RepRap HELIOS

Description

Current 3D printing practices never seemed quite right to me. Our tech world is full of amazing robots with amazing capabilities while our 3D printers are usually stuck in a box. I am hoping to do my part to peel that box back a bit and show off some possibilities.

RepRap HELIOS is a 3D printer that uses a SCARA arm while at the same time has no moving steppers. It is tiny, light, quick, accurate, and has a massive print area.

Details

The design is parametric so all of the details can be modified.

Build Area: 5 times bigger than a 200x200mm printer.

Build Height: 100mm

Speed: Prints well at 30mm/s but have printed at 90mm/s with acceptable results. More testing is needed.

Accuracy: Calibration cubes have been shown to be square in all dimensions and dimensionally accurate +/-0.4mm

Precision: It is a SCARA so hard to say and microstepping helps but can't be fully trusted. Let's just say at full steps it is good enough and in practice it is awesome.

Auto Bed Leveling: Yes

Endstops: No. I use a magic accelerometer to fully characterize the machine.

LCD Panel: Yes. Why have I never used one before? They are awesome for standalone printing.

Controller: Smoothieware compatable

Firmware: Heavily modified custom Smoothieware

Components

1 × Cohesion3D mini An amazing Smoothieware compatable 3D printer controller board.

1 × Mini Viki An LCD control panel for 3D printers.

1 × E3D v6 Lite Best hot end money can buy.

1 × E3D Titan Extruder Great cold end.

Project Logs

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Version 2 Arm Demo
Nicholas Seward • 12/18/2017 at 22:39 • 4 comments

It is way overtime for an update. We have been working on it for months and have "wasted" tons of plastic. We are now quickly conversion on an updated working prototype. The video has some of the specifics of the updates. More to come after the holiday break.
Brain Fart
Nicholas Seward • 05/01/2017 at 20:14 • 18 comments

I have been furiously working to get out v0.2 that fixes many of the issues I found in v0.1 (the first prototype). I did a fair bit of design work in Autodesk Inventor because I am most comfortable with it. Once I felt good about the design, I moved over to Onshape and started remodeling the design but this time I made it highly parametric. The idea is that you can change a few parameters to make the parts suit your on hand components and personal goals. Everything was going well until I took a break to work on the kinematics of the new layout. I immediately found a core flaw that caused the whole redesign to fall apart like dominoes.
THE PROBLEM
Can you see it? The bottom belt can't do anything. I swear I thought about this being a problem and then figured a solution around it but here it is. I have a solution for this but I have to start from the ground up again. This design is very interdependent and all the parts have to work in concert. I actually like the new direction better but it has delayed me a week.
I am obviously still working on the design and am not ready to publish step by step instructions for this project. However, in a show of good faith, I have uploaded my working prototype files and firmware. I can't stress enough that no one should build it directly. There are some easy things that could be fixed. (belt tensioners, fixed arm lengths, increased mechanical advantage, plastic reduction)
Prototype Files
Warning: I provide the files as is. Please don't build this version. If anyone decides to build a HELIOS from these files, they will be on their own. I am working furiously (with precious little free time) to finish v0.2. I will gladly provide support for v0.2 builders. Any time that I have to spend supporting a v0.1 build will take away the time I have to devote to v0.2.
Adventures in Firmware
Nicholas Seward • 04/24/2017 at 03:56 • 3 comments
Alright. Lot's to cover here so let's dive in.
This printer requires quite a special firmware package. I have been modifying Smoothieware but there are a lot of bells and whistles I had to add. Here is a short list.
- Lazy arm mode switching (when you get to a place where the current arm mode can't go...switch but don't switch back until you are forced to.)
- Machine coordinate moves when rapidly moving. (Say you move from one side of the build platform to the other. The quickest way is to swing the arm in an arc instead of going in a straight line.)
- Codes for setting machine coordinates
- Homing with a common end stop (accelerometer)
- Incremental bed leveling (The bed is 5 times bigger than a normal 3D printer and you can reach most of it in 2 arm modes so the probing required is 10 more than typical. To combat that I have come up with a way to probe as you need where ever you need.)
As of now, all of these items have been prototyped and put into firmware with the exception of the accelerometer probing. I have only done an offline proof of concept of the accelerometer probing but I am convinced it will work. Check out these videos for more details.
It has been a wild quick ride. I will leave firmware for awhile to help let my brain recouperate. I am now on finalizing RepRap HELIOS v0.2. I hope to order parts tomorrow and have it working by the following week.
Background
Nicholas Seward • 04/22/2017 at 05:16 • 0 comments

I put pen to paper just 19 days ago. It has progressed faster than I would have ever dreamed. I would have posted more here but I didn't even know about this until a few days ago.
I teach at a residential high school in Arkansas for gifted students. I had one of my students work on a 1-arm SCARA mockup that has been bouncing around in my brain since the first time I saw a RepRap Morgan.
The results where more than promising. We quickly started making plans to turn it into a 3D printer. My intention was to bring my student along on the design journey but I was a dog with a bone and I could now see what this could be. I cranked up AutoDesk Inventor and quickly cranked out this.
I ordered all the vitamins and started printing all parts. I quickly got a functional arm together.
I then set to work on making the firmware take care of the kinematics. Shortly thereafter, printing!
I have taken it so much further than this but I think this is a good place to wrap up the first post.

View all 4 project logs

Discussions

alkarpinsky wrote 05/18/2017 at 19:12

hope you've seen this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1474681136/evezor-open-source-robotic-arm-manufacturing-platf

Relevant due to the 3d printing attachment.

I personally think HELIOS is a better design in everyday but I DO like the Z axis movement on this Evezor

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Nocturnal wrote 05/18/2017 at 09:18

I can't wait for this... seriously I can't wait... Hurry up! :-P Welcome to the instant gratification era.

I've been doing a little shopping for suitable parts during the last two weeks, and I notice you haven't listed the accelerometer that you are using. Is that because your still not 100% on using it?

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marty.swartz wrote 05/15/2017 at 01:27

I'm looking at this device, and thinking that it has the highest RepRap "self-reproducibility" factor I've seen yet. There are SOME vitamins we can't escape - steppers, processor, pusher, hot end, power supply. Helios seems to need very few manufactured parts beyond that. Belts, stepper hubs, just TWO smooth rods, bushings, flex wiring, and a bolt. (Oh, add the accelerometer, but lose all end stop switches - a worthy tradeoff.) Very impressive! Can't wait to see v0.2!

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Ninjalicious wrote 05/12/2017 at 00:22

Hey Nicholas, can you post STEP files in your next part file update? I'd love to a crack at the design in SolidWorks. Love the progress and the project mate!

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alkarpinsky wrote 05/10/2017 at 18:38

I've been following this for a few weeks now and CONGRATS on the lackaday prize nomination!

Hope this keeps moving along! I'm keen to build!

Are you sure? yes | no

zacldoyle wrote 05/08/2017 at 01:25

Firstly, great project. Secondly, I wanted to ask if you had explored other ideas for the Z-axis? Most machines of this nature incorporate the Z-axis at the head of the unit. However, your machine happens to be rather unique in allowing many other z-axis solutions.

Personally, I'd suggest trying a scissor lift stage mechanism such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-4-Alloy-Steel-Lab-Lift-Lifting-Platforms-Stand-Rack-Scissor-Lab-SBE-/112296330003?hash=item1a25620313:g:lDEAAOSw9GhYmnON

Maybe this project would be too heavy for this mechanism to be created out of the plastic being extruded but I think it may be worth a shot since this could significantly increase your Z-axis.

Are you sure? yes | no

Nicholas Seward wrote 05/08/2017 at 01:28

I am really looking forward to people's modifications to this design. I want to give a hackable framework that is easy to jump off of.

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zacldoyle wrote 05/08/2017 at 01:30

Fair enough. Thank you for your contribution to a better society!

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alkarpinsky wrote 05/10/2017 at 18:12

I was thinking of something similar for raising the 'arm' off the home mount to increase Z height of the entire arm (this would increase the build envelope), and then use the current Z height setup for fine tuning/ layer height for printing.

I checked out your link and this looks like a good solution. Maybe not for this application, but I think it's still good solution for many problems found in 3d printers with Z wobble / multiple lead screws and syncronisation. I wonder why it hasn't been used before? I know for certain there is a thingiverse file for a similar scissor lift

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theodonkulus wrote 05/03/2017 at 17:59

NIce work dude! I may build this using the dead Ormerod 2 I have laying around in parts now :P. Think this firmware can be run on a DuetBoard?

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Nicholas Seward wrote 05/04/2017 at 15:20

This firmware won't run directly on a Duet but I am working with the main contributors for the RepRapFirmware. They have plans to add support for it among other non-Cartesian printers.

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sander wrote 05/01/2017 at 19:09

Oh men, can't wait. Nice nice Work
Would it be too impatient to ask for a small list of -vitamins- so we could already start raking/sourcing those ball-bearings, belts, and bolts?

Probably :)

Are you sure? yes | no

Nicholas Seward wrote 05/01/2017 at 20:28

The BOM has been changing internally on an hourly basis. I really wish I could have it nailed down at this point but it is still highly in flux. Just to give you and others a basic idea of what the problem is here are thoughts on specifics.

Belts: I am playing with mechanical ratios and belt tensioning schemes all of which invalidate any belt choices. I will also give you the choice of the exact tooth counts for the pulleys which will make your belts unique from others. The cool thing is by adjusting some lengths and tooth counts you can make a belt you have work.

Steppers: My goal is to make it work with any normal sized NEMA17 but depending on the mechanical advantage the steppers may need to be 0.9deg/step. If you want to get steppers that are sure to work get 34mm-40mm 0.9deg/step NEMA17 steppers. That said...I fully expect this design to work with generic $6 steppers and still have a better resolution that my prototype has with the fancier $12 steppers.

Bolts: Your choice of steppers drive many bolt lengths.

Rods: If you have 8mm rods in the 170mm-200mm range then you are golden. The bearings will be two LM8LUUs.

The electronics and hot end are listed above.

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VuiMuich wrote 04/28/2017 at 21:03

Very nice and looks so clean and versatile.

Might be actually be some nice base for a laser engraver/cutter as well, especially when already using the Cohesion Mini..

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/28/2017 at 23:49

I can't wait to use a laser on it.

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Hamtastic wrote 04/28/2017 at 10:26

This is awesome, I toyed with a similar idea a while back but couldn't get my head around the maths required, and didn't want to splash out on the Smoothieboard without being sure I'd get it right.

I'll definately build one of these when you release the files, currently toying with the idea of mounting it on a glass table with some sort of heater underneath for a huge heated bed :)

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Morning.Star wrote 04/27/2017 at 17:03

"Outrageous print area" :-D

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cozmicray wrote 04/27/2017 at 15:45

Conceptforge would be much better environment for project

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/27/2017 at 16:39

ConceptForge is no more.

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AVR wrote 04/27/2017 at 13:55

hell yeah, was wondering when the legendary Nick Seward would join HaD.io !

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AVR wrote 04/27/2017 at 13:56

that benchy print is pretty great quality, and I like the design might print one as just a robot rather than a printer.

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John Riney wrote 04/27/2017 at 01:27

Oh wow. I was planning on doing a new 3D printer build - this is definitely it. Can't wait for the release!

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Magnus Madsen wrote 04/26/2017 at 23:26

Awesome project. Quite complex-looking with the stationary motors, but it's definitely a cool design.

Do you have some tips for firmware for SCARA arms? I'm having trouble getting Marlins SCARA config up and running, and I've yet to find anything else that looked promising. I'm working on a SCARA robot arm (not 3d printing), and I really don't need anything very advanced. The lack of documentation on anything SCARA-related I've seen is killing me though.

Do you have any suggestions? Do you think the firmware from the Helios would be fairly easily adaptable?

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/27/2017 at 01:27

I would use a 32bit solution. It is hard to cram the kinematics in firmware meant for Cartesians. I use Smoothieware and it doesn't have a general scara solution but we can roll you one.

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Magnus Madsen wrote 04/27/2017 at 09:50

Would it be inadvisable to run the kinematics processing on my laptop and just pass the coordinates to my RAMPS? That way, I could do all my motion planning and stuff in python, have it calculate the kinematics and just send it to my cartesian firmware which would then just be adjusted to steps per degree instead of steps per mm.

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/27/2017 at 14:48

Strange...it won't let me reply to your latest comment.

I use to use Python to preprocess my gcode for projects like RepRap Simpson and Wally. It was a pain to do and it was a disaster supporting it for other people. I thought it was a good idea for proof of concept testing but all my future efforts will be spent trying to get projects working as intended right off the bat.

It isn't that much more money to get a 32-bit controller and only marginally harder to code a custom kinematic module. The machine is so much easier to use at that point.

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Magnus Madsen wrote 04/27/2017 at 16:52

Okay, I might have to try that. I'm not too confident in my coding abilities unfortunately, but I guess I'll just have to try. Getting straight into modifying something like Marlin is daunting, though. I wonder if it's faster to start my own firmware from scratch. Thank you!

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/27/2017 at 16:54

Modifying Marlin would be super hard. It just isn't made to deal with new kinematics. I would suggest Smoothieware.

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Magnus Madsen wrote 04/28/2017 at 12:45

Is the smoothieboard you're talking about really 120 euros? Or am I misunderstanding something?

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/28/2017 at 13:03

There are many boards that support Smoothieware.

*Smoothieboard

*Azteeg X5 Mini

*Cohesion3D Mini

*MKS SBASE

*etc.

I did a google and didn't have any luck finding a complete list. The first 3 in the list are pretty rock solid. I have heard mixed reviews on the MKS but it is the cheapest and will definetly work for you.

There are other 32-bit solutions out there besides Smoothieware. Duet would work but you would need to start from the RepRapFirmware. At the end of the day, the 8bit chips can't handle the math without super clever optimizations that make the code harder to understand and maintain. (I am not saying it can't be done. I am just saying that I wouldn't want to do it or support it.)

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Magnus Madsen wrote 04/28/2017 at 17:37

Aha, awesome!

Thank you for the help

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EngineerAllen wrote 04/26/2017 at 17:59

looks expensive

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/26/2017 at 18:01

Good thing looks aren't everything. This should be cheaper than most RepRap printers.

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helge wrote 04/26/2017 at 08:00

Are the pins / screws for nonius belt tensioning?

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/26/2017 at 13:21

They are. However, the next design will have fix arm lengths and dedicated tensioners.

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alkarpinsky wrote 04/25/2017 at 23:33

awesome work and congrats on the project-- this is pretty awesome! Please put me on the list when you set this free-- I'm super keen to build one!!

(I may have missed this) What is the build height restrictions?

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/25/2017 at 23:35

Build height is easy to customize but the reference design will be a tad over 100mm.

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sander wrote 04/25/2017 at 17:56

Great work! Question can i print the components on a 152x152 mm 3d printer?

I've a smoothieboard lying avround and would very much like to use it to paint and draw!! Great work!

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/25/2017 at 18:01

I think so. At the very least you can break the 1 or two big parts in half.

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trevorjtclarke wrote 04/25/2017 at 16:26

This might take some of the accuracy away, but would love to see the base mounted on a sliding rail, then the build volume could get quite large.

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/25/2017 at 17:06

Haha. 5 times the normal print area is not enough? Give people a little and they want more. :-) That would be cool.

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caj.larsson wrote 04/28/2017 at 07:02

How about making it print its own rail onto a table? Could be possible with a good high tension clamp under the table.

Would be cool to print a kayak paddle in one print, but at this kind of size of print you would probably need to close the control loop and adjust for slippage.

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trevorjtclarke wrote 04/29/2017 at 16:34

Haha! just thinking outside the box ;) When i saw your video, i envisioned two+ robots on rails printing a massive item & collaborating. Could be similar to project Escher.

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/29/2017 at 02:12

Ahhh. A paddle is an interesting use case. You could put this printer on rails but there would be an extra degree of freedom. I would suggest reducing the arm to one segment.

However, I have this idea for a printer that prints at an angle and rolls along the floor allowing for an infinitely long print. The wheels don't have to be super exact because they only roll one way very slowly.

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trevorjtclarke wrote 04/29/2017 at 16:37

@Infinite you are totally right, speed would be key. I be a 1.2mm nozzle would make that a thing of beauty.

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Nicholas Seward wrote 04/29/2017 at 09:06

I think for the paddle case that you would want to print in 1mm thick layers.

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RepRap HELIOS

Description

Details

Components

Project Logs

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Version 2 Arm Demo

Brain Fart

Adventures in Firmware

Background

Discussions

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