Awesome shiny new TAZ arrived!

So this new shiny Taz showed up today (that was massively quick shipping by the way) and I’ve just started to think through what I want to do with /to it, but I definitely want to start playing with dual extruder goodness now that there is so much room. I’ve also discovered that I am not the worlds best fitting crimper (the red pin is my nemisis). Any chance you guys would sell me a second Extruder/hotend cable assembly? I’d be ordering the second hot end at the same time. Probably another hobbed bolt too since I think I ended up using the other matching one I had in one of the experimental belt extruders.

Also, while you’re reading this, do you have any projects that you guys have thought of but just ended up on the “someone should make one of those but we haven’t got to it yet” Taz upgrade projects that you can think of that you wish someone in the community would build pile? (that officially wins the award for most awkward run on sentence in this forum ever, but I’m going to leave it anyways)

Thanks again, keep being awesome!

Hey,

We are going to release a new dual extruder, like we did for the Flexystruder. They are nearly ready to go, we’ve just been waiting on a delayed motor shipment from Kysan.

What we’re most interested in for development for the Easy TAZ Mini, which will (perhaps) include a nice touch screen and auto bed leveling. Docs for it are landing here:
http://devel.lulzbot.com/Easy_TAZ_Mini/

Happy hacking!

Thanks,

-Jeff

In that case I’ll get one of the dual kits when they are available then.

Oh nice, you guys are including an all up leadscrew for the Z axis in that one. Very cool! Beaglebone board for a network interface or is that the frontend for your touch LCD? I was looking at adapting one of these to my AO-100 at some point, but I haven’t got that far yet: https://www.4dsystems.com.au/product/uLCD_32PTU/

Any interest in internal lighting? Probably would be pretty easy to create some brackets that would mount to the top frame underside and tie into the corners. Lighting is fairly inexpensive to add too, since you are basically talking just a wiring harness, a strip of LED’s, a 12v switch and some bracketry. Edit: these could be adapted for example easily to screw into a frame: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:238238 very quickly.

That frame looks like it would be fairly easy to enclose and turn into a self contained heated build chamber too. A couple side plates, a curved top with clearance for the extruder head at top z travel, maybe a curved or trapezoidal front and or back hinged cover. Wouldn’t have to be all that thick to contain heat properly, and even the curved pieces are pretty easy to fabricate if you take the time to build a heated press, which is basically just a pair of curved heatbeds attached to a pair of curved metal plates on a clamp. A couple pieces of 1/8" acrylic in a frame would be fine, and that would take about 3 minutes to shape and cut with the right jig. Door hinges are cheap, toss in a couple magnets for the closure, maybe a handle or two, sell it as an upgrade kit to keep the main pricepoint low?

Lets see, you could probably fit a linear Z or Y rail in there pretty easily, but from the looks of the size, it may not really need those. Then again I’m always a fan of fully supported bearing rails heh. If I were designing this personally I might be tempted to go with 10mm rods at least on Z just to minimize any chance of banding.

Looks intriguing!

Cool.

This will be in the next TAZ too (codename Guava).

BBB for touchscreen and networking. We have a unit from 4dsystems and are getting some more.

YES! :slight_smile: We’ve wanted this for awhile, but never got to integrating it into a product.

We don’t have any plans to enclose it at this point.

Cool thanks. Post in the Easy TAZ Mini thread too, if you conjure anything up. The other devs should see that too.

Thanks!

-Jeff

Oh neat. Ok, I see the Guava parts for the leadscrew Z. Very cool. I was actually thinking about trying to fit a leadscrew or a ballscrew as a possibility, so I’m glad you pointed that out before I started tinkering. Looks like the control box of the Guava is a bit different than the one I have now too. Any other major changes to the guava that might be neat to incorporate?

I know one of your forum users here nopick has already fit my light brackets to a TAZ http://www.thingiverse.com/make:71595 That will probably be my next project for my new shiny one as well. Will likely make a longer variant of the light bar itself now that I can print a longer one heh, which should make it easier to light the whole width of the TAZ. For the TAZ mini, the whole lightbar width might be printable on a TAZ to allow for a one piece center unit.

Do you happen to have any pictures of the inside upper corner of a Taz mini that you can share? specifically, what kind of corner fastners are in there, and is there sufficient room to hang a lightbar bracket off of them? I’m thinking 2 endcap brackets, and one or two support brackets. 1 would probably do it, 2 would be an additional part to print, but would add redundancy and strength and minimize vibration. Depending on how much space there is between the leading edges of the top and front or rear panel, might be able to attach those via a slip hook, or even integrate them as a mid panel rienforcement that happens to have a light bracket attached. Kind of like a corner window channel bracket. I dunno, just thinking out loud, I’ll see if I can’t come up with something that would fit and be fairly easy to print this weekend though.

I’m a fan of the 12v LED self adhesive RGB LED strips. A buddy of mine in the makerspace was thinking of making an add-on daughterboard for the RAMBo to be able to individually address the LEDs and change/cycle through colors. There’s room in Marlin for Gcode controlled color changes :smiley:

The TAZ mini latest iteration is quite different chassis. Still evolutionary change, but definitely different. See here:

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

-Jeff

It should still be workable for the taz mini. just need to convert the existing t-slot clip ends to a cap screw mount for the light endcap brackets and mid supports. I was thinking I might be able to make something to fit in the top corner, but now that I look at the top sheet picture, that idea isn’t going to work. So, it’s probably needs to be a bolt on set, which is fine. A friction fit clip along the lower lip of the top plate might fit too, but I would be worried about it coming loose after a bunch of heat cycles and it would probably take more plastic to make. Ideally i’d put 3 more mounting holes in that front top plate lip, one next to each of the corner bracket holes spaced about 10-15mm over, and one right in the center. Or in the top of the top plate instead if that would be easier. I’ve got a few possible ideas, I’ll draw them up and see if one works then release it into the wild to see what happens.

I went ahead and posted the first revision of the lighting subsystem prototype over in your Taz mini development thread https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/easy-taz-mini-hardware-development/545/3

I ended up deciding for the moment to modify a pair of the corner brackets to mount the light bar so the assembly can use the existing holes. If someone gets a chance, can you measure how far the span would be between the existing corner brackets on a theoretical taz mini so I can figure out how long a lighting subsystem lightbar would need to be?

Any idea when the dual extruder upgrade kit will be availale for purchase? Or, if you’re still waiting on motors, any chance you’ll sell me one without the motor since I have a couple spare motors? Crimp fittings still hate me, but if the motor is the only part I need to do i can probably muddle through.

Also, out of curiosity, did the taz mini light fit?

You need half height NEMA 17 motors. We had some on order from Kysan, but they were taking forever. They even offered to give us 50% off, since they were so late. We’ve used Kysan in the past, and they are generally ok. But when we got them, the D shaft was too short, which was our bad. So we just had our regular motor manufacturer make some. They have the first batch ready, but that’s only 20 motors for testing. Then if those are all happy, we’ll order lots more. Email support@lulzbot.com about getting a “half height motor for a dual extruder” and I’ll see if we can get you in the queue for the test round.

Not yet, I don’t think so, but it is on our weekly EZ TAZ Mini agenda.

Thanks!

-Jeff

Will do!

How much too short were the motor shafts on the first batch? did you get stuck with them? Might be worth seeing if a Pulley design would fit since those can be about 15mm shorter than the shaft length needed for a geared one?

The D-shaft could get ground down and made flat to work. This would be fine on a home machine, but we didn’t want to do that for production parts we’re selling, since it is a bit crufty.