New Hobby - 3D Printing

-
I've been wanting a 3D printer for quite a while, but we could never really justify the cost.  A couple of co-workers were raving about the Prusa i3 Mk2 (http://www.prusa3d.com/) and all the awards it had just won.  I had looked around at others as well, but the general consensus was this was the real deal.  The only thing I had to do now was convince my wife.

She asked the typical questions: "What are you going to do with it?" "It's so expensive!" "You'll just print little doo-dads."  "That's an expensive toy!" What guy's toy isn't expensive, huh?  It wasn't until she saw that it could print doll furniture that she was hooked as well.

My co-workers and I all ordered our printers within a month or so, but with a 2 month backlog at Prusa the wait was killer.  Finally, my kit arrived!  I spent the first evening into the wee hours assembling the main bed.  Wow!  This thing is like IKEA on steroids!  The next day I spent all morning assembling the rest and started the calibration.  All told, assembly was some 8-9 hours!

I've been steadily printing stuff since then: a couple doo-dads, Pokemon characters and stuff for my RC planes.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

V-22 Osprey Project - Design Changes for v3

-
Image
It's been a busy end of 2021, and as we start 2022 I'm getting closer to building version 3 of the Osprey wing.  The single biggest problem I've faced is the amount of backlash in the direct spur gear drive of the tilt mechanism.  It introduces some nasty instability that, left unchecked, would likely destroy the model in flight. I've investigated other tilt mechanisms, but the one I keep coming back to is the rack and pinion design that Tom Mast uses in his model at Rotormast.  His design uses a high-torque digital servo with a small pinion gear driving a rack attached to the rotor nacelle.  The servo has been modified with an external potentiometer that's driven by a gear on the translation tube to give positional feedback to the servo.  I like this design a lot because 1) It works, and his model is proof, and 2) it requires less torque from the servo and has less backlash. I ordered the pair of modified servos, potentiometer, and rack from Tom's site and star
Read more

V-22 Osprey Project - Flight Control

-
Image
Now that I have a conceptual idea of how to build a V-22 using leftover mCPX BL parts, how do I go about controlling such an aircraft? I own a Taranis X9D+, and it can control up to 32 channels using dual receivers, so that won’t be a problem. I’m sure that I can create a mixing profile in the transmitter to handle just about anything, but I’m also sure that just like any multi-rotor “drone," this thing will need some form of automatic flight stabilization. I own a few multirotor aircraft and I’m familiar with how they function. Some research into the popular flight control software (Betaflight, iNav, Cleanflight, LIbrepilot, etc.) all came up short. No one has written code for off-the-shelf flight controllers to manage a dual-swashplate aircraft. I would have to build my own. I have not delved into writing code for flight controllers, but I have built a number of Arduino projects, and some of them utilize RC inputs to control servos and motors. It occurred to me that I
Read more

V-22 Osprey Project - Tuning and Setup

-
ESC SETUP I used two Castle Creations Talon 60 ESCs for the V-22 Osprey.  These ESCs are high-quality with an electronic governer designed for RC helicopters.  Other ESCs with this feature are recommended.  Using the CastleLink software and USB dongle, I set the following RPM parameters: Throttle Setting 2-blade 3-blade 20% 2600 2000 70% 2600 2200 100% 2800 2400 As with any standard airplane or heli it's important to calibrate the ESC endpoints as well. TILT SERVO SETUP The HiTec D85MG servos are digital high-torque metal-gear servos that are programmable.  Using the HiTec programmer, I set the 1000us endpoint to the forward flight (0 degree) position and the 2000us endpoint to the hover (90 degree) position, with the 1500us center point in the middle (45 degrees).  The programming of the servo is a bit challenging, as the endpoints set in the programmer coordinate roughly to 900us and 2
Read more