High Resolution 3D Printing

Well, I came a cross this interesting project just now... http://3dhomemade.blogspot.com/

Possible my next step, hehe... Seems it won't really be available until late this year... or something.. worth keeping an eye on though! Seems the guy wants it for the 3D printing community... not sure if that means everything will be open though...

Prusa Mendel Almost Assembled

Man, this is fun! Sure, it takes time, but you are also building a cool machine from scratch! I take it easy, and think through every step as much as I can in my head, before actually doing it. You can come up with a few tweaks here and there, and really, you don't have to do exactly what documentation says. I mean, as long as you know what you are doing, you can do things differently.
These differences may even be for the better... For now though, I will just build this to make it work printing. Then I will probably optimize some. Like rerouting wires in the base and just basically clean it up so it looks nice too. And maybe also add a fan and end-stops for Max values (currently you use for Min values, which means motors will stop at basically point 0,0,0 (Home position). You may also want this "Max value" so you for instance can let the Z motor go all the way to the top when a print is done for example). I just love the flexibility you have with this open source/hardware 3D printer!

There have been a few bumps, and redoing during this time, but it's really stimulating to have eureka moments every now and then when you reach certain milestones. I had one when the motors worked, and the first time you move the platform back and forth, you do it for like 10 minutes because it's exhilarating that it works. And just now I used repsnapper to turn the heat on in the nozzle (extruder, hot-end), and checking the temperature. And I was happy to see it worked! It's important to test these things, especially the nozzle because if it gets too hot, that ain't good. I was afraid the thermistor (the component that reads temperature) wasn't properly installed with the crimps. But thankfully it works as it should! Would have been a lot of extra work to expose that part again, as it's in there, in that black thing you see in the picture...

There is a function in repsnapper to set the heat to a certain value, and I was amazed how well it worked. I read the thermistor value periodically, and could see the temperature increase to the set value (in this case 100 degrees Celsius). Then, it went little over (to 110C), and then went down to the set value (100C) and stayed around there. Turning the heat off, and I could also see the temperature drop... I also tested just unplugging the USB to the Arduino, and was glad to see that it means power off to the nozzle as well. That is good news as that means the heat won't continue to increase if you just unplugged.

I was also glad to see end-stops are working. These are important so the motors will stop and also, so it can "go home" and the printer knows where it is, and can use that as a reference for printing.


You communicate over serial with the Arduino 2560, and here are some useful starter commands for reference:

M998 - Turn on pull-up resistors. (Needed for M999)
M999 - Get X and Y endstop values. (1 means not triggered, 0 means triggered)

M105 - Read thermistor temperatures

And here is a list of many more: http://reprap.org/wiki/GCodes


More images and updates to come.... I basically only have to connect the heatbed (the big red thing you see in the picture), and then I'm off to actually try to print something...

MakerGear's Prusa Mendel Arrived!

Bam! Perfect timing! The RepRap Prusa Mendel kit from MakerGear arrived, just in time for easter and a few extra days off work. Excellent to use the extra time to build this monster!

Look at the adventure the package had today:

RepRap Prusa Mendel on a playground swing

RepRap Prusa Mendel on another playground swing

RepRap Prusa Mendel Parts (+ chocolate)

They even included some filaments for me to play with...

So, yea, I will assemble the thing now...

GameRunner released!

Wow, this is one of the reasons I also did my own product, as.. well, this GameRunner device was announced at CES 2006... that's right.. 5 years ago! ...and it looked like it would never come.






$500 for it, which isn't all that bad. Only problem here is that it will probably weight a lot, which adds to shipping. Currently 4 months wait time... Anyway, I wish them all the best with it!

Again, I'm doing my thing for the experience, and the fun of it. Mine will also be cheaper for those that already have a treadmill.. and, my device works on other things as well. Such as stationary bikes. There are also extra pins (breakout pins from the AVR) which one can use to expand it's functionality. Such as simple buttons. Then it's just up to the software to do the rest (send the appropriate command over USB). I have a few "add-ons" in mind already. But really, adding a few extra buttons is quite easy, and super cheap (a few bucks at most). You really only need wire and the button itself... Besides, there is a lot of flexibility as how people can hook up and place the buttons!

Header Image Updated

Yes, it's true! The header image has been updated to be wide. Should make for a better looking blog...

Eureka! It's Alive!

Just a small update to say that I've now tested using the sensor too, and by just fixing some rather minor differences between this and what I've used before (pins and USB setup little different) in the software, it worked! That means that not only is the PCB layout and connections correctly made, it was assembled perfectly too! What's really amazing about this is that I actually followed a different schematic before when I was using stripboards. Design that was based on 3.3V. This design is for 5V, which is great for external "add-ons", and wasn't really tested using stripboards, so it's amazing this works on first try like that! I have a few other boards I can test too. But hey, first board tested worked! Isn't that exiting!?

I include an image with the device on its side, also showing the plastic part underneath that is required. Besides, reading blogs with only text can get boring, so having more images makes it more fun. I like that myself.

Treadgaming PCB v1.0 is here!

Wow, guess if I was surprised to know that my PCB boards were sent to me by getting an UPS track number email last week! According to MyRO PCB's estimate, the whole thing was supposed to be done 7:th of April, and as you can see, it was ready a weak earlier! Good work MyRO PCB! I think they forgot to take a picture with someone there holding it though, but that's fine.

So far I've tested code to simulate a USB gamepad, and I also tested the LED's on it, and it all works! Next is to solder the sensor on and do the real test. But, so far I'm happy with the result!

Just look at that beautiful thing:

Without sensor

With sensor.


LED enabled.