Multistruder Kickstarter Fulfillment Blog

• Sorry for the radio silence 
• I am out of school and currently on vacation in hawaii till the 10th of this next month
• because i am out of school i am back on full time on the project
• i will be assembling the units first thing when i get out

• Have been swamped with school projects, tests, hw, and finals. so i will not have prototype by maker fiare
• also i might not even be able to attend or show at maker faire as i have a very critical final on the 22nd the day after maker faire
• i just got in the hall effect sensors and the rare earth magnets
• so i will need to implement that code into the program as well
• summer is coming up on 5/25/2017
• then i will be be back to the green engineers stuff
• however i will need to take a summer class and might do a internship to get some money to get a small place to organize my stuff
• again thanks for your patience

check bellow for pictures

• Started to fall behind in school a little bit so had to devote some more time to it.
• So haven't devoted much time int o project but i am going back into now.
• going to have a new printer in less than 10 days.
• i am building a 18" x 18" x 18" build volume printer out of the car case of my old kossel.
• Maker faire is coming up in 2 weeks.
• i actually have a final that monday after maker fair and i is a difficult class so i am not sure i am going to be able to make it.
• I will do what i can to make it to the faire and hopefully have a mock up there of the multistruder
• most of the 3d prints are ready to go
• i need to print another roller and glue the bearings into the pulley and both of the dimensional control rollers
• then assemble one

• Got in 30 metal bearings.
• Have been finalizing all of the rotating 3d printed pieces to use these bearings
• been getting some gorgeous prints off of my personal kossel 3d printer at home if printing very slowly.
• have updated the pulley and the dimensional control rollers to use the bearings so far
• I have purchased the hall effect sensors and some rare earth magnets to monitor rpm to check speed and also enhance the auto extrude algorithm.
• Trying to get a prototype built to premiere at Maker Faire Bay Area this year. event is may 20th
• Bellow you will see my prints that are using the new metal bearings bellow

check out pictures bellow

• Ordered the hall effect sensors and the magnets for rpm speed detection to better increase the percision of the automatic algorithm
• tech shop is back open
• going back to start printing the pieces after a final double check of the models.
• will also buy some more filament. Im going to try 3dxtech brand i think.
• bearings have not come in yet
• maker faire bay area is coming up and i will be a presenter there again this year. hopefully i will have the first one built and running before then. maker faire is in mid may
• alot more coming soon now that tech shop is back open. As my printer is just not reliable right now.

• TechShop is still closed. They failed an inspection so new reopen date is 4/5/2017 (tomorrow) instead of 4/1/2017
• Bearings for dimensional control rollers,pulley have been purchased. I am going to try to get those to work with the spooler
• A lot of models edited im getting closer
• As stated in last blog the beta version of the software is finished so waiting to install on first unit
• Most of the rest of the printing will be completed at TechShop on the replicator 2 because as of right now it is more reliable than my printer at home.
• Now i am trying to source some rubber or cork to rap around the piece that drives the spool on the spooler module.
• I am also going to source some hall effect sensor.
• More pictures when i finalize more of the models and begin printing. or when i get in some of the stuff i purchased.

• On spring break. back to school on Monday
• redesigned a lot of the 3d models and printed alot of prototypes
• tech shop san jose is closed down for move to 2x bigger location re opening on april 1st 
• some models will need to be printed at techshop over night because of long print times
• software beta finished and ready to be installed
• decided to buy metal ball bearings from china so those are on the way and redesigning the models to accommodate those new bearings.
• now i need to buy some metal springs and thrust bearings and i think we are good to go.

check out pictures bellow.

• I will be finished with last part of code for beta today.
• Now Just double checking the 3d cad models and start printing them at home.
• I am now on spring break tell 4/3/2017
• TechShop San Jose is now closed for move to twice as big facility. they will be back up in about 10 days back in new facility.
• We are still moving ahead. even more progress to happen while on spring break.

• Printed a whole bunch more of the dimensional control brackets
• Started to work on the code. i will do more this friday try to finalize a beta asap
• Need to source some springs for the dimensional control brackets
• only small pieces remain to be printed.
• I will be without tech shop from march 23rd for about 10 days. (As of this writing)
• pretty much all electronics have been ordered just printing remaining and coding remain

Check out pictures bellow of the dimensional control brackets and the extension wires that have arrived 

• Printed the correct setup of the dimensional control. it turns out that the rollers need to be alot smaller in order for the filament to drop from the nozzle right through the rollers
• The wire extensions have come in to reach from the dimensional control and spooler to the control box
• Hall effect sensors and magnets will be ordered soon.
• dimensional control modules print time is now 100 minutes so i can do 2 and some other prints in the 4 hour blocks of time i am a located.
• Programming to continue this Friday so that i can print all the final pieces i need to assemble one unit and debug the code.
• We are getting close to having a unit that prints perfect filament every time.

Check out pictures bellow.

• Purchasing the hall effect sensors and the magnets this weeekend.
• Makerbot should be back up with brand new extruder this weekend.
• back to printing next week.
• and making software this friday.
• and extension cables are on their way

• Was not able to start printing because of more problems with techshops makerbot.
• because of these continual problems i am going to be looking for my own large format printer
• began looking at hall effect sensors. and with their cheap price i should be able to implement it into the design as well with a hall effect sensor and magnet combo.
• wasnt able to upload images of overhang test last week so i will do so this week.

check out pictures below.

• Bought the wire jumper pins for the load cell board to the arduino
• Bought the rest of the wire needed for wiring up the rest of the units
• bought the rest of the bolts needed for the units
• tested out the overhang print for the dimensional control bracket (picture bellow). Overhangs came out pretty good. not perfect but pretty good. so i should be able to print without supports. however the model still needs a little more manipulation before its done.
• almost ready to do the software and then test to make sure it works then start building the units one by one to send out.
• after i build the first dimensional control unit i will be able to assemble one for electronics testing.

Check bellow for pictures.

• Finished printing the spooler brackets
• Starting on the prints for the finished dimensional control brackets. i am going to be trying to print it on the makerbot rep 2 without supports for quicker print times
• Finishing it up and getting ready for software and starting to put them together to get ready for testing and boxing up
• buying extended jumper wires and maybe find some hall effect sensors and magnets to glue on the dimensional control rollers to determine the extrusion rate

• Back into the full swing of school now
• 3d printing 3-4 times a week now. Still printing the spooler brackets. and only a few more left to go
• then i need to print the dimension control bracket. 
• finished assembling the electronic boards
• i am doing some construction at my parents place so that will cause me to be a little more disorganized
• Things are moving forward more quickly now that techshop has pushed back their close date and that date should be more stable now

• Techshop was able to push back there hard close date from 1/24/2017 today to 3/2/2017. on 3/2/2017 they will be closing for a week to move the equipment and then reopen as the construction should be finished they just need to move the equipment. Well that is the plan
• got my next roll of filament in and i am continuing to print out the spooler brackets. maybe 5 more left to print. they take a long time as they are 3.5 hours each. i am going to team up with a few people here at tech shop to get them printed faster.
• just a few more parts left to purchase and print and then we are ready to push out the units to international.
• i am starting school on the 26th (2 days from now) but i will be spending time after school at tech shop printing what needs to be finished printing and working at other projects aswell.
• thus i will be back to part time but i think i will be spending more time on it that i have when i am on break (full time) as i generally have to help family out with other projects and holidays etc.

• Printed one more of the spooler mounting bracket then ran out of filament more has been ordered and is on its way
• i am trying to get everything printed before tech shop goes down for the month.
• I will probably not be able to do that so what i will do is prototype all the big stuff there.
• Print all the small stuff at home then by the time techshop re opens i will just need to finish printing all the big stuff
• hopefully by then i have all the software done and bought all the wire extensions to go from the sensors and motor all the way up to electronics.
• also i would like to 3d print the geared bearings. i want to try nylon for that so i use a actual bearing material used in industry. these will lead to long lasting bearings. i was thinking taulman bridge.or taulman 910 probubly 910 as it is way stiffer. we will see as i look into there mechanical properties

• Finalized the design for the spooler bracket. Printed my first one on the replicator 2 and it looks great
• received my (supposed to be 10 i think 1 fell out of damaged packaging or they for got one) motors
• i will continue to print out the brackets as each is so big it takes 3.5 hours to print one so it will take about 2 weeks if i print each time at closing time of tech shop.
• bad news is that tech shop is actually closing at the 26th to move to larger location at the end of the month and will not reopen for a month so reopen in march.
• so the idea is to print out both brackets by the time tech shop closes and print out the rest at home for the time that we have left.

Check out pictures bellow.

• Happy new year and hope your holidays were merry
• just went and picked up the hx711 amps and load cell
• I also have servos and they look good
• just waiting on the high torque spooler motors as that is on slow boat from china
• because i ordered the motors that are identical to the sample i have on hand i can finish spooler module so i can begin printing those 2 at a time
• still on break till the 25th. finishing up electronics then just waiting on 3d printed parts to finally assemble

Check Pictures Bellow

• Motors, servos, HX711 and load cells have been ordered and on their way.
• Finishing putting together the electronics boards. as I just got the bolts for Arduino mega in.
• waiting on the load cells to finish design for the automatic spooler bracket then I will begin to print those
• on vacation right now so I will see what I can do remotely

• finished last final monday so now i am back on full time green engineer projects
• just bought all the load cells and hx711 amps also i have printed both the spooler support bracket and the dimensional control bracket
• the spooler bracket came out perfect as the makerbot replicator 2 at tech shop has just been serviced with a new nozzle and hot end so it prints great now
• however the dimensional control bracket i used supports and they are a pain in the ass to take off. so i might need to come up with another design or just spend the time to rip off those supports
• ordered more m3 bolts that i ran out of to mount the arduino megas onto the electronics mounting plate
• about to order the motors. and i am going to need to order the servos and the wires to attach everything. and if it is going to be from china it needs to be fore Chinese new year otherwise a month delay

Check pictures bellow:

• Built most of the electronics for the international units
• found out that I need to buy more m3 bolts for mounting the Arduinos
• started getting prices for the load cells and the hx711 amps
• running out of options for motors except for my go to motor.
• redesigned all the models to use the load cells. It simplified the models quite a bit
• finally tech shops maker bot is back up for use. I will print some of the big  brackets today.
• also my last final is on Monday of next week and then I am back to full time till January.

• Decided to switch all force sensors from FSR(Force Sensing Resistors) to load cells this increases the precision and reliability to allow for better filament precision in the expansion modules. i have received a 1 kg sensor and have started to begin testing on it. pictures will be bellow
• trying to source motors from china however that not working so well so might have to go to my goto motor from amazon that i have used before
• techshops makerbot is down so waiting for that to come back up to print out the 2 expansion module mounts
• still assembling the base units so i only need to add on the expansion modules

pictures bellow

• Started assembling all the machines. Everything is ready to go to assemble base machine
• Printing parts, and receiving electronics for the expansion modules is the only thing I left. Only expansion modules are left

• Everything has come in to build the standard units. and also everything is built to put together the units
• i am now sourcing the motor and sensors for the expansion modules
• 70% of the plastic parts and designs check out now just need to check out the big brackets
• Working on a kickstarter for a plastic shredder should be launched soon and outsourced to be manufactured while i finished this project. it should be up by this weekend.
• i have one last domestic backer from 2nd batch and i just finished his unit. and one post kickstarter domestic backer unit i am also working on.
• that is all for now have a happy thanksgiving.