Thalestris24

My Ender 3 Pro v1 is still going strong! Just over 3 years old now. I had an issue a while ago when the filament was having problems feeding into the extruder. I couldn't figure it out - thought there must be a blockage or something. It turned out that the filament was snagging around the vertical lead screw... I couldn't see the problem from the front. Not sure how it happened - probably because I'd been keeping the filament reel in a zip-lock bag and sat on the bed. When I returned the spool to its holder, I must have got it snagged. As soon as I re-routed the filament the problem was solved. I still use the brass nozzles with PLA but they do tend to gum up after a while, so I just put a new one on. I do use a teflon insert in the hot end. Occasionally the hot-end inlet nut comes loose. I also noticed a problem with the x-gantry becoming loose - apparently on the right-hand side. However, the fix was to undo the top section, lift the x-gantry off, and tighten the two allen-key bolts which fasten it to the stepper-motor end. I use a metal feeler gauge (0.15) for levelling - nice and precise! Louise ps my hair has mostly turned white now - nothing to do with 3D printing, just old age!

Ahh busy, busy, busy! No worries - take care and all the best! Louise

Any news / progress on the star tracker, Vlaiv? Louise

Looks like I'll be able to continue with the Fusion 360 after all It says the personal license has a limitation of '10 documents' which seemed a bit restrictive. But when I asked, they clarified and explained it just means you can only have 10 designs open at a time. Since I mostly only work on one or two things at a time, that's not a problem. It's just coming up to 3 years since I first bought a 3D printer and started with the Education Fusion 360 License - both items just to make the Lowspec spectrometer! I've found having a 3D printer so useful for other things, especially as I'm a compulsive tinkerer! Louise

I wish I could print so precisely! All the gear ratios and cycloidal drives are beyond me! Looking forward to seeing the finished article though! Louise

Yeah a Rowan belt setup is quite good - works great on my HEQ5 Pro But I was thinking of something different which I'm now not sure if it could easily be done - it was just a thought that flitted across my mind. I'm probably overcomplicating things! I have one of these focus rails that I bought a few years ago. As you can see, they don't come cheap but probably much cheaper if you just buy individual generic components. The magic is in the usb controller and software which allows a high precision of control (microstepping). But... It's a linear rail and I'm not sure if it would easily translate into a worm gear type setup. You can get less precise, but very similar, parts as spares for 3D printers e.g. Lead Screw on Ebay. However, thinking about it, being linear they can't easily be used in the same way as a normal gear ratio rotating system - unfortunately. They could maybe be used for a precision 'barn door' type setup. When I first started in astronomy, I did consider making a barn door thingy but decided an equatorial mount would be an awful lot better - once I could afford one! But then I didn't know about precision lead screws and stuff. There's always more than one way to crack a nut! Louise

With ziplock plastic bags it's simple as you can see the beads and if they've darkened! In practice, small amounts of moisture in filament aren't critical. I have some black pla filament which I've had on the printer for quite a few months and it's still ok. I will put it in a bag for a few days soon though! Louise

Oh ok, I was thinking more in terms of generic parts that could be made use of. As I've never looked, I accept you're probably right! At the same time I intuitively feel someone must have made a star tracker from scratch before somewhere.... There are some projects on Thingiverse but, yeah, all also seem to use printed gears. However, presumably the aim is to control the tracker at a sidereal rate so that could be controlled by an Arduino-type processor, stepper motor and the control pulses adjusted for whatever the worm/gear/stepper motor combo allows? I'm just thinking out loud - I've probably missed something obvious! I'm so out of touch with astro things these days! I do have a motorised rail which I use for a microscope and which allows microsteps in the micrometer range. Louise

Cool project, Vlaiv! Might metal gears be better and more rugged? I'd have thought the Star Adventurer, or similar, gears would be easily obtainable? (Though I admit I've no idea really.) Then you'd just need to make the housing/add a motor etc.? Re: Filament absorbing moisture. If you get some large ziplock plastic bags (47 x 33 cm) you can store/dry filament by including a few handfuls of silica beads in a small porous/mesh bag. I find I can quickly and easily dry the beads for re-use in my microwave oven . How are you finding FreeCAD? My educational Fusion 360 is about to expire so I might switch to FreeCAD. I'm not sure what I might lose by using the hobbyist Fusion 360 instead - especially with things like threads and custom threads. I suspect it's not easy to create T2 threads in FreeCAD but I'll have a look. Cheers Louise

Ah - that would explain it! I find I have to put in my own custom values in order to get T2 threads to work on my Ender 3 Pro v1. I'll compare my values to yours! Thanks Louise

Hi I was interested to see what values you've used for the astro threads but have not managed to read your .xml It throws up an error in Edge and the downloaded file isn't easily readable in Notepad++ which I normally use for xml files like the AstroISOmetric one. Any ideas? Thanks Louise

Hiya i took the liberty of doing a quick auto stretch.... Would benefit a lot from flats Louise

Thanks for the reply, Peter. I had a feeling all was not well and I think she was a bit older than me. Sad times. Louise

Are you still around, Gina? Louise

Not sure if he was any relation to James Webb but David Webb was Jason Bourne's real name Louise

The attached paper suggests that black PLA is pretty much opaque to near IR 3D_OpticalTransmittance.pdf

Hmm... I don't think that IR is an issue, at least it wasn't with the original Lowspec that I printed. Even if it was, I'm sure you could spray or coat the outside with something opaque to IR. What symptoms do you have with the printer? Louise

OK, tho I don't see any need for ABS over PLA but it's up to you! I seem to remember (3yrs ago) that Paul had a more sophisticated printer then, at least... Louise

Am not sure how often Paul comes on here... Is there any reason you don't want to use PLA or PLA+ or PLA carbon fibre? The carbon fibre one is supposed to be stronger, stiffer and lighter but prefers a hardened steel nozzle. Also, Cura is rather slow - I use Prusa Slicer which I find easy and pretty good https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/releases/tag/version_2.5.0-alpha2 - that's the latest release which I've not tried myself yet. (You just make a folder and 'extract all' into a subfolder then do a 'send to' desktop of the .exe file. I think the first time you install, you select which printer(s) you are using it for i.e. Ender 3 and configure accordingly Hth Louise

No - Altair Astro

OK - you shouldn't get blocked nozzles with PLA if settings correct...

Oh dear - PLA is much easier to handle, I think You will need to focus the camera but maybe only the once (as I recall, but it's a bit foggy now!). However, you'll have to work out beforehand where the camera/sensor will sit so that it's close to the focal plane to start with. Once you've got the approximate distance from the case then you'll be able to work out the best way of fixing it to the case. I'm just using my imagination here. Is there some guidance with the build instructions? I have a GPCAM3-178M and the sensor is quite small so you don't have to worry much about the connection aperture. Louise

ps something you could try is to heat the metal T2 piece (you are trying to connect) with a hairdryer. When hot it can be easier to screw in. I've only done this with PLA.

I think it's down to printer calibration and maybe printer settings too. FWIW it's something I had a problem with as well. A way around it is to modify the design so that you can fit in place short metal T2 tubes/adapters rather than relying on printing the T2 threads. So just convert threaded part to unthreaded so you can fit and glue an appropriate T2 adapter in place. It's a long time since I printed my old original design lowspec case but I think that's how I got around the problem. It can get very frustrating to have to reprint a whole case (more than once!) just to get the T2 threads right... I'm not sure what the current design is like exactly but if I was printing any kind of substantial case with T2 threads, I'd probably do it in the way that I suggested. It's still worth calibrating the printer properly - x-y movements, filament motion, and accurate levelling, of course! When I printed my lowspec it was the first thing I ever did on a 3D printer. Then began to realise there was quite a steep learning curve for me - so many things to adjust and get right! Louise

If you do a search on here you should be able to find instructions for setting up custom threads in Autodesk Fusion 360 if you need to make any from scratch. But aren't you just printing out the existing design? You would probably have to calibrate the printer to get threads to print out accurately but it's a good idea to do that anyway. There are videos on YouTube for doing that. Louise