This past weekend, Brad came over and helped me tweak things on my Prusa Mendel. He immediately noticed a few issues in the prints I had previously made.
I ended up swapping out my PLA bushing X-carriage with an updated Greg’s X-carriage with LM8UUs (soooo smooth now!), with the intergrated belt tensioning system (a pain to install but works great once done).
Also added a cooling fan for the J-Head hotend via the extra heater inputs on my RAMPS 1.4 board (pin 9) so it’s now PWM controllable (you can see it in the video below). This allowed me to add fan high, fan low and fan off buttons to Pronterface and to integrate it into my Slic3r start gcode (M106 S255/S128 for high/low or M107 for off).
Tweaking the Slic3r settings really helped to correct the issues I was having. It really is invaluable having someone that understands how these settings work, look at your prints and be able to tell what settings are off. Every machine is different but there are some things consistent across them all. My biggest problems seemed to be not enough filament being pushed through and some layer print settings being too slow. I figured slowing everything down would help troubleshoot things but when printing with molten PLA, faster is usually better.
We attempted to upgrade my firmware to Marlin (from Sprinter) but had nothing but trouble. The endstops were ignored and the axis weren’t responding to commands in the correct direction. Switched back to Sprinter and everything worked fine again. Will have to investigate this further on the forums as it seems it may be a common problem with RAMPS 1.4 and may have been fixed earlier today.
Using the new Slic3r (version 7.0 was just released), I was able to print this Yoda:
I think it turned out better than the ABS version I printed awhile ago on my Makerbot (although this was printed at 50% the size)…the overhangs weren’t as bad either.
Brad also brought along his prototype Tantillus printer which is now printing:
He’s still fine tuning the model files and I’m testing them in ABS (his prototype is entirely PLA). More info soon as he get things just right.
UPDATE: Printed a full size Yoda:
Also added one of the 80mm LED light rings I had with just a couple of zip ties to the fan. I had tried to find a decent way to mount it or simply use some LED light strips left over from my install in the MakerBot but this seems to work the best without getting in the way of anything.
A coworker noticed this ship was in dry dock beside our office in North Vancouver today:
Turns out it’s the command ship for the Sea Launch mobile rocket launchpad. I’ve seen this ship on Discovery Channel but never expected to see it beside my office. Possibly the closest I’ll be to the space program anytime soon.
It’s next mission is in May 2012 for Intelsat 19, a satellite payload for cable networks in the Pacific Rim.
There’s a good chance that it will launch the satellite that carries future Canucks game in HD!
Note: you can get a pretty decent view of the Sea Launch ship from the North Shore Pier (in the foreground of the photo) at the bottom of Lonsdale Avenue or from the top of Lonsdale Quay (right under the big Q) which is where I shot this photo from.
UPDATE: Went back with my DSLR and got a few more shots:
Note the logos from the satellites previously launched:
Let me start by saying I don’t hate Instagram, I’m just not a fan…this post is why I love Hipstamatic (for the iPhone) and use it constantly. This post also isn’t about the sharing community that is behind Instagram (which is pretty impressive)…anything that inspires people to take more photos is awesome in my book.
But first, a little background.
I became a photographer while in high school, shooting film. Most often it was a Pentax K1000 like so many others started with:
(pay no attention to my hair, it was the 80′s after all)
After high school, one of my first real jobs was working in a mall photo lab. This gave me unlimited access to nearly free film and processing thanks to my staff discount. This enabled me to shoot film like people shoot digital today: to shoot LOTS of photos without counting the cost of every frame.
I still have boxes and boxes of film negatives and prints that I’d like to scan one day.
But this post isn’t about that. It’s about the feeling I had (and still get) when I shoot film. You compose your shot and hope for the best because in most cases, it could be days or weeks before you see the resulting photo. This process makes picking up a set of prints better than Christmas for me. Even more so if there are a number of different sessions of photos on a particular roll.
Doesn’t matter if I’m using a 35mm SLR, one of my many Holga’s or some other weird film camera I found at a flea market. It’s all the same nostalgia for me.
Shooting film also requires you to make a number of decisions outside of composition. You have to choose why type of film (and speed) you’re going to use. You also choose what type of lens you’ll use (which of course is the same with a digital SLR). All these factors come into play before you’ve even shot a frame.
When I go on photo walks, I regularly leave most of my gear at home and only use a certain lens for the entire walk. This tends to force you to think more creatively how you’ll capture something with a limited set of options.
Anyways, back to Hipstamatic.
I don’t think Hipstamatic was the first one, but it certainly came out during the gold rush of iPhone apps that simulated a vintage camera look and feel. It immediately captured my attention because of the way that it works: you choose your lens, film, flash and even the case before you take your shot. You don’t get to preview it nor do you get to mess with it afterwards. It worked just like film cameras do. You also couldn’t open your previously shot photos to run them through the different lenses and films (well, unless you shot a photo of that photo I guess). I use CameraBag for that anyways.
You even have to wait for the photo to process with Hipstamatic…just like film. Then, if everything worked and the app doesn’t crash, you get to see your result.
All of these variables go into crafting the photo before you press the big yellow shutter button.
This is why I like Hipstamatic. It feels comfortable. It feels like Christmas when you get your shot processed.
I rarely do much, if any post processing to my digital photos. If I do, it’s usually limited to cropping, white balance correction or bumping up the contrast a little. This is likely because in the pre-Photoshop days of film photography, all your post processing was done in the darkroom. I loved playing in the darkroom but it was an expensive endeavor since the materials to develop your film and make prints was pretty expensive to a high school student. Digital changed that and allowed us to experiment to our hearts content. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s just that I learned early one to try and get it right in the camera and not use the darkroom (or post-processing) as a crutch to fix a poor photo. That’s not to say I don’t fix my own bad photos (I definitely do) but I don’t make it my normal process and it’s usually limited to ‘one-timers’ if I can help it. I probably have thousands of amazing photos, save for one flaw that I couldn’t fix, that will never see the light of day.
This is one of the things I don’t like about Instagram – you shoot a basic photo and then you process it all to hell. The net result is not that different than making the choices of lenses and film in Hipstamatic, since there are a plethora of choices (in app purchases & freebies) but the choice was made up front, not after the fact.
This post may label me a film (or Hipstamatic) snob but I don’t consider myself as such. It’s more about the joy of photography for me and why I have well over 6,400 photos on my iPhone from the last few months…a large percentage of which were shot with Hipstamatic.
I even bought the ‘real world’ Hipstacase for my iPhone for it (with a nicely integrated & removable tripod attachment):
It adds just that little extra to the whole experience.
I had to fix a number of alignment issues with my belts, adjust a pulley, reseat and level the print bed to get to this point.
This is a quick printing wire clip which turned out really well considering I haven’t really calibrated anything yet beyond levelling the print bed:
The one on the left is literally the first thing I tried printing (before I fixed a number of issues) and the one on the right is pretty close to what it was supposed to be. It’s a little smooshed as I grabbed it while it was still warm.
Printing in PLA is quite different than the ABS I’m used to…it’s very oozy. I’m going to need to install a fan to cool the print faster.
It’s SOOOO much quieter than my MakerBot!
I’m excited to finally have things up and running. Now I just need to start calibrating the printer.
UPDATE: Received a fresh roll of transparent green PLA and added a temporary light to the extruder. I’d originally tried printing on glass with a cold bed, then a heated bed and then settled on cold blue painters tape.
The first few layers always seem to have issues sticking. Perhaps my Z height needs to be lower (squishier) or it’s a temperature thing. The green PLA seems to be more cotton candy like with stringy micro filaments that get caught under the nozzle and wreak havoc.
The cube on the left was literally the first thing I printed when I installed the new spool of green PLA and turned out nearly perfect. Glassy bottom, not too smooshed 1st layer and the top is nice and smooth. The middle one was a combination of things including a filament feed issue (spool not rolling freely) and the last one was the last thing I printed yesterday on blue painter’s tape. It’s decent but not quite as nice as the 1st cube.
I was tired of printing cubes so I thought I’d try something relatively fast to print, and was a trickier item to print due to the shape of the text. I’ve printed tons of these geeks on my MakerBot so I know how they are supposed to turn out (in ABS at least):
Unfortunately it didn’t finish printing. Just as well too since there were problems with it due to the errant blobs of PLA causing the hotend to skip and the alignment was off on the text layers as it went higher.
It stopped printing because my laptop keeps cutting out (like it’s completely powered off with no warning, kernal panic, just off) randomly while printing (after 7-10 minutes of printing), killing the print. I’m guessing it’s a USB communication error (tried both ports & my USB cable already has ferrite cores on each end of it) or line noise from the wiring. It was much worse when I tried to tidy my wires up by bundling them together but once I undid that, it got better (longer prints) but it still happened with this print. My desktop doesn’t seem to have the same problem though but that’s not nearly as convenient to use as a controller for the printer.
Maybe it’s time to get the SD Ramps board installed so I can print without needing it connected beyond starting the print.
Lastly, I found these RepRap coins which are a nice alternative to the calibration cubes. They print fast, are a little tricky and print well:
UPDATE #2: Last night I finally soldered the pins to the SD Ramps board I had ordered with my electronics originally and the headers to the RAMPS (along with the important D1 diode under the X/Y drivers to allow for computerless operation) in the hopes that this would solve my issues (or make it moot) with my laptop not staying connected:
Julian’s post was very helpful in navigating my exact configuration. This involved disconnecting everything and removing the RAMPS 1.4 board to solder onto it which gave me the opportunity to detangle some of the wires which may have been causing my line noise issues. I also labeled each wire before removing it to make it easier to reconnect.
I had originally planned on wiring the SD Ramps instead of the normal header way but ended up going with the headers as it was easier and a more robust connection that I had originally thought. To my great surprise, upon plugging the SD Ramps into the arduino mega, it worked! I then reconnected the RAMPS and all the wiring and reflashed the arduino with Sprinter with added SD support (by uncommenting one line of the configuration code) and hoped for the best. Booted everything up and again, to my great surprise, Pronterface recognized there was a SD card connected and allowed me to load up some of the gcoded files I already had on it. The hot end heated up and away it went printing. I then disconnected the printer in Pronterface and unplugged the USB cord and the printer kept going. A few minutes later I had my first untethered calibration cube printed…and it was nearly the best one yet! Yay!
I got a little cocky and then reconnected everything again and tried to print the geek keychain. It works flawlessly until about 5 minutes into the print and then some blobby PLA caused it to skip again and I ended up reconnecting to the printer to stop it – unfortunately there is no other way to stop the printer when it’s going by itself other than to kill the power.
Stay tuned as I attempt to solve this problem…my guess is that my extruder calculations in the Sprinter firmware needs to be recalibrated. Brad’s also suggested that I switch to Marlin which I may also do in the coming days.
UPDATE #3: Once again, simply showing a photo of a failed print to my pals in the reprap group helped troubleshoot my printing issues. My set screw on my x-axis needed to be tightened and bumping up the temperture to 190C for the green PLA I was using seemed to have fixed things:
Still not 100% but pretty damn close to the happy place I was hoping to get to!
I’ve owned a soldering iron for as long as I can remember. But I’ve never felt I’ve been very good at using it. Lately I’ve been needing to do more and more soldering (thanks to my 3d printer building among other things) so I thought I should probably get better at it.
One thing I’ve heard over and over again is to practice with a simple electronics kit. So I’ve been buying a few kits here and there and have recently been forcing myself to put one together whenever I have a little time.
Aside from being fun little gadgets to have once complete, these truly are a great way to get better at soldering. It is simple through-hole soldering but it’s something I’ve always felt sloppy at.
My soldering ‘night school’ started last week with this custom name badge from Analog Machines which I picked up recently from the MakerShed:
It’s big and bright! Perfect for wearing in a lanyard badge holder.
Next up was the TV-B-Gone kit from Adafruit Industries – one of my favorite places to order from.
I promise to not be too evil with such great power.
The latest kit I assembled is the Solder Time kit I bought from SparkFun.com (another favorite store) which is quite possibly the geekiest watch of all time.
The kit comes with a red LED segment display but I ordered a separate green one and swapped it in which is another fun thing about these kits is that you can modify them to make them your own. I had originally planned to use this ‘watch’ in my MakerBot as a visible timer (minus the acrylic case and wristband of course) for time lapse videos but I think it’s too big to fit where I wanted to use it.
It’s amazing to see the difference in my soldering abilities after the practice from putting together these extremely well documented kits. It really gives you a good idea of what the end result is supposed to look like, as well as extra tips for soldering different types of electronic components.
There is also a comic book (in PDF form) called Soldering is Easy that is a great resource for getting started with soldering.
This past weekend, I hosted the guys from our Fraser Valley RepRap group at my place so that we could actually setup our machines to print and tinker. This is something we’ve wanted to do at our regular meetings but the folks at Boston Pizza, while very accommodating, probably wouldn’t be too keen on us printing stuff on their tables during our meetups.
Brad (aka Sublime) was the first to show up with his Prusa Mendel shown here printing a part on my coffee table:
and he also brought along a nearly complete prototype of his fully printable, mini 3d printer. Look how cute it is! Note the pop can for scale inside.
Check out the super tiny hotend he made (although he is considering using a J-Head after seeing the ones we recently ordered):
Derek also brought along his Citadel Mendel prototype printer:
It was pretty cool to see so many printers in one place (my living room & kitchen counter) and that 2 of them were incredible prototype designs.
With Eugene’s help, I also got my new J-Head hotend setup:
Just need to wire it up to my Prusa and (finally) start printing.
This is definitely shaping up to be the year of 3d printing…it seems every day major media is covering different aspects of how this technology is changing the game.
UPDATE:Brad has just posted about his mini printer with a lot more details and specifications. Sounds like it is getting a lot of (justified) attention in the RepRap community.
Yesterday I did a guest post on Miss604.com about the big Monster Jam Monster Truck show this weekend. Thought I’d post the video and a few photos from the media event as they turned out pretty cool.
I’d never been inside a monster truck before and had a chance to climb around inside one.
Once again, my GoPro’s came in very handy. In this photo, I’m mounting the GoPro to one of the rollbars inside. You enter these trucks by walking under the outer shell and then climb up via some cutouts in the chasis:
which made this video possible:
(no GoPros were harmed during this video)
I love how the inside of BC Place looks like a hot air balloon:
