Hi All,
Been looking at an ERCF for a specific job and was wondering if I built the hardware, could I run the control on a duet board as part of a normal tool change macro or would I be better off setting the ERCFup as a second motion system, or should I just get the standard controller and integrate it as a separate device ?
Any thoughts on the most appropriate solution would be greatly appreciated.
All the best
Barry M
General question, so we grind the bearings back to 9.1 mm, how much intersection with the filament does that result in? Or to put it another way, how much do the flanges bite into the surface?
Also how significant is the drag / twist on the filament, does the contra rotating pair of blade sets make a significant difference? I’m assuming there is an amount of backlash like behaviour due to the twisting effect.
Any thoughts would be appreciated
All the best Barry M
@oliof Thanks for the heads up, I’ve now ordered the correct bearings! Looks like I will be ready to tinker when I get the chance 
Update - I’ve ordered 8x3x4mm flanged deep groove bearings, hopefully I’ve made the right choice… please let me know if I should order something else…
Hi All,
I’ve just finished for the holiday break and wanted to look at the hollow shaft extruder, is there a good consolidated reference material somewhere on the web?
I specifically want to order some flanged bearings to go with the carriers I already have but I can’t find the specs… unfortunately I don’t have time to dig into the thread befor Xmas but I want to order parts to grind the flanges and tinker with between Xmas and new year.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Barry M
@o_lampe said in Control for “Maslow” style cnc:
PS: I like the
BotofTheClothidea with its strap-on corners. For a plotter or laser it might be good enough: Just buy a 8' x 6' plywood sheet and clamp the motors and idlers directly. No need for a permanent frame which only occupies workspace 99% of the time.
I had exactly the sam thought, personally the idea of having all of the moving parts in the plotter carriage with just a fixed anchor point at the corner of the 8x6 sheet would be ideal. Literally just put a screw in each corner and attach the belts, calibrate, and you’re r away. Ideally everything would retract into the plotter carriage for storage.
I also like the idea of a diode laser to mark out for manual cuts and labelling.
I could even see a larger version being used to layout where you put holes for steelwork or walls etc on a building concrete slab during construction.
All interesting stuff…
@o_lampe I like the idea definitely something worth thinking about.
@droftarts that’s interesting, I’m really only wanting to make custom shipping crates from sheets of plywoo. I could just use a large plotter to mark out the cuts and then a jigsaw, obviously being able to do the cutting is a bonus but it wouldn’t be something that’s used every day.
@o_lampe they seem to be having good success with their approach. I’m sure the accuracy isn’t as good as a traditional xy cartesian table but if the end product doesn’t require it…
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maslow4/maslow4-affordable-compact-large-format-cnc-router
Definitely something I’m interested in experimenting with especially if I can keep all of my machines in the same ecosystem.
Hi All, sounds like I’ll be moving to a larger workshop next spring and I wanted to start thinking about this again. It was discussed here briefly, does anyone have any further thoughts?
https://forum.duet3d.com/post/236979
All the best
Barry M
Hi All,
I’ve been mucking around with 3D printed psu covers for a while and never got something I was happy with so I’ve moved on to laser cut acrylic.
IEC lead for 240v ac in and xt60 for dc out.
Still needs a couple of tweaks but generally happy. Thinking about adding a couple of mounting lugs either side.
Anyone have any other suggestions or constructive feedback/ thoughts?
All the best
Barry M
Hi All,
Having checked out the discussion w.r.t. mapping the Duet SD card as a network drive, I'm looking for other ways to automatically transfer files job once they have been created in the relevant PC folder.
I'm thinking a plugin that monitors a drive folder and automatically uploads any nc file as a job would do the trick...
Any constructive thoughts would be much appreciated!
All the best
Barry M
I guess another way would be to put tracking markers on the bed and print head then visually track those to confirm the printer is following the gcode...
In terms of AI capabilities I guess the ultimate goal would be to recognise any deviation from the STL or gcode file associated with the print.
Perhaps the plugin would build a representative visual model from the gcode and then alarm if the print head deviated...
Interested stuff... 
Sounds like a really interesting service.
I think it'd be a good investment in terms of the subscription when I'm in production mode, and the free license would be possibly enough for now and then small hobby printers.
https://printpal.io/printwatch/
Definitely going to keep up with developments and give it a try on my printers once they're back together again after the current round of upgrades.
@o_lampe thanks for the feedback, I'll stick with the stepper for now then.
I have ring based (CNC lathe spindle) magnetic encoders working on other prototypes but you are correct in that the additional mass for the sensor changes the equation.
Will keep an eye on what's happening here all the same.
I'm not timescale sensitive as the day job is really demanding at the moment, just trying to keep up with relevant community developments.
Many thanks
Barry M
@oliof said in Hollow shaft extruder:
If anyone is interested in getting one or two, please get in touch with me so we can organize a group order.
I'd be interested, I need a compact extrusion solution that I can embed in a much more complex print head. I have a hollow shaft stepper I've been playing with, but I'm guessing a closed loop brush less solution will have better performance.
I've only been following the thread superficially so I'd really appreciate if someone in the know could pull together a summary of relevant resources e.g. any cad for printed parts etc, hopefully the resources are Fusion 360 compatible so I can integrate them into my larger assembly.
I have both FDM and resin printers so should be ok to pull something together, albeit I'm maxed out on the day job at the moment so any progress at my end will be relatively slow.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
All the best.
Barry M
@o_lampe yeah I have a few different ones, including ones I've got from JLC but for anyone wanting to just have a go they're perfectly usable.
@Pertti @o_lampe I've bought the shields from here in the past and they seem to be good quality. It only takes a couple of weeks to arrive in the UK
SimpleFOC Shield v2.0.4 FOC BLDC servo stepper motor controller brushless motor driver board develop card
@o_lampe you could just connect some resistors with the same resistance as a normal stepper motor winding and set the current really low.
I'm guessing that shouldn't break anything and would fool the board into thinking a stepper is connected...
Or just connect any random spare motors you may have lying around...
Just a thought...