Trinus 3D Printer

Any colour you want as long as it's Black, who here has seen this Printer?

Recently launched on kickstarter 100k in first day, but I hadnt seen it anywhere till I spotted it on kickstarter and followed a few links.
Search for Trinus you get a lot of VR headset links another Trinus...even though this Trinus is a registered name.

Seems like a sturdy printer for the money, a few things jump out about the design though,
small bed, 3 small screws, maybe it doesnt need leveling?, a lot of metal on metal with no vibration absorbing layers,
they went for 2 motors on Z,
when they possibly could have got away with one Z column, I wonder how this thing will react if things get out of sync,
I assume a motor stall is better than mangled metal
Z screw is not supported either end, you would think easy to implement with precision identical parts
can anyone else pick any holes in it, says 150mm/sec is that possible with leadscrew?
even so it looks desirable, slick campaign, interesting to follow the links to see how the campaign is proliferated
you see the logo's of all the publications, its funny how they have had the coverage, I've been told for a sucessful campaign you should promote for at least a year before launch(why I was told this, perhaps to give a year headstart on others?),
yet others seem to have great success without being seen before,
I hadnt seen the thing till I searched kickstarter
[www.thunderclap.it]

I'd have bought one at the intro price,
even the full price seems very reasonable,
but will it hit the streets when promised, thats the worry

[www.kickstarter.com]

[www.solidsmack.com]

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2016 06:30PM by MechaBits.

That's a coincidence, I was thinking this morning that if I redo my Z axis I will use two smooth rods on each side to constrain the movement. But I will machine the leadscrew to take bearings so that the whole thing will make a solid structure with the motor floating off the end (for some definition of floating).

Lots of good stuff - designing a linear axis module and then using it everywhere is a smart way of getting the manufacturing costs down and simplifying assembly. But it has drawbacks - you'd have to worry about backlash, it's likely to be noisy, and the one size fits all approach means the bed is supported by a very narrow base, even with a small build volume.

But it's nice to see something so different

I was looking at a nice black linear guide the other day but it was £200 just for the one, but it was longer and for nema23's
I really want to get a few in the future, but for £200 I can make a couple of my own modular axis, which can be configured for lead or belt drive, and the difference with my setup is, I can easily change the length of each axis, so unlike the Trinus the number permutations of assembly are greater, and the individual parts all have additional uses, whereas the Trinus possibly only has a few other arrangements but they are not talked about in the pitch, it basically only has this one working arrangement.


I saw another 3 axis linear kit on ebay the other week but it doesnt look like it could support itself, though probably more useful as this could be reconfigured a few ways...but once again it's only by getting these things(or looking long & hard at the images) can you figure out if another configuration is blocked by some part of the assembly design.

[www.ebay.co.uk]
At least this one supports the leadscrew at all ends.

Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2016 03:46PM by MechaBits.

Actually it could support itself especially if you mount the end-effector to the end of the "X" axis and move the axis entirely along the vertical, that way the counter-balance is limited.

Not sure I follow, are you talking about the ebay listing?
I wouldnt want that huge nema23 dangling on the end, I would want it closer to the Z
even counterbalancing the arm, so X would have to be off set, not inline.

On the KickStarter campaign, in the comments, someone asked about the z-axis - they mentioned that they have a special lead screw design and do not require extra support / bearings.

As for the noise, there is a video of it printing with someone "asleep" next to it. Trinus3D Instagram It seems to be very quiet and doesn't seem to vibrate at all. (turn volume up)

Thinking about picking one up, but waiting for more updates on enclosure and such.

It's appeals to my industrial design appreciation(though I'm still trying to pick holes in it), when I first set out on this 3D printing road I wished I had a small precise machine for small precise parts and a 125mm build cube would handle most of the parts I have in mind, the only real problem is that unless they create some longer modules I think the printer will pretty much be stuck with the one configuration, they dont really make much of the modularity, or show other configurations besides adding the laser head I'm tempted to get one as the little black box would make for some great videos, but I'm pretty sure it would be dangerous in my hands as they admit its not fully under control their end, I would probably have far more trouble getting it to work, and would probably just flick a switch when it was in place.

though with my design I can easily swap out the rails for longer ones and change between 8mm & 12mm with ease.
I wonder if they are different leadscrews, the couplers are, but perhaps if they used those nema's with integrated screws they could have squeezed a little more travel. It also got me thinking about the coupler and the endstop, my carriage cant go past the coupler so my endstop can't be behind the coupler, without some kind of extension so the carriage doesn't hit the coupler this is at least 25mm above the base/back or they set them up at the max end?(ah now I see it there is a a long 3mm screw to hit the endstop) I could shave a few parts off mine if I didn't try to support the end of the lead, with 200mmx12mm for the Z I probably dont need any plate at the top, but the longer they get 300mm plus probably benefits more from having a plate up top.

In this clip you can see the right rail juddering a little, wonder if 2 axis where chattering away how that would sound, I wonder if they are held with circlips or just a shelf on shaft, I listened to the video it sounded quiet, but then so did the woman's voice and she was right next to the camera, gain was definitely fixed.

Though it's small enough to move around so if there was an issue with the noise wouldn't be too hard to hide
(but then again who doesnt like listening to the printer doing it's moves,
would it look out of place on my desk, no, would fit right in, I wonder what the price after campaign will be?
it is a tempting little machine, can the user expand it though?

Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2016 03:31PM by MechaBits.

They just added an update video to their Kickstarter. Info about their partners / manufacturers. Part of the video includes footage of an aluminum CNC attachment that's a WIP, and they promised more videos / test prints at different layer heights by the end of this week.
My buddy who's in the biz of repairing high end multi axis CNC machines looked it over and says it's a solid build and worth the money, but the print volume is a bit small. Definitely seems upgradable though.

As an engineer this looks like someone didn't do the science but likes the making. Im not impressed. Its got a small bed, the 4 z rods are a liability, if any one of them is not straight or aligned properly it will jamb. The only thing that's an improvement on machines this size and price is the fully supported carriages and direct drive. Both of which you can find on other machines just not always together.
I am trying not to be overly negative so I will stop now. There are other new machines in the pipeline.

Not content with raising $1.6 million Trinus 3D printer resurfaces on another crowdfunding pitch, with no mention of its previous heritage.?
[www.3ders.org]

I think four rails on the Z axis is over-constrained and that isn't a good thing.

Maybe somewhere in theory land that is true( I had heard that before building my idea), but when the parts are identical things line up quite nicely, I have 4 rods for Z and everything is fine,
but I can have the Z leadsrcew then either constrained or not at the top, perhaps that is when most over the over constraining would happen, especially when dealing with the sync 2 Z'zzz

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2016 05:11AM by MechaBits.

This printer was reviewed and quite extensively discussed by Angus on Maker's Muse. [www.youtube.com]

---

Simon Khoury

Co-founder of [www.precisionpiezo.co.uk] Accurate, repeatable, versatile Z-Probes
Published:Inventions

I think all the reviews where done before end of campaign which must have given things a big boost, so know I know where many of the followers probably came from, Angus has quite a few subscribers, perhaps many more came from within China, other backers should be getting the Trinus soon, will have to wait & see how the loss of Flextronics affects roll out. What amazes me is the amount of knowledge of 3D printing many of the backers already have(with this and other campaigns), which begs the question why aren't they just making their own printers.

Found this, had to do a double take,

Ball screw & nema23
[www.aliexpress.com]{ifdyn:dyn}{ifpla:pla}{ifdbmBM&albch=DID}&src=google&albch=rmkt&acnt=576-373-4425&isdl=y&aff_short_key=UneMJZVf&albcp=418323128&albag=25773047168&slnk=&trgt=aud-180169419128&plac=www.treehugger.com&crea=105866937608&netw=d&device=c&mtctp=&gclid=CNbmoLOljs8CFUiNGwodmbUDdQ

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2016 03:09AM by MechaBits.

Anyone order from us.kodama3d.com recently?

looks like it went the way of the Dodo