Northern California gMax 1.5 XT

#1
After a 12.5 hour build , (a better term might be love/hate relationship) my GMax 1.5 XT lives! Names considered were Maxine, Maximillian, Maximus, Maxwell and Dave :) . Big Red was not. In the end, Red Ryder won out.

Update 2/4/2015: After further consideration, the printer was given a new name. Red Ryder wasn't feminine enough.

I thought of Lady In Red but that was too generic and I remembered an old Simpsons episode where Homer managed a country western singer named Lurlene Lumpkin so mashup the two and we have LIRlene.


After a week of tuning, cursing, printing, experimenting and cursing some more., my GMax is printing out really nice quality parts.

The LED strip under the extruder was upgraded from a 3 LED strip to a 6 LED strip and illuminates the print much better. I'm using two 18" red LED strips under the Y carriage rails for the under the bed glow and the top 18" bar has a white LED strip aiming down on the whole printer. The red LEDs are purely aesthetic but the white top strip and the increased light under the extruder is very useful.

Below LIRlene is a 3D scanning station. When complete, the kinect scanner will move vertically, as the turntable rotates. - this will be achieved with a separate arduino/motor control setup with a control box right next to the laptop. This way I can start the software (record) and have the turntable/kinect move at the same time. The scanning station is illuminated by 2 x 4' LED linear fluorescent replacement tubes.

Larry
 

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#4
LIRlene.... I like that. She's one fine lady!

For a simple spool safety, run a short length of PVC thru it with a rope down the middle and tied off at either end. Not elegant, but easy to deal with and the PVC should just roll with it. You want something pretty guess you can print your own tube.
 
#5
UPDATE:

L.I.R.LENE was having identity issues so I gave her a name plate. The letters are extruded translucent red set on a black back plate. The shape of the letters were subtracted from the back plate allowing light to pass through to create the back lit effect. A separate plate sits underneath the letter back plate with a white LED strip facing upward to get the letters to glow and 2 LED strips are on the bottom of the plate facing downward to illuminate the bed. Overall I am pleased with the effect but will redo the LEDs since the first L doesn't get fully illuminated.

Since I increased the amount of LEDs that is being driven from the LED wire going back to the Ramps board and not knowing how much current I could pull from that pin, I removed the LED wire connection to the Ramps board and rerouted it directly to 12v on the PSU. This did two things:

1) Removed any chance of me overloading the LED circuit on the Ramps board as I am now pulling 12v directly from the PSU. (Everything still functions exactly the same when the power button is pushed - i.e. lights turn on)

AND

2) Eliminated COMPLETELY any flickering of the LEDs during operation. When the Ramps board's internal LEDs illuminate they cause the printer's LEDs to flicker. Now when I video a print, the lighting is constant with ZERO flicker since it bypasses the Ramps board. Eliminating the lighting flicker was reason enough to do this but L.I.R.LENE needed an identity.
 

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#6
Good work man. Looks great. You must have spent hours trying to figure out how to print that thing right? I can see all the time, effort and hard work paid off. Keep posting you work here dude.