2014-06-12 (Th) Upcycled 3D Printer



Upon starting up, the continuous rotation servos sometimes need to be tuned. Tuning is accomplished by adjusting the exposed potentiometer on the side of the servo enclosure. Adjusting the servos may be a part of the starting up of the machine and have to be included in the instruction manual.


Tuning potentiometer on the side of a servo


A comment segment at the beginning of the debugging program was created called
/*
************Findings***********
*/
to keep a quick reference of the data discovered by the debugging program.

A depth gauge, sometimes called a steel rule, with a magnet was attached to an extruded U-bolt on the platen. An ordinary steel washer was attached to the bottom of the shaft with the depth gauge. The combination allows for easy viewing of how far the platen moves by comparing the position of the depth gauge and washer.

 Depth gauge on the platen

Close up of the depth gauge

The platen shaft spinning with the depth gauge attached

The goal was to measure the speed of the platen. The platen’s speed was hard coded and the debugging switch was temporarily programmed to advance the platen when it was held. The platen was moved up to allow at least one inch of travel downward. The platen was moved downward while a stopwatch app was running on a smart phone using the lap button every 1/8 inch of travel. After looking at the platen in relation to the depth gauge it was decided that the resolution of the vertical axis should be 1/16 inch or finer. The findings of the run were placed in the comment section of the debugging program.


First four "laps" of the platen speed test


Last four "laps" of the platen speed test
Program with /*Findings*/ section

To do:

  • Update the “base making” setup part of the printing program 
  • Revise the air pump servo wiring 
  • Build a two wheel tensioner for the platen servo 
  • Physically install Arduino + Shield 
  • Test + Debug 
  • Revise documentation

The rest of the posts for this project have been arranged by date.

A list showing of all the final posts of COMPLETED projects.


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