Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Flexible Webcam Arm

So I saw a MakerBot webcam attachment http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8269 which inspired me to make something similar that would work with my webcam. This will allow me to take pictures, video, and time lapse of stuff I print.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:52533 is mine. I dont know if anyone will actually ever print it, but the link segments might be useful for something.





The mounting clip is in the foreground. 6 legs, and then the bracket that fits the camera. 


Im mad this photo is turned. Blogger keeps turning it on me. Just tip your head and you will see the chain attached to the acrylic plate on top of my printer. I tried to arc the links nice and evenly so it would look better. It is assembled using M3x16 bolts, washers, and nuts. I tightened them down pretty tight (not to tight so it wouldnt break the plastic)

Probably time lapse videos of future prints on the way!





Monday, February 18, 2013

New tape, and starting print code

I know it's been a while since I have done anything with the printer. This one mainly because of the last crash I had where it ripped up all the tape. I was having a hard time getting motivated to fix the bed. I finally got around to it since I am on a 3-day weekend! I took a lot of time placing the new tape to  not be wrinkled or bubbled. No gaps between strips either (within reason). 

My print area is framed by the blue corner marks. The pencil rectangle is on the ceramic and couldn't get it off. It is not as wide as I would like because at the max height my cooling with crash into the frame. 

The next big thing I did I cant really show a picture of. It is a programming thing. In KISSlicer and other slicing programs it is common practice to put some start code and end code to add to every print. Such as home all axis, reset extruder, etc. Here is what I did and why;
G-code Prefix
G28 ; home all axes
G1 X0 Y0 Z10 ; move to z10
G92 E0 ; reset extruder
G-Code Postfix
M104 S0 ; turn off temperature
G28 X0  ; home X axis
G28 Y0  ; home y axis
M84     ; disable motors

The Key line is the underlined one. What this does is bring the z level up to 10 before it starts to print. It will then move on a very nice linear diagonal until it hits the point where the print is going to start (in my case usually (100,100,0). The reason I did this was because it allows it to clear the tape in-case there is a wrinkle or bubble and not rip the tape up. Also if a little piece of plastic is hanging off the nozzle it might catch the tape edges too. If you look in my previous posts you will see where the tip dragged and ripped the bed the shreds. Now if it is going to drag it will only do it at the start point of print instead of the path to get there. This happened more than a few times in the past because I like the first layer so thin for ultimate adhesion. 

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Mountain Top Pt4

So I know it has been a while. But trust me I have spent a lot of time getting to this point. This took a lot of time and I worked on it in small batches. I didn't want to update the photos until the mountain top was complete (without trees and some additional accents like hikers or animals).

Here you can see where I have added the basic ground foam over the painted base from pt3. 

Next I began adding in some bushes and smaller rocks

Lots of rocks and bushes added to bring it to life

Close up of the front rock. Little shiny due to flash glare. Will need to rub some brown chalk on it to dull it for future pictures. Remember this front rock is only 1" tall and the ones on the next level in background are 2" tall

If you were to climb my mountain and look down from the top this is the view you would have. 

With a sky backdrop looking up the 5 inch mountain. I have yet to put some trees on it, but you get the idea. 


Here is the overview of it. I will need to blend this into the next section of the layout and then add my accents. Hope you enjoy it!