Monday, Nov 19 2018
I’ve tried several ways to hold the camera I use to remotely monitor 3D print status and/or take time lapse images of an item being printed. I kept changing mounts because none put the camera exactly where I wanted. The camera needs to move around because the position for a time lapse recording may be different than the position for print monitoring.
I found this design on Thingieverse by RaffoSan. It looked like it would do exactly what I wanted once I figured out exactly the parts I needed to print. There were lots of choices. I wound up printing
- 03-BASE-new.stl
- 02-arm-new1cm.stl
- 03-ARM-new10cm.stl
- 05-ARM-new10cm-femalefemale.stl (2 copies)
- c270.stl
That combination matched male/female ends and gave me the adjustability I wanted.
I printed them and put them together — NOT!
My plan was to use up two or three mostly empty spools of filament. I didn’t care if the parts came out in multi-colored layers. The first spool printed maybe 20% of the layers before running out of filament. That’s when the problem started.
When the end-of-filament switch is triggered the machine retracts the filament to empty the bowden tube. Guess: the end of the filament was beyond the edge of the lever portion of the switch when the retraction started. The retracting filament broke the lever from the switch. I discovered this when I loaded new filament. Instead of printing the machine re-triggered the end of filament routine, unloading the filament I’d just loaded. After a few tries I knew I needed to cancel the print and take a look. I removed the extruder from the frame and flipped it over to access the end-of-filament switch. When I pulled the switch I discovered the broken lever.
I had a spare switch. The annoying part was the lost 2 hours of an 8+ hour print. Then there’s the part that I don’t have much confidence that the issue won’t happen again. I’ll test that with some throw away prints, later. To complete the camera mount I put on a full spool of filament.
The mount came out great. I can position the camera to see what the print head is doing for print monitoring or I can bring the camera up and back a little if I want to make a whole item time lapse. The base mounts to the T-slots using some 3D printed M3 rotating T-nuts. I only used two of the 4 mounting holes. The base is plenty sturdy. M4 hardware holds the other parts together. I think 25mm long M3 screws would be perfect. Of course I had 20mm (too short) and 30mm (too long) to choose from. I may order 25mm M4 screws. I should probably have some on hand and this is the 2nd or 3rd time my choice was between a screw too short or a screw too long. Maybe button head screws. That would fit this applications a bit better.
I may print a 6mm arm, too. That would let me get closer to the bed. I’d probably have to change camera focus to use it, though. With this camera that means opening up the case.