Easy TAZ Mini Hardware Development

A dir of code and photos of the new Easy TAZ mini frame:

http://devel.lulzbot.com/Easy_TAZ_Mini/frame_concept/

I’m going to see if I can fit a light bracket to the upper portion of the frame there. Will post the design files and concept pictures here when I have something working.

Here’s what I’m thinking of for the light subsystem to avoid the need to add additional holes to those sheet metal trays.


Modification to the left and right upper corner bracket. Lightbar endcap sockets into the arm, wires for the light go out the hole and can be ran down the corner of the frame to power source and or switch. I’m assuming those 6.4MM holes in the corner brackets will be recieving heat set inserts so leaving room for nuts or nut drivers shouldn’t be a concern.

End cap would be something along this line. I’m thinking possibly a different, slightly stiffer design than the existing lightbar to try and span that whole gap without needing a center reinforcement. That will use a bit more plastic, but won’t require adding a hole to the frame. This is the existing long variant of the lightbar endcap which will fit those corner brackets as is.


endcap3.png
I know the existing endcap pieces are 20mm x 20mm x 20mm. How far apart are they on that top sheet? I’m guessing a 350-400mm span for a ligthbar in between them?

The existing lightbar fits this style LED strip light. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Waterproof-Super-Bright-5M-SMD-3528-600-White-LED-Flexible-Strip-light-DC12V-/221242479044?pt=US_Car_Lighting&hash=item33831451c4 Since it seemed to be cheaply available in quantity.

Anyways, I’ll keep toying with it. The files uploaded here are hereby officially licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license, unless that won’t let you guys use them for whatever reason in which case i’ll change it to whatever it needs to be.
taz_mini_corner_bracket_lightmount_LR_2_0_a.dwg (57.7 KB)
taz_mini_corner_bracket_lightmount_LR_2_0_a.stl (235 KB)
taz_mini_corner_bracket_lightmount_LR_2_0_a.stp (93.1 KB)

Cool, thanks, we’ll check these out. Our cluster needs better lighting, now that it is up on stage! :wink:

-Jeff

Looks awesome! As it stands now, there’s 358mm to work with on the inside of the TAZ Mini. a 300mm bar would probably work well and give us ~29mm to work with on either corner for mounting.

Cheers
-Brent

Ok cool. I’ll work up a lightbar tonight when I get home. Will probably shoot for 295mm to make sure it fits on a full Taz bed without issue. It’s basically going to be the existing lightbar, somewhat thicker, with the new end relief section for the heat shrink tubing over the soldier point so everything fits nicely into the endcaps.

Alright, bunches of files here. I’ll start with the images. The new endcap and the new lightbar are designed to accomodate the wire leads and the heat shrink tubing at the end of the LED light strip. The fit may be too tight at this point, will have to see how it prints. The endcap that will recieve the wires gets the hole in the center of the mounting tab drilled out by a M4 drill bit before inserting over the wire and onto the LED strip.




Lightbar_1_0_a.stl (38.9 KB)
endcap_taz_mini_2_0_a_RL.stp (63.2 KB)
endcap_taz_mini_2_0_a_RL.stl (86.6 KB)

Here’s the rest of them.

Assembly sequence:

  1. Print 1 lightbar, 2 endcaps and 2 corner brackets. Endcaps should be printed with the oval opening pointing towards the bed for best results.
  2. Cut 295mm length of LED strip light (may need to adjust that based on where the cut lines are)
  3. Soldier a positive and a negative lead wire (5" long?) to one side of the LED strip.
  4. Test for continuity with bare wires, then heat shrink tubing at the end of the LED strip to cover the soldier
  5. Adhere LED strip to lightbar in the provided recess. Allow adequate time for adhesive to set before handling
    5a. Optional - Use clear heat shrink tubing or clear tape at several points along lightbar to secure LED strip against heat detachment if adhesive is not strong enough. This has been a hit and miss issue for me with some LED strips.
  6. Drill out one of the two endcaps at the center of the mounting tab with a m4 drill bit.
  7. Slide the endcap over the wires and onto the lightbar. Trim for clearance as needed. Secure first endcap with adhesive if required.
  8. Slide second endcap over other end of light bar assembly
  9. Feed wires through one of the two corner bracket light bar mount holes.
  10. Sleeve, heat shrink, and add end connectors to LED wire header at this time
  11. Place assembled lightbar in position between 2 corner brackets and screw into upper Taz mini frame plate. Adjust width of lightbar using second Endcap until unit is in position and able to move, but snug enough to maintain angle.
  12. Secure second endcap with adhesive. Once ideal length is identified, process may be completed outside the TAZ mini frame prior to assembly.

So, I think that should be pretty close. Basically from the LED wire header, go to a light switch, then to a 12V power source (whatever the cooling fan for the controller is running off of should work) If the lengths need adjustment I can move things around. You should have the design files in a format you can work with hopefully there. If not, I can try exporting other ones.

All these files and the ones in the preceding post are again licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution license if that will work.

That lightbar and endcap set should also work with the Clip in Taz style endcap brackets. The main concern I have is droop over the span. I think it will be thick enough now, but we’ll see.

A Plexiglass lightbar might also work with those endcaps and brackets and might provide a more structurally rigid backing.
Lightbar_1_0_a.dwg (41.2 KB)
endcap_taz_mini_2_0_a_RL.dwg (47.2 KB)
Lightbar_1_0_a.stp (40.3 KB)

I’ve started a thread over here about Easy TAZ Mini Software Development:

https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/easy-taz-mini-software-development/580/1

The system can power on, connect, heat up, auto bed level, and print without any intervention. :slight_smile:

We have a nice bed leveling system going on the Easy TAZ Mini now. It still has a ways to go, but we’re simply going to have the nozzle zero out on metal plates in the corner, as an endstop. It is accurate, when the nozzle is clean… We’re going to add a nozzle cleaner of some sort. A wire brush works ok for testing.

It is controlled by an Olimex A20 Dual ARM 1GHz, 1 gig RAM, 16 gig miniSD, with 7" touchscreen running Debian armhf. We’re going to start uploading more of the software here:
http://devel.lulzbot.com/Easy_TAZ_Mini/Azalea/software/current/

At present, we are using the “official” Olimex A20 Debian image, which is nice, but fat. We have built our own bootloader, kernel, and sd image, but don’t have that all working yet. It is mostly standard debian tools. Uboot, an embedded bootloader, is used instead of grub. The final version will have our own versions of this built up, but for now we’re just using their image.

We’re looking at a E3D v6 or a RepRapDiscount custom Hex nozzle, for a low cost all metal hot end.

The development version names are Azalea (present, 5 being built), Begonia (next stage, 15 to be built), then Camillia (final prototype stage, 30 to be built).

For Begonia, we are going to use the PCDuino v3: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12856

For Camillia we’re going to evaluate a custom “core” board that the PCDuino/LinkSprite folks are doing. It is based on the Allwinner A20 CPU (same as Azalea & Begonia). When available, the 8 core A80 should be a drop in replacement (as the single core A10 is).

The R&D, production, and marketing schedules are here:

http://devel.lulzbot.com/Easy_TAZ_Mini/Azalea/PM/?C=M;O=D

-Jeff

I added a lot of info to a new Easy TAZ Mini Developer’s Guide. You can check it out here:

http://devel.lulzbot.com/Easy_TAZ_Mini/EZDEV/EZDEV.pdf

-Jeff

All sorts of info there! So it looks like the LCD mount will go about where I was thinking a lightbar would fit, so I’ll have to think of a different lightbar configuration that will fit. Looks like there is plenty of room to work with though.

I think we have some ideas where the LED is going to go, but I’m not certain myself yet. They (R&D) are using LEDs that come on reels that you can cut to length. They are somewhat flexible. The electronics board will have an LED driver onboard for these, so no external boards are needed.

Thanks!

-Jeff

Thought I’d share a few images of the prototypes we’ve been working on, this is going to be a sweet little printer :slight_smile:


Azalea was the first phase of prototyping, with Azalea 1 being the first one made. Check out the blower and shroud on the right side of the print bed. After printing, the bed moves back to line up with the blower, and suddenly the ~15 minute wait for the bed to be cool enough to remove your part is down to 2 or 3.

The metal washers on the corners of the bed and the wiper on the back are part of a new system that eliminates the need for bed leveling or setting the z-minimum height. Learn more here: https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/anyone-try-the-flex-ecopla/114/1

That LCD screen? A 7" touchscreen running a full linux operating system for octoprint hosting, onboard slicing and easy access to any hacking you might want to do. :smiley:

In the begonia phase we’re sorting out the look of the printer, refining the new features and starting to put together solid slic3r configurations for all our materials.






This is going to be really cool :slight_smile:
-Brent

Neat looking!

Quasi unrelated, have you guys thought of doing a swing out pivot LCD mount? Drop the LCD down another 15-ish mm, stick a pivot arm and an LCD mount bracket bar that the existing tilt in / out mounts could attach to. Then someone could swing the whole assembly out of the way as needed. Wouldn’t be too much additional hardware, i’m guessing the arm itself would need to be plate aluminum? Offselt slightly at the base pivot point so it could clear the frame at full pivot. Bracket bar could either also be aluminum or plexiglass, and would be the width of the LCD mount. Rivet at the arm to mount bracket bar point, something more sturdy on the other end of the arm?

Thats the first thing that jumps out at me anyways as to things I would want as an option aside from lighting.

I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

The begonia has a hinging screen. Great minds think alike:]

Now located here: http://devel.lulzbot.com/Easy_TAZ_Mini/Azalea/frame_concept/ fwiw