Slow weeks for Updates
It’s been a slow week or two for updates on the Gemini 3D printer project, I have not as much time to dedicate to the project as I would have liked, such is life.
I have been putting what time I’ve been able to spare on optimizing the electronics configuration for the printer.
Modifications were made to the 24v to 12v regulator daughter board to also output 5v for powering the Smoothieboard, however I have ultimately decided it is going to be easier to eliminate this set of circuits altogether.
The reason for the 12v regulator circuit was to enable use of fans that I already had in stock – all of my previous printers ran on 12v supplies. I ordered replacement fans for the machine in 24v models to simplify the configuration now that I have a solid idea of what fan types and sizes are required.
The first of those fans arrived yesterday, which was earlier than expected, and is a 50mm cage type blower – this will be used for print cooling.
I am awaiting the arrival of another package which should contain a 40mm fan for cooling the cold end of the J Heads as well as a pair of 120mm fans which will provide cooling for the electronics and the stepper motors.
While doing the wiring layout for the electronics I found that I was short one or two of the 5mm screw plug connectors for the Smoothieboard.
Thankfully Arthur (one of the Smoothieboard designers) was able to point me to the Bill of Materials for the board so that I could find the part number for these connectors.
Digikey had them in stock and offered 1-day shipping of them, so I also added some cable covering material and the Recom 5v DC-DC regulator which can be populated to the Smoothieboard to provide it’s required 5v onboard power from the VBB input.
This eliminated the need for an external 5v power supply circuit and takes the daughter board entirely out of the design now, or at least will once the other 24v fans have arrived.
Testing has been done on the Z-axis and it seems to be working fairly well. I am considering a slight re-design of a few of the related parts, but they will stay as they are for the initial build. I hope to get the printer up and running and put it to work printing it’s own updated parts.
The current build is complete enough to provide the metrics for designing a new hotend chassis and I’ve been pondering how best to get all the parts to come together for that portion.
I have a concept in mind, but it would be best to have the new 40mm fan which will be integrated on-hand to finalize this. Hopefully it is arriving with the same swiftness that the 50mm fan did.
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