Remote Direct Drive effectors for E3D Chimera / Cyclops (Zesty Nimble et al)

As I said before, we try to keep our promises.
Happy that you can dual print again.

I am expecting your cable somewhere next month. Postal service here is slightly umm, hesitant to deliver?

Looking forward to see what your were trying to print in the first place.

Right, so this is a horribly rough test but what you have is a very flat H-shaped piece of Hictop TPU black rubber flexible filament printed between two clear-ish ultra cheap ABS sides.

The retract settings were wrong so the black bled all over the one end of the ABS - and the ABS leaked everywhere, too! :-)

Anyway, it proves that this s potentially a viable way to make hinges in items - and is very closely related to what I was trying to do about a year ago! It has taken the Nimbles to get me here!



Richard

I've had a few queries about the printer I've fitted the Nimbles to so thought I'd provide a bit of detail. It started as a Prusa i3 Steel clone from a Spanish kit (can't remember the make) but pretty much only the steel frame, the Y rods and spider and the RAMPS / Arduino remain of the original.

I have added a 24V PSU which supplied the 2 hot ends and the heated bed (each through an external MOSFET) and there is a DC - DC converter providing the 12V for the RAMPS and fans. I have another DC - DC converted providing 5V to the logic circuits. I run the 24V PSU at 27.5V to provide more responsive heaters.

The Y-bushes have been replaced by Igus plustic bushes, the motor moved back and the spider rearranged to provide more Y-travel. I have replaced the Y-belt tensioner as the original one did not run true. All GT2 belt pulleys have been replaced with toothed ones if running on the toothed side of the belts.

The Z-Axis has been upgraded to 10mm rods and 8mm leadscrews (single start with 2mm). I've removed one of the original steppers with a dummy (a printed housing for two bearings) and the other with a dual-ended one. I run a continuous GT2 belt around pulleys to ensure that the two X-axis ends remain level. This belt has a tensioner keeping it all taught and has additional bearings at the top of the leadscrews.

The X-axis has been completely redesigned, with 10mm rods and bronze bushes on both the X and Z axis. I've designed from scratch both ends and the carriage - and a separate X-axis stepper mount.

The original filament holder has been upgraded and now sports additional printed parts to allow two rolls of filament that feed almost directly down to the Nimbles over large rollers. The cables to the carriage exit the top of the carriage and then a D-25 connector is used to attach the cables to a swivelling mount in the frame between the filament supports.

The Nimble steppers are mounted behind the tops of the Z-frame.

The carriage sports a 40mm silent fan, a squirrel cage layer fan, the two Nimbles, a e3d Chimera / Cyclops and a David Crocker IR proximity sensor for bed 'levelling'.

All stepper drivers have been upgraded to SilentStepSticks and I'm currently using PEI as a print surface.

I'm still tuning the printer, with so many changes there is a lot that can be improved still, but I'm very happy with it. Potential build volume is 235mm on X, 215 on Y and 197.935mm on Z (I was so trying to get it to 200mm!). I'm not sure what measure to use to try to compare the speed now with before so can only say that is seems a lot faster than it was. Current X and Y feedrate is 2,000mm/s and Z is 20.

This shows the RAMPS and Arduino box with the 80mm quiet fan. That Ethernet connector is for the IP camera on the other side and the power distribution board provides switched and unswitched 12V supplies for lights, additional fans etc.


And the shows the other side with the 24V PSU, and the 24V - 12V converter mounted behind it. It also shows the rear of the IP camera.


These next 2 show how the cable mount to the carriage swivels to accomodate the vertical motion of the carriage.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2017 05:32PM by RGN01.

These two photos shows the carriage, the layer fan and silent 40mm fan. Above the two Nimbles (shown without their breech blocks) is the dual filament monitor.




This one shows the X-axis stepper mount and the cable chain


The 'dummy' stepper motor for the right-hand Z-axis leadscrew


This photo shows the continuous belt tensioner and the redesigned Y-belt tensioner.


And this shows the general layout.

This last photo shows the filament mount with the large rollers. Also showing is the altered Y-axis motor mount and the Y-axis cable chain.


The small size of the Nimbles and the angled mount Lykle and I came up with allows the carriage to have a width of only 48mm. Given how much is crammed onto that carriage, I think that is pretty impressive.

Most of these parts are on Thingiverse if anyone wants to use them as a base for a similar upgrade.

Richard

That is one comprehensive build and report!

I will need to make time to go over the photos and have a good look what you have done and why.

But, are you sure the Nimbles are in there? They are so small, I hardly seem em.

Lykle