Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

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shahin
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Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby shahin » Mon Jul 27, 2015 8:18 am

Hi all,

We have started developing rpi based DLP Printer software two years ago, which works both as host and controller (it does not require arduino, etc). It is developed based on our need for something reliable, lightweight and feature rich. Currently we have a few printers which are using rpi for more than a year and printing almost every day without any issue.

Current software meets our needs and we expect to close the project. It was a fun project to work on and we would love to continue working on it, but we need to justify the time and money that we are spending on the project, So I thought there might be some interest out there for our project & my early thought is to release two versions, one free and the other one paid for commercial use.

Some features and specifications about the project

* developed using golang, python and c
* it can print different parts of job with different z resolution - currently we are printing support part of pieces with lower resolution
* part of the print can be disabled in middle of job - for example if pieces dropped off printing those part could be disabled
* web based control panel - using with multiple client has no taxation on hardware specially for rpi 2
* as we are using sylgard we have two specific features for sylgard. it is possible to add layer numbers for stop, so machine would stop to breath pdms, and it is possible to have higher jump after few layer prints to make sure nothing attached to pdms
* automatically take photos to display on dashboard - it is not much useful as the rpi camera is low resolution
* it drives stepper motor driver directly there are some uneven steps in fast movement due to golang gc which is expected to be fixed in next version of golang.
* z-axis auto-calibration after boot or per request
* it drives one z-axis motor + shutter, it use ziped png files as source
* lots of customization options for speed and movements and etc as we are using multiple resin we need all of them to work with different resins

Some features partially developed

* auto calibration of the projector. by motorizing projector focus ring or atleast detecting and notifying user in case of problem with focus. We have stopped developing that because rpi camera quality is not high enough for our algorithm to work good enough.
* automatic hollowing of pieces - we have stopped developing that because our pieces were so thin, resins which we are using not suitable for hollowing
* Using 2 projectors together - our printer body need to be changed radically, we are not good at making printer body so even though implementation was close to be usable we stopped it
* detect problem with z leveling using pressure sensors - we purchased FEP so we skipped it as we do not need to change tank frequently anymore

Features we expected to work if we decided there is enough demand to justify working on the project

* complete semi-completed features above
* support 2 z-axis peeling and other movement based peelings
* add arduino as option for movements
* currently we switch between layer images in less than 50ms and I expect we can go lower to around 10ms which I believe is more than enough to make something like carbon 3d printer
* support slc directly
* support custom anti-alias
* resin level monitor and resin pump
* light masking for even quality printing

Any comment is welcomed.

rpi-printing.png

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sgraber
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby sgraber » Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:25 pm

Great! We are looking forward to more information on this and if / when you have an installable version for the community to evaluate!
Research Chemist

Max
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby Max » Mon Jul 27, 2015 2:50 pm

Do you have any website so we can see your works? Do you sell your machines? If so what is your brand?

shahin
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby shahin » Mon Jul 27, 2015 3:58 pm


Max
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby Max » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:24 am

Hi Shahin
We've sold some machines and we already have some working printers with pretty design. We're looking for some one who can do our software developments. I wanted to know where is exactly your location and if you want to cooperate with us.

Alex_Sulimov
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby Alex_Sulimov » Wed Jul 29, 2015 12:40 pm

Sahin a very interesting news. Where continuation? if you want to sell the program, answer the questions that you were asked on the forum ....

shahin
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby shahin » Wed Jul 29, 2015 4:14 pm


pratipo
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby pratipo » Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:36 am

hi Shahin

This is a very cool piece of software.
I0m trying to build a printer and though about the raspberry pi approach and then found your soft.
I managed to connect a pololu driver, but i'm struggling with the shutter (I expected pwm output on the configured pin, in order to connect a servo... but it rather looks like a binary output -it's working-), and the endstop (how is it supposed to be wired? just with a pullup/down resistor? i didnt try this yet, sorry).
If you coould help me finnish this i would be keen on sharing (GPLv3) the pcb im planning to design. (maybe you cna make some money selling the pcb).

It would be very interesting to hear about prices or opensourcing chances (i'm more interested in this)... i might think on implementing something similar in openframeworks, so i can tweak as much as i wont :P

great work! thanks for you attention!
Raul

shahin
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby shahin » Thu Oct 08, 2015 3:40 am


Ray1976
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Re: Raspberry PI Based DLP Printer

Postby Ray1976 » Mon Oct 12, 2015 11:09 am

Hello Shanin,

I've build an DLP Top Down Printer powered by an Raspberry Pi and the Adafruit Stepper HAT driver.
This driver runs over I2C using a PWM driver chip.

Via the Adafruit site I've added the python and git library and installed Python. The test functions from the site works very well.
But.. When I install NanoDLP and choose the I2C pins it doesn't work.

Can you advise me on what to do to solve this problem?

The beamer function via HDMI works fine.

Thanks !


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