New day new project after having a few failures due to double-sided carpet tape failing to hold bits down I have decided to modify my sacrificial board. saw someone do this on a youtube video so i have decided to make my own.
The Idea
Now as the board is bigger than max dims of the milling machine I am going to have to take some true measurements of limits of the machine. As the size of my sheet in the program.
I have these hammer in M5 t-nuts about 100 of them that brought a while back for this project. But then realized that the bed was smaller and my original plan would not work.
So I know the board size is 300 x 400 well according to the manufacture. the wasteboard is actually sized as 380 x 550. Now to home the machine then figured out limits. In mach3 start off by homing all then zeroed X & Y. I then moved y and x to there limits and noted down the size in my case this was 227.6 x 387 so this is the material size. There is an extra 20 mm in x and y if I wanted as soft limits stop 10mm from each axis but happy with that as gives me room. Now on to the design side.
The design
This is double-sided job and my first attempt at one. So the first side is top side so going to my resurfacing tool to do a pass at .5mm as I know nothing has cut in that deep in the past. it will then do the edge bit
Then next up going to make a grid that is 25mm squares each square corner will have 6mm hole in it for bolt holes. To going to use v-bit to make grid followed by 6mm end mill to make holes the will stop 1.5 mm shy of the bottom of the board.
Side 1
Side 2 will have 17mm x 1,5mm deep circles over the holes to allow for the nut holders to be recessed into the wood.
Side 2
the rendered model looks a lot better.
side 1 rendered. i have lessened the grid depthSide 2 renderd.
The process
I have already drilled 4 holes in the board to hold it in place i need to still get some shorter bolts and counter sink the nuts but that will be done after i have run the program
Side 1
This is going to be a 3 tool change process. we are going to start with 22 mm surfacing bit to a depth of 0.5mm to clean off any damage done to board it will then run around the edge of the board, the second pass will be drill function using 6 mm end mill. Finally will run v bit to make the grove grid. and outer border.
Side 2
One pass 6 mm end mill and the job is done. this pass will cut 1.5 mm depth 17 mm diameter circle so the trended inserts can be countersunk.
Running the program
Side 1
So first up the skim. in with my surfacing tool and time to zero it. do love the z probe script written by Charlie look at my review on the CNC machine for more details. right all set up to go have no idea on speeds and feeds on this. ok first and the second attempt failed miserably think i know why my rpm was far too slow so gave up for the night. new day new vigour lol did some light reading overnight and found my Spindle will go up to 24000 rpm i was running way slow for bit size so have adjusted tool to 18000 rpm from 1800 will try this again today.
Ok i am dumb i have miss calculated the size of material doh re-run the edges then hit the soft limits so did some recalculations and then rehashed my board completely.
Luckily being CNC no damage done so the board adjusted the gcode and off again i went with the board skimming. so process 1 ended up as 3 processes dont worry have made adjustments to the master files.
Some pictures of the resurfacing process. in process.
Away we go.
doh size is wrong
Resized to to proper dimentions
dam it it soft limits
Right 0.5 mm down and done only 3 more processes to run and we are done.
The re designed board:
Side 1 redesigned.Side 2 re designed
Next up the grid. so out with the 30 mm surface tool. in with the v bit and time to zero the tool.
V-bot away
think i need to work on speeds and feeds as very slow.
All done for tonight need to hover it but thats tommorow.
right holes tomorrow and then time to flip the board. hopefully will line up not sure if i should enlarge cut out just as the flip is the unknown hopefully will work out
Now to swap tools and put the end mill in and zero the tool. before running the 98 holes that need cutting. all ready for me to press start later. as the son had his nap got vacuum over the baseboard.
cleaned and ready to drill.
Disaster forgot to enable the spindle when on a destructive path gouging through grid i then reset but it had moved waste board and then ended up drilling through the bed in 2 places destroying 6mm endmill in process. managed to save it by flipping board so going to start again and not be so tired when playing with CNC machines.
Redone first 3 stages now for the flip going to finish off by drilling manual thought 2 halves as not to risk damage.
drilling done.side 1 done.
Back on track and only another evening to waste on the board cnc humour.
continuing on with 6 mm end mill so no need to zero the tool final run of the cnc machine for this project. Well, i thought that was going to be the case but no i was wrong.
going to be glad to see the back of this project lol.
Right, this has gone a little wired on me as most of the circle are circle but some are not i think its to do with the soft limits stopping the bit from moving i think i am going to have t rethink side 2 of the board. Depth has not penetrated the holes so going to have to drill each one manually. oh and final fuck up they are not central to where i drill through the board.
So back to program and time to rethink design. the joys of doing things your self lol ill be worth it in the long run though lol. going to skim the board by 1.5 mm and then should be able to finish off machining of the board. I hope.
side 2 remixed for the 3rd time
will run that tomorrow as had enough tonight and it is 1 am again one day i will go to bed early. its a curse.
Another day first up out with an electric drill and six mill drill 98 holes to do drilled and now am going bolt the board down and run the skim and dam it, I have miscalculated the skim by 0.25 mm so time to modify the program. and run it again went well till dust shoe dropped had to kill the cut 20mm from the end of the run. Right enough is enough mach 3 g-code editing here we go figure out where it turns to run the last side edited the code to start there and away it went job done.
all skimmed ready for t nuts.front re done
98 t-nuts to hammer in to the wast board and its done.
can see the damage it di in the first run and the skim i had to do and now hammer time.all hammerd in now to flip it hope none fall out and mount it back on the bed.
The finished item only took week to run in the end all a good learning curve as most projects are already thought of my next project for the machine just need to get some aluminum and some M5 screws. also going to make some 3d printed ones as well.
all done at last.
Now to make some clamps over to fusion 360 to make my own as don’t want to spend out when i can design and make it my self metal and plastic
So that will be then next project should have 3d printed side done buy end of the week. that will be part one part 2 will be me teaching my self fusion 360 manufacturing.
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.
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 rootenter 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.
Start Screen
Access control you will need to make up a username and password. then scroll down to enable login.
Online Connectivity Check I enable this
Plugin Blacklist I enable this.
CuraEngine (<= 15.04. I skip this as all my files are pre-sliced.
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.
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
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 cutterwires 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-piPlug-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.
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.
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 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.
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
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.
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 begins1hr 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.
Have in a three-meter Octagon is not the easiest of places to house as much equipment as i have. also as it has windows on 4 sides. So as i have Wednesday off with my son i had been into the local DIY store to grab some screws bits for another project i have been doing. This was a few weeks ago.
I picked up some 10 cm x 5 cm timber and sheet of plyboard to make a cover that went over the winds so i could mount my parts boxes. i had managed to hand saw down the sheet of ply and mounted over the window.
i then added screwed new parts draw i had picked up in the Aldi for £8.99 and my Budweiser sign. looked ok but was just a place to put parts.
Window cover board that i put to give me more storage space.
It worked well but was not quite what i wanted. I had just designed a template for holding Placemat and Coaster.
New jig for holding wooden placemats as have a dinner set to do for our house.
I then started to run a batch of placemats and coasters for our holiday rental property.
Engraved in Wooden placemat The Hollies Logo our rental property in wales.
As this was running I thought i would make a start reorganising things. so the Budweiser sign has been relegated to the attic. i move 2 of my other parts boxes around and dump bins allowing for a new shelf.
makes more sense having all my nuts and bolts fuses crimps and components in one place.
I then moved the dump bins racking so they were next to each other. I had an IKEA shelf we were going to use in the house. that i have installed for the moment above the racking.
Just got to sort through all dump bins and add to other storage.
i have started to print brackets for filament storage from the 3D printing nerds channel. So i will have shelving for the 2 boxes of filament i have freeing up more space hopefully. However, my Prusa decided to jam yesterday so will have to wait till come back from wales next week to fix.
Just before we it decided to jam up.
As i am working on the map and paid jobs i thought i would get everything up and running and remove bits i don’t need down to wales.
As then can do stuff when i am not in London so my K40 is going to be shipped off to wales along with the Prusa MK2s MMU and clear some space up for stock and parts.
this will be happening next month as will use a man and a van to transport bed and other bits as holiday rental property we have been developing is finally coming online should be available to rent in the next few months.
Next racking unit to sort is the CNC and vinyl cutter as its become a dumping ground and remove redundant bits ie water buckets for cooling as changed for a smaller type.
will be nice to actually get in the cave and be able just to work. Will be adding a download section to the web site so all my projects can be downloaded for free. maybe a project section to get some feedback and collaborate with some other bloggers.
Right got a 208 mile drive later after the day job hoping it will be a easy run.
CR-10 fixed don’t know how or why but all back in action god knows what cause of the problem. i ran a m48 probe test spat out some numbers. thought would give it one more go and did some more bed scraping but was for the greater good, i am now running a pre doneprofile with Simplify3D wish me luck. will post picture once it done
Before I fixed the CR-10 I have been running some squash ball feet for the printer, on my Prusa mk3. As they were all done and i managed to pick up some . . squash balls on the way home. AI decided to fit them see if dampeners will help with a ringing issue I have currently on te CR-10
Squash ball feet
nice and easy to fit using printers standard hard ware t-nuts and 4 dunlop double dots
3 feet fited one to go
been setting up my stream pad applications are all set just working what short cuts i am going to need. I have swapped over to streamlabs OBS. so I currently working on a setup just designing scenes for the system. I have written system layout ready so I can figure out what i need to need to buy camera wise and lighting. aiming to get some stuff up soon little nervous about the response I will get to my streaming.
Stream deck
and one finished cube next to 1 and 2 think its the best .
The first one is lasted version of print new profile. as the other 2 are relay wobbly.
now for the gramazon print if all is good or do I wait for EZOUT before I print. something that long as would be an pain in the arse if I run out of filament.
As i was on a roll with squash balls so brought 4 more and printed some more feet for my Mk3 will be fitting them tonight.
Feet for the Mk3
Will be fitting the feet tomorrow as today been with my boy so just been running bits in the background have set 90 % of my stream studio up and the stream deck is coming together.
done some diy cutting of boards and 2 x 4 for a frame im hanging in the cave for new tool rack will take some pictures when its up cheap way to add space
I have printed a frame mounted pi case for the CR-10 that i have modified through breakage so now open frame as the supports popped out the frame when they were removed.
will add some images tomorrow going to set up octopi tomorrow on the CR-10 as will make printing remotely easier also going to do the same for the prusa as have a spare pi kicking around.
After my week end fun of rebuilding my machine and trashing my magnetic bed. i ordered a replacement glass bed with build material on it. an offical creality one.
So to make sure its not 2 of 2 beds destroyed in 72 hrs i am going to start off by upgrading the firmware and re positioning EZABL probe as i just fitted it and never ajusted it.
First things first a bit a prep work as I have a day job. So during my lunch hour I downloaded the latest version of the firmware off TH3Dstuido.com as I have an official EZABL sensor. TH3D_UFW_U1.R2.10.zip is current.
I have unzipped the folder and then uploaded to my dropbox so I can pre-edit all the defined lines on the configuration.h part of the upgrade sketch. One thing to note I have pre-flashed my CR-10 with a bootloader go find a guide on how to do this first if you have not done it.
when you have unzipped the file you will see, OpenFirmwareWindows.bat double click on this file and this will launch the Audrino sketch pad. click on the tab configuration.h
scroll down to your printer model in my case CR-10 then define your settings by removing the // symbols.
as you can see i have set mine to CR10 and OEM Probe Mount .
After making changes save the file and change the in my case I set the board to Sanguino 1284P in tools then hit upload will take a while to compile and then should say the following when done.
system will reboot after flashing
Firmware update all done.
Installing new bed
This was very easy remove glass bed lift it out new on in job done looks very smart. So far it’s works very well still dialling in the setting but Pleased with that it sticks well.
Probe positioning and sensitivity
the probe base should be 2mm higher then the print nozzle approximately so iajustthe the nuts to position it in the right height..
Then using the printer menu i go prepare> move axis>move Z axis>0.1mm enter i then lower the bed till the nozzel is touching the bed.
Nozzle touching the bed with probe 2 mm off the bed
I can now adjust the sensor sensitivity. turning the small screw on the top anti-clockwise till the light goes out. i then slowly turn it clockwise till the light turns back on. sensitivity now set. now I raise the sensor z-axis 2mm off the bed.
Nozzle 2 mm off the bed
Now I go prepare menu scroll down to preheat PLA and heat the bed up only I leave this for 5 mins. to warm up the bed so it’s up to heat. then using the same z-axis movement from the menu and a piece of paper.
I place the piece of paper on the heated bed. I lower the z-axis until there is a slight bit of friction between the paper and the bed. I note the setting of reading -2.01.
click to enter then go to motion menu click to enterclick to exit then go up one screen store settings the you are done
I now exit back to the main menu and go to the control menu>motion>Z probe enter. I then set the setting to -2.01 exit up one menu and store settings. (the setting value will be different on every printer)
that is the z height dialled in now to run auto home and pre heat set up ready for calibration test.
The calibration test.
So going to run 3 calibration test first up is bed test 275mm this will draw 4 squares and lines and logo, this will be followed by a test cube and a torture test.
The 275 calibration test.
Did not run need to get calibration cube right first
The calibration cube test.
cube printed but as you can see there were some issues I have since levelled my z-axis as was slightly off will run again and see if I can get it better might just need the profile adjusted in simply3d I have also just upgraded to the latest version on S3D so will see if that corrects the issue tonight.
The Torture test.
Did not run need to get calibration cube right first
Summery of Monday nights activity’s
New firmware installed with outhitch.
New Bed Installed works well.
Probe hight and sensitivity all set up
Calibration need to try the new version of S3D if not need to tinker with settings or find a better profile.
Right looks like Tuesday will be fixing the issues with the slicer might run some new feet for the printer as well to get rid all vibrations.
This what will most likely happen this week in the cave depending on life as son had a temperature last night hoping its still just teething.
Monday
Monday Night Going to upgrade the firmware on my CR-10 as version TH3D_UFW_U1.R2.10 is out and mine is running a really old version of the TH3D firmware around 1.6. have already installed the boot loader back when I first got the machine. so will be a simple flash.
Will then look at the probe set up as I think it needs some adjustment as was moved from one bracket to and different one and I never adjusted the sensitivity.
then to calibrate Z offset to make sure system functions correctly on the new bed surface without trashing it. like I did to the magnetic bed.
Hoping to get this all done tonght and get a few calibration prints done. Then i can move on to the mods list of parts that i want to print.
New Raspberry Pi 3 frame Mounted Case for CR-10
Chain Support for the Z-axis ( not sure about doing this or not)
EZOUT filament sensor mount cip
I will be adding an EZ OUT filament sensor to the CR-10 shortly as waiting for it to come over from the USA to the UK so maybe the end of the week might be longer.
Tuesday
If all went well on Monday will start first long print on the CR-10 the Gramazon Print for my amazon dot. will be a few days and nights on this one. but will hopefully have a working copy of octoprint up and running so I can set up some time-lapse videos for your enjoyment pleasure. will post a story on it once it’s done.
Wednesday
Tonight operation is to fix my Original Prusa Mk 3 as it got a filament jam in the extruder so will sort this out. pending on temperature in the cave as if it’s below 10c makes life hard to print. as there’s a thermal cut out. roll on summer can print without issue.
Time depending time I am going to have one last go with the Original Prusa i3 mk2s MMU machine that kicking around the cave floor as I have no space to house it. if I can get it working will then make some space to use it. if not going to pull it apart and place it in a box for a project I will do down the line.
Friday
Will be spring cleaning in the cave as have a few hrs to get things ship-shape ready for hopefully a test of the streaming system again pending on how things go this week
Warning Do Not Attempt this if you do not have any wiring knowledge this is done at your own risk as this I a non-approved manufacture item. I will not be held responsible for any damage done to you or your machine this is just covering my arse. But you will be fine as was a doddle to install and now hit 60C in less than 30 seconds. The links are for cr-10 and cr-10s with 310mm x 310mm bed. I have no affiliation with links.
This guide is based off a Nexi tech video i saw on youtube about upgrading the heat bed. my heat bed now heats up in 30 seconds flat the hot end takes a few mins to heat but much better than the 10 mins the heat bad used to take to heat. link to Nexi Tech video
I did have a few issues that are covered in my guide and I would not recommend the Magnetic bed I will be swapping this for creality official replacement bed instead. should have itmonday. will update the review tommorow.
Some wire for low voltage link to the control board.
2.1 x 5.5 connectors male and female for EZABL probe(not needed unless your hard wiring probe)
Pin crimps for the controller board.(Optional)
Tools required.
Soldering iron
Screwdrivers
Alan Keyset
Cleaner suggest isopropyl alcohol
Wire cutters
Small black heat shrink.
Crimper for Pin Connector (optional)
Right first things first I am going to send the z axis up
high to make sure I have everything clear for removing the heat bed.
Z axis raised hight off bed
I have taken the glass bed off I will be removing the current
LokBuild surface off the class and installing the new creative magnetic bed to
replace it. out with the lemonime to remove all sticky stuff. Now the cave smells
of oranges remanence from the Lemonime.
removal of build plate material i am now regretting doing this.
I then removed the 4 screws from my machine. Now you will
notice that I do not have springs on my machine but solid aluminium blocks as I
am using the TH3d EZABL probe I don’t need the adjustments. Also stop it moving
after long prints.
my bed spacers as i dont need to manually adjust time to clean my bed.
I have then removed the heat bed connector from the back of
the control box.
all clean of thermostats and just about to de solder heating wriring
Now to disassemble the heat bed on with my soldering iron to
remove the Red and black wiring. Then removed the thermostat from behind the
heat proof tape. Out with the isopropyl alcohol to clean the bed before I attach
the new silicon heated bed.
Silicon bed stuck on top of original bed
Then added the self-adessive
cork insulation plate on top of the silicon heater.
installed bed then realized my bed bracket will not worktried to cut the cork looked crap so went with putting bed brackets under the cork will replaced some point in the future but for now its fine.
Now for the wiring. I have disassembled the aviation 4 pin connector
and de soldered the wires from the plug. Making note of what pin does what
Pin 1 = Thermostat
Pin 2 = Thermostat
Pin 3 = Heated Bed
Pin 4 = Heated Bed
Then I soldered new heat bed wiring to old and pulled the
new wiring through the wire management sleeve. I then taped the thermostat wires
with old and new and did the same so now the new wiring ins in the sleeve.
I then cut the wires to length and solder them to correct
pins before I do this I have also added heat shrink to each wire to protect
from shorts.
I then re install the bed to the printer adding back my abs printed bed holders and wire management couple of cable ties later and we are ready for the rewiring of the control box. Oh wait one more job.
Time for magnetic bed I have already cleaned the glass off
after last build surface was removed.
I removed the sticky backing of the magnetic bed under sheet
and applied it to the glass centrally re attached the glass to the printer and
placed new build surface to printer.
All done now I can move on to the control box.
I am going to disconnect the wiring from the printer so I can
bring the control box to the work bench.
Now to take it to bits also going to clean up wiring for the
EZABL as power was done in a rush. So going to install a 2.1mm x 5.5 power jack
in the back of the machine from the EZABL probe you wont need to do this but as
I have it in bits going to do it.
Getting started there are 5 screws or hex bits on the bottom
of the control box these need to be removed the bottom cover will now come off.
remove 5 hex screws from around the edge of control box.what you you will see when you remove the metal plate
Next remove 4 screws/hex bits from side of machine this will
release the power supply.
Once they are out you can swing the power supply out.
heat bed wiring removed
Next will need to disconnect the existing heated bed from
the mosfit and power supply. Follow the black and red wires from the aviation
plug to mosfit and to power supply disconnect them.
Then its time to install the Solid-State Relay on the back
of the power supply there are 2 screw holes this is what I have used to affix the
relay.
Taking the red wire from the aviation plug I wire this in to position 1 on the solid-state relay (SSD) position 2 I use a off cut of heated bed wiring to mains power AC positive connector side of the power supply. Then using the black wire from the aviation connector to the ground side of the AC wiring. This gives you a mains supply closed loop.
Now to install the wiring that will switch on and off the heat
bed relay. Install 2 wires in to connection 3 and 4 on the SSD these 2 wires
will now be connected to the control board. See image
Remove the 2 wires from the control board and install the 2 control
wires in pin 3 and 4 of the control board bank of 6 screw connectors see image.
You can now de install the mosfit and any wiring connected to it. the 2 wires you removed from the control board can also be removed.
All done but as I am going to install a quick connect for my
EZABL Probe power.
Taking a centre punch and marking a location with no wires
around it I then drill a pilot hole before drilling the 6mm hole for the
connector after installing the connector I bring the solder iron out to solder
power to the connector. From the existing installed wires, the centre pin is
the positive and the outer wall is the negative.
pilot hols drilled not straight i know but its not seen now for a 8mm drill to make the final sizesoldered the connector now to wire them upall wired up
The other end I will solder connector to connect in to it.
now all done time to re assemble calibrate and test.
Nice and neat time to see how she works. A nice quick modification to do. Total cost around £53 and a few weeks of delivery time.
Now, this took a little longer than I thought it would about 2 hrs in total but that was as I was doing other things around the cave. I managed to calibrate the machine yesterday but I will be removing the magnetic bed as its shockingly bad going to order a new glass bed with a coating on it. £28 off Amazon will review that instead, UPDATE: ok it’s not as bad as I thought originally it’s just silly the way it mounts will be running tests but still going with a fixed bed in the meantime will revisit the magnetic bed but got to get some air bubbles out of it. and figure out how to remove the embeded plastic from it.
I am about to run some calibration tests to make sure all is right. Then i have some modparts to run as going to start some long projects on my cr-10 I am going to start on the big print stuff this week hopefully. i have the gramazon print that I have been meaning to run for some time, but never got around to it as printer broke didn’t want to have to print the small parts version.
Next, I have to fix my Original Prusa i3 Mk3 as got a blocked extruder. I will also be printing a Raspberry Pi 3 Mountable enclosure for the CR-10 and rebuilding my pi install. I will also be building a new pie set up for the Prusa Mk3 as looking to be able to monitor all remotely and get some nice time laps for some of my blogging.
Well back from Christmas brake well for a few week now but day job has been keeping me busy. I have have been playing with wiring and relays and arduino uno and other little ideas. I am currently sell off some stuff it make some money to buy my new laser for workshop. I am going to start to play with my cnc machine time allowing as got some great ideas for some future projects.
keep watching this space for some fun projects that are coming up soon.
will make 2019 great year. had a little bit of a tidy up before leaving for Christmas.
Did manage to do some Christmas gifts. next year i will do them directly on their boxes as the new laser will have a bigger bed.
Christmas eve boxes for family will do direct engraving on the boxes next year this was just a mock up.Gift tags i put together for some pressensBeer holder for brother inlaw (Not my design)Voucher for Nice’s day out using someone else artwork traced and modified for a gift.
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