Author: josh

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
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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

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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.

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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.

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Project updates before i jet off for a week

lighting i instaled.

LightBurn Camera Update LED bed:

As i never finished this modification off. and Karl reached out to me asking me if it was worth doing. i had a job to do tonight doing some fun stuff for my son for the aeroplane flight. So thought i would kill 2 birds with 1 stone. do some testing

So it calibrated very well with the new strip lighting now i had the head crash into the camera mount think that might be the cuse of my issues. I am currently working on a new mount made out of resin.

As you can see from the little test i put together. did a quick trace using a hand drawing, yes i know next fine artist.

wont win a prize for artisticness.

i then i tested to see if it cuts where the drawing was.

As you can see my alignment is well off and the image is enlarged.

The result is crap, So i think i will look at some videos on calibration as i want to be able to put this to bed. so the first job i will do on my return will look into this and get it all working.

Prusa printers

i will be looking at repairing these machines on my return as i want to get the project that i started before it broke.

This will then lead on to my adventures in CNC and using soft limits until i get time to wire up the end stops. thankfully after i get back i have 1 more trade show to do for this month so can do some more stuff.

More fun with sublimation

going to be getting my head around T-shirts and mugs and some other fun promo bits for the man cave. might even set up a shop selling some bits who knows.

SLA Resin 3d printing

more of this coming up as i learn more about it. going to read up as sure my recent fails have been down to me not doing things right. not the machine its self.

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The first project on the SLA printer

Yes, at last, i get to take the Elegoo Mars printer out for a test drive.

So i have already tried this mount on my standard Prusa FDM printer on quick and dirty settings and it printed but had some issues with the camera holder, it fitted but need a lot of sanding to get it to work right. so as i now have a super fine detail printer. why not make it out of resin.

In the end, went for the yet another camera mount which i cut from acrylic and blogged about on here its good but the head hits at the bottom of the bed if door is shut on the cutting bed so have been thinking about ether modifying mount or designing another one.

I was chatting with a fellow laser cutting community group user who was asking for my advice and was going to buy this mount off an Etsy shop. This got me thinking what if i printed this in resin would be nice and smooth and easy to put together.

Model is available off Thingiverse link here.

Fired up Chitbox and dropped in the components for the mount had to rotate some bits and then ready to slice with standard 0.05mm layer hight profile standards

this is my first attempt ad printing in sla other than the test samples in the previous review

Now not sure how well it will run as haven’t added rafts or supports but why not just go for it going to cost me the minimal amount in resin. hoping this comes out well.

wish me luck will be back in the cave in a 2hrs to see how it does.

The machine is all ready to go all i have to do is select mode off the U-disk and 2hrs later should have bits ready to clean and cure.

Total fail 1:

Print stuck to the build plate but had layer shift and the part was flatter than it should have been.

wish me luck lol

Fail Number 2:

Printed raft and supports then failed again this time leaving a residue on the print surface this required a big clean up to remove have also marked the print surface.

What Next:

As i am about to get on a jet plane for a week away will do some reading on supports and print methods to see what i can do. as i am sure it’s more my error than the printer.

will update this post on my return as will be a little bit less stressed than when i was doing this first run project as had a large amount of bit to make for my day job so it’s on a shelf till i get back then will make a proper space for it to live.

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Review: Ricoh SG-3110DN Sublimation Printer

As with most printers this started off life as a standard printer well in my case this is a second-hand printer that allows me to do a lot of promo bits for the cave and for my day jobs the joys of being someone mad enough to run 3 jobs the family business/Crafting business/Man Cave, blogger. The wife might argue that the blogging bit is no a real job but i beg to differ.

I got a great deal on a second had printer load of mugs and some sublimation printing paper.

drove 30 mins out of town to grab this kit and well worth the money i paid a lot less than the printer alone would cost.

So why the Ricoh printer well in my case space is premium and this is a nice compact unit the fact its ink-based refillable cartridge system is a doddle to install and use.

its great machine to learn on as there is a lot of information on this printer on youtube so lots of setting up guides.

as new to this being a bit of a learning curve but getting there finding heat and time is the hard part of sublimation printing.

but once you have got your head around that it’s easy. i am getting there slowly but think i have now found the sweet spot on the printer side just to get the heat pressing parts

pros:

  • Small and compact A4 printer.
  • Easy refillable cart system.
  • lots of guides on how to use this printer
  • aftermarket inks cheap

Cons

  • sealed ink cleaning bin single-use only have to replace so far looks like will last a long time.
  • issues with windows 10 and drivers have had to run off the LAN
  • inks are expensive if brought off sawgrass

I would recommend this machine for someone who wants to set up something out of the box without having to reset chips and other complications