proved to be very level after adjusting the Z drive one side manually for a level X axis. The Y axis was level within a tenth of a mm in 400. Of course, the Z rails needed to be accurately vertical to start with.

I'm thinking of building another 3D printer which will be similar to the D-Bot. I could do with a printer in between my Mini and my Concorde. Mini has an aluminium extrusion frame and is working well. Concorde was based on a very substantial wooden box and though solid has come out bigger than the replacement for the Titan printer it was supposed to be. In fact it's more a replacement for my Giant printer with the same size print bed. Whether I shall dismantle the Giant I haven't really decided - it depends how much "stuff" I can manage to part with to make space.

Now that is what I'd call good levelling!!

Dome clamp ring designed, printed and fitted.

I'll start a Blog on this ASC soon but I need to decide on a title. The version number doesn't mean very much and whilst I'm hoping this build will last a few years, it may not be the last one I make and I certainly can't call it "Ultimate" or anything like that. Maybe something like "Gina's 2019 All Sky Camera".

More progress. Most of the outer casing done - still the dome clamp to be done. I think the dome may want raising a few mm to get the lens in the optimum position but I think I'll try it as it is (next time there's some clear night shy). Also some outside work - cut mast tube to length and made hole in the side for cables and water pipes.

One reason I made my observatory a rough looking garden shed albeit with a funny looking roof.

Imitation dovecote?

Makes a change from white ?

Nope!!

??

I'm currently on my 9th incarnation of my cloud imaging rig (I think it's the 9th - I've lost count!!). It has the official name of All Sky Camera. ?

@Skipper Billy WOW! That is a very comprehensive presentation I have a long way to go to get anywhere near that standard. OTOH it has given me a lot of ideas - thank you very much.

"That'll be the day!"

A beautiful "shed"

Cables clamped and will be sealed with silicone sealant when finally assembled. The upper casing will be attached with screws from underneath and sealed to the baseplate.