Just to give everyon an update:
This weekend I made a few modification to my larger CNC.
The new E-Stop button got it's cable properly mounted to the wooden case I build.
Just below the thick glass front.
Proper sockets for 3 end-stops have been added. The original end-stops I got where too small to fit mechanically but bigger ones where in stock this weekend. They have not been installed yet.
I'll install them together with bellows to protect the Y axis from dirt and shavings.
The probe input didn't want to work when using 5V from one of the Enable-outputs of the PLCM-B1 breakout board. I added a separate 5V supply just for the tool height probe and it works now.
Here is the answer from Purelogic regarding this issue:
Hello Marcus,
Thank you very much for your notice.
You are right that you need another power supply for external sensors.
PLCM-B1 has too many inputs and we could not place another on-board
power supply which could power all inputs. (Of cause we could make it,
but will be too expensive and large).
Small on-board power supply with limited current (for ex. enough for
5 inputs only) can cause more problems because not all users read a
manual carefully and they can easily overload this power supply.
Nevertheless this way seems most right for me now.
We will consider your notice in feature. Thank you very much.
Oleg Gladyshev,
Purelogic R&D, Russia.
The earth cable of the spindle VFD got ripped out. I repaired it and secured it somewhat better.
The power sockets for all parts of the CNC are now permanently screwed onto the frame and can no longer fall off due to the drag of the heavy cables.
My cheap MACH3 remote is still acting up. The jog buttons get stuck and the machine just keeps moving.
I replaced the keyboard with the flaky USB port and the constant USB attach/detach cycles no longer mess up the communication of MACH3 via Ethernet to the PLCM-E3p+B1 boards.
For the smaller TravelCNC I managed to drill an XL timing belt pulley from 5mm D-shaped to 8mm round shafts. It shall replace the 3D printed one I made a while ago because that one developed some serious backlash after 6 month of usage.
I will give a small workshop on CNC machining for people who have used only 3D printers during Eaterhegg next weekend.
25fps, 180° shutter, ISO800
2x Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB
USRobotics dual UHS-1 USB card reader
iMac
manual lens, drawing no power for autofocus or optical stabilisation.
focus peaking ON
Test 1 raw
20min 3 seconds of raw footage.
Test 2 raw
BMPCC stops at 19min45sec with 48% battery having filled up the 64GB card.
However it starts blinking a "card full" message after about 15min of recording.
29649 frames
Resolve reports just: 19min 45sec
40minutes to transfer footage to iMac
=> you can't run on 2 cards, dumping one while the other is being recorded to.
59.538.769.788 Byte (59,59 GB on disk)
29.649 frames
3min 33sec to erase all files on the SD-card
With the remaining 48% battery
19 minutes 45 seconds (exactly like before down to the second) onto another SD card.
After 15min 11 seconds the "card full" message starts to blink.
2% battery left
transfer to PC: 42min
59.370.355.068 Byte (59,44 GB on disk)
29.594 frames
Resolve reports: 19min 43sec
With remaining 2% battery left, the camera nearly instantly shuts down in an attempts to record some more.
Test 3 ProRes
39min 43 seconds of ProRes before the battery and not the SD-card ran out.
There was enough space for another 4minutes 52 seconds
I finally found the time to finish the upgrade of my large YOOCNC 6040 from the USB control board (that was already a huge improvement and now works in my smaller TravelCNC) to the russian PLCM-E3 and it's huge breakout board PLCM-B1.
The 4 existing axis all work fine now, both E-Stops (on control box and on the machine) work as does the tool-height-probe input and I have the ability to upgrade to 5 (and even 6) axis later.
I actually want to do that when my "SimpleMultiAxisCAM" is finished.
The dozens of inputs and the 6x 250V 6A relays are not used yet.
I'll connect the 2 E-Stop buttons and the Probe input later.
The relays will probably be used to control the water pump for the spindle cooling water and the compressor for my existing mist-cooling for metal working.
6 axis,
15 inputs,
16 outputs,
6x 250V 6A relays,
controlled via Ethernet and with proper optocouplers and galvanic isolation.
I'll not use the PWM feature as my spindle is controlled via RS485.
28 leds for all axis and inputs can e wired to the front of the enclorure.
...what an upgrade.
BTW: That breakout board is HUGE.
I also found the reson for the "stuck axis" and the "connection lost" issues.
The stuck axis seems to be a fault in the chinese MACH3 remote control and the "connection lost" a faulty USB keyboard that detaches and reattaches from USB and messes up the system for half a second each time.
This is my second attempt to fix the issues of the Makibox hotend.
This time In added a number of large and small M4 washers and placed my fan deeper.
Also: Powering the fan and Raspberry Pi from the same 12V supply seems to cause random crashes of the Makibox firmware. Particularly when it's supposed to start heating the hotend. I have gone back to powering the Raspberry Pi via a second power supply and am observing the situation to confirm this as the cause. Result: It still crashes. Something else must be at fault. Searching...
Results:
The washers are perfectly cool.
The PID control has a hard time reaching target-temperature and usually stays 5°C below what the hot-end should be at. I will need to change the PID settings or block air flow from cooling the hot zone instead of just the washers and shaft.
The bed needed to be leveled again because the length of the hot-end changed a bit.
The TEST PRINT FAILED AGAIN with the same filament stalls as all the others.
At the time of failing the washers where perfectly cool.
Second attempt:
I changed the target temperature to 218°C.
This is a temperature that worked well before and has less mechanical resistance because of lower viscosity.
FAILED
Third attempt:
I changed the target temperature to 190°C.
After switching to the AirTripper V3 BSP extruder, I wanted to improve the hotend to finally get reliable printing...
But the first thing that happened was, that the BSP connector of my extruder ...fell out.
I did add a small heat sink and a 12V fan to the top of the hotend.
Since I cannot prevent heat from creeping up from the hot zone to the parts of the hotend that are supposed to stay cool.
the intention is to cool the upper parts and dissipate as much of that heat as possible.
While connecting the 12V for the fan, I also connected power for the camera-equipped Raspberry Pi that lives inside the Makibox.
Beware that you need a gas powered or very strong electric soldering iron to solder anything to this PCB. It dissipates all the heat you put into it before the solder has any chance to melt.
test:
I'm currently testing the setup.
The hotend is staying at 235°C for an hour and I'm touching the upper part to feel for any warmth every now and then.
I already know that the "L" shaped heat spreader does get warm to the touch during long running print jobs before friction due to expanding filament above the hot zone ruins the print as even the strongest extruder cannot push hard enough to overcome this. results:
The "L" shape stays cool while the threaded part and the M4 nut at the top of the threaded part of the Makibox hotend is too hot to touch.
The TEST PRINT FAILED AGAIN with the same filament stalls as all the others.
Either this isn't the issue at all or I need a way to cool the threaded filament tube above the hot zone.
large CNC:
I'm still waiting for my PLCM-B1 Breakout-Boardto fix some electrical noise issues due to not having opto-couplers at the moment.
TravelCNC:
I'm bringing some wires and small parts to change the wiring to use new stepper drivers.
The original, chinese ones where rated far above what they could survive. (advertised as 50V, used at 48V, rated at 45V absolute maximum)
Blackmagic Pocket camera:
I got my Pocket Speed Booster (0.58x, +1,33 stops) and 50mm f1.4 as well as 30mm f1.4 lenses.
I did find a used Sigma 18-35mm F1,8 DC HSM but it was no longer for sale a day after.
I'll soon make a comparison of
50mm f1.4 +SB
30mm f1.4 + SB
25mm f0.95 Voightländer
17.5mm f0.95 Voightländer
25mm f1.4 Leica
12-35 f2.8 Panasonic
CCTV f1.4 C-mount lenses for 2/3" sensors
4 axis CAM for FreeCAD:
I'm stuck. My plugin compiles but there's no .so file being generated.
Aparently I don't understand enough about cmake.
Makibox A6 HT:
I'm bringing some parts to add a passiv cooler and a cooling fan to the cool part of the hotend.
After exchanging the extruder this seems to be the root cause.
Because of frequent filament stalls on my Makibox A6 HT, I'm currently upgrading to a different hotend that (hopefully) can transfer more force onto the filament. That should allow it to overcome added resistance in the hotend due to heating and thus expanding filament. That in turn would make the printer more reliable.
The stock drive gear is 9.5mm away from where the filament would be with the Aitripper V3.
Solution: Get an MK7 Drive Gear Pulley (for 1.75mm filament).
It came out the best for this purpose in a nice test. Don't install the MK7 just yet! Read to the end first!
Problem 2
The BSP Air Tripper has a thinner bowden tube.
Solution: Cut an M4 thread into the end of the tube, place an M4 nut on it.
Now it will be compatible with the Makibox hot-end.
Problem 3
The shaft is too short to hold the MK7 drive gear in reverse.
Also the hole in the MK7 is tappered, so you cannot even insert the shaft into the other end and need excessive force to push it on the right way.
Obviously spacers of 4.5mm for the stepper motor are needed.
You need to print this space before installing the MK7 because you can't get it off anymore.
You need an allen key of 1.4mm diameter for the grub screw.
Also the long screws need to be 11mm longer (6mm for the acrylic, 5mm for the spacers).
Thus M3x41mm or M3 threaded rod is needed.
Solution: M3 threaded rod, 4x2 M3 nuts as spacer, 4x M3 nut for mounting
Problem 4
Let's mount everything up!
The Makibox has only 3 mounting holes.
The Airtripper only needs 3 bolts.
...different 3 bolts then the ones we have holes for.
Solution: an M4 nut can mount your extruder on top of the Makibox through one of the air cooling slits.
Problem 5
So let's do a dry-run first!
You can't push the filament through.
The exit-hole and the center of the BSP connector are not aligned and the filament hits the wal of it's hole with no way of manual intervention. Force can't overcome this issue.
The photo shows the abolute maximum how far you can insert the filament.
Solution: none yet. You may get it to push through with excessive force and trying serveral dozen times.
Note 6
The new drive gear is larger. You need to multiply a factor of 0.57 to the amount of filament to transport in your slicer settings.
It's done!
I managed to design a quick release adapter.
It uses a cloth peg spring for the arm and has a second spring (from ballpoint pens) to keep the arm open until you push down with your camera to lock it in place without touching the lever.
I may have found reliable setting for the default extruder of the Makibox A6 HT!
It finished several prints from 5 minutes to more then 3 hours without any manual intervention.
Something I haven't seen since I own this printer!
There is some grinding and blockage but only every 1-2 days and for obvious reasons (plastic blobs accumulating in the parking position,...)
Mechanics
Do all the tuning steps. Especially check the stepper motor reference voltages.
Make sure the X and Y axis and the hot end are loose enough to slide without any unusual sounds and nearly no force at all.
Make sure the springy plastic wheel in your extruder can rotate. If not, use a round file to widen the axis holes slightly. I filed a small filament-shaped grove into the surface of the wheel to reduce pressure to the filament. Oil the trapezoidal rods of X and Y axis, the smooth rods and also the 4 plastic axes of the filament reel holder in the back.
Insert the filament spool into the back of the machine
Make sure the machine is cool (hotend less then 60°C) before you start printing.
Make sure the outside of your nozzle is clean. (Don't care for the hole.) Always retract the filament until it is completely outside the hot end after printing.
Before starting to actualy print, manually insert the filament until it has overcome the barrier between bowden tube and the actual hot end (there's a slight change in resistance and a noise), then slooooowly go further until you feel the resistance of the plastic hitting the bottom of the extruder.
Basic settings
I started with the default Slic3r profile "A6 General (HT PLA) v0.3" from Makibox.
Then I did the following modifications:
Printer Settings
Leave layer height at 0.2mm
Leave the first layer height at 150%
Speed: Reduce External Perimeter and Perimeter speed to 20mm/s
Advanced: Extrusion width of First Layer: 200%
The first layer needs to stick. So we push out twice as muchfilament as needed, to make sure it does.
The slow perimeters help making round holes round instead of D-shaped.
Filament Settings
Increase PLA temperature from 193°C to 218°C
Leave printer bed temperature at 60°C
The increased temperature lowers viscosity and thus the force required by the extruder.
Thus reducing filament stalls due to the extruder grinding.
It also makes the first layer stick much better.
Printer Settings
Reduce retraction speed from 70mm/s to 25mm/s
Reduce the retraction from 4mm to 2mm.
Increase "minimum travel after retraction" from 2mm to 4mm (At least twice the retraction.)
Together with the increased temperature this seems to prevent filament stalls due to the extruder grinding.
I'm making very slow process on porting SimpleMultiAxisCAM to the unfinished FreeCAD CAM2 module.
I'm slowly getting a good understanding of how everything works but there are a lot of parts in the CAM module and Geometry classes that I still need to understand.
Currently I'm working on it every thursday, when the local hackerspace meets.
See here for my plan and status.
I'm finally back to 3d printing and it feels good!
That $300 Makibox is so much more reliable then my old $1225 Thing-O-Matic (notice how the press release says "reliable" and "fully automatic"? My Ass!)!
The Makibox does have filament stalls and sometimes prints are slanted but nowhere near the issues I have with the Makerbot Industries ToM.
So here are the latest things I have designed and made:
A Zoom H6 version of my old Zoom H4n remote control grip for camera rigs....
3d printable quick release plates (including a printed, custom bolt).
Adjusted to be able to still open the battery compartment on the GH2 and GH1 cameras.
I'm currently working on a 3d printed quick release adapter using common cloth peg springs and ballpoint pen springs, new shoulder rig parts and a GoPro version of this quick release plate.
Actually I finished these on thursday but I wanted to publish them only after I checked them with every tripod and quick release adapter I had.
The nice thing is, that this also fits the Calumet adapters (different edges) and that the cutom bolt is also 3d printed (with a slight rapper to make using a thread-cutter after printing easy).
Of cause everything is parametric, so you can choose between 1/4-20 and 3/8-16 and any depth for the bolt.
I'm currently working on designing the quick release adapter too and to make custom versions of this one (e.g. with a GoPro socket on top, a hot-shoe, a 15mm tails mount or a microphone mount.)
Aparently some user named "Next Copter" has copied one of my designs.
Version 2 of my GoPro to NERF rail connector including all photos to shapeways.
I'm publishing this design as Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA,
that means NON COMMERCIAL
that means ATTRIBUTION
that means SHARE ALIKE
that means the design, I didn't license the photos at all.
I have already contacted the Shapways abuse department and am waiting for the legal identity of the offender and how many he did sell there.
Then I'll decide about further steps.
Update: Shapeways informed me that another copy by a user named "Svenstead" has appeared.
I installed OctoPi onto a Raspberry Pi embedded in my Makibox A6 HT 3d printer.
The development brance allows experimental slicing on the Raspi.
However it only allows to select a cura executable and config-file.
So here are the steps to do the same with Slic3r:
wget http://makibox.com/tl_files/support/slic3r_configs/slic3r_configs.zip unzip slic3r_configs.zip cp slicer_config/A6\ General\ \(HT\ PLA\)\ v0.3.ini slicer_default.ini git clone git://github.com/alexrj/Slic3r cd Slic3R sudo perl Build.PL #this will take a LONG time and 1 or 2 tests may fail vi cura_dummy
It took me an entire afternoon to set up a development environment for FreeCAD.
...so I'm publishing the ready made environment including kdevelop as a virtual machine.
For use with VirtualBox but the HDD is compatible with qemu. Username=Password=freecad
The best option to extend the disk space is to add a second, virtual disk and mount it as /home/freecad/source or similar.
If there are issues where a (X)_python3.3.cmake file cannot be found, it may be required to change "python3.3" to "python2.7" via sudo in the respective (X).cmake file.
This posting is just a list of links and notes for myself on how to get started contributing to the CAM project in FreeCAD.
Why?
Ultimately my aim is to integrate my SimpleMultiAxisCAM code for 4 and 5 axis CNC machining as a TPG (tool path generator) that post-processes the toolpath generated by another TPG. It shall add the inverse kinematic needed to use the 4th and 5th axis to follow the surface normal. Where that is not possible due to the tool or collet colliding with another point of the part or the machine, it shall try to follow the surface normal as close as possible.
CAM2 notes:
'Tool Path Generator'
(TPG) include a 'Geometry' setting.
This 'Geometry' setting
includes a list of object names from the current file.
cam::Paths accepts these geometry names
looks
for those that are based on the Part::Feature class (and hence
have a TopoDS_Shape reference).
cam::Paths
recursively
iterates through the TopoDS_Shape objects until it finds the
TopoDS_Edge objects.
It assembles these edges into lists of contiguous edges based on
their endpoints.
The Cam::Path class does also allow Cam::Point objects
to be contained so that point-based operations such as drilling,
tapping, counterbore, boring etc.
Cam::ContiguousPath
Stored these contiguous edges.
TopoDS_Edge
represents a single 'curve'
(i.e. line, arc, or spline, bezier curve).
I did so much on the TravelCNC and the new Makibox 3D printer that all work on my large (very non-mobile) CNC got delayed quite a bit.
This weekend I finally got around to convert it from shielded USB cables to Ethernet.
The board was already capable of this but obviously I needed a way to supply 5V power when the USB cable was no longer used.
As a test-project I finished a very custom too-shelf for my tiny workshop out of scrap wood.
I tried to do deeper cuts into wood to use more of the actual cutting length of my thick 10 flute cutter and not wear out the tip as much but everything below Z-1.5mm was problematic.
My Makibox is finally printing fine except for some MacOS related random freezes during long prints.
So I'm currently working on repling the desktop PC altogether and integrating a Raspberry Pi directly into the case of the Makibox.
Thus it will be remote operated via WiFi/Ethernet and a secured web UI.
Setup
Since I used MacOS, it was difficult to just DD the image onto the SD card.
(You can't do that while it's mounted and while it's not mounted you are missing the device entry.)
So I downloaded a small utility program to do that for me.
Wifi
SSH was already configured. Pasword pi/paspberry. WiFi was already configured sans the networks keys.
With sudo I could easily edit the wpa_supplicant config.
At first it didn't want to boot unless Ethernet was connected.
I don't know why it works now.
Camera
My plan is to connect the Raspberry Pi camery but I haven't done so yet.
Octopi does support it.
There is a nice swivel camera mount here but the base doesn't slice correctly with Slic3r and it is missing the back of the camera PCB case.
Power
(Not done yet)
The Printrboard inside the Makibox seems to already provide 5V that I could use to power the Raspberry Pi.
GND Pin 6
5V Pin 2
Physical mounting
I'm working on it and will post the design files and STL exports on YouMagine soon. (No Thingiverse for me any more, sorry.)
Printer Settings
You just need to set default temperatures and feedrates for jogging.
For some reason Octoprint/Octopi are not interested in the physical limits of your printer at all.
On-board slicing
Very experimental, so I haven't done that yet. Here is the tutorial.
Update
To update Octoprint on the Raspberry Pi, just SSH into the board and git-checkout the newest version.
Problems!!!
The Raspberry Pi has one very important issue.
The SD card slot may loose contact at any time.
When that happens you get an "internal server error" in the middle of a print and cannot do anything via SSH because you are lacking all commands and files because...your file system is suddenly gone.
You can apply pressure to the SD card to counter this effect.
My Raspberry mounting above contains a pressure arm for that purpose.
I like Thingiverse!
I put this step off for a long time, hoping for the best.
But Makerbot Industries has gone way too far and I can no longer support that site by hosting my designs there. Sorry.
My personal Makerbot Industries history?
For my first 3d printer I decided on a RepMan 3.0. Back then the Makerbot Cupcake was out and it was clear that it had a ton of design flaws and was shipping with mistakes lots of others had already fixed in their designs.
When Makerbot Industries announced the Thing-O-Matic it looked like they had fixed their issues and had a new printer that was so reliable, it could print dozens of parts on a conveyor belt unobserved during the night. (That's what the official promo video showed a timelapse of after all.)
I was wrong. It was to be 2 years of fixing and tuning and replacing parts of that printer.
After such an experience I skipped the Replicator.
I learned that Makerbot doesn't release upgrade kits for their designs to fix hardware issues they know about.
Then a lot of features from Thingivere was removed (Bill of Materials, selecting required tools) that I had used up to that point. That got me quite upset but I didn't leave as there was not good alternative at that point.
Then they turned turbo-capitalist.
With the replicator II they stopped publishing hardware plans and switched to closed source software.
That step caused huge waves and a lot of people left Thingiverse and started alternative sites and a lound #OccupyThingiverse move.
I am subscribed to the Thingiverse Blog's RSS feed via a Reprap feed aggregator.
It turned out that the Thingiverse Blog became but a tag on the Makerbot blog.
Okay, I don't like that but I can live with that.
Nowadays the Thingiverse Blog's RSS feed consists entirely of Makerbot Industries marketing spam.
Not a single of these postings even mentions the word Thingiverse anymore. They are about Makerbot Stores and stuff.
Now the Thingiverse site login became a "Makerbot login". It's clearly no longer an independent site that happens to have a ton of Makerbox banner ads on it.
The last bit was their CES show now. Chipped, proprietary filament cartridges in non-standard dimensions. This is a move I can absolutely not tollerate.
I'm leaving.
Alternatives
The most prominent alternative and the one I'm leaving for seems to be Youmagine (It is operated by Ultimaker.)
They seem to be quite fair and open at the moment. I would have liked something not bound to any printer manufacturer but there is no better alternative now.
Youmagine allows me to include embed a design iFrame into this blog similar to embedded YouTube videos.
I guess I'll use that feature a lot.
My current plan is to keep the Thingiverse entries but remove the files and add a link to my Blog (most already have that) and to the Youmagine entry. Let's see if this will trigger any abuse response but I hope not.
I'm planning to use that opportunity to clean up many old designs, add more technical drawings,... .
I am thinking of having a copy on GitHub using this GitHub template for 3D printed projects.
The problem with the GitHub -approach is that there is no index listing all designs hosted where and that GitHub itself may at one point choose not to give free resources to projects that are not software at all.
About Youmagine
It's pretty new and still being improved at a very quick rate.
As far as the relation to Ultimaker goes, for the moment it seems to act only as a sponsor.
I would however really like an official word about this. Company managements change and so do their opinions.
It has this "send to 3d printer" button. It takes me to "You are not authorized to access this page." and I can't see a way to disable this or how it would ever select what file (if many) to send.
I get to have a Bill of Materials again! Yea!!!
I can't see anything about version control or deriving designsfrom other designs. The later feater I found quite important as you can navigate this ancestry both way. It was however seldomly used. Most designs I ever found are write-only and nobody ever improves on them. (Heck, hardly any 2 people use the same software or software able to import the original file. So people are often stuck with reverse engineering a design from an STL export.)
There is an empty "" block when editing a design. No idea what it means.
As for Creative Commons licenses: There is a nice feature "download printable attributions tag for this design" feature!
About Images: I cannot remove automatically rendered images for STL files. They will always be shown next to my uploaded images.
Profile page: You have to look up your password first. If you forget to enter it you are warned. Entering it THEN however takes you to the login page and after that all the text you already typed it lost. :(
