Hi Guys,
A few updates on this project: I was a bit busy since it was the holidays in China and I had a few friends coming home, so I didn’t progress as much as I thought I would.
I’ve installed the projector and tested if the distances and focus were ok. It seems to be all right, but I have an unfortunate issue: this projector doesn’t project straight… It projects at a quite high angle, which I wasn’t expecting (I think it was stupid from me not to check this first, but live and learn). But since I don’t plan on using this projector for very long, I think it should be good enough for testing purposes. The main problem that still concerns me is that the FEP film seems to attract dust like a magnet and I cannot really get it out once it sticks. I’ll need to find a way to solve this situation.
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I’ve made a lot of detailing, which took a while. Putting the screws in the wooden board, squaring everything, and of course, as always, using my signature carbon vinyl wrap to make it faster. I think it looks pretty good and clean now.
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I’ve also almost completed the electronics, using a raspberry pi with nanodlp software installed on it, a Arduino Mega/Ramps stack with a special version of Marlin on it, and a big Toshiba stepper driver, capable of more than 3Amps at 24V. The only things I still have to add are the limit switch and a servo shutter, which shouldn’t take very long.
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I’ve tested the electronics and everything seems to work fine. The way it works is pretty interesting, since basically you control the printer from your computer browser through wifi. Everything seems to happen on the raspberry pi, even the slicing, so I think it could work as a standalone printer if you lose the wifi signal at some point (still have to confirm that). So far it works very well, the interface is quite simple and convenient.
I have to say that the MPCNC printer is a gigantic help for this project. It is so nice to be able to print huge parts so fast! It really is the best prototyping machine I ever had: since it is printing so quick I’m not afraid anymore to make mistakes. I just know that if I do it won’t take long to just modify the 3D file and reprint the whole thing, this is actually very relaxing to not have the pressure of screwing up and losing a whole day anymore. Plus now my prints are almost perfect, they are usable right out of the printer with an amazing finish. People are actually surprised it can print so well when they see the machine. The only thing that could be improved would be the top layers, but I’m not really sure I could get them much better since it would involve to get the Z axis dead square, which I can’t seem to be able to do just yet. I’m working on a very different print head system for it right now, which should be pretty innovative I guess, if it woks at all… More to come about that in the next weeks/months.
But for now, I just have a few details to sort out and I should be able to actually test the SLA printer soon!
