Been travelling with work.

right got some fun stuff coming up will be posting over the next few days just been working on my raspberry control panel for the mk3s just been drawing up plans for the GPIO pins as will be doing an integrated system this is all dependent on it all working but looking good from my tests.

The layout of GPIO pins on my raspberry pi 3 subject to change.

I have fitted a new tip to my soldering rig hoping its a better for doing reverse soldering on pins as from above you can see quite a few cables to deal that will be hidden by cable management.

have also been 3D printing a few test spoolers that are wall-mounted got one more to print before i post my findings. but will be doing the pi integration project first as this has now dragged on over a few blog posts. lots of highs and lows.

i also need some heat in the man cave as winter is definitely among us as temperatures are dropping into single digits.

I also managed to pick up a 300bar compressor for filling HPA bottles and a scuba tank will cover that shortly as going to be trying some modifications on that if my initial findings are ok.

hoping to get some work done tomorrow.

Plan B upscaling my idea octopi bigger screen build

Ok sorry for delays been a labour of love as have had issues the setup and getting wiring working right. but here we go. for time being i am going to simplify this post as serial links don’t seem to be working right will have a revisit to see what’s going on. might rework the wiring loom i made to see if that solves the issue. so running on USB

and even then last night had issues with that was trapped wiring, in the end, i have also ordered a 90degree USB cable to give some wire relief.

New USB cable seems to have fixed all issues with the printer sending kill cmd.

After having issues with my 3.5 TFT screen I now think this might be down to OctoPI-TFT not being a fully working build as i have rebuilt on my 3.5″ screen and 7″ to limited success. so i have decided that i have a 7″ touch screen and enclosure kicking around the man cave so i am going to install TouchUI on another pi yes got a few of kicking around will be directly linking via USB as serial links playing up. will also be installing power management with the plugin to turn my Original Prusa i3 Mk3s on and off independently to screen. also will be adding a led lighting ring around my web camera. this will be controlled by my octopi server using GPIO pins.

So what are you going to need to attempt this

7″ touch screen and enclosure.
Raspberry PI 3
  • 1 x Raspberry pi 3
  • 1 x Micro SD card 64gb overkill but smallest SD cardi have bar one in current set up.
  • 1 x Offical Raspberry Pi 7″ touch screen and enclosure.
  • 5v Arduino compatible relays. in my case 2 channel relay.
  • some duplex sockets and pins numbers to be confirmed.
  • crimping tool.
  • wire strippers.
  • wire, in this case, using a 6 core cable and a few single wires for lighting and any other additions as i build this project.
  • octoprint software available here.

Let’s get started First of all head over to Octoprints web site https://octoprint.org/ and download the 600+meg image start off by downloading the latest image.

you will need to unzip the image an image writer to burn it. I use etcher as it’s free and quick, select your image then select sd card as the target then hit start. a window pops up say yes to off it goes. will take around 15 mins to write and verify the sd card.

Select image from where you unzipped it.
Press start to write to the sd card say yes to the windows scurity alert.
off it goes time its verified will be 10 to 15 mins.

Now install the memory card into the pi and insert into the enclosure.

Then the power unit will reboot 2 times whilst it configures bits will be left with a screen showing the system ip and telling you to set up pi via the web browser.

Now time to install some bits in the background so we can tun this into touch screen printer controller.

You are now going to have to get an ssh client. i use Bitvise SSH Client as again freeware and very useful tool. so in my case i login to 192.168.0.50

you will then be asked for the default password of the pi which is raspberry. first things i tend to do is rename the host and change the default password. one to secure the pi and 2 to make it identifiable on the network.

type the following sudo raspi-config hit return this will then bring up the config menu. will get some legal bits about privacy and then be asked for the password again raspberry.

option 1 to change password for root
enter new password 2 times

You will then be greeted with the following screen

password changed you’re now secure.
select option 2 the option N1 Hostname then enter to rename.
then hit ok

Now go to finish you will be asked to reboot say yes. the system will reboot and you will need to open a new terminal window.

Bitwise will let you know when its back lives in my case can see it across the room. you will be asked for the new password when logged in click the new terminal window button will show your new hostname.

Now time to configure OctoPI with Touch UI Plug-in.

go to localhost.octopi or IP address that is displayed on your screen on boot up

First, of time, you go to the octopi web interface will be greeted with a wizard screen.

Image result for octopi setup wizard
  1. Start Screen
  2. Access control you will need to make up a username and password. then scroll down to enable login.
  3. Online Connectivity Check I enable this
  4. Plugin Blacklist I enable this.
  5. CuraEngine (<= 15.04. I skip this as all my files are pre-sliced.
  6. Default Printer Profile. Name your printer and profile also set up bed sizes in the tabs in the case of the Prusa mk3s it 250 x 210 x 210.

Now to do a quick plugin test run with my Prusa machine.

insert the basic screen.

Right now we have proof of concept. time to get on with making some connectors up and wiring to link to my Prusa using Rambo serial port. So as my other posts have found out the Prusa serial port does not have the amount of power to power a pi3 without the system having external power.

have clipped the red and black wire off as not using power from Prusa printer. going to make a 2×2 pin duplex female connector with blue and white wire and one with yellow and green. these will insert on to the following GPIO pins. 08 = white 10 = blue 15= green 16 = yellow this will give serial connection via Rambo board.

Image result for gpio pinout for raspberry pi 3
have included this GPIO pinout guide off element14.com website to aid with mods.

time to test again to make sure all connect correctly. success at last!!

Now to add power management and lights for the camera.

Now there are lots of ways this can be done using wifi plugs or relays in our case as want to make this a fun project going to use some 5v relays i was going to use some individual relays to make this project work but i have decided that i will use a 2 channel relay PCB that i will house in a housing as don’t want any wires sticking out.

Let’s make a start.

Taking note of the GPIO pins your going to use with this project in our case we will be using 2 x 5v relays so will use GPIO pins 04 for 5v+and 06 for ground.

IN pins will be any GPIO pins free so in this case, going to use pin 38 and 40 so GPIO20,21 as the triggers. for each relay, as will only use 2 to start might downgrade the relay at a later date.

Found this predesigned solution for 2 relays so will give it a go on Thingiverse

Link for the design can be found here.

i then jumped on PrusaSlicer and added the stl files. sliced them ready for printing.

not quite a perfect print but will do for the relay box.

Now have printed the relay holders will start on wiring side first one will be using 12vdc for light ring low voltage the other relay will be running mains voltage so do not attempt his if you are not comfortable with mains voltage. this is for UK spec wiring colour codes will change and if you’re in the states will not have an earth wire.

Let’s start with the dangerous element well not really that dangerous just be careful when messing with mains cables.

I tested it on my 4 channel relay to test the theory with GPIO pins switching without any power circuits connected to make sure it all works before adding mains voltage. my 2-way dual relay should be with me tomorrow. should take out shares in amazon as my prime account is much used.

!!!DO NOT HAVE LIVE WIRES EXPOSED WHEN PLUGGING INTO THE MAINS!!! makes sure all wiring is not exposed for anyone to touch i my set up i have mounted housing to back wall of the man cave keeps everything out general reach I also used terminated connectors with plastic sheathing to keep everything safe as a mains voltage shock is not fun. I have worked with high voltage for a few years and have been shocked several times the joys of playing with arcade machines and other industrial equipment. this is a disclaimer only attempt this if you feel confident with 240v wiring.

Relay 1

As i have a million and one kettle leads kicking around take a spare one and strip the outer sheath from it without cutting inner cores. i have a special wire cutter to do this and some wire cutters.

outer insulation stripped off i used coaxial cutter
wires cut then stripped .
added crimp pins i am redoing these in smaller pin size. as the yellows are too big squished them as a quick fix as testing.
240v end wired and strapped down.

You will be left with the 3 inner cores. cut the brown wire and strip around 5mm off each end. these wires i use pin crimpers as seals wire and makes it neat. the two wires will go into the high-end voltage of the relay so one will be on com or common pin and the other one will be put in normally closed or NC pin.

Relay 2

This will go via a mains powered 12v PSU i have wired this into the mains and taken some red and black-led wiring cable i have cut the red live wire and stripped 5mm each side and placed pin connectors on each end. placed into Com and NC connection terminals the same as above.

Low Voltage side of the relay to Raspberry Pi 3

on the other end of the relay, on the low voltage end, you have 3 pins IN, GND and VCC IN= GPIO pin GND = Ground and VCC= voltage input. GND and VCC will share voltage for the 4 relays. so will wire IN1 as the mains power switch and IN2 will control 12v lighting ring. leaving IN3,4 free for additional bits for the enclosure. so will make up 2 female pin duplex connectors one with 5v and ground. and the other 2 pin connectors will control lighting and power relay inputs.

low voltage wire will change with 4 pins instead of the current 6 pin

now the wiring is complete time to install some plugins.

ready for 12v PSU and mains voltage just going to test relays before install 2 relay PCB

all boxed up new 2 channel 5v relay ready to wall mount just going to make appropriate length cables.

tonight’s effort as most don’t realise this stuff takes time and has taken me a week to get all the bits together. tonight rewire operational and case installation. also testing plugins and doing an 8hr print. wish me luck.

Wiring swapped over to 2 channel relay and installed in housing.
all wired up ready fir 7hr test.

then armed with a hot glue gun i have glued my led ring to my cheap C922 Logitech webcam. some crimps and cable ties all attached i found an old hard drive power supply 12v that has 5×5 2.1mm power plug. to the parts to grab a female of the plug that i have so i can unplug it easily. The light is on now to install some plugins to control it.

Right ready to test just testing light as till i have a case for the relay i don’t want to risk mains voltage

i am currently testing out different plugins but work well.

Lights off

Lights switched off in my dark cave.

Light on all controlled by a plugin.

print for enclosure is done just need to pull it off the bed and fit the 2 channel relay to the box.

Ocoto-pi Plug-ins

going to run this through the enclosure plug-in so i will be able to power on and off the printer and USB camera light.

let’s get started

Touch UI plugin.

Go to the plugin management scroll down to get more and then search for touch UI after it’s installed you will be greeted with a request to reboot. do so

This screen will appear after reboot

when the server reboots you will be greeted with the new interface on the web log in don’t panic can switch this off look for the 3 bars on top of each other to the right of the screen. Click on it and sub-menu will be displayed click on TouchUI settings

click TouchUI Settings.
Click Toggle TouchUI to disable it on the web page.

The screen should go back to normal now.

Next step is done via remote terminal screen to install the front end for the 7″ screen.

Login to pi via ssh and do the following. Type the following to get the installer script.

git clone https://github.com/BillyBlaze/OctoPrint-TouchUI-autostart.git ~/TouchUI-autostart/

Now to install it.

sudo ~/TouchUI-autostart/helpers/install

Time for a reboot. sudo reboot now.

TouchUI should now display on your small screen were as a web login will be the same. you can customise it via the plugin under the web interface i made mine orange with black background.

Now to add functional add-ons to the system. will be installing a posting my findings in another post as this has been a week of tinkering but now happy with the output.

around 4 hrs till this finishes then will be adding add-ons.

nearly 4 hrs into wall mount spool holder. looks great.

Will be adding the following over the next few days and hard wiring the build.

Simple Emergency Stop

just what is says it i adds a E-stop to your menu bar as things do go wrong i usually sit watching the first layer or two print before going about my day and check in every so often.

Heater Timeout

this plugin saves your ass if you have forgotten to turn off printer hotend will allow# you to add a time out on hot end being idle.

OctoLapse

The daddy of time lapse captures with this powerfull plugin can make prints appear from nowhere. took a bit of reading to get this working right but worth the hard graft to get it working. mind you there is a pre-compiled version for the mk3 so might just try that.

Themeify

This is great custom themes discord being my favourite as i do not like white backgrounds.

PSU Control

this nifty little plugin will allow automatically shutdown of the printer after the print has finished also allows you to remotely turn on and off the printer.

OctoPrint-Enclosure

this will allow for all sorts of inputs and outputs i will be using it to switch on and off camera LEDs and maybe more in the future as might add temperature sensors in the future.

OctoPrint-PrinterAlerts

this plugin pauses the print if there any errors from Prusa printer sensors a must for a Prusa user.

FilamentManager

Filament Manager for OctoPrint yet to try this but seams promising for knowing how much is left on a spool will document this as i install. it.

This OctoPrint plugin helps to manage your filament spools.

  • Replacing filament volume with weight in sidebar
  • Software odometer to measure used filament
  • Warn if print exceeds remaining filament on spool
  • Assign temperature offset to spools
  • Automatically pause print if filament runs out
  • Import & export of spool inventory

CostEstimation

this allows me to price up my prints even if they are for my us as good to see how much i am spending.

OctoPrint-Complicated

As the wife has brought me a new iwatch for birthday i will be using this addon to see how my prints are doing via the iwatch.

OctoPrint-Dropbox-Timelapse

allows all captured time-lapse videos to be uploaded to my dropbox to stop any issues with my sd card filling up.

Prusa serial connection wiring

Sorry for lack of posts been away working at our holiday rental getting it ready for its firsts guests so been cutting signs for the doors and making welcome baskets and doing all the other fun jobs hanging mirrors pictures etc. so lack of sleep and having an ill baby boy as well. I am very tired

Oh, and my soldering idea didn’t work so it’s back to using brake out headers tonight. wish me luck as want to put this project to bed. (It did work had 2 wires the wrong way around)

my light reading.

Ok, I have figured out my issue got 2 of the pins the wrong way around somewhere pin 4 and 6 were reversed not sure how that happened so might go back to the solder idea as it works now. I am however getting a low power warning on the pi and have some calibration issues with the screen.

Finally working off wires alone.

the calibration issue i think i know the answer to there is a line of code i need to move out of the x11 folder that might be causing my issues. will try that tonight and see if it fixes this problem.

So i missed the following line of code after running this command and reboot screen fingers crossed it will now work again going to test this later as plugged pi in wrong again last night as was tired.

sudo mv /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf ~/

Think the screen might have issues going to do a fresh install of the script as now nothing works on the touch screen.

going to run off the stand-alone power supply as the voltage is too low to run a pi3 so have ordered a micro USB brake out cable so i can solder to 2 pins on the pi to power the unit this will allow me to shut down the printer on a wifi plug.

test run before i hardwire it.

Octo pi active and working just got to adjust web camera to get better image will then configure octolaps for some great time-lapse action. have recycled camera mount from my CR-10 as simple to fit.

just testing a quick print. on it to make sure it’s all working before i do a test fit of the control panel
2 test prints later. time to address the limited power.

I will cover the modification i will do to the link wire of the pi in a later post happy now the mk3s actually turns on and powers up.

then it stopped working yay back to USB method for the moment. till have thave some time to look into a fix.

Update think it is the cable as next post shows i think.

Prusa Mk3s Pi3 control panel intergration.

As i will be adding a Pi3 and octopi to manage and control my machine i was trawling through Thingiverse i spotted this little beauty. Thought would save me space and can integrate with the Prusa machine i also have 3.5 TFT adafuit display kicking around my bedroom.

Got this remixed design from FlyByTom this version V7 with no end cap. i went with this design will completely integrate into the panel this will mean can plug into the pi3 for USB and network connections when. I will be using the jumper pins from the back of the TFT screen to the Rambo board this will power the pi and integrate it into the printer. The link for the design can be found here

Downloaded and jumped into Prusa Slicer followed the instructions and put it on the plate at an angle so it will fit.

ready to print.

i am going to print in PETG when i do the final print but for a test print i have some black PLA kicking around the cave so will do a test run. Then print in petg later as I have 3 rolls kicking around that i have been meaning to print with but that will be a final print later.

The test Print and fit:

6hrs it printed in came out not half bad there was tiny amount of lifting in one corner

The wiring of the PI3 into the Prusa Rambo board. This is going to be slightly different from the guide on Prusa’s web site as will be wiring from the front of the PCB. found someone who makes cables but unfortunately, they don’t ship to the UK so going to have to make one my self.

There are six wires need to link the machine to the pi bank of 4 and 2 are used. so from the Rambo PCB, you will use the following

Pins used on the Rambo board.
Connections like so from the Rambo PCB

so to make this as i had no 7 pin connecors i glued a 6 x2 connector and a 2 pin connector together to make it a 7 pin connector. used some breadboard to hold it all together whilst the super glue set.

nicely glued up. ready to solder the other end.
Rambo connector cable i made for linking to the pi3 plugin and play.

Now a direct link would be too easy as the TFT screen uses all 40 pins in connection there is a break out header shown in PCB diagram below but too tight to attach connector did try.

failed attempt as heads too long.
JP1 is the brake out connector. only interested in the first 16 pins.
pins used in the PCB pinout diagram.

as the pin headers are too big so going to have to solder to the pi 3 directly so ignore above brake out wiring will be same pin numbers on the back of the PCB board going to flux and add solder to the 6 pads on pins 4,6,8 and pins 15, 16. I ran out of time to tin wiring and solder and test on Tuesday.

What it looks like wired up.

building the system:

This was partly straight forward partly frustrating as not all guide work. heres here’s my simple version of the guide this guide is if you are Using Adafruit 3.5 TFT display

You will need to download the octoprint image from https://octoprint.org/download/

you will then need a program to burn it to your sd card i use etcher select image select sd card and write 20 mins later will have a working image

Put install screen to the raspberry pi add the SD card and network cable then power the pi will take a few mins to power up the screen will show just as white don’t panic.

scan local ip network for pi in my case showing on my network as 192.168.0.1 using a ssh client login to the system using user name pi and raspberry as password.

Time to install TFT screen drivers this will get the screen displaying correctly. in the ssh, terminal screen type the following.

  • cd ~
  • wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts/master/adafruit-pitft.sh
  • chmod +x adafruit-pitft.sh
  • sudo ./adafruit-pitft.sh

when installing the script you will get asked the following. what screen it is in my case option 4 3.5″ 480×320. you will also get asked if you want the screen to display consol. i said no and yes to HDMI port mirroring just in case i decide to use the HDMI port. You will then be prompted to reboot the machine say yes.

you will then need to relogin to the pi.

As octoprint image does not have graphical front end is web-based. We are going to first have to install the X desktop environment, then Touch-TFT and its requirements

  • sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-0
  • sudo apt install xserver-xorg xinit xserver-xorg-video-fbdev

Once X is installed, we can follow up with the installation of OctoPrint-TFT you will need to first of all download by using wget command.

  • wget https://github.com/mcuadros/OctoPrint-TFT/releases/download/v0.1.2/octoprint-tft_0.1.2-1.stretch_armhf.deb

You will then need to install the script.

  • sudo dpkg -i octoprint-tft_0.1.2-1.stretch_armhf.deb

You will need to set the graphics output.

  • sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

We need to remove the 99-fbturbo.conf file from our Xorg directory. i tried this but didn’t find the file still works without it. so unsure.

  • sudo mv /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-fbturbo.conf /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-fbturbo.conf.old

Now on reboot OctoPrint-TFT should load and start attempting to connect

this was in the hose so no printer connected.

On reboot, you will see this screen until you plug it into the printer. you will then control screen as shown below. as i haven’t installed my link plug into the Rambo yet this was just to do a test to make sure all was working.

testing the server works. need to mess with the style sheets

now to configure the web interface of octopi.

Open web browser goto IP address or octop.local you will be greeted with a wizard so set user name and password and enable security. name profile of printer and set bed sizes in my case 250mm x 210mm x 210mm i also adjusted temperatures to match my Prusa printer in the configurations folder.

i will be adding plugins but will cover that in another post.

i will finish off this project on my return to London as got a 208-mile drive down to Wales for a weekend of getting holiday rental ready for first guests.

so will plug everything in on Tuesday.

Sunday Night Fun with Prusa Mk3s upgrade

As it was Sunday night and wet i thought i would bring the Prusa in for its upgrade as its time i fixed it once and for all.

One of the perks of being a Prusa owner is when new tech is produced they release an upgrade kit. So armed with a Pepsi Max cherry my electric micro screwdriver a pair of pliers and a screwdriver i set to work.

sunday night fun ready to start the upgrade

got the footstool and a box and made a little workshop in the living room as my little one was in bed.

All stripped down box of bolts removed time to upgrade

so after 30 or minutes or so i had taken apart the old extruder and was left with bare z-axis ready for its new extruder to be installed. now to install the new extruder.

Do love the online manuals nothing missed. what you see on the screen is what you need to do.

about an hour and 30 mins into the build and starting to button up the extruder getting ready. for electronics. section of the upgrade

All done 2 hrs later yes i missed some square nuts and had to rebuild x backplate again doh missed that section of the manual it’s fine as was easy enough to do. right all built.

Downloaded latest software and firmware of the Prusa site ready to flash it. all done flash successfully. Time to calibrate my machine and hope the upgrade has fixed it. here goes nothing. ok seft test passed auto home passed XYZ calibration failed arg going to call it a night as 1 am in the morning on a work night.

Monday evening feeling bit on the tired side. I have managed to speak with tech support online chat and was asked to check the P.I.N.D.A probe yes think i must have been tired as had not plugged it in last night doh. Ok, let’s get back on to the calibration one last check of the P.I.N.D.A probe hight and found it needed some minor adjustments. time to calibrate

4 point calibration to start off with fingers crossed.

Yay, its passed all calibrations and have dialled in the first layer hight. done a simple test print all working. time to move it back to the cave. time to test it’s all working. first long print. 12:30 am fist layer looks perfect time to sleep.

have checked on it this morning and its still printing. So i think i have solved issues with my mk3 will post an image of first printed half of the spool holder later on my return home.

Will put an image of the first half printed later here

That one working Prusa Printer now to fix the Mk2s MMU as then can print multi-coloured prints. without the expense of pallet 2 +. Fingers crossed on that one as then will have a full set of working printers at home. That will probably be on my return from Walse as got a house to get ready for our first renters so a busy week/week end.

Will be printing 5 spool holders so i can have a full set of multi-material printing and the mk3 at the same time.

Time to Upgrade my Prusa

Todays Arrival:

Prusa MK3s Upgrade Kit today so better get refreshed on the disassembly of the extruder for the new filament sensor. As i thought that the doorbell went and DHL delivery from Prusa research lol freaky

decided to get the version with the printed part as the printer is working intermittently.

Black Elegoo Resin is arriving so can finish off relocating the USB plug might also give backplate another go. should have this before the end of the day. depending on amazon some time erratic delivery.

Last nights offerings.

Curing station was going to do it last night but got home and by the time i had fed and watered the son put him to bed was late so i just tinkered with the mk3 Prusa and managed to get it to Print a job with only one filament reload.

I then called it a night as was wet and felt like some PS4. I know i don’t post every day on here but bits are constantly going on in the background whether its day job or crafting business or fun projects and unlike the greats of web and youtube i am a one man operation and i love it.

Tonight will be a washout as at a wedding hoping to get some the upgrade done over the weekend. time allowing as looks like quite a few steps are needed.

Was a productive night in the cave bit of modding and crafting.

After looking on the Elegoo mars forums i saw someone had reworked the firmware to allow network support so i had to do it.

https://www.elegoomars.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=15

you will need to register to download the firmware modification then unpack it for installing it to the machine the script comes with great instructions. the

I then found a great design on Thingiverse that allowed for a keystone network adaper to be installed to a cat5 cable. so i jumped on amazon order some keystone plugs and now to convert the firmware and add the hardware.

Last night i printed and cured the new black plate on the printer.

So modifying my new printer begins
1hr later time to cure the back plate.
Ready to install later.

Thanks, amazon.co.uk prime as next day delivery for my keystone plugs and tools to do this had a load of patch cables left in the office so going to sacrifice one of them as my plugin and play solution. all my bits are paid for not sponsored just like the service.

goodies for the mod.

time to make a short network cable to keystone connector. armed with my cable stripper and punch tool time to cut down the cable and make it panel mounted.

All done and tested.

unfortunately, i managed to install plug backwards and broke the print on removal. so will be a tomorrow job as currently printing a USB mod for moving the key from back to front.

USB extension cable ready for next mod.

Updated from yesterday 02/10/19:

The right printed the rear plate again, guess what i managed to break it again so i think will print it in pla once i have my Prusa back up and running right.

I am hoping to get an upgrade on Monday and be back in business as driving me nuts not being able to use it. will also revisit the MMU of my mk2s as could be good fun.

I have ordered some black resin and will reprint the bottom part of the USB holder in black but works well. some pictures of it in green.

going to reprint in black as all green is too much.
base to ve redone in black and keep top green. for the time being.

Assembly and testing of the curing station Part 2`

RIght finally have finished cutting my curing station time to get it all assembled.

After Friday nighs miss calculation of size i didn’t want fully print base and holder so last night i printed bottom and top and one lamp holder ring of the 4 needed.

and so it beginens
it all fits nice and snug.

I then cut the rest of the spacer rings for the lamp. After doing so i put 4 x m3 hex bolts through the top of the lamp. I then glued each layer and added m3 nuts to hold all together.

first layer glued.
all glued up.
second later installed.
all 5 layer bolted together now to wipe off access glue.

after i had assembled it and glued the light fitting i did a test fit of the lamp to the holder.

nice tight fit.
perfect fit.

I then cut the rest of the box for a final fit.

sheet 3 of 4 nearly done.
test fit of the turntable.
I then placed the lamp on the top of the box to see how it looked.
both sides of the box assembled missing 2 sides inner and outer wall
looks good for curing my prints.

now to add some tinfoil and assemble the curing station.

I don’t like the finish going to order some aluminium tape.
don’t like it.

I don’t like the finish going to order some aluminium tape. malke a smooth finish to it. I might add a camera to it as well to show it in action. will make the plans available shortly once i have finished it fully so hold on for part 3 next few days.

Update redesigned the box to be hinged. picking up aluminium tape tomorrow as want to get make it easier to use

TCT Show 2019 NEC

As luck would have it i am working next door at the sensor and instrumentation show. stand 39 if you want to say hi.

the new SL1 Prusa printer looks good a little out of my price range.

As 3d printing is one of my many passions i thought i would go take a look around the show and who did i bump in to. the man himself Joshep Prusa had to shake his hand for developing such nice machines.

The Man Him self

I also managed to have a chat with him about my machine issues. so might be able to fix that on my return to London. I have already ordered the parts so hoping to fix this at the weekend. whilst i was there i also managed to grab a textured build plate for the mk3 printer.

looked a Crealitys latest printer with a swappable head for cnc, laser and 3d printing. and the rest of the range.

Ultimaker had its new range of printers and wall of filament on the show but the price bracket is out of my league till someone sponsors me.

new ultimaker with filament library .

form labs stand hade the new model SLA printer again big bucks to buy so not on my shopping list.

form labs sla machine nice bit of kit

Chatted with some nice chaps @kora3D who have some great safety enclosures for 3d printers with fire detection and fire suppression also filtered to keep the nasties out of the atmosphere. they gave me a free sample of there bed glue called formula 3D. wil let you know what its like once i get my printers up and running.

cool environmental enclosure

i then wandered over to makerbot and saw there newly launched method x printer with support for there preloaded filament reels and also 3rd party support filament, with removable bed and build size of 190×190

Method X MakerBot printer.

also spotted the duet 3d six spool multi-material printer on a quick wander through the hall.

as i was leaving hall 3 to grab a coffee i spatted the xyz printing colour printer looks interesting will try swinging back later to find out some more information

colour printing.

I had some time this afternoon to pop back over to the show and talk to some managed to get some free esun filaments to test, some cool carbon fibre filament from Filamentum. will take for a test drive when i have a hardened nozzle,

laser-based resin printer full Pantone full colors

Laser lines full-colour resin printer was awsome no mess but comes at a price not for the hobbyist.

Creat3d large scale 3d printer with the massive build plate.

After a 4 hour drive back to the house i have decided to give resin printing another go.

death trooper underway will check on it later or tomorrow.

saw a video 3DPrintFarm about hollowing out a print and set up of the print. so have decided to copy it and see if it works for me. As dident manage to get much time on holiday do some research.

i also test cut the base and roof of the curing station must have been drugged as hight of light support is way off so going to remeasure. ajust accordingly lol.

Time for some Rest and relax as been a long few days. Will finish curing box on Saturday night as long as son sleeps. will start looking and my 3d printers.

Josh’s Curing station for 3d Resin printer Part 1

have decided to build my self a Curing Station for my new resin printer as winter is now approaching rapidly won’t have natural sunlight.

I went on bangood and ordered light and turntable as i had time on my sides as i was off on holiday link here. also ordered a filter and silicon funnel for returning resin back to bottle as the paper filters are good but a pain to use. Now what you’re going to need to do this project.

Parts list:

  • Turntable solar powered.
  • UV resin Curing Lamp 405NM. 240v
  • 4mm plyboard.
  • some screws and glue to hold it all together.
  • UK Plug.
  • Tinfoil.
  • Spray adhesive.
  • Timer plug.(optional)

The box design:

As this is a square box 150 mm that a lid fits on top of decided to make this nice and easy so jumped on the web and went over to my favourite laser box making software and its free. https://www.festi.info/boxes.py/ selected twopiece box made 150 x 150 x 150 and 4mm thickness hit generate. see my setting below i then saved the SVG

Setting as above.

I then imported the design into lightburn software.

the raw design.

I then ungrouped the file and started with the lid and the base as i wanted to make an inlay for the turntable to sit on and a cut out for the light housing to sit in.

Ready to modify

now to modify these parts as going to engrave 4 footpads into the base this will help the turntable sit right and not move around. and going to cut a hole in the lid and add an insert fro the lamp to sit in to hold it in place.

area i will engrave so feet fit the base.

I started off my measuring the turntable 100mm x 100mm i then measured the pads 10 mm. i then measured how far from the edge of the base they were 5mm. i then drew a template for the turntable i generated the 10mm engrave circle and offset lines to show edges for the engrave feet circles. then using the array tool i made 4 circles for engraving.

template for the turntable.

I then removed construction lines in black from the template and grouped the part to be inserted in the middle of the base using the centring tool.

centred and ready to cut/engrave
405NM UV lamp

Now to modify the lid so the lamp will shine through the top of the cube. measured outside dimensions 97mm x 115mm with 10mm rim on the light surround.

blue is engraving to give it a lip to sit in. green is for reference line red is cutout.

i then made some holder rings to hold the lamp in place. did 3 of these that i will bolt down with m3 bolts. once i have cut it.

light will stit inside this. and be double-sided taped to the lid.

Cutting out the design:

have spaced this into 4 sheets 300 x 500 4mm ply. with some offcuts for further projects.

Sheet 1
Sheet 2 with a large offcut.
Sheet 3 with a large offcut
Sheet 3 with a large offcut and small offcut.

Right as jet lag got the better of me and i was off to Birmingham in the morning will end it here and follow up in part two cutting and assembly of the project.