OneUp V2 Build Log.

[mr_intensity]

SIDEBRACE Redesign

So, with Rob and Ken jumping in and working on this thing, it all went together in one night.  It went together kind of quickly, and I did not get to take any pictures of what we did.

Since that one night, a week and a half has gone by.  I really have not had the time to take pictures of the finished product, and the one or two little "gotcha" nuances with which we dealt.  We have had a build night since then, and Rob was actually disappointed that I did not bring the OneUp back.  My project, this week, was flushing a heater core that I removed from my car.

Now I am on a trip, and won't be able to take pictures until I get back.

However, tweaking a 3D design is easy.  So, I did a redesign on the OneUp V2 SIDEBRACE piece that people break so much.

   

I was thinking of drilling some "lightening holes" into the thing, but trying to "enlighten" the part is what got us in to trouble with the original SIDEBRACE piece.  Remember?

I would love to upload the part file to the site.  However, *.STL is not a valid file type.  Maybe I could zip it.

I was thinking about posting the OpenScad code, using the CODE tags, but the program is excessive, as I programmed the curve with many (1-degree) line segments.

I will probably post a *.zip with both the *.STL file and the *.scad file, so that if I did not get the end tab right, it can be tweaked out in the field.  However, I am going to clear it with the Grand Poo-Bah Admin, first.  No need getting fabric8r sued by Q3D.

Then I will post the *.STL and *.scad files in a *.ZIP archive in a separate thread.  That way, it will be easier to find.

[Administrator]

Hi mr_intensity,

I did respond to you in email. The bottom line of that was that you should go ahead and post the files. I don't see any problem since I think it's your original work anyway.

Something that I didn't mention in the email though is that it might be nice to include a license of some sort - just to let people know that they don't have to worry about using the files.

I'm looking forward to your first prints

[Mooselake]

One suggestion for posting OpenSCAD and stl files is thingiverse. The Takerbot brewhaha died out a long time ago (of course, anything you post online is subject to being copied without regard to whatever restrictions you tried to impose) and it's a well known common source of 3D printing files. If you take that route then post links to them here.

[mr_intensity]

I do mention GPL V2 License in the README file, and I keep a copyright in there.

I cannot find a way to include metadata (like a copyright/license statement) in the DXF file without it being part of the drawing, which would then get extruded, etc.

As for Thingiverse, I do not have an account set up there, and I do not want a bazillion accounts out there that I have to keep track of.

For a one-time post of a one-time part.  I think I'll just post on fabric8r.

[mr_intensity]

Chassis Sub-Assembly and Final Assembly.

It all comes together in the end.

So, as I mentioned earlier, I had a couple of friends speed along the final assembly, and I did not get any pictures of our steps.

All I can say is that things went together rather smoothly, per the instructions.

The one thing that did have us off-balance was the YIDLER Sub-sub-assembly.  There is a little tab on the YIDLERGUARDs, and the question is:  When the YIDLER Sub-sub-assembly is installed, do these little tabs point up or down?  The photos in the instructions show them pointing down, but we believe that they should be pointing up.

   

The tabs extend a little further than the other end extends, and it appears that the purpose of the tabs is to help hold the build surface in alignment.

   

The only other issue that we had was installing the SIDEPLATEs.  Once one SIDEPLATE was on, it held the assembly kind of rigid, and did not allow much "wiggle" to mount the opposite SIDEPLATE.  Rob grabbed a file, and started filing on the assembly tabs just slightly in order to force the whole thing to come together.

Also, leveling the build surface (again) is done with the nut.  Why isn't the nut super glued or epoxied in place, and the adjustments done from the screw head end with the hex key?  I may take vengeance with 2-part epoxy on the leveling nuts when epoxying the adjustment nut for the extruder assembly.

   

Everything came together well, and we now have a OneUp V2 printer.

   

Now, all we need are electronics to make it go.

[MisterAcoustic]

Hi mr_intensity,

Moving along! Very good.

Take the following for what it's worth, since it looks like there may have been some design changes to the oneup since I got mine.

For the YIDLER Sub-sub-assembly - you are talking about the blue plastic pieces, right? Mine are installed with the larger indentations pointing downward. The edge that's closer to being flat actually has very small indentations to accommodate the screws.

I can tell you for sure that those pieces do not guide the build surface, and should not touch it in any way.

If everything is clear of the bed, and the mechanism allows the bed to move back and forth, I don't think you would need to change it. Those pieces are just to hold the bearings and pulley in alignment.

Regarding the leveling screws, I think your logic is good. However, I'd have a couple of concerns. First would be that the screw and nut are under quite a bit of tension - I'm wondering if glue will actually hold the nut in the long run. The second thing is that if you back it out too much, you might have a little more trouble getting the spring re-compressed. On the other hand, if that happens, at least you won't lose the nut .

[mr_intensity]

Electronics I

Where's my damned small screwdrivers?

So, After completing the physical assembly of the OneUP, I had to start the Electronics.

A little bit of background:  I had pulled the power supply out of the kit sometime during my year hiatus, and wired up the 3-prong plug and plugged it into a socket, and then ran the multimeter across each of the two rails.  Sure enough, they each showed 12V.

So, I got home with this printer, and the EPLATE (as it is called in the BOM, the Instructions refer to it as EBOTTOM).  I had left the power supply at home, and so could not assemble it at build night.

I bolted down the power supply and RAMPS 1.4 board, as directed in the instructions.  Then, I attached the FANBRACKET to the fan, and installed that sub-asembly.

This is when the lull between my finishing the OneUp physical construction and completing the project happened.  First, I could not find my small screwdrivers.  I did have a pretty small screwdriver in my car, but I was dealing with multiple crises with that car, and it was at the shop.  Also sandwiched in there is a trip that I took.  I am several entries behind in my build logs (at the time I write this, I have not published the Chassis Sub-Assembly and Final Assembly log entry, yet.  Although it is written.  I write the entries in a text editor before I ever log on to fabric8r.com.

Anyway, I eventually got my car back, and I use the small screwdriver in there to finish wiring up the power supply with the RAMPS board.

   

The fan had a really long wire on it, terminating in a plug.  The instructions had me directly wire the thing to the power supply.  Out came the wire cutters.  I shortened up the fan sub-assembly's wire and removed the plug with one snip.  Then some splitting, and stripping, and I was ready to wire in the fan.

It was actually kind of a pain in the tukkus to wire in the fan wires.  The power lines to the RAMPS board are rather thick wires, while the fan wires were very thin.  They didn't want to share the same screw terminal.

Smoke test:  What many people do not know is that modern microelectronics run on smoke.  If the smoke gets out, the electronics stop working.

No, really.  They run on smoke.  Have you ever seen something microelectronic billow smoke and still work afterward?  Case closed.

Anyway, it was time for the smoke test.  I plugged in the electronics board, and hoped it did not produce smoke.   The fan started running, an LED on the RAMPS board flashed a little bit, and no smoke.  Successful test!

Time to wire it up to the printer.

Well, okay, not really...

[mr_intensity]

Intermission

So, the problem that I had with the OneUp (after I wired the RAMPS board and fan sub-assembly to the power supply) was this:  How do I transport the thing?

The guys at build night really want to see this thing work.  I am also considering doing a presentation/demo at one of my chapter's general meetings.  So, running it back and forth in my car is not a problem, until you consider...

Think about it.  The OneUp, which comes with a HANDLE to make it transportable, has this board separate from the printer, attached to the OneUp by a billion wires and nothing more.

Kind of defeats the purpose of the handle, doesn't it?

So, during the break from completing the printer to now, while dealing with crises/trips, I have been working on a way to carry everything with just the printer's handle.

Here's what I got:

• Some L-brackets hold the OneUp printer to a wooden base.
  
• The base extends to the left of the printer.
  
• Some triangular wooden pieces (which straddle the Z-axis motor) are also connected to the base with L-brackets, and they extend out to the end of the base.
  
• The triangular pieces have a vertical slot in them, near the edge of the base.  The EBOTTOM (or EPLATE, whatever you call that board that mounts the electronics) slides into these slots, and stands up vertically, with the RAMPS board up top.
  

   

When I get this built, the OneUp and its electronics will be one integrated unit, carryable by the handle.

[mr_intensity]

Making the Base Parts

More construction!

So, at my EAA Chapter's Build Night, I found some triangular pieces of wood already cut in our scrap pile.  They were just way too big.

   

Jake busted out the table saw, and did the honors.  No fancy CAD drawings.  No meticulously measured dimensions.  Everything just sort of eyeballed, and compared to the printer and the electronics board.

   

I went at it with the belt sander to try and make the surface finish smooth, and less plywood-like.  My idea is black lacquer paint to try to match the melamine finish of the OneUp.

   

I took the wood home, Monday.  Our general meeting was Friday (tonight, as I write this), and I wanted to get the painted pieces to Jake then, so he could cut the grooves for Monday's build night.

[mr_intensity]

Painting the Base Parts

10 Oz Can of Project Source™ Gloss Black Paint:  $1 at Lowes!

I went to Lowes.

They don't have black lacquer.  At least I could not find it amongst the spray paints.  They did, however, have Gloss Black, under several brand names, but mostly Rust Oleum.

Hm.  I am not painting metal.

   

I finally decided on a can of their best (Okay, you caught me.  I lied.  Their cheapest...) paint.  Project Source™ got the call, and it put me out a whole dollar!

Timing was tight, and I was looking for painting the parts on Thursday.  The problem was, the cheap paint can had all kinds of warnings on it about vapors asphyxiating you and/or exploding in your house, and the painting ***must*** be done outside.

Not very likely in February.

Thursday came, and I was having all kinds of problems with my cell phone.  Why is that significant?  Because I finally stepped outside to get a better signal, as I talked to my buddy, Mark.

"Jeee-sus," I exclaimed. "It's downright hot out here!"

Over 60 degrees in mid-February in Western Pennsylvania is considered "hot."

After my phone call, I immediately set up my paint booth (a Hunt's™ Tomato Sauce carton) in the backyard, and got some small boxes to act as pedestals to hold the parts off the paint booth floor as I painted the parts.

   

Painting went without incident.  The neighbor's cat showed up, but was afraid of me, and my rattling paint can (Instructions say shake well before, during, and after use.  Okay, maybe not after.).

I left the parts on my front porch to dry, and later in the afternoon, moved them inside when the rains started.

   

The finish isn't as good as I would have liked, but it will do.