Who knew, Pyropen Jr can do SMD

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Category: 3D Printer Shenanigans

Created on Monday, May 14 2018 12:30

A long while back, I was gifted a set of Trinamic TMC2100 stepper drivers. This was long enough ago, that a batch were created with mislabeled pins. But, the internet being what it is, someone else figured it out and left bread crumbs on how to fix the issue.

And the fix if you have Anycubic TMC2100 drivers that look like this, is purportedly to bridge CFG3 and get the MS1 pin to ground.  This will get you the much beloved combo of 16 micro steps, interpolation, and Spreadcycle.  I haven't quite tested it yet, but will soon.

The biggest issue I had, was bridging the dang pads of CFG3 though. I got lucky on my first attempt. I managed to drag the solder to bridge the two dots. It didn't happen again. No matter how much flux I added, the dang solder simply didn't want to do that again. So, plan B. Solder paste + a tiny piece of flattened wire + my butane soldering pen.

All things considered, I think I did pretty well for my very first try. I was pretty skeptical that my Pyropen Jr would be able to get the job done with the hot air tip. But it sure did. I wouldn't want to start a big SMD project with it, but in a pinch it worked a treat.

Printer update

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Category: 3D Printer Shenanigans

Created on Sunday, April 22 2018 18:32

I mentioned how my printers had been more "fun" to mess with than my Shapeoko in the last post. A lot of that fun was me simply learning and gaining experience in various bits of CNC motion assemblies, wiring, and other nuances. However, I think I've gone as far as I can with my two printers without more or less starting from scratch.

Still, I tinker on. I've managed to attach an E3D Titan Aero replica to my blue printer. It wasn't a particular hard bracket to design, but it sure did require a lot of rewiring. After several prints, it's pretty clear that my print quality has gone way up at the expense of print speed. Not too bad a trade off to me.

The blue printer is going to get some diode filters to "fix" the issues with DRV8825 drivers and microstepping.

The black printer will eventually get Trinamic drivers. It will also get a new cold end extruder, but I haven't made up my mind if I'm going to go with a Titan Aero setup like the blue printer.  I'd like to keep one of them nice and speedy.  I may look into getting some Capricorn tube to get the retraction issues under control.

It moves

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Category: Shapeoko 2

Created on Friday, April 20 2018 08:35

My Shapeoko had been on the back burner for so long, but recently it came back to life!  So lets get up to date on what happened to get here.

Back in 2015, I snapped up a X-Carve upgrade kit for my Shapeoko 2 on a black Friday sale.  All of their first gen plates and most of the gantry parts were included for the bargain price of $120 shipped.  That promptly got put on the shelf and more or less forgotten about as my 3D printers were more fun to play with.

Fast forward a couple of years, and the parts gathering picked up in earnest. Amazon had a sale on a Dewalt 611. I couldn't resist. Of course, that meant I had to get more parts!
I contacted us.misumi-ec.com for 250mm x 1000mm extruded plate, a healthy dose of T-nuts, brackets, and other extrusions.  Luckily, they're local and I saved a bundle by picking it up.
An order was put in to boltdepot.com for several pounds of hex bolts of various sizes.
Inventables.com took some more of my money in exchange for a Dewalt 611 spindle mount and 1000mm maker slide.

With all that done, everything was promptly assembled and then sat.  My Shapeoko 2 wire management always felt lacking and I wanted something that would work well.  So, I started drawing up my wire management solution and came up with something that I think works quite well for testing.  After a few revisions to work out the kinks, it sat again.

I just didn't want to run the gshield, and I didn't want to buy the XController either.  An ebay.com purchase later and a genuine Protoneer CNC Shield V3.51 kit was assembled and populated with spare DRV8825 stepsticks I had lying around.  I figure the CNC Shield will give me much more flexibility when I figure out what stepper motors and drivers I want to use.  But, it again sat.

When I finally got tired of staring at the Shapeoko in its sad state, I mustered up the courage to tackle the electricals.  Electron plumbing and me just don't get along.  Nevermind that everything I need to do here, I've already done before successfully with my 3D printers and other oddball projects.  It's just not something I enjoy.  It was time though.  A marathon session of wire crimping, followed up with a session of updating software (UGS), firmware (grbl), settings (grbl), and me simply getting over my fear of crashing the darn thing, lead to a successful homing cycle.

Much more to do. SSR's are sitting on my desk and they need a bracket to locate both them, AC outlets and inlets for further testing. I plan on using them to switch both the spindle and a vacuum.  Along with the electric testing, I need to order up beefier steppers, shopvac hose, and some lumber to create an enclosure...  It seemingly never ends.

But it's getting there.

We can rebuild it...

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Category: RC

Created on Friday, November 24 2017 16:38

I really should write more. Lots of missed entries, but we'll start with something nerdy as I catch up. I've been designing and printing up new parts for my RC cars. It's been pretty fun! I've been learning quite a bit about suspension geometry in the process. I've managed to make new front and rear suspension arms, steering linkage, as well as servo and radio gear mounts.

It brings a nice sense of accomplishment. It'll feel even better once i get an engine installed and everything running. With some luck it will happen soon.

New floor mats

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Category: Cars

Created on Monday, September 18 2017 15:57

My new car mats came in. On some cars, the floor mats that come with them are completely adequate. Eliza's mini came with a great set of all weather floor mats and so we didn't bother getting new ones. On BaT, the front floor mats weren't the best. Weathertech to the rescue!

Here's a good shot to show how much more coverage the Weathertech mats provide versus the OEM ones. Pretty significant!

There's no sense in having mismatched floor mats, right? Overall, I'm quite happy. I chose the "cacao" color instead of black or tan and to me they fit in pretty well with the other browns used in the interior.

I will say that these Weathertech floor liners are a bit thinner and a different formulation that in the past. Still a great product, just an observation. Feels good to "buy American", especially when they are a drive away in Downers Grove.