3D Printering: Switch And Klip(per)

September 4, 2024 by Al Williams 13 Comments

Last time I tried to convince you that, if you haven’t already, you should try running your 3D printer with Klipper. There are several ways to actually make it work.

The first thing you need is something to run the Klipper host. Most people use a Raspberry Pi and if you already have one that runs OctoPrint, for example, you might well use it. Just tuck your SD card away in case you give up and install a fresh Linux system on a new card.

The Creality Sonic Pad has issues, but it does work.

However, a Pi isn’t your only option. You should be able to make it work on nearly anything that runs Linux. We’ve even seen it running on Windows under WSL. If you have an old laptop that can run Linux, that would work, too. We’ve even heard it works on a Chromebook.

The other option is to get a “pad.” Several vendors make touchscreens with some Linux single-board computer bundled together with Klipper preinstalled. For example, there is the Creality Sonic Pad, along with similar devices from other 3D printing companies.

If you decide to go that route, you might want to make sure it is easy to install your own software easily. Some pads, like the Creality unit, are notorious for having so much customization that they don’t lend themselves to upgrades unless they come from the manufacturer. In some cases, you can wipe out the stock firmware and install a normal operating system, but at that point, you could probably just buy a Pi and a touchscreen, right?

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Building A Stylish IPhone Standby Dock

September 2, 2024 by Lewin Day 6 Comments

[Scott Yu-Jan] is a big fan of the iPhone’s standby mode. Put the phone on charge horizontally, and it looks all stylish, with sleek widgets and clocks and stuff showing you information you presumably care about. [Scott] enjoyed this so much, in fact, he whipped up a custom charging dock to make the most of it.

The design was a collaboration with artist [Overwork], who mentioned the DN 40 alarm clock created by legendary designer [Dieter Rams]. [Overwork] sent [Scott] a draft inspired by that product, and he printed one up. It featured an integrated MagSafe charger to juice up the iPhone, and pressing into one side of the phone would pop it free. It was cool, but a little clumsy to use.

[Scott] liked the basic concept, but shows us how he iterated upon it to make it even nicer. He added in a wireless charger for AirPods in the back, gave the device adhesive feet, and a big chunky eject button to release the phone when desired.

You can also grab the files to print your own if you so desire! We’ve seen [Scott’s] work before, too, like his neat 3D scanner build. Video after the break.

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Big Benchy Is A Boat That Really Boats

September 2, 2024 by Lewin Day 16 Comments

Benchy is that cute little boat that everyone uses to calibrate their 3D printer. [Emily The Engineer] asked the obvious question—why isn’t it a real working boat? Then she followed through on the execution. Bravo, [Emily]. Bravo.

The full concept is straightforward, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. [Emily] starts by trying to get small Benchys to float, and then steadily steps up the size, solving problems along the way. By the end of it, the big Benchy is printed out of lots of smaller sections that were then assembled into a larger whole. This was achieved with glue and simply using a soldering iron to melt parts together. It’s a common technique used to build giant parts on smaller 3D printers, and it works pretty well.

The basic hull did okay at first, save for some stability problems. Amazingly, though, it was remarkably well sealed against water ingress. It then got a trolling motor, survived a capsizing, and eventually took to the open water with the aid of some additional floatation.

We’ve seen big Benchys before, and we’ve seen fully functional 3D-printed boats before, too. It was about time the two concepts met in reality. Video after the break.

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3D Printering: Klipper, The Free 3D Printer Upgrade

August 29, 2024 by Al Williams 33 Comments

I have several 3D printers, and I’ve always been satisfied with using either Repetier or Marlin on all of them. There are a few other firmware versions that could run on my hardware, but those two have been all I’ve needed. Sure, it was painful for a while having to juggle features to fit the firmware image onto the smaller microcontroller boards. Now that Marlin supports big 32-bit boards however, that hasn’t been a problem. But recently, I’ve been on a program to switch everything to Klipper.

In this post, I’ll tell you why I did it and give you some data about why you might consider it, too.

The Landscape

Marlin is written in C and burned into a 3D printer’s flash memory. It does a lot. It receives G-code commands, interprets them, and translates them to meaningful actions on the hardware. Modern versions handle automatic transformations to account for lumpy beds, input shaping to reduce shaking, and linear advance to produce better prints.

It might seem simple to control a 3D printer, but there are lots of little details to take into account. For example, if you are moving the head between two XY coordinates and you expect a certain flow rate, then you have to figure out how fast to turn the steppers to get the right amount of plastic out over that time. You also may have to retract before you start a move, make sure temperatures are stable, and transform the actual coordinates based on bed leveling data. There’s a lot going on.

Klipper does the exact same job, but it does it differently. On the 3D printer board is a tiny piece of software that does very little. It’s a bit like a device driver for the printer. All by itself, it does nothing. But it can handle very basic commands that describe how to move the machine.

All the rest of the processing you expect to happen now runs on some Linux computer. That is very often a Raspberry Pi, but it could be a spare laptop, your desktop computer, or anything that will run a reasonable Linux install. Several vendors even sell single-board computers with touchscreens made specifically for running this part of Klipper.

However, even though a screen is nice, you don’t really need it. I’ll talk about that more later.

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What’s New In 3D Scanning? All-In-One Scanning Is Nice

August 27, 2024 by Donald Papp 29 Comments

3D scanning is important because the ability to digitize awkward or troublesome shapes from the real world can really hit the spot. One can reconstruct objects by drawing them up in CAD, but when there isn’t a right angle or a flat plane in sight, calipers and an eyeball just doesn’t cut it.

Scanning an object can create a digital copy, aid in reverse engineering, or help ensure a custom fit to something. The catch is making sure that scanning fits one’s needs, and isn’t more work than it’s worth.

I’ve previously written about what to expect from 3D scanning and how to work with it. Some things have changed and others have not, but 3D scanning’s possibilities remain only as good as the quality and ease of the scans themselves. Let’s see what’s new in this area.

All-in-One Handheld Scanning

MIRACO all-in-one 3D scanner by Revopoint uses a quad-camera IR structured light sensor to create 1:1 scale scans.

3D scanner manufacturer Revopoint offered to provide me with a test unit of a relatively new scanner, which I accepted since it offered a good way to see what has changed in this area.

The MIRACO is a self-contained handheld 3D scanner that, unlike most other hobby and prosumer options, has no need to be tethered to a computer. The computer is essentially embedded with the scanner as a single unit with a touchscreen. Scans can be previewed and processed right on the device.

Being completely un-tethered is useful in more ways than one. Most tethered scanners require bringing the object to the scanner, but a completely self-contained unit like the MIRACO makes it easier to bring the scanner to the subject. Scanning becomes more convenient and flexible, and because it processes scans on-board, one can review and adjust or re-scan right on the spot. This is more than just convenience. Taking good 3D scans is a skill, and rapid feedback makes practice and experimentation more accessible.

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Fast 3D Printing With A Polar, Four Quadrant Custom Machine

August 26, 2024 by Dave Rowntree 14 Comments

3D printing is all well and good for making low numbers of units, so long as they’re small enough to print in a reasonable time, but what if you want to go really big? Does a 35-hour print time sound like a fun time? Would it even make it that long? [Nathan] from Nathan Build Robots didn’t fancy the wait, so they embarked on a project to build a huge parallel 3D printer with four independent print heads. Well, kind of. Continue reading “Fast 3D Printing With A Polar, Four Quadrant Custom Machine” →

3D Printed Electronics Breadboard

August 25, 2024 by Maya Posch 9 Comments

The printed breadboard cover, seen from the bottom. (Credit: CHEP, YouTube) — The printed breadboard cover as seen from the bottom. (Credit: CHEP, YouTube)

Does it make sense to make your own breadboards rather than purchasing off the shelf ones? As [Chuck Hellebuyck] notes in a recent video on DIY, 3D-printed breadboards, there’s a certain charm to making a breadboard exactly the size you need, which is hard to argue with. The inspiration came after seeing the metal breadboard spring clips on sale by [Kevin Santo Cappuccio], who also has a 3D printable breadboard shell project that they fit into. This means that you can take the CAD model (STEP file) and modify it to fit your specifications before printing it, which is what [Chuck] attempts in the video.

The models were exported from TinkerCAD to Bambu Lab Studio for printing on a Bambu Lab A1 Mini FDM printer. After a failed first print (which the A1 Mini, to its credit, did detect), a model was printed on a Creality K1 Max instead. Ultimately [Chuck] traced this back to the Bambu Lab Studio slicer failing to add the inner grid to the first layer, which the Creality slicer did add, caused by the ‘wall generator’ setting in the Bambu Lab slicer being set to ‘Classic’ rather than ‘Arachne,’ which can vary line width.

After this, the models printed fine and easily fit onto the spring clips that [Chuck] had soldered down on some prototyping board. A nice feature of these spring clips is that they have a bit of space underneath them where an SMD LED can fit, enabling functional (or just fancy) lighting effects when using a custom PCB underneath the contraption. As for whether it’s worth it depends on your needs. As [Chuck] demonstrates, it can be pretty convenient for a small breadboard on an add-on card (with or without custom lighting) like this, but it’s unlikely to replace generic breadboards for quick prototyping. We can, however, imagine a custom breadboard with mounting points for things like binding posts, switches, or potentiometers.

If we had that kind of custom breadboard, we wouldn’t need these. People were making custom breadboards back in 1974, but they didn’t look like these.

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