Calibration

[mike_biddell]

Peachy could be 'dry' calibrated using a standard printout (printed at actual size) on A4 paper. Suggest a square, circle and a star. Place the printout on the bottom of the empty tank and start the datum print out of blender. Peachy should exactly trace the print, if it is perfectly centralised (move it until it is). Then move the print to a datum height above the base of the bottom tank and do it again. The same shape should be traced (as long as Peachy knows the height). These standard blender prints could be supplied as a download on the Peachy website. Using paper to calibrate, is a lot cheaper than using resin.

[Anuvin]

Good thinking Mike, but I think they are already implementing such a process. I recall that calibration will be done dry, with a grid.

[Slatye]

I'd suggest that an easier option would be a series of points. With four points on a piece of paper you should be able to do a full calibration of the printer. Since they're points you can just leave the laser pointing at each one while you adjust it until it's exactly on target, then move on to the next one. With lines you'd have to make it move really slowly and keep track of where it went off the correct path.



Apart from that, another worthwhile option would be to have software calibration. Hardware calibration is always a pain in the neck; you adjust one thing and something else changes unexpectedly, you adjust the wrong thing the first time, or parts shift over time and you have to start again. However, if you printed out a plastic cube (or whatever the Peachy prints when you send it a cube) and measure the lengths of each edge then it should be possible for the software to create a transformation matrix that ensures all future prints are 'perfect'. The results might not be quite as good as a perfectly (hardware) calibrated printer, but for the vast majority of things they'd be more than adequate.

[rylangrayston]

Yep your idea is bang on Mike, most of the calibration process is just as you described, but we have plans to ship the grid out, and the shape your trace on to it is a square. Atho we have other shapes to for tuning and detecting different Properties of your newly built printer.