3D Printing - Octoprint renewal - part 1

Basically since the beginning I did use Octoprint to control my glorious Ender 3.

OctoPrint has to run somewhere, so I did use a Raspberry Pi 3B to run it but all things age and I did reach the moment to update it.

Updating the Ender 3 Pro - the controller

 

After 1 year of playing with the 3D printer Ender 3 Pro I decided to do some upgrades.

Changing the controller to improve accuracy, speed and noise, changing the display to better locally control some options and add the BLTouch, to simplify the leveling.

This article is about changing the controller and the TFT display

A family size UV sterilizer - the electronic

At this point what is needed is a timer to control the lights and also a switch used for safety and to start the operations.

A family size UV sterilizer - intro

In this time of COVID is necessary to sterilize often things, like masks and objects.

To do so I decided to build an UV-C Box Sterilizer.
UV lights are used to sterilize object since ... forever :). On the market exists UV sterilizer for phones and small objects but this is the point, is not easy to fit in it many objects.

Thus the idea to build a bigger box capable to easily sterilize everyday objects, including facial masks and small PPE.
I will update this article every time I will add more information/details about the construction/test.

3D Printing - repairing a Jlab headphone

For many years I did buy a headphone from a company called Jlab.
They are cheap (< 30$) and very good sound quality and comfort.

I think I did buy so far 4 or 5 headsets and the reason is because after a while they broke down.

Finally I was able to repair one !

3D Printing - knob replacement

I was asked if it was possible to print a replacement knob for a diagnostic machine.
This article describes what I did and the results.

The knob is for a laboratory machine, a thermal cycler S1000, from Bio-rad.
The knob is in plastic and is quite big.

3D Printing - Protective visor

Another thing that seems missing for many doctors is a protective visor.

I did fin a nice project and did try, not bad.

3D Printing - Covid mask #2

Crazy time !  Another 3D print of a mask that claim to protect from the virus.

I am kind of skeptical about the feasibility and functionality of such solution, then I did find some people pointing out to a project.




At this time I'm NOT endorsing in any way to use this mask as real solution since too many questions are unanswered !

3D Printing - Covid mask #1

Crazy time !
I was asked if it was feasible to print a facial mask to protect from virus, to be used by normal people or also for medical teams.

So I decided to run some tests and see first hand some feasibility and if these can somehow works.

I am kind of skeptical about the feasibility and functionality of such solution, then I did find some people pointing out to a project.

At this time I'm NOT endorsing in any way to use this mask as real solution since too many questions are unanswered and potential CO2 accumulation is possible !

3D Printing - OctoPrint camera support

Another article related to OctoPrint.

OctoPrint supports to have a camera to monitor the print area, so that remotely is possible to see how a print is going on and eventually stop it if something wrong is going on.

I had around a nice Logitech Webcam C270 and it works perfectly with OctoPrint on Raspberry Pi.

So it was only matter to find a way to attach it permanently to the printer.

3D Printing - Updates and Problems

After some initial success prints, I started to have problems.

Basically the printer had big problems to start successfully to print the first layer, no adhesion to the plate and thus prints totally ruined.

Also, it ended up one time scratching the plate with the nozzle, sign that the leveling went berserk !

3D Printing - Adding Emergency Stop Button

Another article related to OctoPrint.

Sometime things can go wrong during a print.

If using OctoPrint to start/control a print, not always you can quickly go from the printer to the website in order to cancel the print and stop the printer.
Also using the printer console require some time to go on the stop.
Would be nice to have a Stop button.

IMPORTANT !  It is assumed OctoPrint is running on a Raspberry Pi connected to the printer !!

3D Printing - Adding enclosure temperature sensor

Another article related to OctoPrint.


Having around some DHT-22 sensors used on the fHelper MQTT project and seen a direct support of them for OctoPrint, I decided to use them to measure temperature and humidity of the enclosure, handled by OctoPrint.
In this article the steps to add the sensor to the System.

The idea is to have OctoPrint capable to monitor the enclosure temperature.
It is assumed OctoPrint running over a Raspberry Pi.

3D Printing - Slicers

A slicer is a program that convert a graphic file (typically in a STL extension) in a G-code file, capable to drive the 3D Printer.


It is a very important and critical part of the 3D printing process.

3D Printing - Tests

After tests, finally found a decent slicer running on Linux and Mac : Ultimaker Cura, but I found the version 3.6.0 working much much better than the latest one (4.4.1)

Let see some print finally, after changing the bed calibration springs, re-calibrate the printer and cleaning up the printing area.

3D Printing - OctoPrint

Many 3D printers, including the one I choose, the Ender 3 Pro, can be autonomous, meaning you simply save the file you want to print on a SD card, insert it in the printer and start the print.

However is much better to be able to monitor remotely what the printer is doing and even load remotely the file to be printed.

OctoPrint allows to do so.

3D Printing - Ender 3 Pro USB powering problem

The  problem arise when the Ender 3 Pro is connected to a computer via USB.

The connection between the two is via USB and the connection bring also the power (+5V).

In my case the computer is a Raspberry Pi 4 running OctoPrint.

3D Printing - Vocabulary

Like all the technologies, 3D print is not an exception and it has some "lingo", its own set of words to describe specifically something or some operations.

This post will be updated often.

Let see some of them to better understand this business.

3D Printing - The beginning

Time to buy, install and use a 3D printer.

What exactly should be done before to buy a 3D printer ? What is necessary to know ?
How to choose a printer ? 

My experience.

Huzzah32 - Thermal camera

I always  wanted to have a thermal camera to play around.
yeah yeah, I really don't NEED one, but it can be quite useful sometime and, well, I just like to have another tool.
If you are reading this blog I'm sure you can relate with me on that :)