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Pwdr / Pwdr-Model-0.1

A powder substrate rapid prototyping machine
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Added digital shutdown and voltage filtering. #8

Closed nothinman closed 11 years ago

nothinman commented 11 years ago

Power to printhead can be enabled by setting pin 21 to high (1).

Pwdr commented 11 years ago

Excellent! Thank you very much

nothinman commented 11 years ago

No worries. Still finishing off my other printer, but will start building something powder-based pretty soon, hoping for beginning of the next month :-)

Pwdr commented 11 years ago

Interesting :) Will it be based on the Pwdr machine or a complete custom design?

nothinman commented 11 years ago

Probably custom design, but I must say I got a lot of inspiration from this project. The idea is to stick to Atmel Studio IDE rather than Arduino (as it allows me to debug the chip via JTAG interface). I'm in a process of designing my custom board based on atxmega128 (32MHz). It uses Pololu stepper motor drivers and also has the Ethernet. The reason I have to redesign it is I want to use Xaar 128 print head (which is bigger), and then move on onto variable dot size print heads. I've cracked head's protocol already so I know how to control it... Xaar heads also take UV / solvent inks... and this is what I'm after! :-)

Pwdr commented 11 years ago

That sounds pretty interesting! Personally, I'd rather stick to the Arduino environment, the new Arduino Due offers a lot of processing power. Probably sufficient to control such a Xaar 128, which too, I find very interesting.

The 96DPI HP head certainly has it limits, not only in the field of applicable binder fluids. Do you intend to publish the Xaar head's protocol?

nothinman commented 11 years ago

That makes more sense, ARMs are quite powerful... The protocol is a funny thing... Xaar wouldn't give me the PDF even though I know they have one. They didn't give me a good reason, so I'm not sure what's the story behind this, and whether I can do it as an open source or not. If not, I can always release this as a library. Will need to find out. Xaar 128 are good because they can take solvents. But what's really interesting is Xaar's variable dot size heads. These would allow one to apply more binder, so you could have variable layer thickness (thicker layer -> more binder, thinner -> less). But they are expensive as hell. We're talking around 1000 euros+ for Xaar 500, don't even want to know how much Xaar 1001 costs... Check out http://www.xaar.com/uploads/printhead_matrix_issue7_july12.pdf There are not too many companies interested in selling the heads, so the choice isn't wide :/ Epson could be a good try too, but these seem better suited for 3D printing...

Pwdr commented 11 years ago

A Xaar 218 costs roughly $300, so no nightmare for a research machine. My main interest in the possibility to use any fluid I want, within a certain range.

The variable dot size (actually volume) is of minor interest. Regular cartridges require several (up to 15) drops per spot to bind the powder, while depositing 160pL per drop (40-80pL for the Xaar 128).

Again, I'm really interested in the protocol, you can find my e-mail address on the Pwdr website, please feel free to get in touch.

On Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 15:11 , nothinman wrote:

That makes more sense, ARMs are quite powerful... The protocol is a funny thing... Xaar wouldn't give me the PDF even though I know they have one. They didn't give me a good reason, so I'm not sure what's the story behind this, and whether I can do it as an open source or not. If not, I can always release this as a library. Will need to find out. Xaar 128 are good because they can take solvents. But what's really interesting is Xaar's variable dot size heads. These would allow one to apply more binder, so you could have variable layer thickness (thicker layer -> more binder, thinner -> less). But they are expensive as hell. We're talking around 1000 euros+ for Xaar 500, don't even want to know how much Xaar 1001 costs... Check out http://www.xaar.com/uploads/printhead_matrix_issue7_july12.pdf There are not too many companies interested in selling the heads, so the choice isn't wide :/ Epson could be a good try too, but these seem better suited for 3D printing...

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub (https://github.com/Pwdr/Pwdr-Model-0.1/pull/8#issuecomment-9846075).

Pwdr commented 11 years ago

So, @nothinman, if you have some more information on the Xaar 128 protocol, please drop me a mail! pwdr/at/wetterhorn.nl

MatthiasWM commented 11 years ago

@nothinman Me too! Could you please send me the docs as well? Thank you! github[ät]matthiasm.com