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Robots, children's blocks, wooden clocks, its all good! Here's my idea and here's the [[page]] on RepRap's wiki where we can log in and click "edit".
A rebuildlog for a Delta printer - 3 months ago
O.K., so I have weakened and been messing around with 3D printers again - possibly pathological nostalgia. It is time to do a decennial regeneration and upgrade of the second printer I ever built. At the moment Miranda, for that is the name of my Delta printer, is stripped down on the workbench with controllers, steppers, and wires strewn about like entrails in one of the more gruesome episodes oby leadinglights - General
Re: Piezoelectric disks for Z contact detect and bed levelling - 6 months ago
I notice that somebody else has decided that separating the automatic setting of bed height and bed mapping is a good idea: Video by LoganLuckLess at I also see that the Bambu Lab X1 uses under-bed piezo sensors and a LiDAR sensor as part of what they call "Dual-ABL Dissimilar Redundancy" Another commercial printer using piezoelectric sensors is BCN3D. Article at Mikeby leadinglights - General
Re: A new, smaller sand table mechanism: Arrakis - 7 months ago
I must admit that this looks so good that I may try my hand at making something similar - despite the fact that I am trying to shed most of my backlog of projects. As before, are there any videos of this one working? Mikeby leadinglights - CoreXY Machines
Re: Piezoelectric disks for Z contact detect and bed levelling - 7 months ago
Hmm, I seem to have made it for nearly two months since my last posting - perhaps I am nearly cured of my RepRap addicition. While archiving some old pictures that I had taken I found some that I had never published which shows that I did indeed "do the work" of investigating the response of the TAP sensors. In the picture below I have suspended a 4mm float glass bed over the existing bed of oneby leadinglights - General
Re: Piezoelectric disks for Z contact detect and bed levelling - 9 months ago
The problem is not repeatability. I can confirm repeatability for your sensor in the order of 3 microns or better. The problem is whether the reported contact is accurate. I use a contact plate and dummy nozzle, both plated with silver, and cleaned every 5 or 6 contact operations to determine where contact occurs. A high impedance amplifier and a source voltage of only 1.5V reports contact veryby leadinglights - General
Re: Piezoelectric disks for Z contact detect and bed levelling - 9 months ago
O.K., I seem to have gone cold turkey for a couple of months now, and, like many before me, I have kicked the RepRap habit: Perhaps now I will be able to sit on the sofa watching TV like any normal person, not dashing out to the workshop to take a measurement or print some new widget. Before I put on a recorded episode of "Drop the Dead Donkey" and break out the good biscuits, I think I should suby leadinglights - General
Re: An Optical Filament Sensor That Actually Works - 11 months ago
Very nice. I like the use of a red LED as a sensor and the tiny PIC mcu. Is there any chance of a photo showing the optical path and perhaps the programme? Mikeby leadinglights - Tech-Talk
Re: New Bed Leveling - 11 months ago
I don't think that any way of leveling a FFF bed is without its problems. Even the old "piece of paper under the nozzle" has problems like the consistency of feel over different parts of the bed - as well as being just a pain in the backside. My view of this is that the most reliable way is to use a single under-bed sensor to detect the point of nozzle contact along with a second sensor to checkby leadinglights - Developers
Re: New Bed Leveling - 11 months ago
That is a very neat sensor. Can I ask if you make the sensor and interface yourself or is it an adaptation of an existing product for 3D printer use? I found the use of your inductive sensor as an aid to manually adjust the bed level very elegant and simple. A small pill-sized sensor such as that also gives more options for mounting than most sensors and the use of I2C for communication is someby leadinglights - Developers
Questions on photogrammetry using cross-polarization:- - 11 months ago
Is an extinction ratio of 0.9 to 0.95 good enough for cross-polarization photogrammetry? (this number is an educated guess) Do circular polarizing photographic filters have a worse extinction ratio than linear polarizing filters? Further information:- Early 3D scanner rigs that I have built have been somewhat disappointing so I am in the process of building another rig. This one consists of a tby leadinglights - 3D Scanners, Book Scanners, and Optics
Cheap camera for photogrammetry rig - any thoughts? - 1 year ago
This is to use on a scanner that I have built ( ) I am looking for something like:- Really lightweight - not much heavier than a small webcam. Decent resolution greater than 4 megapixels Good lens with no chromatic aberration Aperture adjustable above F16 for large depth of field Low noise sensor Most importantly, really really cheap - the last person I asked thought £1700 was really really chby leadinglights - 3D Scanners, Book Scanners, and Optics
Re: Report on under bed sensor problems - 1 year ago
What I have been able to do with a single underbed sensor is to determine not only the point of contact but also the quality of contact. The quality of contact is poor if there is any plastic on the nozzle or if the printing surface has a bubble under it etc.. A single underbed sensor works with no X, Y, or Z offset however I have not found any underbed sensor that can reliably map the bed withouby leadinglights - Tech-Talk
Re: Report on under bed sensor problems - 1 year ago
Quoterq3 .......................... I recently got a report of someone using one of the TAP-100 sensors I invented on an Anet A8. He reported that it was the best sensor he's ever used, and this is on a bed slinger. Why pursue complexity (other than that it's fun)? Four strain gauges!? Hi rq3. I still have not seen any problem with the TAP100 probe so it certainly seems to be a candidate for topby leadinglights - Tech-Talk
Re: Report on under bed sensor problems - 1 year ago
A new item I am exploring in this quest: A printer that uses 4 (yes four) sensors, each on the extreme corners of the build plate. A video showing this printer is on YouTube at Although the printer shown uses expensive and heavy strain gauges - and will need quite complicated support electronics, the placement of the sensors at the corners should reduce dynamic and sensor miss-match problems toby leadinglights - Tech-Talk
Makers Central at NEC. Any good? - 1 year ago
I have seen adverts for Makers Central at the NEC (Birmingham U.K.) Has anybody been to previous ones? If so, Is it worth going? The video of past events looks too trivial, but if they have targeted the cutesy side of making hobbies perhaps that is all they could get into a short video. Mike. (been missing the TCT events and Model Engineering exhibitions)by leadinglights - General
Re: Thingiverse perhaps not great - 1 year ago
Thingiverse now seems to be catastrophically broken: New models seem only to be able to be viewed by their creator - and sometimes not even then. No attempts seem to be happening to fix it I have copied most of my things to Printables.com where there is a lot more activity and may abandon putting anything on Thingiverse. Mikeby leadinglights - General
Re: thermistor and heatsink compound - 1 year ago
Quotethe_digital_dentist Heatsinks normally don't get much over 60-70C. It seems unlikely that heatsink compound of any type is intended to work at hot-end temperatures,.......................................................................................... I disagree Note that I know nothing about this compound's electrical resistivity at hotend temperatures as my hotends use thermocouplby leadinglights - General
Re: thermistor and heatsink compound - 1 year ago
My guess is that it won't significantly affect the readings but it very much depends on the heat sink compound, some can be very conductive - e.g., Arctic silver, others less so. Unfortunately, hotends work in the temperature region where most compounds become somewhat more conductive than at room temperature. In most cases, this won't matter; but look at the specification sheets to see if they aby leadinglights - General
Re: Thingiverse perhaps not great - 1 year ago
I have been looking at Youmagine and Printables and would like to put all of my existing and future designs on one or both of these. I am a little concerned as I seem to remember that part of the T&Cs for Thingiverse was that they owned the sole right to distribute the files of anything that was uploaded there. Knowing that the spite of large organizations that feel offended is truly terribleby leadinglights - General
Re: Thingiverse perhaps not great - 1 year ago
Quotethe_digital_dentist I'm no fan of Thingiverse, but why do you need to upload a pdf file? You can't just copy and paste text, and upload a few pictures? Due to a poor upbringing involving education, military service, apprenticeships and so on, I tend to document everything I do. Looking back I realize that a much closer acquaintanceship with marijuana, chicks and rock and roll would have lefby leadinglights - General
Re: Thingiverse perhaps not great - 1 year ago
I appear to have deeply offended Thingiverse and the thing mentioned above now comes up as "404 - You have reached the end of the Thingiverse". I had thought that I reached what would be a method of publishing the assembly instructions by uploading two files, the PDF assembly instructions file without an extension, and a README.TXT file with instructions to add a PDF extension to the assembly insby leadinglights - General
Thingiverse perhaps not great - 1 year ago
O.K., everybody who uses this forum knows that Thingiverse is not great - indeed, saying it is f***ing useless would be quite charitable. As an additional little bit of not-greatness, they have now specifically stopped PDF files from being uploaded. I had a request for an amended file for a Thing I had on Thingiverse so I created the requested STL files and uploaded them to Thingiverse and tby leadinglights - General
Re: Sci-Fi table lamp - 1 year ago
A well made and interesting lamp, along with another whisky I have never heard of to add to the bucket list of drinks to drink. Mikeby leadinglights - Look what I made!
Re: Report on under bed sensor problems - 1 year ago
Hi rq3, I will have to modify my hotend to accept a diamond nozzle as all of my nozzles have M4 threaded unions, but it sounds like a modification worth using. The failure to trigger on dirty nozzles was part of why I started on this long investigation. Having two trigger points, one for a good contact and one for any contact allowed the detection of plastic on the nozzle. It was only after doinby leadinglights - Tech-Talk
Re: Bonding GT2 belts - 1 year ago
I would worry that shaving the cords may substantially weaken them. Possibly using the same idea but feather edging so that the damage to the cords occurs mostly at the tips. Another way would be to cut the ends into long interdigitated teeth with the cords left intact. By the way, the back-to-back glued joints I used earlier in this thread are still working well. Obviously not useful if the joiby leadinglights - General
Re: Report on under bed sensor problems - 1 year ago
An update on the progress (or otherwise) of this project, but first a recap. I have used underbed piezoelectric sensors for several years now and have had no problems. Despite this, I heard occasional complaints that others had experienced areas on their print beds where they got no response at all and the nozzle kept pushing on the bed until the motor(s) stalled. To investigate this I mapped thby leadinglights - Tech-Talk
Re: Notes on Pure Silver Heat Blocks and Platinum RTD's - 1 year ago
Quoterq3 At 225C, the original aluminum block with a Marlin Type 5 thermistor sensor required about 10 watts to idle at temperature (about 0.4 amps). Under the same conditions, but with a platinum sensor, same heater cartridge, the silver block requires about 4 watts (about 0.15 amps). This I cannot explain......... Some of the difference can be accounted for by the different emissivity of a pby leadinglights - Tech-Talk
Re: Nitro´s A.R.P.E.G. 230°C Chamber printer for PPSU - 1 year ago
Quote1zhangvic Hi Max, Very wonderful project you have completed here and congratulations for winning. I was curious as to how you created the folds in the bellow (fiberglass fabric)? I am trying to do something similar but am unsure how to create those folds. Thanks, Victor I have made some odd bellows for milling machines etc. Although I can't find the original article I worked from, thby leadinglights - General New Machines Topics
Re: Magnetic ball joint: square tube mount ? - 1 year ago
I am not sure that I have seen a stated definition and the meaning "Maximum Holding Force" depends on how the joint is constructed. Counter-intuitively, the use of iron or steel seats for the ball is a really bad design choice for these joints. This is clear in the picture below. Full forum entry at but I have put a picture showing this partial failure here Since there is some movement with qby leadinglights - Let's design something! (I've got an idea ...)
Re: VENT YOUR PRINTER! DO IT NOW! - 1 year ago
rq3, that sounds and looks truly unpleasant. I hope that you will overcome the allergy and be able to get back to 3D printing. From a personal point of view, the testing of your TAP-XXX Nozzle Contact Sensors which was delayed by my own infirmities, and is now being further delayed by the weather will be less useful if you have been forced to leave the field. On another point, I find it alarmingby leadinglights - General