Anyone interested in an LCD control panel for the Ormerod?

how is the prodject doing?
is the price still @ 50gbp?
will the "fiting" of the display be hard for a novice?

im very intressted in geting one!!

The electronic design is complete and I now have suitable displays to build the prototype. The Duet firmware changes are nearly complete. When I have finished them, I will hook up the Duet to a prototype and test the comms.

Still to do:

- PCB and mechanical layout

- More work on the firmware that will run on the board

- Design a printable enclosure to put it in.

I am still aiming to keep the price within GBP50+delivery+VAT, although the 3.2 inch 400x240 TFT that I am leaning towards is a little more expensive than I had budgeted for.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

If it's any help DC I can design the enclosure for you if you want to use a pen and paper and sketch it out.
Scanning it might be easier for you, and less time consuming for you. I will be doing a pile of drawing stuff this next couple of weeks, so can add it to the pile..

---

Please send me a PM if you have suggestions, or problems with Big Blue 360.
I won't see comments in threads, as I move around to much.
Working Link to Big Blue 360 Complete

Thanks Kim, I was hoping someone would volunteer to do that.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

One feature request I have, that may or may not be feasible: Be able to do fine adjustments to Z height with the control wheel. Sometimes when printing on tricky surfaces and/or with strange filaments that require very precise Z homing, it would be easier to just start printing and while it is doing the first layer skirt and brim, fine-tune it until it is just right. Essentially something to "nudge" the Z axis by a fraction of a mm.
I guess the big issue is the Duet firmware support for it, with that it could very well be used through the web UI as well (just not quite as easy to fine-tune).

John, that's a nice idea. I think the way to do it would be to add another parameter to the G92 command to specify whether the XYZ coordinates passed are absolute (the default) or relative to the current position.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Just a G92 command would change what position the printer considers itself to be at, but it wouldn't actually move it unless you also do a G1 (which probably would be best done by "tagging on" a Z0.24 onto the next G1 in the queue, rather than stopping XY movement, move Z, continue on).

It might be something as simple as "just tell Z motor to move a couple of steps", since it should not actually change the Z coordinate value, but then it would need to not interfere with bed level compensation.

(note that I don't have very much insight in the movement parts of the firmware and might just be full of it)

I believe a G92 command would be sufficient. When the next XY move is executed, the Move subsystem will notice that it is not at the target z height and will add in the required Z movement.

A complication is that G92 waits for all previous moved to complete, which may not be ideal.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Happy to help with the Box any time DC. We've all got rubbish internet here on the ship, so best send me a message when you scribble a drawing up. I think a local mast must be down. Can only get on late at night, and then it's not great.

I found I had my extruder cables to well tied, and I also came up with a pillow to turn the PTFE tube lifting moment around so it tends to push the head down instead of lifting it. The results have been tremendus. Getting great prints now, with no pips, waves, and only the regular dribbling now when the head stands.

Next time you print, take a close look at how much the PTFE tube moves. It becomes alive. The pillow has stiffend it, but allows it to have it's freedom.

I think the tube has a great deal of explaining to do concerning finish...

---

Please send me a PM if you have suggestions, or problems with Big Blue 360.
I won't see comments in threads, as I move around to much.
Working Link to Big Blue 360 Complete

Quote
KimBrown

Next time you print, take a close look at how much the PTFE tube moves

Did:

Quote
dc42
Bear in mind that there are other factors at play here. Someone (I forget who) pointed out that if you hang the extruder on the middle slot of the X axis, the Bowden tube exerts a stronger outward (and hence downward) force on the print head at the centre of the X-axis range than near the ends. The amount that the glass domes up in the middle depends on how firmly it is clamped at the corners, which you can adjust.

[forums.reprap.org]

Quote
KimBrown
...It becomes alive. The pillow has stiffend it, but allows it to have it's freedom.

I think the tube has a great deal of explaining to do concerning finish...

It sure has, the numbers:

[forums.reprap.org]

The visual:

[forums.reprap.org]

Erik

Today I started laying out the PCB. I'm basing it around the 3.2 inch 400x240 px widescreen display available from Itead (see [imall.iteadstudio.com]). There are many other TFT touch screen displays available with the same pinout; so I will probably supply the board without the display.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Hi DC, I took a look at that site to see if it gave the positioning of the 4 mounting holes but it just gives the board sizes.
I was going to play around with a design for the enclosure soon, so if you have any rough ideas of sizes, then I can tweak them later.
I was wondering where you were thinking might be best to mount this.
A larger replacement for the Power Box on the Ormerod 1 might be good, but then that won't suit the Ormerod 2 guys, and then there's
the cabling between the New Enclosure and Duet to think about, So maybe an Enclosure above the Duet Enclosure on the Ormerod 1
might be best, off set towards the SD card end of the Duet Enclosure to give room for the Fan Ducts to home ok.

Kim

---

Please send me a PM if you have suggestions, or problems with Big Blue 360.
I won't see comments in threads, as I move around to much.
Working Link to Big Blue 360 Complete

From the drawing on this page, you could measure the positions of the mounting holes, scaling things to the board size. For that, the product web page says 95x60mm while the PDF says 86.9x50.8x1.6mm, and the proportions look more like the latter to me. Not ideal, but should be enough to get started.

There are no mounting positions along the Y extrusion or the Duet enclosure that would fit both Ormerod 1 and 2, so that would require a couple different versions of mounting it. Most flexible would be a display enclosure on some form of generic bracket on the back, and then various mounting brackets for different positions.

dc, would I be right in assuming the cable from the Duet to the display board would be a relatively thin one? Basically power&ground + a couple I2C/serial pins? (<8 in total)

Here is a sketch of the display. Holes C are the board mounting holes, about 3.1mm diameter. A is the viewable area, and B is a non-viewable area. Both A and B are 4.2mm above the top of the display PCB. G is the back connector, which protrudes up to 1.3mm above the PCB. The centres of the left hand holes C line up with the edge of the viewable area A.

The dashed area is the outline of the board I am making. D is the hole for the rotary encoder bush and shaft. E is where there needs to be a small hole in the enclosure to allow the reset button to be pushed. F is the 4-pin connector for the Duet. It may be better to put it on the bottom of the enclosure instead of the side, depending on how the enclosure will be mounted. The micro USB connector (used only for programming) will be at the bottom right as shown. The exact positions of D, E, F and the USB connector are yet to be finalised.

To secure my board, I was going to use the right hand holes C. But on reflection, I think it would be better if I add a couple of 3mm holes on either side of D, then use self-tapping screws inserted into the back of my board and screwed into bushes set into the front of the enclosure.

At this stage the mechanical design is provisional. I am still considering whether to put the rotary encoder in the position shown, or to put it to the right of the display instead. I think that would be less satisfactory for left-handed users, but on the other hand it would allow larger displays to be used, such as the Itead 4.3 inch one (and for that display, the rotary encoder would then be below the display).

What I would prefer is a parameterised design in OpenScad, so that I or anyone else can modify it easily.

As for mounting, I think the only place that is accessible from the front and sides of the machine and where the print never gets in the way is on top of the Z axis. The mounting would ideally allow it to be swivelled round and then locked into place, so that it can be made to face in whatever is the most convenient direction.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Is this along the lines you mean, David? (Just a quick preliminary for the front section of a box to take the LCD display to see whether my interpretation of what you're looking for in a SCAD file is correct)

This allows the entire LCD glass to fit in a recess with only the visible part completely cut out. (The example has the recessed non-visible part only at one side of the LCD as per your sketch, but changing the parameters could put it all around)

Dave

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2014 01:21PM by dmould.

Dave, yes that's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.

Looking at the display more closely, I see that what I said was the visible area actually includes a 1.5mm frame around the actual display matrix. So you could indeed have a recessed non-visible part all the way round. The real visible area is 44mm x 72mm.

I have decided to put the rotary encoder to the right of the connector, and to put mounting holes for the board above and below the rotary encoder. So you will need to add 2 mounting bushes for the board. They need to be about 13mm deeper than the mounting bushes for the display, because of the depth of the connector that connects the two boards together. I'll provide the positions when the board layout is nearing completion.

I hit a minor hiccup in that on examining the datasheets, I found that the controller on the widescreen display does not have 5V tolerant inputs, unlike the standard display. This is despite the board itself needing 5V (because it has a 3.3V regulator on board), and the info on the Itead site implying that it can cope with 5V input signals. So I need to run the MCU from 3.3V. I'll probably put a 3.3V regulator on the board, to avoid having to connect a 5th wire to the Duet. Even if I were to bypass the regulator on the board, it would still need at least 4V for the backlight.

I started on the firmware this evening.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

OK, I've refined the parameters so they will hopefully be easier to enter. This SCAD makes the raw front case - the default parameters are as I understood from your sketch (which I later realised was looking from the front of the LCD module). I suspect you will want to change the PCB parameters, in particular adding another mounting hole or two (which is very easy). You can also toggle the PCBs to be visible to aid in positioning. Once you finalise the measurements, upload the SCAD file with your updated parameters and I will modify the design to add a back and mounting arrangement and any other mods, and might also change the shape to be more aesthetic than a plain box (or less aesthetic depending on taste!) The board dimensions in your sketch would allow an "L" shaped case, for example. Let me know where you are going to put the power & serial connector - perhaps next to the USB so the cables can be run together?

If you would prefer a different method for any of the parameters, or you would like to get rid of some user-defined parameters and define them automatically as a function (as I have done as a choice with the PCB positioning) let me know and I'll modify the code to suit.

Dave

Hi David, I thought I would have a go at the screen box.

It is not as slick as daves (I'm still learning and relatively new to 3d).
If you designed your board with the connectors on the back I could then design connector holes through the lid ( not shown ) so that all cables etc. are at the back, leaving the front nice and clean with just the screen and rotary control.

Let me know if you would like any more work done on this.

I won't be offended if you think this is rubbish and go for another design.

Paul

---

appjaws - Core XYUV Duet Ethernet Duex5
firmware 3.1.1 Web Interface 3.1.1
Ormerod 1-converted to laser engraver, Duet wifi
OpenSCAD version 2020.07
slic3r-1.3.0, Simplify3D 4.1.2, Cura-4.4.1

Good one appjaws! The more designs the merrier - people using DC42's boards will no doubt be printing their own case, so the more there is to choose from the better. Also feel completely free to make use of any of the modules in my SCAD - I wrote my "Boss" module for example after finding that that shape worked best for self-tapping screws. If the wall is too thick the screw cannot deform it outwards when it cuts its threads and there is a greater risk of shearing off a column at a relatively weak layer bond - as there is with a thin wall that does not have the reinforcing ribs.

Of course, it doesn't have to be a plain boring rectangular box either. T-shapes, L-shapes or curves as in the attached mock-up front bezel ... that's the freedom of using a 3D printer! And with OpenScad you can have all the internal mounts and cutouts fixed, and then experiment by putting different shaped enclosures around them, something that I do not believe is possible with GUI CAD tools.

[added] After looking at appjaws' SCAD I took a look at the library "boxes,scad" that ships with Openscad to see why it was taking so long to render. That library has a rather convoluted and slow method of making a rounded box. All I do is place a sphere in each corner of the required box (offset by the radius) and perform a "hull" operation on them. A couple of cubes may be added to get completely accurate dimensions, especially for low values of $fn. It's faster, and also allows the box to have draft (slightly angled sides) for use in conventional injection processes - just move the top spheres out a bit. If you only need rounded side edges, use cylinders instead of spheres.

Dave

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2014 07:11AM by dmould.

This is one idea (from dc42) for mounting the LCD screen on the Z axis.




These are orientated for the screen to be facing the front of the machine, along the X axis.
If your machine is operated side on then the flange on the LCD box can be turned through 90 degrees.
If anybody wants to print these let me know. I haven't posted the stl files because I can not check them by printing them at the moment.
Paul

---

appjaws - Core XYUV Duet Ethernet Duex5
firmware 3.1.1 Web Interface 3.1.1
Ormerod 1-converted to laser engraver, Duet wifi
OpenSCAD version 2020.07
slic3r-1.3.0, Simplify3D 4.1.2, Cura-4.4.1

Quote
dmould
I wrote my "Boss" module for example after finding that that shape worked best for self-tapping screws. If the wall is too thick the screw cannot deform it outwards when it cuts its threads and there is a greater risk of shearing off a column at a relatively weak layer bond - as there is with a thin wall that does not have the reinforcing ribs.Dave

Thanks Dave I have learnt a lot working through your code and will be using your " Boss" modules in the future.

Quote
dmould
After looking at appjaws' SCAD I took a look at the library "boxes,scad" that ships with Openscad to see why it was taking so long to render. That library has a rather convoluted and slow method of making a rounded box. All I do is place a sphere in each corner of the required box (offset by the radius) and perform a "hull" operation on them. A couple of cubes may be added to get completely accurate dimensions, especially for low values of $fn. It's faster, and also allows the box to have draft (slightly angled sides) for use in conventional injection processes - just move the top spheres out a bit. If you only need rounded side edges, use cylinders instead of spheres.
Dave

I have made my own roundbox.scad from your code and can't believe how quick it renders compared to the round box in the supplied library, so I hope you don't mind if I use it in future.
Great lines of code, where can I get some information on writing code to your standard? One of the best pieces I have learnt is the use of the for loop, which I have used to define mounting standoffs in the 4 corners of the box.

Any information of how I can improve my code and examples of good code will be gratefully received.
Paul

---

appjaws - Core XYUV Duet Ethernet Duex5
firmware 3.1.1 Web Interface 3.1.1
Ormerod 1-converted to laser engraver, Duet wifi
OpenSCAD version 2020.07
slic3r-1.3.0, Simplify3D 4.1.2, Cura-4.4.1

Quote
appjaws1
I have made my own roundbox.scad from your code and can't believe how quick it renders compared to the round box in the supplied library, so I hope you don't mind if I use it in future.
Great lines of code, where can I get some information on writing code to your standard? One of the best pieces I have learnt is the use of the for loop, which I have used to define mounting standoffs in the 4 corners of the box.

Any information of how I can improve my code and examples of good code will be gratefully received.
Paul

I'm by no means a master at OpenScad, I only found out about it around 8 months ago - I look at other people's code and the OpenScad Wiki and hopefully get better each time I design something. The "for" loop method together with variable length n-dimension arrays is a really great way of creating easily changed amounts and positions of items - and I learned about it for the first time 2 days ago after browsing the Wiki to figure out how to make the parameters more versatile for this project. You'll see that I didn't use it in my first SCAD because I didn't know about it. So my advice is just to think carefully about the best way to tackle each new design while looking through the Wiki for commands you are not so familiar with instead of doing it the easiest way you are familiar with, and you'll get better, faster and more efficient with experience. Also look at other people's designs to see if they have used better ways of tackling particular design issues. A while back someone uploaded a design to create parabolas to this forum based on cutting a section from a cone, which is elegant, fast and simple, and I used it to design a WiFi directional dish aerial that works a treat (I achieved a full speed WiFi link over a distance of about half a mile). OpenScad has certainly made me brush up on basic trig - so many designs require definitions in terms of Cos, Sin, Tan and Pythagoras. I have a commercial 3D design tool at work that cost well over £1000 that I used to use, but I now use the free OpenScad instead (not only for 3D printing) because I find it so much more versatile and quicker, especially when it comes to making small changes to a design.

Dave

It's great to see so much happening in support of the board I am developing!

Today I am putting together a prototype using a 3.3V Arduino Leonardo and a breadboard. My main concern is that the atmega32u4 may not have enough flash memory, because the example program I got with the UTFT library was too large to fit in the program memory space. I've now got it down to a size that fits, and the map file shows that the UTFT library itself is less than 10K in size, not including the fonts. The library includes functions that I don't expect to use, and I can see a way of making it smaller. I will be replacing the fonts with proportionally-spaced ones (which potentially use less space) and adding auto-kerning code, but that doesn't need much space. OTOH I need to add the touch driver. I am fairly confident that the code will fit; but I want to be sure before I order the prototype PCBs.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2014 11:48AM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Hi Guys

Space for one more backer.. maybe... please?

Madmob

Thanks, that's 33 expressions of interest I have received so far. Looks like I may be able to justify having a batch of 50 made.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

More progress today. I have modified the UTFT library to work better with the atmega32u4, leaving me enough pins free to connect to the Duet and rotary encoder. I have also made it smaller and faster, and switched to using proportionally-spaced fonts with a measure of auto kerning. Here are photos of the original 12864 display on the left, and the 240x400 TFT display on the right. They are running the same code and using the same fonts.



Even though I enlarged most of the fields on the TFT display, it's still taking up less than one quarter of the available area. I intend to use a larger font, but even so there will be plenty of room for additional data.

I set the background on the TFT to blue to match the 12864, but of course it can do 16-bit colour.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Looking good David. In the future, seeing that their is a lot of free space, would it be feasible to display a picture of the gcode model? or is that too ambitious?
Can't wait for the finished display

Paul

---

appjaws - Core XYUV Duet Ethernet Duex5
firmware 3.1.1 Web Interface 3.1.1
Ormerod 1-converted to laser engraver, Duet wifi
OpenSCAD version 2020.07
slic3r-1.3.0, Simplify3D 4.1.2, Cura-4.4.1

Quote
appjaws1
Looking good David. In the future, seeing that their is a lot of free space, would it be feasible to display a picture of the gcode model? or is that too ambitious?

Sadly, there is little chance of that, because there is only 6K flash memory left and I still have a lot of things still to implement e.g. the touch driver and the menu system. I can save some more memory in the TFT driver by disabling portrait mode, and I can get rid of the smaller font; but even so I expect memory to be tight. It's tempting to use a larger processor, such as the atxmega64a4u; however the idea was to make the unit compatible with an Arduino Leonardo so that users can easily modify the firmware.

---

Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
dc42
Sadly, there is little chance of that, because there is only 6K flash memory left and I still have a lot of things still to implement e.g. the touch driver and the menu system. I can save some more memory in the TFT driver by disabling portrait mode, and I can get rid of the smaller font; but even so I expect memory to be tight. It's tempting to use a larger processor, such as the atxmega64a4u; however the idea was to make the unit compatible with an Arduino Leonardo so that users can easily modify the firmware.

Thanks for the info, if I had a vote I would vote for the larger processor and more memory in order to remove restrictions on future development and keep the display unit flexible.

What do other users think?

---

appjaws - Core XYUV Duet Ethernet Duex5
firmware 3.1.1 Web Interface 3.1.1
Ormerod 1-converted to laser engraver, Duet wifi
OpenSCAD version 2020.07
slic3r-1.3.0, Simplify3D 4.1.2, Cura-4.4.1

Hi DC42

Put me down for one please.