What Rostock MAX upgrades do you want to see in the manual?

[geneb]

I'm going to be writing up these:

1. LED light ring
2. Layer fan
3. TrickLaser arms
4. Top mounted extruder drive
5. Using a Heater cartridge and threaded thermistor in the stock hot end
6. ???

What else do you guys want to see? Would you be willing to write it up for inclusion in the manual?

Sing out!

g.

[kbob]

Dual extruders, of course!

[Jimustanguitar]

Z leveling feature http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=1979

[Batteau62]

If this is for a "mods" section of the manual-
xnaron mag joints/arms option-specifically measured drawings/photos. There are so many options for effector shape-arm material etc. would be nice to know what works best. i.e. -carbon fiber arms or aluminum? Flat effector or angled? All of this may be "around the forum" having it all in one spot would be great. Oh, and geneb...click link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6jsn80v5wxlai ... 1054-1.jpg
for all your hard work on this!

[grimmindustries]

Dual extruder settings please.

[limbatus]

Tell me about the layer fan. any photos?

[bvandiepenbos]

Tell me about the layer fan. any photos?

I think he means a part cooling fan. For printing PLA mostly, but I have found it greatly helps ABS on certain prints.

[bvandiepenbos]

upgrade to more powerful extruder motor.

[bvandiepenbos]

alternate print surfaces. there has been lots of great ideas discussed here.

[Eaglezsoar]

upgrade to more powerful extruder motor.

I'll second this one. Perhaps driven by a geared stepper.

[Flavored Coffee]

I agree to your list, and really liked the bed leveling video but, I think that can all be done with just one pressure sensing resistor, mounted on top of the hot end, and under the melamine. It would mean one more wire back to the Rambo but, I noticed you only used 2 maybe 3 of the analog inputs for the Arduino Mega. It may mean a board revision but, I can see how just that one part can detect collisions with the work, malfunction of the hot end, like a rupture, I've seen from over heating, and would allow for auto leveling in a fashion similar to the one shown. Except for thermal expansion, that pressure sensor shouldn't see a whole lot of change, and sudden changes would indicate a stop print. Just to avoid messes from bumped projects, and keeping the hot end and extruder running after it's been bumped, or malfunctioned. Just pinching it between the underside of the melamine and a washer, with two other silicon pads about the same thickness as the pressure sensing resistor, would allow for the autoleving, more than just the pressure of the mount, busted extruder, increase in resistance due to it being free. Bumping the print.

Using a zero contact thermometer to calibrate the temperature of the hot end for the Rambo, and the hot bed. We correct the manufacturer's tolerances, for the Rambo.

Seen projects were the stepping motor's controllers overheated, and skipped instructions. The rambo is not detecting it, and it could wait but, it can't sense the thermal protection circuit. I think it's analog, and not directly controlled by the Rambo. That's another five sensors to stop certain errors that occur when the arduino is not incorporated into the protection of the transistors for the motor controllers, and hot end. It would know if it overheated, and an analog, won't tell the rambo the motor didn't move. It's something you could calibrate but, by default, shouldn't need to. So, it's programmed with tolerance's worst case scenario in mind for the thermisters used. But, those thermisters, need to be routed to the rambo, so when it skips a step, it's a programmers choice to safe the power transistors, and then the rambo won't skip due to a hot day. It might stop to cool off but, it won't quit. I think the rambo, should be doing thermal protection work for the stepping motor's power transistors just so that it knows when it's skipping a step for the sake of keeping the transistor alive. Having that an analog, not associated to the rambo, doesn't enable it to determine that it's skipping something.

I think that there should be optional upgrade kits, and build guides. I would like something other than Melamine but, would put that off, to have one now.

And I don't think it would be a bad idea to write a loader program, so that we can use a second SD card, as expanded memory, and put all of these calibrations in and out of that tiny 64K memory, and stop trying to make everything fit but, aim at making everything function the best. That way, the loader program takes up a tiny amount of space, and the programs we use to run, calibrate, etc., are tucked away and are only limited by the size of the loader program that keeps the list of programs, available by that little knob.

Consider this, one of my goals, since 1984, was produce a 3D printer that could completely reassemble a human being, with replacement parts. Better than cells, nano-tech. Disease proof, virus proof, except for some web heads, but, reconstruct every neuron, dendrite, right to the molecule, and have robots do the work of hormones under a microscope, just following a program. I wouldn't care if I ran in a dozen different directions, as long as all pieces went back together the right way in the end. I just think, a grenade or something. Well, it's not a 3D human dissection machine but, we need one of those with a spectrum analysing microscope to identify everything autonomously. Actually, to recover all memories, it has to be a 3D spectrum analysing microscope. The structure of every neuron is absolutely unique, and all of the dendrites, and axioms have to be there precisely.

TA-65, is a vitamin according to the FDA because, death isn't a disease. But, it's a good way to use gene therapy to buy a few years, and one hell of expensive vitamin.

[Flavored Coffee]

I would also like to see a new hot end. Instead of the plastic thermal barrier, use a ceramic thermal barrier that's thermally non-conductive, or insulating.

http://www.aremco.com/potting-casting-materials/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At this web site, they do have thermally resistant potting compounds. If you can come up with a thin aluminum shell, to cast this stuff in, it's almost like space shuttle tiles.

See this hot end?

http://e3d-online.com/E3D-v6/v6-Full-Ki ... -Universal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Okay, it's energy inefficient. Casting off heat, is not a plus, it's wasting energy. But, a thermally non-conductive collar where you're now using some kind of plastic, could be cast by injection between two thing aluminum walls. Yea, aluminum is thermally conductive but, that's by mass. A thin wall, will only get as hot as whatever it's in contact with. So, that ceramic, could make your hot end, as cool as theirs is, where it's cool, and as hot as theirs is where it's hot but, yours won't be casting off heat, it will be resisting it, and keeping at the hot end. That fill bottle, would go clear to heating element, to fix it, and only a 1/4 inch of metal, rather than a half to the ceramic filled aluminum shell. Just a thing extruded tube, inside of a larger diameter, and a fill zone. Your's won't show it's glory, until you use a ampere meter, and a clock. There's will use more power from the heater, and yours will have focused heat removal to filament. This would be true, even if you used the same heating element, 40 Watt 12 Volt, your's would use less power and do more work. Ampere hours to volume of print test.

Just two thin walled aluminum tubes. One the filament passes through the bowden tube, the other, is a larger diameter, where the ceramic is poured between them. You might give an extra step to the builders of the kit to bake that hot end before you mount any hardware at 450 to 475 degrees in a standard oven. The ceramic cures up harder. By thin, I mean soda can thin. So, this energy efficient section, would be about an inch long, where the plastic section is a half inch now, and cutting a quarter of an inch off of the hot end's narrow aluminum tube, would make space for the extra quarter of an inch required for the one inch long ceramic filled aluminum tubes.

[Flavored Coffee]

Okay, I slightly bent my resistor leads for the hot end, to know where the center of the resistor body was before, I coated it in RTV. I think, that if you don't change the heater, that this step, is crucial. That's before globbing on the RTV. I've seen a few complaints about how long it takes the extruder to heat up. That could be the result of air bubbles in the RTV, and I used a popsicle stick, to move the stuff around, and wipe it off.

[Flavored Coffee]

Let's make the Rostock V3, a bicycle chain driven system vs a belt drive. Here's the difference, durability. Here's the downside, the motors might require a gear reduction just to use the chains.

Then we could use the tensioners of a multi speed bike, which is just a spring loaded sprocket, to automatically adjust the tension.

Allot of the system failures and adjustments I am seeing, are just stretch, and understandable changes in materials that were not meant for so much use or abuse. The reduction gear, only makes up for the required diameter of the sprocket, for the chain drive. Accuracy, could improve, or stay the same. The whole reason for the reduction gear, is to maintain the same amount of torque, per calibrated move. It will enable us to make more accurate movements but, at the same the time, we don't and won't be dealing with as much stretch on materials. A well oiled chain, should out preform any belt. Most of the problems I'm seeing in the Epic Fail section, are a result of natural change, and stretch, or heating and fatigue. These printers are not running long enough simply because, the materials used, are not capable of lasting as much longer as they would need to be. We need a chain drive, over the rubber belts.

[bdjohns1]

I'm casting a no vote on the chains.

Synchronous belting like we're using is the right tool for the job. These belts are just smaller versions of belting that is well-established as the way to move loads around when you don't have the same forces as CNC. They're not just rubber. They have kevlar reinforcement.

sdp-si.com (one of the places I've bought belting from in the past) rates their small belting (MXL and GT2) for at minimum 3000 hours of useful life if installed and tensioned properly. I've got about 300 hours of printing on mine, and the belt tension is still fine.

I have machines at my plant which are moving a >1/2 ton tool around using servo motors. Kevlar-reinforced polymer synchronous belting, with acceleration / braking rates as high as 9000 mm/sec^2. Granted, the belt is also about 150mm wide. They do wear, but we're talking 120 hours/week of operation for at least a couple of years before we're talking replacement. If you have a spring-loaded tensioner, then you have to replace the spring. I have some chain drives around the plant too. Chain drives require more lube, which collects dust (and if you deal with putting stuff in boxes, cardboard dust+grease is rather abrasive. I hate unsealed lubricant systems). And, the chain drives I have are all unidirectional. Ever made a zero-backlash chain setup (and I'm talking zero as in <0.01 mm)? If chain drive were a good idea and could handle better loads, we'd already see someone building a CNC with it.

If you're talking bike chain, you need to make everything bigger at the top and bottom to accommodate the larger sprockets that you need. Now you've got these big chains sticking out, instead of a GT2 belt that neatly fits inside the extrusion channel.

I'm also somewhat leery of your ceramic hotend idea. Unless your insulator is perfect, it will eventually allow heat to migrate. PLA in particular, you don't want the heat to migrate. That's why you need active cooling as part of the hot end, especially if you have long print jobs.

Also, we're talking about a few watts of power here - if your hotend solution means I use 10 watts less power, even if you could do such a hotend for $10 more than an e3d, the payback time on that electricity savings is after 10,000 hours of operation (assuming $0.10/kWh for power, which is a little more than what I pay). That's ~1.5 years of 24/7 operation, or 6 years of 8-hr 5 day weeks. Not looking like a good investment.

[elmoret]

I would also like to see a new hot end. Instead of the plastic thermal barrier, use a ceramic thermal barrier that's thermally non-conductive, or insulating.

http://www.aremco.com/potting-casting-materials/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At this web site, they do have thermally resistant potting compounds. If you can come up with a thin aluminum shell, to cast this stuff in, it's almost like space shuttle tiles.

See this hot end?

http://e3d-online.com/E3D-v6/v6-Full-Ki ... -Universal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Okay, it's energy inefficient.

The E3D loses less than 5W through its cooling fins. Sorry man, nothing to be gained here.

[bdjohns1]

I figured 10W was a rather generous number.

[JohnStack]

Parts listings and sources for screws, nuts, bolts, etc.

[dtgriscom]

I'll suggest a few mods from my modification thread:

- Flattening the end-stop switch actuators (unless they now come that way)

- Stepper motor dampers

- Quieter RAMBo cooling fan

- Reset button extender

- Anchor the USB cable where it enters the printer


Dan

[McSlappy]

My personal favorite is the 40w heater cartridge and screw-type thermistor upgrades.

I happen to be assembling a stock hot-end today with these exact same upgrades, I'd be happy to take notes and shoot some pictures if you'd like

[TFMike]

How to install and calibrate a v2 kit with 4 or 5 foot extrusions in place of the standard ones (would they have to be larger than the 1x1 inch units currently sold by seemecnc?), with a smoothie board and dual e3d hotends with screw in type connections for ease of use. Is this even possible? I have no idea but if I get a rostock v2 this is what I would want, ideally.

[Flavored Coffee]

True Color 3D Printer.

That would make blow up dolls, completely different. For one, they'd work with dynamite instead of air, and when you blew em' up, you'd see organs. And anything you do to fix them, is still only plastic surgery.

True Color Ninja Flex, and you could do you're own alien autopsy at home, and fill it with all of the bells and whistles. Alien organs! A small space between organs, and a syringe filled with food coloring and KY jelly, and it's slimy in all of the right places.

The combination of digital animation, shock and awe for apparent expression, and somebody step on something from another planet. You could take the scale of the alien/object, and put the 3D model, under foot, and smash it's guts out.

But, you would have to come out with the 16 million nozzle printer. Oh, double that number of nozzles for the sake of textured media.

With the capabilities I'm thinking of adding to this printer, the whole world could have a panic attack about, somebody dissecting something smaller than frog, and made of plastic. A model, so easily printed so many times, UFO digital media fakers, will have so much more artillery, that we'll believe in life on other planets.

Do you have any idea of how much you can do for free? Well, go here, and make your own UFO video.

As for me, I'll be happy to ditch using hall effect sensors for leveling the print head for math, and small adjustments for the sake of Cartoon white ink. Well, that's not the only color but, yea, cartoon ink.

http://www.blender.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ha ha ha.

[Flavored Coffee]

Hello,

I like it when I post bad ideas because, I learn so much. I keep sending messages to [email protected], and those are much more detailed. From what I understand, there's only one other from scratch tripod printer, and the rest are just running your software, or somebody elses. I've never had and broke anything. At that point, I would have had to have purchased an entirely new kit, just to have one working. It was the Brakes, that I broke. I have a set of perfect brakes now. Over there, I'm running back and forth over equations and not writing them. Bunching up word problems but, I don't want to get anyones hopes up for something might not blossom. I think, it would cause you boom in business.

You're right about oil, dust, and chains. I just think the steam punk look is cool. Didn't know belts did so well.

James.

I'm casting a no vote on the chains.

Synchronous belting like we're using is the right tool for the job. These belts are just smaller versions of belting that is well-established as the way to move loads around when you don't have the same forces as CNC. They're not just rubber. They have kevlar reinforcement.

sdp-si.com (one of the places I've bought belting from in the past) rates their small belting (MXL and GT2) for at minimum 3000 hours of useful life if installed and tensioned properly. I've got about 300 hours of printing on mine, and the belt tension is still fine.

I have machines at my plant which are moving a >1/2 ton tool around using servo motors. Kevlar-reinforced polymer synchronous belting, with acceleration / braking rates as high as 9000 mm/sec^2. Granted, the belt is also about 150mm wide. They do wear, but we're talking 120 hours/week of operation for at least a couple of years before we're talking replacement. If you have a spring-loaded tensioner, then you have to replace the spring. I have some chain drives around the plant too. Chain drives require more lube, which collects dust (and if you deal with putting stuff in boxes, cardboard dust+grease is rather abrasive. I hate unsealed lubricant systems). And, the chain drives I have are all unidirectional. Ever made a zero-backlash chain setup (and I'm talking zero as in <0.01 mm)? If chain drive were a good idea and could handle better loads, we'd already see someone building a CNC with it.

If you're talking bike chain, you need to make everything bigger at the top and bottom to accommodate the larger sprockets that you need. Now you've got these big chains sticking out, instead of a GT2 belt that neatly fits inside the extrusion channel.

I'm also somewhat leery of your ceramic hotend idea. Unless your insulator is perfect, it will eventually allow heat to migrate. PLA in particular, you don't want the heat to migrate. That's why you need active cooling as part of the hot end, especially if you have long print jobs.

Also, we're talking about a few watts of power here - if your hotend solution means I use 10 watts less power, even if you could do such a hotend for $10 more than an e3d, the payback time on that electricity savings is after 10,000 hours of operation (assuming $0.10/kWh for power, which is a little more than what I pay). That's ~1.5 years of 24/7 operation, or 6 years of 8-hr 5 day weeks. Not looking like a good investment.

[McSlappy]

I did think that the steampunk look would be cool. Don't let practicality get in the way of an awesome printer mod!

[bdjohns1]

Hello,

I like it when I post bad ideas because, I learn so much. I keep sending messages to [email protected], and those are much more detailed. From what I understand, there's only one other from scratch tripod printer, and the rest are just running your software, or somebody elses. I've never had and broke anything. At that point, I would have had to have purchased an entirely new kit, just to have one working. It was the Brakes, that I broke. I have a set of perfect brakes now. Over there, I'm running back and forth over equations and not writing them. Bunching up word problems but, I don't want to get anyones hopes up for something might not blossom. I think, it would cause you boom in business.

You're right about oil, dust, and chains. I just think the steam punk look is cool. Didn't know belts did so well.

Umm...I don't work for seemecnc, so I wouldn't be seeing any messages sent to support@. I'm just a guy who built one of the kits a few months ago, and actually deals with industrial automation, robots, servos, PLC systems, etc as part of my day job. I have vendors offering me demos of all kinds of stuff that sounds clever enough, but at best, they're trying to sell a bunch of solutions to non-existent problems. Not to be overly callous, but that's what you're offering - impractical solutions to things that aren't broken. And then there's this "true color" idea.

This is the only logical response: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112508/quo ... =qt0982085" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;