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Re: Cad for printing...?? Moving On? - 4 years ago

+1 for OnShape... free for personal use, but your designs are publicly viewable/copyable. That seems to me to be a very reasonable trade-off, and I've used it a lot.

by frankvdh - General

Re: Rounding the edge of a hole? - 4 years ago

QuoteDavid J Right - I tried using minkowski... life is too short... and all of my dimensions were screwed up (as expected); it would be a PITA to make size adjustments to compensate. So, good idea, but too painful. Right... I'd forgotten that Minkowski with a sphere moves the surface by the radius of the sphere. For sphere of radius 1, you need to subtract 1 from each of your width and height

by frankvdh - OpenSCAD

Re: Rounding the edge of a hole? - 4 years ago

If you can live with the outside edges of the cube being rounded, then Minkowski is the answer. However, this is very slow operation. Put minkowski() {... sphere(1); } around your main block. minkowski() { difference() { cube(bodyWidth); translate( ) slot(); } sphere(1); }

by frankvdh - OpenSCAD

Re: Heating issues - 4 years ago

Hmmm... all looks legit. Go into Repetier Host's Manual Control tab and type M104 S195 T0 into the G-code text box and click Send. What happens? You should see Extruder 1 heating up. Wait until it gets to 195. If that works, try M104 S195 T1 A thought... what power supply do you have? If you have a 12V supply, then you need about 4A for each hot-end heater, 10A or more for a large heated b

by frankvdh - Firmware - Marlin

Re: Heating issues - 4 years ago

I think the fact that it messes up when you click "Print" means that something is wrong with the G-code, which in turn suggests that there's something wrong with your slicer configuration. Probably a copy of the first few lines of your G-code file and the last several lines of your log file would be useful to diagnose what's happening. Look at your G-code for M104 or M109 lines. See for more inf

by frankvdh - Firmware - Marlin

Re: Heating issues - 4 years ago

You don't say exactly what your hot-end configuration is, nor what controller board you have. I assume you have two heaters and two thermistors, not a single heater and thermistor for both nozzles? What pins do you have the two heaters connected to? Does that match the default values in pins.h and .h? You don't have THERMAL_PROTECTION_HOTENDS or THERMAL_PROTECTION_BED enabled. This is unsafe pr

by frankvdh - Firmware - Marlin

Re: Toy gun trigger mechanism? - 4 years ago

A spring to press the striker against the bell. A rotating cam to lift the striker off the bell and then release it. Some process to turn the cam.

by frankvdh - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)

Re: Slic3r launch WLS Ubuntu howto - 4 years ago

Looks to me like the problem is more to do with the GUI environment than Slic3r. I'm thinking that for some reason sli3r has failed to connect to the X-server. Do you have an X-Windows session running? Can you get any GUI app running? You might need to create C:\Users\Jim2\AppData\Roaming\.XWinrc and put some settings in there. (In Unix, a .rc file is a text file that stores settings for an appli

by frankvdh - Slic3r

Re: Filament choice for brackets! - 4 years ago

What characteristics do these brackets have to have? PLA is more rigid and heavier than PLA, but has a lower melt point.

by frankvdh - Mechanics

Re: Slic3r launch WLS Ubuntu howto - 4 years ago

Ummm... on Linux you shouldn't be looking for a .exe file. The executable, or a link to it, should be in your path already, so just typing 'slic3r' (NB: all lower case) on the command line will run it.

by frankvdh - Slic3r

Dual extruder drool - 4 years ago

I've just upgraded my new HE3D sky to dual extruders, but I seem to have a huge drool problem (or at least my printer has). My biggest concern is the white line above the 'B'. It is fused into the green, and I really only want green there! I could live with the furry bits if I had to... they're easy enough to scrape off. But I suspect that they're another symptom of whatever is causing the bl

by frankvdh - Printing

Re: SaturnV - 4 years ago

What did you use for the decals?

by frankvdh - Look what I made!

Re: Which repository for STLs - 4 years ago

Totally agree with the_digital_dentist. If Thingiverse had an option for filtering out blue Things, it would be 100% better. QuoteOhmarinus GrabCAD had an amazing library of stuff, I prefer GrabCAD for when I want to design my own cases but don't want to measure up all my vitamins with calipers. So I download a model of the SG90MG servo and import the STEP into Rhino and can design my machine ar

by frankvdh - General

Re: Salt water bed adhesion technique for PLA - 4 years ago

Quotethe_digital_dentist PLA prints have to be kept in such a mild environment that they're practically useless for most purposes. Nonsense. I have numerous 3D printed PLA items out in the real world.... sunlight, frosts, rain, etc. The worst thing is that the colour fades. For example, 3 years ago when I printed a mount for my gate latch mount in PLA, and which has been out in the real world

by frankvdh - Printing

Re: 3D-printed Honda HA-420 HondaJet - 4 years ago

I'd love to hear more too, especially about the structure of the wings. Are they completely 3D printed? What wall thicknesses did you use?

by frankvdh - Look what I made!

Re: Toward the Graal : Ultra-light extrusion - 4 years ago

QuoteM_Xeno QuoteAny news on bringing this promising extruder to market? I'm working on it, but most of my time goes to completing the deliveries of the delta Zatsit printer for my Kickstarter Backers. It would be a great idea to post an update to KickStarter.

by frankvdh - General

Re: Underslung Delta Effector - 4 years ago

Interesting post, @Hercek. It's not clear whether your cylindrical magnets are magnetized radially or axially. Radial magnets would be a better approximation than axial, with a line of contact where a steel ball and countersunk magnet (which is the typical arrangement) has a circle. I'd add: The forces in a delta are never at right angles to the plane of the attachment circle, because the car

by frankvdh - Delta Machines

Re: An optical bed sensor for auto leveling? - 4 years ago

I just stumbled across the VL6180X Time of Flight optical sensor, and wondering about using it for measuring bed height. However, the datasheet says the RESULT_RANGE_VAL and RESULT_RANGE_RAW registers only gives the distance in whole mm (despite being 16-bit registers). But I'm wondering if one of the other registers (RESULT__RANGE_RETURN_SIGNAL_COUNT perhaps? -- it's 32 bits) gives better reso

by frankvdh - General

Re: Connectors for hotend wires - 4 years ago

QuoteOhmarinus Quotefrankvdh Molex micro-fit are good for 8.5A, and a bit smaller than the mini-fit range. I've experimented with a couple of connector types, but haven't yet found anything that's cheap, easy, and good. A big issue with connectors here, especially on a delta, is strain relief. You need to ensure the wires don't flex relative to the connectors, or the wires will break at the crim

by frankvdh - General

Re: Connectors for hotend wires - 4 years ago

Molex micro-fit are good for 8.5A, and a bit smaller than the mini-fit range. I've experimented with a couple of connector types, but haven't yet found anything that's cheap, easy, and good. A big issue with connectors here, especially on a delta, is strain relief. You need to ensure the wires don't flex relative to the connectors, or the wires will break at the crimps. A tidier, but more expens

by frankvdh - General

Re: Do not leave hairspray on your glass bed too long... - 4 years ago

Dried hair spray can be dissolved with acetone. I'd try pouring a little acetone around one edge of the brim and then getting a putty knife or similar in under it. Don't get any acetone near your ABS part. Don't leave it too long to soak in... if you leave it long enough for the acetone to evaporate, you're back to square 1. Sometimes a really sharp knife (Stanley knife, scalpel) can get in wh

by frankvdh - Printing

Re: Piezoelectric disks for Z contact detect and bed levelling - 5 years ago

Mike, Rather than just a running mean, you can do all kinds of digital filtering to amplify or attenuate various frequencies (highpass, lowpass, or bandpass, etc) Digital filtering can be designed so that it isn't particularly compute-intensive. e.g. instead of a simple average, do a weighted average where the new value = new reading/2 + prev value/2... this emphasizes recent readings over old re

by frankvdh - General

Re: TeensyPrinter: a RAMPS-like board built around the Teensy 3.6 - 5 years ago

Quotesalfter Is there enough I/O on a Teensy 3.1 to drive even a single-extruder configuration? Each extruder needs three digital outputs (step, direction, chip select), a PWM output (heater), and an analog input (thermistor). Axis steppers need three digital outputs each. Do you really need a Chip Select on every stepper? So long as you aren't actually sending step pulses, nothing will move

by frankvdh - Developers

Re: Cad recomendations - 5 years ago

I use OnShape.com... online, free for personal use (but all your work is public (but that seems a reasonable trade to me)). Not good for dealing with meshes but otherwise excellent. There's also FreeCAD, which I use sometimes, mainly for converting meshes to solids for use in OnShape. OpenSCAD is free, cross-platform. It reads text files that describe objects and their transformations. It takes

by frankvdh - 3D Design tools

Re: Sanity check: custom build sizing - 5 years ago

Remember that your 330mm build height is only in the middle of the bed. Out towards the edges, you have somewhat less, depending on arm length and bed diameter.

by frankvdh - Delta Machines

Re: Extruder stepper skipping - 5 years ago

When something starts to go wrong after a period of time, it's likely to be something heating up. Maybe the stepper driver is overheating? Or the stepper itself? Check temperatures of the motor and stepper driver heatsink... you should be able to hold your finger on them. Or maybe heat creep within the hot-end... as heat creeps up the the heat break, filament softens and swells, increasing frict

by frankvdh - Printing

Re: Presenting: The Pyr0-Piezo Z-Sensor! A self-calibrating piezoelectric sensor - 5 years ago

I'd be keen to be a beta tester. One question: is this suitable for under-bed mounting? I'd rather mount under my delta's bed than hang it, and the associated wiring, on the effector. Although the FFC sounds great too!

by frankvdh - General

Re: Empty filament spools wanted (hawkes bay) - 5 years ago

I have lots of empty spools of various sizes. What kind of filament are you producing? How much per kg? Are you interested in recycling my scrap PLA? But why not set up some kind of Masterspool thing? Make a couple of spools with a removable side. Produce filament on one. When it's full, cable tie the filament and take it off the spool and store. When printing, use the other spool... put a cabl

by frankvdh - New Zealand RepRap User Group

Re: initial success...then failure - 5 years ago

Regarding the thermal runaway... moving wires flex and bend. If all the bending is happening in one place, you get metal fatigue and the wires break. Where the wires are hot, they are especially prone to failure. This sometimes happens inside the insulation, so that in one position they're connected, and in another they're not. My approach is to rigidly attach the wires to the hot-end, and then s

by frankvdh - General

Re: 2.5W Laser TTL Confused - 5 years ago

Quotegauthib72 I can't understand why using the D9 fan port on the Ramps 1.4 board with a 12v to 5v 7805 regulator to TTL port, doesn't work for me either similar to the method on Youtube video by Jake's Workshop on October 26, 2017 I suspect that a 7805 regulator isn't fast enough to switch the output voltage at the rate that the PWM switches, so the output just stays at 5V continuously. If

by frankvdh - Laser Cutter Working Group