Huh... on my i3v all of the T nuts are installed with the raised part away from the centre of the extrusion. I haven't had any problem with them until I tried to use the X and Y endstop brackets made by Clough42.
Printable View
I have been using adhesive backed LED strips to light up my print bed on my Makerfarm Prusa i3v 8" printer but the adhesive failed and the strips fell into my print.
I wanted to design a clip on, light weight tray to glue the LED strips down firmly, without having to glue them directly to my carriage frame.
Behold, the finished product!
Installation is easy, all you do is loosen one screw on your x carriage, press the screw slot of the tray mount on to the screw shaft and tighten the screw. Repeat on the other side and your done!
Attachment 2423
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:438960
I have the 10" i3v kit. All of my motors get hot when printing PLA or ABS. All of the motors are also at the recommended voltage. I turned the voltage down on the extruder motor from 0.39 volts to about 0.32 and it still gets hot, hot enough to soften and warp the extruder block after about an hour. I now have fans on all the motors except the Z-axis ones. The fans helped a lot, I can actually touch the motors now without pain in my fingers throughout full prints. With all settings relatively the same, seems like some people have hot motors and some dont.....not sure why.
I, like other people on this forum, really wanted my prints to be illuminated while the printer was operating. I first thought about going the adhesive-backed LED strip route, but thought that they would eventually unstick, which was exactly what happened to gmay3. I bought a cheap Adafruit LED ring that has individual drivers for each LED and its own custom library for programming the properties of each individual LED through the Arduino IDE. It fit perfectly around the J-Head, not at all tight. It might even work on your bulkier hot ends. I ran the power, ground, and data input wires to the back with the rest of the extruder block wires where I then connected it to a perfboard that had an Adafruit 5V Trinket (basically a mini Arduino that costs less than half the price of an Arduino-Mini, just with less pins). I also connected it to a latched switch that had an integrated LED ring so it looks nice and pretty. You can find the link with some pictures and a schematic below. As of 8-31-2014, there aren't any pictures of the actual LED ring in action, just some pictures of the components and assembly. I'll be adding a picture when I return home.
http://www.shawftware.net/2014/08/pr...d-mounted-led/
Not really a mod, but finally got the i3v 10" calibrated last night. Here's a little shot of the new printer along side it's little brother. Mods include my z-endstop mod, and flanged idlers.
Attachment 2576
Just wanted to throw this out, that anyone looking for the Z end stop mount on Thingiverse, it has been removed. I have removed my files from Thingiverse and switched to YouMagine.com. You can download my new z bracket and new cooling fan from here: https://www.youmagine.com/users/minimadryan
Cheers
Ryan
Also not really a mod, but perhaps a helpful idea for others. I got a pack of "Super Sticky" Post-its, and have mounted a pad to my power supply for an easily-accessible source of paper for whatever need, including Z-axis calibration.
Attachment 2989
You guys are posting some great stuff here. This thread is working out exactly as I hoped it would. Keep it coming.
I'm jealous of you guys with the new rail version of the printer. I need to go ahead and upgrade mine. I'm getting beautiful prints with my rod version these days but I do love the look of the new one. Keep modding....
Thank you sir. I have my i3v 10"on the way and wanted to order the proper TechFlex.
First post on here...
I've built a "plug-and-play" belt-driven 3mm dual extruder that uses pretty standard Greg's parts, adapts onto the i3v X carriage, and plugs directly into the RAMPS 1.4 without any extra mods. Been printing at normal speeds for the makerfarm i3v without an issue. Figured out all of the necessary changes to the firmware thanks to this forum and others. Here's a video from early on in the testing:
http://vimeo.com/107337936
Nozzle offset is ~33mm, so not much taken away from the build envelope. The dual hexagons run great with the right slic3r settings to cut down on the ooze (not the ooze prevention settings, but the retraction settings when tool is disabled).
All in all, I'm really happy with having dual extrusion on the 8" i3v that can use 3mm filament and that has plenty of torque on the hobbed bolts to keep the speed up. More pics to come soon.
Attachment 3061Attachment 3062Attachment 3063
flywheeld, this is really exciting. I've been wanting to go dual-head for awhile. I have the previous version of the Makerfarm but I'm sure it can be adapted too. I look forward to more pics and if you get to the point you want to share some actual parts and design specifics, I'd be happy to have a look and do some testing myself. Nice job.
I've been wrestling with a design like this for a while, and had concluded that the only realistic way to make it work would be to get the motors up above the filament clamps. Good job.
Are those NEMA 17 motors? I think this design will work with NEMA 14 motors in the 20oz.in. range.
clough42 - I printed your belt drive extruder and got a nema 14 motor from pololu. It will probably be a week or two of resolving a few other issues I'm working on, but I will install it and see how the nema 14 does and if it works well. Using 3mm filament/j head/0.50 nozzle. The pololu part is #1207 Stepper Motor: Bipolar, 200 Steps/Rev, 35×26mm, 7.4V, 0.28 A/Phase = 12.95. I deliberately got a 26mm to see if the smaller size could possibly cut it.
Flywheeld: If it works well it could be a good one to use with this dual extruder. 26 mm x35 x35 case size.
I'll be curious to see how it works. My gut says that the larger Nema14 is getting pretty close to the limit, but it's definitely worth a try.
I elected to go with NEMA 17s for the torque and for the commonality with existing Wade's/Greg's. Originally I had designed it with 14s, but after further research I was afraid of reliability and speed issues due to the lower torque. The size/weight vs speed doesn't seem to be an issue for the x-axis motor (probably thanks in part to the low friction v-slot extrusions on the i3v) and I haven't had a single problem in about 100+hrs of printing with it. I'll put files out soon and will probably try to sell the hardware by itself in addition to the whole extruder.
More info on the design, etc here: http://www.flywheeldesigns.com/blogs...-i3-prusa-easy
Thanks to Clough42's advice, I was able to modify one of his endstop mounts to hold a 40mm fan for the Y axis stepper. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:498414
For a dual-extruder setup on an i3v, I keep thinking the easiest route would be to print out a second set of X-carriage parts, and get 3 slightly longer bolts to go through the wheels to attach a second carriage to the back of the original carriage. This would sandwich the extrusion between the carriages, which would share the wheels. You'd lose 0 X distance, but maybe too much Y distance. Though any lost Y distance could be compensated for by using longer Y axis extrusions and belt.
Actually, another extruder behind the rails would strike the frame on both sides.
I'm still thinking. Y separation is interesting to me as well, but it would have to be in front, which adds more torque to the load on the wheels.
I'm also thinking about ways to get the nozzles closer together. Like the heat blocks 2mm apart. Tricky, but I think possible by staggering the hobbed bolts in the right way.
Has anyone ran a much smaller extruder setup on a Prusa? (I assume that would be needed to run dual extruders)
Something like this?
http://madeinbrunel.com/images/cache...ter_center.jpg
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v2/1...pg_350x350.jpg
I would think this would be a much better setup for several reasons.
Less bulk and weight to be moved around and supported.
Less parts to go bad, eliminating 2 plastic gears.
Seems there would be more torque on the motor since its not using gearing, is there any other disadvantages?
I would love to have a setup like that on the Prusa. Looks like an easier to maintain setup to me.
Actually, it's exactly the opposite. The gears multiply the torque, so the direct drive extruders shown in your photos have less torque. The diameter of the hobbed drive pulley makes it even worse because of its larger diameter. There's also a resolution issue because one step of the motor results in more filament movement due to the lack of gear reduction and the larger hub. Because of this, you typically see these direct drive extruders with 1.75mm filament. 3mm requires more torque and higher resolution.
You can get past these issues by using a gear reduction box on the motor. This increases cost and weight.
The plastic gearing is popular in the RepRap community because it reduces the number of parts that must be purchased. Plastic gears are self-replicating; they can be printed easily at home.
That is very elegant!
I meant that the smaller setup that I posted would put more stress/torque on the motor itself to extrude the filament.
Since it has no gearing to help it out. I should have worded that better.
Also makes sense what you said about the resolution also though. Didnt think about that.
As for the gears being easily printed at home? not for me so far. haha
I have tried printing the small gear 4 times now, last time was the best, but some teeth are still messed up.
I need to figure out why I dont have crisp edges. My 90 degree corners on boxes are a bit rounded, and my over all perimeter is not all that smooth.
Thought it was loose belts but they seem tight enough. I think its the nozzle oozing. Seems to do it where the nozzle pauses or slows way down during printing.
Ahh...that makes sense.
There does seem to be a lot of variability in what people are able to print. I forget sometimes that I've got a lot of mods on my printer and nine months of upgrading and tweaking software and firmware already under my belt. Some of my first prints with Slic3r 0.9.9, a .50 JHead, inconsistent Z leveling, bad retraction and the wrong hairspray were pretty rough.
I remember seeing somewhere (I don't remember if it was a forum or Thingiverse or elsewhere) that someone designed a single-stepper multi-filament extruder, where each filament is routed through a kind of carousel run by a servo above the extruder, and fed into or retracted out of the extruder as needed.
I've come up with another mod, though I haven't attempted it yet.
I plan to use the "Roller Puller" from this model http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:393870 with a 2 inch 6-32 machine screw in it, attached to the centre hole of the current i3v 3-hole X-idler pulley holder. I'll mount the 3-hole piece to the ends of the extrusion on the far right, putting the M5 bolts into the centre holes in the extrusion ends. I'll then have a washer and wing nut on the 2 inch screw to pull tension on the X belt.
Now that I've had a few months of positive experience with the Itty Bitty Belted Extruder (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:389105), I'm working on a double-extruder version. This is just a teaser--I'm still waiting on some parts to get the prototype up and running.
Features:
- Close nozzle spacing (20mm) maximizes usable bed area
- Integrated wire management--all wires route up through the center of the extruder block
- Compact -- Overall width about 1cm wider than a single Greg's
- Lightweight -- Uses NEMA 14 motors to keep total weight similar to a Greg's
- Low center of gravity -- mass is centered around X belt attach point to minimize X acceleration torque and flex
- Uses standard MakerFarm hobbed bolts
- Uses common 688ZZ bearings
- Easily printable without support
Attachment 3182Attachment 3183Attachment 3184Attachment 3185Attachment 3186
Here are some photos of the first prototype print of the block.
Attachment 3187Attachment 3188Attachment 3189Attachment 3190
Very cool! I only have a PrintrBoard so I don't have an extra axis. But this could make it worth while to get a Ramps setup!
Very nice clough42! I assume there will also be a printable "shelf" part to hold the two hotends, as well as a slot-mount plate? I'm looking forward to this being released. :)
edit: looking at the pictures again, would not both motors be in danger of colliding with the Z screw on either side? I see they hang off the sides of the X carriage about as far as the bed leveling servo sticks out, but they'll be high enough to risk colliding with the Z nut holders.
That's the idea.
I need to get the motors in hand and fit it all up, but I think I will need to move the whole assembly about 2mm forward for it to clear the Z nut traps.
Outstanding! Fantastic work, clough42!
It may be quicker to find a NEMA 14 model on thingiverse and print out a couple to test with, then buy the actual equipment once it's near-finalized.
The real issues are around bearing fit, belt length, spring tension, bolt traction, feed channel friction, etc. I'm not really worried about the motors.
I spent most of the weekend working on this. Here's how the whole X axis assembly is shaping up. I'm incorporating the double groove mount, X-axis platform, hexagon cooling, servo Z-probe and a print cooling fan. The back plate shown in these photos is the MakerFarm original, so you can get a sense of the scale.
Attachment 3204Attachment 3205Attachment 3206Attachment 3207
Keep in mind, this is all still a work in progress.
The drive system has proven itself in the Itty Bitty Belted Extruder (single) but this design has some new concepts. The filament path is longer and it's slightly curved. I don't think friction will be a problem, but that remains to be proven. I'm gambling that I can cool two hexagons with the same 25mm fan if I constrain the air input path tightly around the heat sinks. If I can get the overall input cross section similar to the single shroud, then I can harness the air that bypasses the single hexagon to cool two. I'm making the same bet for the print cooling. The tension springs on the idler blocks are also a gamble. I'm betting I can adjust tension by cutting and bending loops and that the lever arms will be sufficient to get good bolt traction. My suspicion is that most extruders are running with more tension than they need. The MakerFarm bolts are sharp and we only need enough traction to transfer available torque. As long as the motor skips first, there's enough tension.
Ordering 2 more nema 14's in preparation for this.
If the tension springs don't work, you could adapt the idler blocks with through holes for a pair of socket cap screws with compression springs ( like a typical Greg's setup) coming through each idler block and have them meet in the center in a hex coupling nut. if you ran two of these, it would be easy to print a barbell looking thing to connect the two hex couplers, fitting between the two filaments, to keep each coupler from turning when you don't want it to.
A brief search reveals that m3 coupling nuts aren't common. Hmm.