Progress continues !

Many additional tweaks to the code were required and it is working VERY well now!!!
It works flawlessly with the 6 builtin test models in the Peachy software.

To test actual gcode files, I have been slicing multiple models to further test the integrity of the arduino code.

In doing so, I have encountered a few hickups (these do love to pop up :-)
Initially, gcode files would not even start printing but I have solved that :-)
For awhile, one file would work but another wouldn't. So far that looks solved too!

Cura decided to kernel panic my laptop (ver 2.5 & 2.4) so I posted to the forum (hoping for a bug fix).
It took a day but a simple solution was posted to the forum and everything is back up and running (corrupt config file).

While that was broken, I decided to figure out how to built the Peachy software for Linux from the github repo. I'm NOT a Linux guy (I do have some experience) and I really didn't think I would figure it out....but I thought "what the hell".
It freakin' worked !!! So I have more up-to-date Peachy software on my Linux box than I do on my Mac !!
I did need to make at least one change to the build script to make it work but it was actually quite easy.
I will eventually write up instructions on how to do it. I will also explore doing the same for the Mac version. There are a few more things to get in place to make that work. Later...

I found a cheap ($4) rectangular bucket at Dollarama and with some minor mods seems to work quite well as the build container !! I would like to replace the build platform with something smaller so It fits better but this is good for now.

Back to Testing…
“Printing” models (with glow paper) appears to be working great !! I did discover some Cura settings that are VERY important.
The “Build Plate Adhesion” section needs to have “Raft Air Gap” = 0mm and the “Initial Layer Z Overlap” = 0.2mm (or just > zero).
I’ve found that when the air gap > 0, the print job will stop b/c a "layer complete" signal will never be sent and the platform will wait forever and never send more drips. The overlap setting is needed to connect the last raft layer and the first object layer. These settings work !

I am re-slicing all my models to have these settings now.
I am also running these “prints” for about an hour or more to watch the behaviours of the Peachy and the Platform. This allowed me to find this one setting issue. There are several more settings that I will be optimizing. These are really important to get right. Not only will the print come out great but the gcode files become a LOT smaller too.

More to come :-)

Jason