Linux: 3D print, rt-kernel, AI and microcontroller

Old Prusa printing new humanoid InMoov

With some further updates the print quality on the Prusa I3 B pro is now acceptable.

Updates in detail

ESP3D for WiFi printing on an ESP8266 (in AP mode)
Improved SaintFlint extruder (stabilized)
J-Head v6
Some Neopixel for showing the printer status and some more light
Filament runout sensor for more security (not shown in the video
~~Marlin 1.7 with automatic bed leveling~~
Reverted to Marlin 1.6 with automatic bed leveling because of unresolved issues with Z height after auto leveling during printing. (See also https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/issues/8831) This brought me into trouble with reproducible layer shifting when nearly reaching the end of a print. That should be a „no go“ in a stable release, but …
…and reverted to Marlin 1.7 again. I have to apologize. It simply was a mechanical issue in my case: A broken belt pulley during update. Yesterday with Marlin 1.6 the pulley still worked. Just at the point of updating to Marlin 1.7 it BROKE INTO PIECES INSIDE. So it was not really obvious for me to find the cause of that level shifting . Sorry again for my mistake.

Marlin 1.7 comes with a whole bunch of new features which are really good improvements for your printer robots.

Most important (for me) are the features concerning the stepper motor drivers (especially TMC 2130) which allows you now to set some params for these nice Trinamic stepper motor drivers.

So: Merry X-mas and a happy new year to all of you.
Have fun.

„The Thing“ ESP32 multitasking rtos – stepper motor and hall sensor

„The thing“ from Sparkfun (ESP32) driving a 28BYJ-48 stepper motor of my 3D printed mini timelapse rail for smartphones.
The direction of the movements can be changed by putting a mini neodym magnet directly on the esp32 processor itself.

Herringbone planetary gears for nema 17 steppers

Planetary gear for nema 17 stepper motor

Today the first prototype of a planetary herringbone gear for nema 17 stepper motors has become ready. It is fully printable . With this little adapter you can raise the power of your nema 17 steppers a lot – it has now 5 x more torque.

Pimp my prusa – part2

Today two more upgrades for my good Prusa I3 B.

No 1: Infrared filament monitor. Detect filament blocking with routines to stop/pause 3D printer and let the user interact to solve the problem. This is an alpha development thing connected to an Arduino mini pro. It detects the movements of the little wheel and can count the movements (meters) the filament made.

No 2: Bracket for Saintflint bowden extruder including a holder for a 40mm fan.

Works with one old (discontinued) Pololu QTR-1A Reflectance Sensor.

Pimp my prusa

After I got some magic smoke from my good old GT2650 board from the modded Prusa I3 B pro (which is a dual extruding I3C pro version now) there had to be made some decisions:
Replace the old board with a new one or take a more recent faster version? Replace the old MK8 direct drive extrudes with some more reliable ones? Two stepper motors plus extrudres are heavy weight and make the x-axis very slow. So the decision was made quickly and all parts have been updated now.

My Prusa is running with Smartramps for Due now -> http://www.reprap.org/wiki/SMART_RAMPS

The old MK8 direct drive extrudes have been replaced with two of these great Saint flint extruders from here -> https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:979113 and actually I am experimenting with the brand new Carboinoid 4 color filament switch from here -> https://github.com/grainiac/Carbonoid/tree/master/fila_switch

If that all is going to work as it should, my Prusa is ready to print more parts for the InMOOV project with much higher quality 😉

Thanks a lot to all those who developed these parts and put the sources online!

More MPCNC upgrade – new z-rod

After I saw that user „James VanDusen“ posted about „8mm m8 threaded rod“ in the MPCNC forum https://www.vicious1.com/forum/ I decided to do all these steps to try it out. So this morning I dissassembled everything around the rod, printed out the new part F-XYZ_T8.stl from https://www.vicious1.com. In my case (25 mm IE version) you can find it here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:790533/#files

What I didn’t find is a part that replaces the F-Nutlock. The post says something about an untested part called Leadscrew M8 nut holder

So after thinking about it and because I hadn’t another M8 nut here but a 8mm linear ball bearing I will give this a try: A new designed F-Nutlock.

Redesigned F Nutlock for 8mm linear bearing — Redesigned F-Nutlock for 8mm linear bearing

First impression of the new assembled z-axis with T8 leadscrew upgrade: