Progress Update

Hi Reprappers,
Iv'e been around the forum alot ad until recently i've been all talk and no walk...

So here is a small update from me and a small question/observation.

I am very impressed with the rigidity of the frame. it is much sturdier than I thought it would be.

Just a note: the 3D printer I have access to is an Objet one, which has tendancies to make any hole a wee bit smaller... this caused the Y idler houses (is that the correct name?) to crack when I forced the plastic bearings in... (not a good idea...)
Not a big deal since the rods going into the corner bracket take the load and pull it back together.





Check out the other attachments, and feel free to ask me questions if you have any....

-Leav

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2008 05:26PM by Leav.

Awesome! It's good to see a man of action on the forums!

How long did it take for the Objet to print out a Darwin? And how strong are the parts? They look very accurate.

As for hole sizes, I had access to a machinist's drill set - drill bits sized every 0.001" or 0.002" - that made the assmebly work a lot easier when I put my Darwin together.

How

What did Objet charge to print the Darwin parts?

Oh, I nver saw an Objet machine, not ebn on a photo or video. Can you give any details? Speed, quality, pricing of machine and material, availability?

Looks like this is their website: [www.objet.com]

Hi

----->>>>>>>>Awesome! It's good to see a man of action on the forums!
Thanks it's fun finally getting stuff done!

----->>>>>>>>How long did it take for the Objet to print out a Darwin?
I really couldn't say since the printing of the parts was spread out over several weeks when the printer was free.
I could try and guesstimate about 36 hours total running time since the large trays were about 10 hours each and there were 2.5 of those plus some smaller trays of tidbits I forgot the first times.

----->>>>>>>>And how strong are the parts?
They are strong, but somewhat brittle. we actually printed a model for stress testing in one of those machines that look like torture devices and pull the model apart while measuring stress and strain. I'll let you know the results if you're interested.

----->>>>>>>>They look very accurate.
They are! I am amazed by the detail it can produce. the head works like an inkjet printer! it has 36 (I think) heads that simultaneously deposit plastic while making a linear pass. it's pretty awe inspiring to watch.

----->>>>>>>>What did Objet charge to print the Darwin parts?
Not sure since it's a faculty printer (I'm a student here at the Technion [en.wikipedia.org] ) and I am lucky enough to not have to worry about the cost!
Again I can estimate: printing all the parts cost something on the order of thousands of dollars
but when I'm done I'm going to give that printer a run for it's money!
A room full of Darwins!

----->>>>>>>>Oh, I nver saw an Objet machine, not ebn on a photo or video. Can you give any details? Speed, quality, pricing of machine and material, availability?
Here is a great video showing an Objet machine in action:
[www.youtube.com]
Truly inspiring for me! I would never have believed that possible!

-Leav

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also, I just finished calibrating my Z-Axis!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2008 04:54PM by Leav.

... they print with UV-curable resins and the strong light you can see are two UV-lamp-arrays beside the head.

This prototype of a micro-gripper is made by an Eden500 Objet-printer:


With a reprap/repstrap it's possible to dispense fluid PMMA (i have "ACRIFIX 192" from Degussa) with a syringe and cure the actual sheet wit an UV-lamp.

I'm testing with this type of 'room-temp' fabbing too, but for fast UV-curing i need powerfull (and expensive) UV-sources or the curing time per slice would exceed 15 minutes until it's hard enough for supporting the upper slices an the fabbing would last a very long time.

But the Acrifix-objects are fully cured like normal PMMA (plexiglass) and i didn't notice any warping with my first tests ...

Viktor

2D printing for the win!!!



Also, a RepTube video:
[www.youtube.com]

I wrote some basic code for the arduino to do this just so I could sleep better tonight

Onwards! to the extruder!!!!!

-Leav

Sweet!

After some requests (ok just one ) I'm attaching some simple test codes here for straight uploading to the arduino.

These are based off of the codes in the wiki pages for the electronics.

Remember to tweak all the parameters for your system (e.g. the opto switch types and direction of the stepper motors) - I suggest just running it with a finger on the kill switch, that's how I tested out the direction and the opto switches.

hOMING - brings back all the axes one by one to the home position using only the opto switches as feedback (no sanity checks)
pRINToPTO - doesn't move any motors, only prints the status of the opto switches to the arduino IDE terminal.
rECTANGULARsPIRAL - prints the above rectangular spiral from the current position (no homing). width height and margins are easily modifiable.

enjoy.

-Leav

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2008 09:36AM by Leav.

Hi Leav

Thanks! Just what I need to start checking my new repstrap, of which I only have the X & Y axis working at the moment.

The first one of your scripts I am going to use is pRINToPTO as I using used xy stages that hall effect limit switches on them that I have to check functionality on.

Is the arduino IDE enviroment suppose to display the output of the script on the display?

It doesn't with my Sanguino the only way I have been able to get it to work is disconnect the IDE from the comport and start a terminal emulator against the port.

Fred

Leav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> After some requests (ok just one ) I'm
> attaching some simple test codes here for straight
> uploading to the arduino.
>
> These are based off of the codes in the wiki pages
> for the electronics.
>
> Remember to tweak all the parameters for your
> system (e.g. the opto switch types and direction
> of the stepper motors) - I suggest just running it
> with a finger on the kill switch, that's how I
> tested out the direction and the opto switches.
>
> hOMING - brings back all the axes one by one to
> the home position using only the opto switches as
> feedback (no sanity checks)
> pRINToPTO - doesn't move any motors, only prints
> the status of the opto switches to the arduino IDE
> terminal.
> rECTANGULARsPIRAL - prints the above rectangular
> spiral from the current position (no homing).
> width height and margins are easily modifiable.
>
> enjoy.
>
> -Leav

While the Arduino is connected to the pc, there is a button next to "send to I/O board" which reads something like "open terminal"

When pressed it restarts the Arduino and prints out whatever the arduino jabbers about on the serial line.

should be the same for the sanguino as far as I know....

-Leav

Hey!

Have you tried your lovely drawing reprap with the g-code arduino firmware?
I'm planing to build something like this my self and is curious about this.

Any thoughts about how to lift the pen from the paper and move to another location?

You can use a solenoid to gently push the pen to the paper (just like most plotters do)
should be fairly easy to accomplish and control.


'sid

Wow! Thank you. That's a grate solution!

--
Martin

... if you didn't want to feed power-wires to your toolhead, you can use a lever in form of a L-shaped alu-profile along your Y-arm which lifts the pen when been turned by a solenoid or small motor.

Some good oldstyle XY-plotters use this instead of a solenoid in the head ...

Viktor

Could I use the reprap DC motor driver to drive the solenoid?

I'd say I'd prefere the pwm* driver but yes.
(*because you cannot "reverse" a solenoid)

Just take care of the settings for current

'sid

Yes if it takes less than 0.75A but a better way would be to use the PWM driver board which will drive more current and with less power losses.

The DC motor board is bidirectional so motors can be reversed, but that functionality is not required for a solenoid.

---

[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]