Stablebot Design Update

Alright!

I’ve updated these parts of my design theory:

Z-Axis

• Switched around to a Maxwell-style mount – 10mm ball on the bed, couplers on the Rail Pieces

• For now, no Steel Spring Sheet. The plan is to mount the PEI directly to the bed for now, removes just one little bit of complexity.

X-Axis

• Steel Core was a bad idea. Switching back to regular Fiberglass-reinforced GT2 belts.

Frame

• Z+Y axis was Counterbored for 80-20 anchors.

• L brackets are not stiff enough for a large machine. I will be making custom corner gussets out of additional 2040 pcs that will go across the back.

  • This will significantly stiffen the machine and doesn’t add much cost, only effort to properly counterbore the mitered pieces.

• Turns out Menards sells 8’x4’ ¼” HDPE sheets in black for around $50. This is what I’ll be using for my rear panel as well as the future enclosing parts.

Electronics

• Downgraded to 5” touchscreen, but upgraded to capacitive and higher-resolution

  •  Initially identified screen had compatibility issues with the RPI

• Will be creating PCB to take the power from any ATX power supply to split it out into its component voltages

  • Will be capable of ~30A on the high-voltage side

  • Has USB connector for 5V SB, so PI can be powered on at all times

    • Allows remote wake up for scheduled prints

  • PCB will be available for sale by itself.

  • Mosfets will be used to provide polarity protection for units down stream

  • Will be more costly than diodes, but avoids a pretty big voltage drop from a safety diode.

• Will be switching to toolchanger independent boards instead of the 3HC board, as the e3d Hermes seems to be the best option for modular tools

• Will have fully separated high-voltage and low-voltage sides – Means that when you’re operating on your wiring in the back, you’ll not have to worry about touching some powerful wires and getting zapped!

New features I want to try:

• Adding Spaghetti Detective support into duet!

• Automated tool addition with home “server” to allow for tool swapping between machines

• Automatic backlash calibration using probe

Some lessons learned:

Pieces bought from 80-20.net are significantly more expensive on top of NOT being the European standard. I was very used to being able to use hammer nuts in the European-style extrusion (drop in, don’t have to pre-place the parts/hardware. Would not recommend, but I didn’t know of any other places that had 20-4040 extrusion in the lengths I needed. It also didn’t tap on the ends as well as I expected it

Hardware, Hardware, Hardware – I’ve run out of every piece of hardware that I thought I had plenty of -m3x8mm for the linear rails, m5x8mm for the extrusion, hammer nuts, and a few other things. Crazy. Figure out what you think you need, and triple it. Just do it.

I’ll have a build log in the next few days posted with my current progress. Pretty pleased overall with how its coming together.

 Stay Tuned!