Lulzbot & Lime Green Begonias

Lulzbot, or more specifically Aleph Objects, had a booth at Maker Faire this year, and unlike a lot of other 3D printer manufacturers they’re not afraid to show off what they currently have in development. The latest is code-named Begonia, although when it makes it to production it will probably be called the Lulzbot Mini. It’s a smaller version of their huge Taz 3D printer that trades build volume for a lower price.

The Lulzbot Mini will have a 6x6x6 inch build volume, heated bed, and all the other features you would expect in its larger counterpart. One interesting feature is automated nozzle cleaning and bed leveling. At the start of every print run, the nozzle runs over a small felt pad at the back of the build plate, touches off four metal washers at each corner, and recalculates the GCode for a level print. You can check out a demo of that in the video above.

Also in the works in the Lulzbot labs is a controller panel with an SD card, display, and (I think) a touch interface. Lulzbot didn’t have a demo of this, but rest assured, we’ll post something on that when it’s released. The last time we saw Lulzbot we heard of a 3D scanner project they’re working on that will turn any physical object into an .STL file, without having to mess about in Meshlab. Development on this project is stalled, but that is a very difficult problem. Can’t fault them for that.

Oh, the price for the unannounced Lulzbot Mini? Somewhere around $1300-1400.

21 thoughts on “Lulzbot & Lime Green Begonias

  1. This is the first mention of the auto bed level by changing the Gcode that I have seen but it has been available for Linuxcnc for several years. Hopefully it will filter through to the open source now.

    1. do you refer to probekins kinematics module in LinuxCNC?
      is that a joke – there is some functionality in LinuxCNC and yet you hope for it to become opensourced?
      it may be a surprise, but LinuxCNC has been opensource waaaaaaay more years than there is probekins in there. take a look at git.linuxcnc.org

      1. I was referring to the use of the LinuxCNC autolevel methods in 3d printing. I know LinuxCNC is open source, the “Linux” gives it away. All the auto level methods for 3d printers involve actually levelling the bed which to me seems pretty daft when you can do some arithmetic on the Gcode and end up with pretty much the same thing.

        1. Except it’s not metal being milled it’s a liquid being squirted. A none level bed will make a difference in the print, sometimes it will be moot difference and sometimes it’ll be very observable depending on settings/cfg of the printer.

          Know the materials you are working with, so you understand why.

      1. agreed on anything but the hot plate. if your hot plate distorts you can be sure that it will get a weird shape you cant correct for. for example if it lifts up a bit in the middle and becomes like a dome calibrating the bed at all four edges will do exactly nothing since the edges might be at equal height but the middle of the print surface will be to high or too low…..

      1. Ya, there are a few different methods out there. The hydroraptor style we’ve implemented on a TAZ in the past. The Mini/Begonia one is different (completes a circuit instead of having a separate probe).

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