Laser Filament Monitor - test results

Guyaros

Hi all,

Thanks for your feedback.
I designed an improved sensor housing (V2).
I have printed it and tested the sensor fit, but I didn't have time to test the sensor yet.

If anyone wants to print and test this, please go ahead.
I designed this to be a very fast and simple print and should be universally easy to mount because I included top and side holes.

Here is a link to download the STL file:
Laser Filament Sensor Housing - Thingiverse

T3P3Tony

@guyaros thats great, thanks!

fma

As reflections seem to be an issue, I would design an enclosure with a big hole behind the filament, and then try different things. For exemple, il should work fine at night. But it would need something to block the incoming IR during day. Several materials could be tests, then, without changing the enclosure. Maybe the distance could be enough?

T3P3Tony

@fma thats what the option to have the back open in the enclosure is there for in both designs. Also on the one i link from the documentation you can set the hole to be divergent to reduce the reflection. What we are not sure about is how much reflections case and issue. Also @wilriker has had some results that indicate external IR due to daylight may not be much of an issue.

LumberjackEngineering

With regard to external light, the NIR wavelength this sensor is using will get blocked by essentially anything that blocks visible light.
The reflectivity gets a little bit weirder though - if I remember when I get home, I'll try to do some digging. I can say that black probably isn't going to be the best choice as a lot of black pigments can suddenly turn reflective once you get above visible wavelengths.

Guyaros

@fma In my sensor housing design, the sensor window can be completely closed using M4 screw.
Its also make it easy to check if the IR from the surrounding is interfering with the sensor.

dc42

Has anyone tried my earlier suggestion of a closure that is cone shaped on the inside?

wilriker

Something related to the guide at dozuki: It states that one should use M3x16 screws and nyloc nuts. I am using the open top (which is still thinner than the closed top) and the 9mm base and I could barely screw regular nuts on M3x20 screws. I could of course have used nyloc nuts but the threads of the screw would not have gone deep enough into the nut to make it to the nylon ring. I am using nylon washers underneath the nuts though. But anyway M3x16 would not have even protruded from the housing in my case.

T3P3Tony

@wilriker Thanks updated

@dc42 The housing design I shared has a divergent light path where the amount it diverges can be edited. Its has a square rather than round profile though.

wilriker

@t3p3tony said in Laser Filament Monitor - test results:

@wilriker Thanks updated

Do updates in dozuki pages take a while? I cannot see any difference.

wilriker

@t3p3tony said in Laser Filament Monitor - test results:

@dc42 The housing design I shared has a divergent light path where the amount it diverges can be edited. Its has a square rather than round profile though.

@dc42 Also in what direction is that cone/divergence supposed to be according to your suggestion (that I apparently missed and cannot find either)? Tip towards the sensor or away from the sensor?

EDIT: Of course if it is tip towards the sensor it would not make sense to have full cone since it would block the sensor. In that case I would assume a cone with the top chopped off.

T3P3Tony

@wilriker have a look at this:

Having a divergent light path to reduce stray reflections back to the sensor might help, See the "divergeAmount" variable in the OpenSCAD design on youmagine.

From the documentation

wilriker

@t3p3tony Now I am confused

I thought your "Thanks updated" was related to me reporting that I found the screw lengths given in the documentation to be too short.

Re: housing: I already have your scad file on my hard drive and looked into it. My question on the direction of the cone that @dc42 suggested was that it could be he meant to have the base of the cone starting at the sensor going into its tip in direction of the top housing part so that in the end it looks like the top housing has some kind of spike. I would assume that this is to keep the light deflecting internally in various directions until it is too faint to detected by the sensor anymore. But that is just an assumption.

dc42

@wilriker said in Laser Filament Monitor - test results:

My question on the direction of the cone that @dc42 suggested was that it could be he meant to have the base of the cone starting at the sensor going into its tip in direction of the top housing part so that in the end it looks like the top housing has some kind of spike. I would assume that this is to keep the light deflecting internally in various directions until it is too faint to detected by the sensor anymore. But that is just an assumption.

Yes, that is what I intended.

wilriker

@dc42 said in Laser Filament Monitor - test results:

Yes, that is what I intended.

So I came up with
Top View:

Bottom View:

Sorry for those screen-caps, my OpenSCAD only produces fully-black PNG files when trying to export the design as an image.

deckingman

@wilriker said in Laser Filament Monitor - test results:

Sorry for those screen-caps, my OpenSCAD only produces fully-black PNG files when trying to export the design as an image.

I think the png background colour gets inherited from the preferences you set for 3d view. So "Edit - Preferences - 3D view" then select a different colour scheme. I'm pretty sure that you can also create custom colour schemes but it means digging into code - not my field of expertise but I'm sure you could make the changes. As ever, Google is your friend.

wilriker

@deckingman OK, I can see that the background color gets inherited from the theme. But why is then everything black on export? Even the blue-ish rendered parts?

Anyway, changing the theme helps. I found though that the export does not do anything really different from a screen capture. So no use in doing it that way.

deckingman

@wilriker said in Laser Filament Monitor - test results:

@deckingman OK, I can see that the background color gets inherited from the theme. But why is then everything black on export? Even the blue-ish rendered parts?

Don't ask me - I'm just an old guy who cuts a screws bits of wood together .

wilriker

@deckingman said in Laser Filament Monitor - test results:

Don't ask me - I'm just an old guy who cuts a screws bits of wood together .

Don't forget the guy that gives great advise on how to also screw aluminum extrusions together.

wilriker

So, I added some more results to my Spreadsheet and they line up with the previous results pretty good which means that for the same conditions, e.g. filament, housing and settings the sensor will perform quite stable.

Probably tonight or maybe tomorrow night I can switch the housing to one having a cone-shaped interior as @dc42 suggested - took me some tries to design it in a way to be actually printable. I will then do some more prints with the current filament to see if the redesigned housing performs better or worse before switching filament.