Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

3D Printers


Thalestris24

Recommended Posts

At work we have Makerbot Replicators (yes one up from toys I know).
The extruder detects when out of filament and pauses manufacture.
We have the printers connected to our internal network, so the relevant person gets a desktop notification.
Doing this means we don't have to worry about whether there is enough material on a part reel.

I keep thinking about adding filament loss detection to the Colido DIY model I have in my garage, but never get around to doing it.
A mechanism to detect filament loss is easy enough using a small optical detector either side of the filament.
I have yet to work out how to pass this signal to the controller.
It always seems easier to be pop into the garage and keep an eye on how much is remaining!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

At work we have Makerbot Replicators (yes one up from toys I know).
The extruder detects when out of filament and pauses manufacture.
We have the printers connected to our internal network, so the relevant person gets a desktop notification.
Doing this means we don't have to worry about whether there is enough material on a part reel.

I keep thinking about adding filament loss detection to the Colido DIY model I have in my garage, but never get around to doing it.
A mechanism to detect filament loss is easy enough using a small optical detector either side of the filament.
I have yet to work out how to pass this signal to the controller.
It always seems easier to be pop into the garage and keep an eye on how much is remaining!

Are the makerbots still closed source, I know some of the mainboards available now have better input control for things like filament detection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to say Makerbot are still extremely secretive about their printers.

Filament detection is very good. You can walk away from a long print confident that the extruder will handle jams, slips and 'no filament' conditions most of the time without scrapping the model.
We often leave our printers running overnight, with a UPS to handle any power cuts.
But the secrecy means the printers do not use gcode or anything else open source.
There is no facility to add (for example) a pause command at a particular line.
If you to change colour, you have to be ready at the right place, hit the pause button, then change filament.
The same goes if you want to embed a part (like a nut) inside a model.
Once you set the printer running, there is no facility to adjust print speed, filament feed rate or print temperature.
I very much doubt that our next work printer will be Makerbot.

At home, my Colido DIY printer (around 1/10 the cost of the Makerbot Replicator) is completely different.
The basic extruder means it will happily print 'fresh air' if the filament jams.
However, it uses gcode so you can insert a pause at a particular layer to allow a filament swap.
If you want to change printer settings on the fly, you can.
I sometimes adjust speed, filament feed and temperature during build if I don't think the model is coming out as good as it might.
Print quality is marginally down on the Makerbot. I really do mean marginal, not immediately obvious.
But as I usually make brackets, jigs, etc rather than ornaments it doesn't bother me.

Hope this is useful.

David.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's where the Duet WiFi\Ethernet 2 boards come in with their expansion possibilities.....

If you wish to do something out of the ordinary, a quick search through the WiKi's will usually turn up what you require, failing that the forums as the most active for ANY control system I've seen (100+ queries a day), with the main developers answering loads of queries every day.... I don't know when they sleep :icon_scratch:

And then what will be possible with the new V3 boards & their myriad busses for controlling anything you can dream up…..

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I want to fit a filament out detector to my Prusa i3 clone.

I'm pretty sure a microswitch will do the job, the trick is finding which set to terminals to wire it across and what to add into the code to enable it...

Do you know which board your clone runs on, there are probably ready to print/wire solutions on thingiverse but will likely require a marlin recompile whatever way you go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, upahill said:

Do you know which board your clone runs on, there are probably ready to print/wire solutions on thingiverse but will likely require a marlin recompile whatever way you go.

Yeah, although not off the top of my head.  I've got all the marlin source for my board.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem with Marlin is the slow development cycle (still on 1.9, no 2.0 ??? ), coupled with 'single use, i.e. 3D printing' target for the control.

There are newer 32 bit boards that use Marlin, but the software doesn't make good use of the hardware available, so limits their possibilities.

Granted, Prusa, uses Marling on his machines, but its VERY heavily modified.... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Yeah, although not off the top of my head.  I've got all the marlin source for my board.

Once enabled in the firmware, a simpe microswitch wired to any spare input should be usable - you can configure what you wired it too in the firmware.

Theres a basic summary here of someone doing similar to a Tevo - i actually have some spare switches and should probably do this myself too, M412 S1 enables runout detection. Not sure how to configure the routine so it does smart stuff like disabling heat / beeping etc - need to look into it a little more.

3 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

The problem with Marlin is the slow development cycle (still on 1.9, no 2.0 ??? ), coupled with 'single use, i.e. 3D printing' target for the control.

There are newer 32 bit boards that use Marlin, but the software doesn't make good use of the hardware available, so limits their possibilities.

Granted, Prusa, uses Marling on his machines, but its VERY heavily modified.... 

Yeah marlin has been alpha with 2.0 for at least 2-3 years now :(
I have been torn between the RAMBo Einsy with Marlin and the Duet for my next controller for a while - duet will probably win out in the end as tinkering with Marlin does my head in and the web interface on the Duet really appeals to me as it wont need Octoprint in the middle.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I found recompiling Marlin for every little modification did my head in!!  Getting the Duet was a revelation - after many a dull dreary day, the sun came out!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
1 minute ago, Gina said:

That's interesting!  Please let us all know how you get on with it and the running costs etc.

will do. personally though, running costs aren't that important to me as i don't print a million-and-one useless boatys, just useful stuff.

the printer is about £250 on amazon so couldn't resist :D

i found a 405nm UV nail dryer for £20 which i'm converting into a curing box

resin is currently about £20 for 500g but the price is dropping as the popularity of DLP printers is taking off a lot now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, I've just started watching the video and the hazards certainly put me off.  It seems worse than ABS filament, much worse!!  I gave up on ABS because of the need for fume extraction.  The other thing I noticed was the small size.  This is evidently geared to small, precise component manufacture.  After thinking that maybe I might try one when my funds recover as the price is reasonable, I now think "No - too much trouble".

Edited by Gina
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I skipped to the last twenty minutes. The gas mask and gloves combined with the mention of smells have put me off resin printing. Seems like there is a lot of extra work, so maybe good for specialist things, and with a tailored environment

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This printer looks interesting, I have a Formlabs but the resin trays are a pain and expensive when they go wrong. Going to get rid of it and get something like this I think, I had been looking at the Anycubic photon but really want something that self levels - first layer adhesion was always an issue.

I can just about handle the cleanup of parts although it is not a pleasant job. Invest time in setting up a good quality alchohol wash and alcohol rinse station and save some annoyance each time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.