EPAX testing

[EelcoHoogendoorn]

Is anyone aware of any test run on an EPAX? Supposedly the format is the same, but I would not be surprised if there are a ton of corner cases. I think id like to buy an EPAX, but being able to generate my own files is essential for my application. Feedback from any EPAX owners would be great; are you aware of any?

[fookatchu]

I have no knowledge of this, but I am sure that @X3msnake has an answer to this.

[X3msnake]

Epax, Mars Classic, Photon Classic (not newer version) is all the same CBDTechBoard and all Photonsters tools work for it.

If you mean by test a resin test lookup resin exposure finder on photonsters.org no need to chnage the extension since EPAX/Mars can read .Photon format but Photon cannot read CBDDLP (unless you rename the file to .photon)

As for creating your own files beware that there are som limitations like you cannot change per layer individuall exposure, only base layers and normal layers as whole.

If you need to be able and free to edit waterver you want I recommend you get a Nova3D Bene or Elfin since it uses Gcode and Images in a ZIP. I wrote a plugin to use Nova3D printers with Chitubox and also working on a network manager for these machines. Currently Nova3D is the only machines that really allow you to do what you want with a file since it all depends on a human readable gcode text

Heiko notifications@github.com escreveu no dia terça, 17/03/2020 à(s) 10:30:

I have no knowledge of this, but I am sure that @X3msnake https://github.com/X3msnake has an answer to this.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/fookatchu/pyphotonfile/issues/16#issuecomment-599995185, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACUR56UVKJPCZVUA6RQX6TLRH5GL7ANCNFSM4LMWMGJA .

-- Com os melhores cumprimentos, Vinicius Silva

[fookatchu]

Like I said, Mr. Resin Printer himself :)

[EelcoHoogendoorn]

Thanks for the in-depth response!

I considered the orange30 as well; its native format isnt zip; but it can import zips generated by chitu; and I tested that it can also import files that I modified in code. What I got stuck with though is that I couldnt figure out how AA works, if at all. Perhaps it just-works when tried out on the hardware; but itd be nice to know before buying one.

The elfin indeed is zip as well; but what concerned me there is the overall state of their software. They market it as having support for mac, but they seem to have dropped that from their website; and my attempt to investigate on a windows machine scared me a bit. Software looked downright terrible, and I could not find any documentation of what the supposed AA settings meant, or even a confirmation of wether the hardware actually uses these parameters. But I suppose you have good experiences with it?

If I didnt care about money I supposed id get a prusa; they also do zip, and I have more confidence in their software and support. But I kinda do care.

It sounds like the EPAX has all the features I need though. I just want to be able to write voxels myself, and have basic control over AA, without compiling my own firmware or spend a month debugging hardware crashes. If the EPAX+pyphotonfile can give me that, and it is within my budget, that might be the way to go.

Thanks again for your input!

[X3msnake]

The elfin can be run with mac by using Chitubox and my plugin.

I have not uploaded the updated plugin supporting linux and mac yet because i am waiting on more people testing it. so far i have 3 people using the chitubox plugin for elfin on mac and printing daily without issues... So i will probably release the update this weekend

I have also cracked the network protocol and i'm working on a network manager for it. If nothing else you can send and manage your Elfin via command line, I will post the commands this weekend also

The Elfin is the de facto hacker friendly printer at the moment orange resolution is crap.

Eelco Hoogendoorn notifications@github.com escreveu no dia quinta, 19/03/2020 à(s) 12:04:

Thanks for the in-depth response!

I considered the orange30 as well; its native format isnt zip; but it can import zips generated by chitu; and I tested that it can also import files that I modified in code. What I got stuck with though is that I couldnt figure out how AA works, if at all. Perhaps it just-works when tried out on the hardware; but itd be nice to know before buying one.

The elfin indeed is zip as well; but what concerned me there is the overall state of their software. They market it as having support for mac, but they seem to have dropped that from their website; and my attempt to investigate on a windows machine scared me a bit. Software looked downright terrible, and I could not find any documentation of what the supposed AA settings meant, or even a confirmation of wether the hardware actually uses these parameters. But I suppose you have good experiences with it?

If I didnt care about money I supposed id get a prusa; they also do zip, and I have more confidence in their software and support. But I kinda do care.

It sounds like the EPAX has all the features I need though. I just want to be able to write voxels myself, and have basic control over AA, without compiling my own firmware or spend a month debugging hardware crashes. If the EPAX+pyphotonfile can give me that, and it is within my budget, that might be the way to go.

Thanks again for your input!

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/fookatchu/pyphotonfile/issues/16#issuecomment-601141478, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACUR56XZMXRXPZTNMTDJIO3RIIC6XANCNFSM4LMWMGJA .

-- Com os melhores cumprimentos, Vinicius Silva

[X3msnake]

In line with sharing information to allow you to make a informed decision: CBD-Tech board based printers AA is a fake AA. It uses multiple monochrome images. and the quality of the AA is not as good as real greyscale. The pseudo-AA done this way also means that the file size increases exponential as the AA multiplyer increases. a normal file with 10mb will have 20mb with 2xAA

That said AA is not that great of a thing anyways and deff is not a magic bullet that will make your prints smooth. All that AA does is smooth the XY. You will still have layer lines.

Considering not using the AA you have a tool that lets you build files from image sets from scratch or export the images modify them and then repack them, you find it on photonsters.org unde the project name Photon File Editor, by Nard Janessons. With CBD-TECH based boards you can also create a plugin for Chitubox that works on the image folder and packs your file into a cbddlp binary file, leveraging the PhotonFile python library you already mentioned.

You can fin on the photonsters repo a plugin that helps with making plugins for chitubox, by revealing the temp folder with the images and pausing the process so you can test your scripts. I will also upload a version that works on MAC/Linux this weekend

Vinicius Silva x3msnake@gmail.com escreveu no dia quinta, 19/03/2020 à(s) 12:39:

The elfin can be run with mac by using Chitubox and my plugin.

I have not uploaded the updated plugin supporting linux and mac yet because i am waiting on more people testing it. so far i have 3 people using the chitubox plugin for elfin on mac and printing daily without issues... So i will probably release the update this weekend

I have also cracked the network protocol and i'm working on a network manager for it. If nothing else you can send and manage your Elfin via command line, I will post the commands this weekend also

The Elfin is the de facto hacker friendly printer at the moment orange resolution is crap.

Eelco Hoogendoorn notifications@github.com escreveu no dia quinta, 19/03/2020 à(s) 12:04:

Thanks for the in-depth response!

I considered the orange30 as well; its native format isnt zip; but it can import zips generated by chitu; and I tested that it can also import files that I modified in code. What I got stuck with though is that I couldnt figure out how AA works, if at all. Perhaps it just-works when tried out on the hardware; but itd be nice to know before buying one.

The elfin indeed is zip as well; but what concerned me there is the overall state of their software. They market it as having support for mac, but they seem to have dropped that from their website; and my attempt to investigate on a windows machine scared me a bit. Software looked downright terrible, and I could not find any documentation of what the supposed AA settings meant, or even a confirmation of wether the hardware actually uses these parameters. But I suppose you have good experiences with it?

If I didnt care about money I supposed id get a prusa; they also do zip, and I have more confidence in their software and support. But I kinda do care.

It sounds like the EPAX has all the features I need though. I just want to be able to write voxels myself, and have basic control over AA, without compiling my own firmware or spend a month debugging hardware crashes. If the EPAX+pyphotonfile can give me that, and it is within my budget, that might be the way to go.

Thanks again for your input!

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/fookatchu/pyphotonfile/issues/16#issuecomment-601141478, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACUR56XZMXRXPZTNMTDJIO3RIIC6XANCNFSM4LMWMGJA .

-- Com os melhores cumprimentos, Vinicius Silva

-- Com os melhores cumprimentos, Vinicius Silva

[EelcoHoogendoorn]

Original orange indeed had terrible resolution; but the orange30 edges out the elfin; at least on paper, in xy res, if my notes are correct.

As for AA; I know what to expect; I used to work with this kind of hardware in a microscopy photobleaching context. Arguably, the non-grayscale pulse-width-modulated control has advantages, since it allows you for easy to reason about quantitative dose control, whereas working with the grayscale of the LCD will have you guessing at the exact calibration curve between 8-bit input values and actual light attenuation, which may be very nonlinear. That said I think its dumb that current hoardware/software does not give control over the exposure time of individual subframes; thatd be much more flexible.

Anyway, if i can control the dumb 8-equal-length-exposure-stupd-large-filesize-AA without crashes or other silly shenanigans, that will do for me. If EPAX+pyphotonfile can give me that, I think I will go with that.

[fookatchu]

I feel obligated to mention that while pyphotonfile has AA support, you have to do most of the work yourself since there are no helper functions for creating AA images from grayscale images. I wanted to build something like this, but my Photon had some problems and I jumped ship and got an SL1 which basically halted development. I will close the topic since it's not necessarily an issue and eveything seems to be clear, but feel free to discuss further.