21.05.20 DTS Final Preparation
This week has been all about ironing out some kinks in our system and preparing for the final presentation of our machine. There are a lot of things in motion that we are hoping to complete by next week. For example, we have started a project in programming all 26 letters of the English alphabet so that we can print them using the 12 inkjets of our printhead. See below for some testing of "A" through "K".
It is easy to write the code for things when everything is just comprised of straight lines, but it becomes a little more challenging to get the timing right when things like curves are involved in letters. See below for some of our code for these letters. It is all not quite formatted correctly and in progress (VERY MUCH IN PROGRESS, DO NOT USE). This includes "A" through "K" and "Zero" through "9" as well. It works out to be about 3,000 lines of code currently.
We also did a more complex milled surface of a topo surface for printing on. This topo surface is more intricate than our previous tests, but did take about 2 hours longer than it should have probably as we were figuring out the right mix of roughing paths and finish paths with our current MasterCam work flow at the moment.
See above for this milled surface in action. We have also attached a vacuum quickly to help with the removed material. It would be great for a later iteration to actually design this into the Dremel tool end effector.
In the preparation for the final presentation we have also put work into tidying up our machine. Here is the box that will actually house the electronic components of the printhead end effector. We will also try to advance the electronic components for next week and maybe make a new board. We are hoping to actually print instructions on this box as well with our machine.
This is our new dust cover for the tinyG board that still allows access to the output pins and motor pins. We have officially christened the machine with a name as well, DTS for Direct To Substrate. MAKK as in MAKKing, as in How To MAKK Anything (MAKK = Maryam Aljomairi + Kimball Kaiser), I apologize to my partner Maryam for all the acronyms.
Current status of the DTS printer above.
For the final presentation we are hoping to present our DTS printer on the TinyZ base.
For content we will be looking to present:
- Our Motivations - Existing flat bed printers are expensive, less at desktop scale, do not accept as much variation in the Z axis
- Live Demonstration
- Video of Use Examples
- Explanation of System/Current Methods of Use
- Possible Implications/Future Explorations
For the use examples we are hoping to have:
- Examples of hacked printhead capabilites, printing text, printing drawings, printing single lineweight, printing with all 12 inkjets
- Printing on paper
- Printing on flat substrates with varied thicknesses
- Printed T-Shirts
- Printing on 3d Surfaces also milled on same machine
For the use Implications/Applications/Future Explorations we are hoping to be able to discuss:
- Implications of Z-Axis with Printing
- Printing with UV Cured Ink
- Assembly Instructions Printed on Parts
- Scaled up Possibilities for applications in things like Architecture/Automotive