Do you like robots that can also draw? I saw that Edison had a marker holder adapter for sale, so obviously I thought I should design one to 3D print. I thought to make it for the front, but there is a lip I dont want to mess with yet, so I designed one for the back. Design goes through many iterations and testing , so I will try to not bore you with all of them. I started with my Tinkercad Codeblocks that creates a plate of any size with any size holes (for robot building parts). Edison is 64 mm wide and 1 unit block of this codeblock is 8 mm x 8 mm (that can be changed also), so I made a plate that is 8x3 unit blocks. This size will give a good connection, 2x3 on each edge of Edison (the middle of Edison does not have pegs). The pegs are just over 2 mm tall, so I made the plate 2.5 mm. The pegs are 4.75 mm in diameter, but I had to make the radius of the holes 2.51 mm to fit. Next, I made a rectangular prism 18 mm wide x 24 mm x 5 mm thick and a cylinder with 15 mm diameter and 10 mm height. A Sharpie is 10.65 - 12.2 mm in diameter and we will be holding it more at the 12.2 spot. I made a cylindrical hole 12 mm so it is a little snug (it was snugger than I thought). I want the cylinder to be partially in the rectangle, for support, so the hole has to go through that also. I aligned the 2 cylinders on the edge of the rectangle, then moved the rectangle back 8 mm (cylinder sticks out 8 mm). Then I centered the 2 cylinders on each other and grouped all 3. I want some flex in the holder, so I made a 3 mm x 5 mm rectangular hole to put a slot in it. Now to put the holder on the mounting plate. It should stick out 8-10 mm. Align, move, then group….export, print You might have to ream out the holes a little bit when you 3D print. (5 mm reamer or allen wrench or drill bit) They arent always clean. It took my Dremel and Ender ~45 minutes to print - 5 grams of PLA I did end up designing for the front. With the marker on the back there is the possibility of pushing the wheels off the ground. Having made the first one, I have something that can help me measure the lip on the front. Sometimes the holes on both ends of the rear mount didnt want to seat, only 1 end. Maybe there is an issue with “tolerance” in the design, the holes are just a smidge off the longer we build the plate - or maybe it is just the tolerance of 3D printed holes. So I made two different versions of this front mount. One has the plate with holes being 64 mm wide. The other is two smaller plates (2x3 array...16 mm x 24 mm each) put on the sides of a 32 mm blank rectangular prism. The plate with holes needs to be thicker because we have to get the extending plate above the lip. I made the plate with holes 5.5 mm and the extension 2.5 mm…the lip is 3 mm above the top of Edison. The front edge is about 14 mm from the edge of the plate with holes, so the extending plate needs to be 16 mm (this part inside the other plate) plus 14 mm to get to the front edge, then 7 mm more to only partially wrap the holder. This time I put all the plates together first, then added the cylinders, and finally the notch in the holder. There is one thing that I might work on…the holder. With this front version, the holder is only catching a little of the thick part of the sharpie. Maybe a conical shaped hole part way down to snug it?? Tape works also. Looks good. Though maybe a second thing to work on... the extending plate might be a little thin - this is how you will pull it off the Edison. So probably need to make that so it wont bend or break...maybe thicker....maybe more infill... some files ....
Tinkercad Codeblocks file https://www.tinkercad.com/codeblocks/hz1xtnrKGWc v1 & v2 of the front holder https://www.tinkercad.com/things/7UbKyhjA47n v3 - of front holder ... thicker & marker holder is half conical https://www.tinkercad.com/things/7rEA4Qf8jsV
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It was time to get my 7-8 year old Dremel 3D20 printer going again, after 5 years of inactivity.
Dremel has a newer/better slicer than they originally had, but that didnt help me. The 3D20 takes a .g3drem file , not gcode. I did find an extension for Cura 5.0 written for the 3D20, so I downloaded Cura and installed that extension. It creates the .g3drem file. Dremel Support did send me a link to the original slicer software (which I had removed from my computer) because that is needed to update the firmware - it is the only software that will talk to the printer via USB. Updating the firmware allows the 3D20 to accept .gcode as well as original .g3drem. I am sticking with using Cura 5.0 and an SD card to transfer files. The Dremel is printing great (fingers crossed). I have gone through a small roll and into a larger roll.
I also bought an Ender 3 Pro that was on sale for $100 (special purchase for new customers at Microcenter, thanks to my niece). Assembly was okay. That hardest part was figuring out the orientation of the filament feeder on the gantry. Instructions are not really good. I did look through 2 videos for help
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibsOYzXduYc & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Q4OUZdWMM The first couple of prints went fine. Then the filament started jamming midway through prints. It seemed like it was the feeder, because I would find a flat spot (squished by the gear) that couldnt push through the feeder. So I kept trying to loosen the feeder spring, but it kept happening. To restart filament I would pull off the feed tube at the feeder, cut off the filament, pull it back out of the hot end as well as pull it out of the feeder, then push some through again until it came out the hot end. I would get 1 good print, then the next it would jam. Same thing, 1 good one then mess up. I tried cleaning out the nozzle in addition to clearing filament. I did get three good prints once, but the next messed up. One time that it stopped pushing filament I noticed knocking from the hot end. I read that this means it is not feeding/there is a blockage. So it might not be the feeder part , but something at the hot end. One time when I pulled out filament after it stopped feeding, there was a bulge of filament near the hot end, which would definitely block things up. So maybe the hot end is messing up, causing the feeder pulley to squish at the other end. Things I will try … I will use the controls to feed filament through the hot end, instead of pushing it. I will try starting prints with a clean nozzle and fresh feed of filament — which is a pain to take the Bowden tube out of the hot end every time (a nut that needs a wrench) I was printing at 220, I will try printing at 215, maybe it is melting too much before printing, so it is backing up in the tube. The tough part with troubleshooting is the randomness/inconsistency. So I am not sold on the Ender’s yet. If I could trust it to print without jamming, that would be great. It prints nice when it works.
more of my journey will be posted on Twitter @shirky17
I had my first paid gig to talk about MakerSpace and Maker Centered Learning this past week at Galion schools. I had 4 , 1 hour sessions with teachers, split up by grade bands. I was at the Intermediate School (all are on the same campus) so I sat in on their opening session. They mentioned a “Literacy” push, so I added a slide to my preso about the book “Remaking Literacy” which is about how making (MakerSpace MakerEd MakerCenteredLearning) helps improve literacy skills by having students interactively engage with text in novel ways.
Being a Maker session, I wanted them to make something, so I settled on a name or room placard for their space that showed something about them or the class/room. I showed them my example and explained the parts of it. I gave them a bunch of materials to explore (LED’s & batteries, colored pencils, crayons, beads, buttons, googly eyes, pom poms, pipe cleaners, rubber bands, coffee stirrers, straws, popsicle sticks, colored paper). For the foundation they could choose from the pile of cardboard or cardstock. The cardboard gave them the opportunity to use cardboard tools (ZipSnip, cardboard scissors, canary cutters). I also had my Cricut available for those that wanted to add vinyl (or paper cutouts) and some hot glue guns. I had piles of the smaller materials at the tables, but the cardboard and paper was at a back table, as well as the extra’s of all the materials. Luckily we were in the cafeteria and could spread everything out and have lots of space to work. I gave them 15-20 minutes to get started with their creations. I wandered around, checking out what was being created and generally chatting about ideas that were coming up. Often there were questions about how to make LED’s work, so there was a nice learning opportunity for some. One person wanted to use the copper tape (which they found in my bins) to make a “paper circuit” on their placard…so we did that. There was a line at the Cricut - hopefully they realize they need more than one Cricut in each building, as well as at the hot glue guns. I had only put out 3 because there was only one table that I could put by outlets. People eventually took some to other outlets and used them on the floor or a stool that they found. You always need MANY hot glue guns. There was lots of socializing, laughing and creating. After they got going, I started my presentation, giving some foundation about MakerSpace / MakerEd / Maker Centered Learning, but more giving examples of using it in a variety of classrooms to learn content. They continued with their creations. There were various levels of attention being given because of making/presenting happening at the same time. I expected that. I hope this style worked and they all got something out of it. One Principal said she only heard half of what I was saying because she was focused on the making. I kinda think that is okay. What they heard will stick better because they heard it while making. One hour is not enough to get them everything, but hopefully many got a glimpse and a step forward. The person who brought me in said she could see the smiles and happiness of the people coming out of our session. Maybe that helps with the point that Making is just good for us. Cleanup took a while. I wanted to sort all the parts that were left over on the tables and get them in the proper containers. I think I might need to go with “miscellaneous bags” in the future. Create bags for each “maker station” of a mish mash of materials. Have my containers at the back for refills or when you need to find certain colors. Here are some examples of the creations : |
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