Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Attempt at extrusion over 3D axis #2
Second night at giving a serious bash to creating 3D output. Extrusion happened this time, but not onto the stage. It's getting close.
The reason for instability in my connections is becoming clear. Traces of cat hair were found on the connectors...
I wired up the extruder element, put in the right values for the thermistor and fired up the extruder. Plastic dutifully extruded and I ran out of 3mm rod. So, I made another batch. I think that using a slightly roughened plastic chopping board gives much better grip on the soft polycaprolactone - the glass sheet tends to slip a lot. Of course, you can't see through the chopping board, so it's a bit hit and miss.
My controller issues with Y znd Z axis controllers were narrowed down to outdated firmware. The X axis didn't have the problem because it was a ULN2803-based octal driver board and lacked the Enable line. As I'd hardwired it, the fact that the old firmware didn't set it properly was irrelevant. I'm now less concerned at the speed of motion of the screw-driven axes. Things seem plenty fast enough.
I've put a bit of 9mm aluminium plate on the stage pending better ideas. It's big, flat, and not going anywhere.
I'm having trouble with the cutting-edge GUI code from Simon and Adrian that draws a cube. They get pretty pictures and I get grey screens, and that'll be the subject of tonight's debugging session. I have a plan 'B' which is to cheat horribly and use the scripting method to move the axes and operate the extruder, but I'd rather use the Java code.
Finally, the eyelids proved to be the weak point in the development cycle once more and I crawled off into my pit for the night.
The reason for instability in my connections is becoming clear. Traces of cat hair were found on the connectors...
I wired up the extruder element, put in the right values for the thermistor and fired up the extruder. Plastic dutifully extruded and I ran out of 3mm rod. So, I made another batch. I think that using a slightly roughened plastic chopping board gives much better grip on the soft polycaprolactone - the glass sheet tends to slip a lot. Of course, you can't see through the chopping board, so it's a bit hit and miss.
My controller issues with Y znd Z axis controllers were narrowed down to outdated firmware. The X axis didn't have the problem because it was a ULN2803-based octal driver board and lacked the Enable line. As I'd hardwired it, the fact that the old firmware didn't set it properly was irrelevant. I'm now less concerned at the speed of motion of the screw-driven axes. Things seem plenty fast enough.
I've put a bit of 9mm aluminium plate on the stage pending better ideas. It's big, flat, and not going anywhere.
I'm having trouble with the cutting-edge GUI code from Simon and Adrian that draws a cube. They get pretty pictures and I get grey screens, and that'll be the subject of tonight's debugging session. I have a plan 'B' which is to cheat horribly and use the scripting method to move the axes and operate the extruder, but I'd rather use the Java code.
Finally, the eyelids proved to be the weak point in the development cycle once more and I crawled off into my pit for the night.
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Br careful. CAPA tends to adhere to other plastics just wonderfully. I have a plastic measuring cup that that happened to. Warm CAPA just welded itself onto the inside surfaces of the cup.
Yea, noticed that trying to make an imprompty airbed adaptor. I seem to be OK with polypropylene chopping boards though.
Vik :v)
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Vik :v)
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