Tag Archives: SoM

Sunday Morning Project – A 3D Printed WebCam Mount for a Telescope

Posted on by Rehorst, Mark

I recently acquired a new eyepiece to replace the damaged one that came with the Meade ETX-90 telescope I bought at a swap meet last year.  I decided it needed to have a web-cam mount so I designed and printed one that is a variation of a previous design for a microscope.  It took about 20 minutes to recreate the CAD file in DesignSpark Mechanical, and about 90 minutes to print on Son of MegaMax.

This thing has an odd shape to accommodate the odd shape of the camera.  I designed the adapter in two pieces so it could be printed without any support material.  After printing the two pieces were glued together with a little super glue.

Unassembled 3D printed WebCam adapter and eyepiece.

Unassembled 3D printed WebCam adapter and eyepiece.

 

Assembled adapter on the eyepiece.

Assembled adapter on the eyepiece.

 

Telescope with WebCam mounted.

The adapter fits over the barrel of the 32mm fl eyepiece and stays put.

 

I shot a short video to test it and it works perfectly!  The cars driving by are about 1/2 mile away.

 

If we ever get a clear night I’ll try shooting Jupiter or Saturn and then run Registax to enhance the images.

Files are here:  https://www.youmagine.com/designs/web-cam-adapter-for-meade-telescope-eyepiece

Sometimes you gotta think outside the vase!

Posted on by Rehorst, Mark

I found this nice vase on Thingiverse and printed it at 75% scale a couple weeks ago.

75% scale vase looks fine from this angle...

75% scale vase looks fine from this angle…

It came out pretty good except for the area near the bottom where it was overhanging.  3D printers don’t handle overhangs without support material very well.  I tried reslicing with support material added, but didn’t like the way it looked in either Cura or Slic3r so I didn’t try to print it again.

Overhang caused poor print quality for the first 6-8mm of the vase.

Overhang caused poor print quality for the first 6-8mm of the vase.

 

Then I tried printing it upside down- the overhang is much smaller.

100% scale vase printing upside down.

100% scale vase printing upside down.

About 12 hours later, here’s the result:  perfect!

The two vases, bottoms up- the 100% scale vase is perfect!

The two vases, bottoms up- the 100% scale vase is perfect!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Son of MegaMax Lives!

Posted on by Rehorst, Mark

MegaMax was a great 3D printer, but it was time for some changes.  He was difficult to transport because the electronics were in a separate housing with many cables to disconnect and reconnect, barely fit through doorways, and required a positively gargantuan enclosure to keep the temperature up to control ABS delamination.  Though it hurt to do it, I tore him apart and did a complete redesign/build into a form that is more like what I would have done had I known anything at all about 3D printing when I started building MegaMax.

I reused what I could including a lot of the 8020 extrusions in the frame, the Z axis screw assemblies and drive belt, and the X and Z axis motors.

Changes include:

  • ball screw drive Y axis with high torque motor- precise but noisy
  • linear guides in X and Y axes instead of 1/2″ round guide rails and linear bearings
  • SmoothieBoard controller instead of Arduino/RAMPS
  • BullDog XL extruder and E3D v6 hot end
  • RepRapDiscount graphic LCD control panel
  • narrower frame design without giving up print volume- easier fit through doorways!
  • polycarbonate panels to enclose the print area yet provide a clear view of the print
  • electronics in a drawer for easy service and transport and neater appearance
  • DSP motor drivers and 32V power supplies for X and Y axes
  • Liberal use of screw terminals to make servicing easier
  • Modular X and Y axes that can be removed for service and replaced in minutes.

SoM will be making his public debut at the Milwaukee Makerspace very soon…

Son of MegaMax electronics drawer

Son of MegaMax electronics drawer

Side view of Son of MegaMax

Side view of Son of MegaMax