Torture Toaster testing

 The Prusa Mk3s+ printed it prefect first time.  I suspect because it had a Gear Motor (thus had the extrusion tuned for the motor)

https://www.printedsolid.com/products/ldo-nema-17-geared-extruder-motor-ldo-42sth25-1004acpg3

The Bear Mk3s+ failed on .1, I assume because of slight over extrusion.  Changed the extrusion multiple by 2% and it passed (on PETG..)

M92 E276

M500

The Voron failed even after extrusion correction.

top is Prusa, bottom is voron.

The following is after shaping and small chamber fan. The voron passed except for the "handle" looks ugly (its a long 80 degree overhang).

Voron passed with cheap ABS+ after using Ellis's settings

    https://github.com/AndrewEllis93/Ellis-SuperSlicer-Profiles
    and
    https://ellis3dp.com/Print-Tuning-Guide/
    he has profiles.  You have to pull them into prusa slicer, then you can compare.  (basically you pull in the .ini, it messes everything up, but you kinda rebuild it and I think its good).
    I had to discard all but filament profile.

Voron Trident Formbot kit Build

 

The Voron Trident build took about 40 hours + 40 hours of tuning...I had Covid at the time so I would have been able to build it faster normally, but was able to concentrate on it almost 100%.

I printed the parts with a (untuned) Prusa MK3s and a MK3s Bear Clone.  The Bear clone was placed in the Voron Shipping Box with plastic in front and a space heater...worked very well.

Long parts were difficult (most had a failure or two) because the chamber temp was ~100F (because it was winter and 40F in garage.

The manual was minimalist and I don't think it would work as first printer. 

I had a lot of difficulty with the Z Stop (you have to assemble the z stop prox switch by hand, its a bit goofy.)  

I replaced the hammer head nuts for the left clear panel with t-nuts.  It seems like you have to remove this panel a lot.

Problems:

 There needs to be a wire run on the rear left AB drive frame part.

  If the z stop moves, it caused the head to press against the plate.  I will reprint with PC if it moves again, but it should be very tight.
    the second one is the reason for the ABS w/r XY joint parts.  The system seems like it is built to twist on too much pressure between the bed and the nozzle.
This is pretty awesome.  If your live adjust Z is too low you get a very ugly perimeter, and should stop the print.  Even extremely bad values are unlikely to seriously damage your build plate or nozzle.  In addition, it seems the extruder can still push filament out while live adjust Z is too low.

There is very little room for the camera.  I don't think anything but the pi-cam could fit, and wiring is very tough.

Long Exposure Day Time Photography

While planning for a Long Exposure Daylight Photography workshop I found remote triggering to be artificially difficult.

Using "WiFi remote" app on your phone, completely takes over the phone, preventing the use of a timer, and disabled ISO64 on my D850.

As a result, I decided to use Exposure stacking.

The setup to take the photo is super easy:

Set camera on a tripod, in aperture mode with appropriate depth of focus.  Use ISO for fine adjustment of Exposure time.

Camera must have long exposure NR turned off

Long exposure target exposure time between 1 and 8 seconds.  

If your target is 5 min, that's 300 photos at 1 second.

Target between 4 and 8 seconds per photo.  

Its best to use a N1000 (i.e. 3 stop ND filter) alone.  (multiple filters cause vignetting).

8 seconds Exposure time should be:

1/125 for ND1000

1/1000 for ND1000+ND8

Camera should be on tripod, AF on, VS off

Take the photo and check histogram.

Put the ND filter(s) on, turn off AF

Take another shot and check histogram and vignetting.

Start interval intervalometer.

Nikon 850d has minimum time for internal intervalometer delay of .5 seconds. (750d is 1 sec).

With a remote shutter you can just leave it down, and it will take photo after photo.

For Processing:

download imagemagick

https://imagemagick.org/index.php

put each series in a directory, pay attention to only include 8sec shots.

run imagemagick on the command line

"C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.1.0-Q16-HDRI/magick.exe" *.NEF -evaluate-sequence mean OUT_mean.TIF

"C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.1.0-Q16-HDRI/magick.exe" *.NEF -evaluate-sequence median OUT_median.TIF

"C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.1.0-Q16-HDRI/magick.exe" -resize 25% -delay 20 -loop 0 *.JPG OUT_gif.gif

 

Cheap Filament problems and advantages

When I started 3d printing (Prusa i3 m3), I bought a lot of cheap filament.

I printed a roll of cheap black ABS ($10/roll on amazon), and found my printer didn't work anymore.  The cause was a significantly expanded nozzle.

New Rule...Have lots of spare cheap brass nozzles.  Use a new nozzle every time you change nozzle size.

The dull grey is Amazon basics PLA, the shiny grey is Ebay cheap grey.  The Ebay stuff has poor adhesion (for PLA), is super fragile (filament breaks every time i weigh it), but looks great.

Both cheap filaments have horrible bridging.  The cheap grey is so bad I had to add extra layers on top.

Solar System Two

Trying to meet CPAP requirements:

http://www.healthyresources.com/sleep/magazines/psnews/power03.html

    here are the three parts:
the panels, order now on ebay ($160)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mono-Poly-PV-Solar-Panel-160W-100W-90W-40W-25W-10W-5W-12V-24V-RV-Boat-Camping/361878817780?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

    Costco batteries:
    best is 140wh (2 70wh deep cycle costco batteries)

charge controller:

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-10-15-20-30A-PWM-Solar-Panel-Battery-Regulator-Charge-Controller-CE-12V-24VMS-/272672199604?var=&hash=item3f7c8793b4

extension cables:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Pair-TEMCo-10ft-MC4-Solar-Panel-Extension-Connector-12-AWG-PV-Cable-Wire/281368913995?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Inexpensive Solar system

Solar panel Notes:

Optimum angle for solar

              Fixed--~30 Degrees

Two season

              Summer (march 30-september 12^th)- ~8 degrees

              Winter (rest of year ~45 degrees).

Sites:

http://www.solarpaneltilt.com/

http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/properties-sunlight/solar-radiation-tilted-surface

Note, angle for grid-tie is very different than off-grid.  (because you are watching for optimal energy generation the whole day.

For the mini off-grid installations, current position is good for winter (until march 30), lay on top during summer.

Batteries for mini-grid

System works for either 12 or 24 volt battery systems (however, you need different output systems for 24v)  For simplicity, I recommend all small systems stay at 12v.

You can use 2 6v batteries in series to get 12v, but they must be very very similar.

Checkout of Battery

Battery checkout is the most dangerous step.  It is a little safer to do battery checkout with a smart charger (from 110), but it can be tricky in other ways.  (I had fully discharged batteries take days to recover on a charger, but I think the charge controller would have quickly worked).

Do not attach a battery directly to an array of batteries.  (Even a good battery could rapidly charge, generating hydrogen, and explode, spraying sulfuric acid.)  Battery testing should be done outside.  Batteries should always be on a thermal insulator (like a piece of wood).  Lead-acid Batteries are not really a fire risk.  (all types of lithium batteries are a fire risk because they have ~10x energy density).

The Charge controller to battery hookup has clips for this reason.

#1 measure new battery voltage (should be between 9 and 12 volts, but not necessary).

#2 remove clips from existing batteries and attach to new battery (battery should be at least 30#s).

#3 measure new battery voltage (do this during the day).  Within 10 min battery should be between 9 and 12 volts.  If battery is not quickly moving to 9 volts you may have a problem.

#4 Everything should work right away, but avoid placing heavy loads, and night use

#5 Every evening and morning check the battery voltage to get a feel for self-discharge and capacity.

Loads

The charge controller is a 42v 30A device.

That means that if any circuit goes over 42v and/or 30A, at least that part and likely everything fails.

So voltage open circuit (VOC) of the solar panels should be less than 42 volts.

More Windows 10

Removing OneDrive from windows 10

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_files/how-to-uninstall-onedrive-completely-in-windows-10/e735a3b8-09f1-40e2-89c3-b93cf7fe6994?auth=1

Remember to clean up the registry afterwards.