Air bearings do sound cool. Perhaps they would be needed on extremely large builds. I was also thinking about the lowest cost type of 2d positioning system. Perhaps a V plotter type system? [2e5.com] It would have to be held tight by a third string with a weight or spring on it.by 3Derping - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms
And... I've hit a snag. I'm getting disconnected from USB control when I use MI06, sometimes. My setup is very simple: I have an LED connected between the arduinos digital 9 pin and the ground pin. When I issue the M106 gcode, the arduino and LED stay on, but, about a quarter of the time, the USB connection is broken. What gives?by 3Derping - RAMPS Electronics
Oh that's is great. Thank-you very much!by 3Derping - RAMPS Electronics
As far as cost, I'm assuming an air bearing could be made, yes? So that wouldn't be to bad. How's the cost for a compressor that can maintain the right psi? All of my knowledge of pneumatics fits in a thimble, so if you say it would work, I'll take your word for it . Personally, I'd just put the puck on the bottom surface and print onto the top. That way, a low-tech teflon pad could be used. Iby 3Derping - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms
Looks great! With this, you could probably lift a lot of weight. Would the cost be high?by 3Derping - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms
What if the build plate was lined with an array of holes? One could pause the print midway (where it was starting to get too heavy) and screw through the buildplate and into the print. Then weight shouldn't become a problem until the layers start to delaminate. This kinda reminds me of this guy: Edit: @ see3d If you think that would work, then awesome. I didn't know they had the capacity to hoby 3Derping - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms
I would like to switch on and off a laser via the fan speed control "M106 S***" gcode. What pin does the arduino use to signal the mosfet connected to D9? Much thanks in advance.by 3Derping - RAMPS Electronics
I think another big advantage to putting the extruder on the bottom is added rigidity. One could pour some cement, line the top of it with a glass plane, and then bolt the arm mountings into the cement while resting the arms on the glass. It doesn't get much more rigid than that. Or you could just bolt everything to your garage floor.by 3Derping - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms
Yeah, I guess you're right: printing car sized objects is just not worth the effort. /s I would agree that a mounted extruder is best *if* we could find a suitable bearing for it to glide easily. The problem is this: if you used ball bearings, how would they recirculate in 2 directions? Also, if we use solid plastic based bearings, how will we lower the coefficient of friction enough for them toby 3Derping - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms
I'm pretty sure gravity warps parts to the same degree either right side up or upside down. Also, large print warping isn't a showstopper. There have been quite a few large scale printers that seem to manage just fine. Now I will admit that printing this way will need greater surface area on the "print ceiling" (to keep the print from falling off due to weight) but that too can be managed via sby 3Derping - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms
I have an idea how to build an extremely large area 3d printer and would like to release it into the wild as I don't have time to build it. After thinking about it for about a week, I'm sure it would work, but I have too many other projects to work on. The basic idea is quite simple: imagine a 2d robot arm working in the XY plane. It doesn't matter really what type it is (SCARA, parallel SCARA,by 3Derping - Polar Machines, SCARA, Robot Arms