Piezo20 probe and piezo kit now available
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You might like to try the following experiment - I just did, using a 27mm piezo disc:
1. Support the disk on a ring around its periphery. Connect the piezo to an oscilloscope. Tap the centre and watch the voltage. I get a pulse of 20V.
2. Put the disc (or as much of it as you can without the wires getting in the way) between two flat surfaces, with the top one being an insulator (e.g. glass). Push down on the top surface, but not directly over the piezo, to clamp it flat, Use your other hand to tap on the top surface directly over the piezo. I get a pulse of 100mV, so 200x weaker.
Given the size of the 20V pulse, I am confident that a 27mm diameter piezo (20mm active element) will be sufficient, despite the fact that only a ring near the periphery of the active element will be free to flex, because the central section will be clamped or glued to the hot end heatsink. The main question for me is whether the amount of flex that the piezo allows will permit too much lateral movement of the nozzle. Attaching the piezo at the bottom of the hot end heatsink would be better from a vibration perspective, but shielding it adequately form the heater block would be difficult.
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David
just seen your post on the Google forum re Haydens balls and ends and can say they are superb and the Delrin ends will work fine with the balls at 90 degrees but not out the side of the robotdigg carriages.
Your idea of a PCB Effector makes me wonder if strain gauges could be used as a sensor setup in place of the Piezo disc?
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You might like to try the following experiment - I just did, using a 27mm piezo disc:
1. Support the disk on a ring around its periphery. Connect the piezo to an oscilloscope. Tap the centre and watch the voltage. I get a pulse of 20V.
2. Put the disc (or as much of it as you can without the wires getting in the way) between two flat surfaces, with the top one being an insulator (e.g. glass). Push down on the top surface, but not directly over the piezo, to clamp it flat, Use your other hand to tap on the top surface directly over the piezo. I get a pulse of 100mV, so 200x weaker.
…...........I suspect there is something wrong with your setup as I find using the piezoelectric disks in bending gives about 3 times the sensitivity as using them in compression, not the 200 times that you have found. This time 3 gain is not cost-free however as there is a considerable penalty in terms of compliance although such is the sensitivity of piezo disks that even this penalty is unnoticeable.
A big plus for using piezo disk in bending is that it is easy to engineer out the mechanical cross-talk that has plagued the piezo bed leveling in my Cartesian printer. If the three sensors under the bed can be replaced with one on the hot-end that is even better.
Mike
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Okay so MkII of my design is now on thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2034152 (and on my large kossel) working well, although after assembling it my bowden clip broke in the v6, so now I will have to dismantle it again. I might do a series of photos to show how to assemble it, and a full BOM of parts needed.
Its much smaller now the whole unit is just 40mm diameter and it holds the nozzle fairly firmly. Only two bolts to hold the upper and lower sections to one another as they now slide over one another quite tightly with 4 flanges around the outside. Two m3 bolts to hold it to your carriage/effector. If printing it use plenty of support. I brushed the domed section above the hot end with acetone afterwards as it looked a little thin, but it sits nicely on top of the hotend, and insulates the piezo from the hot end.
Next step design an effector with the upper piece built-in.
I found a 5mm spur point wood drill bit cuts a much neater hole through a piezo transducer than a twist drill or diamond core drill. Use a wood board for support, low rpm and stop if it gets hot, went through it neatly like a hot knife through ABS.
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I suspect there is something wrong with your setup as I find using the piezoelectric disks in bending gives about 3 times the sensitivity as using them in compression, not the 200 times that you have found.
If I don't preload then disk then it responds more to pressure. I suspect this is because the disk or the surface it is on is not flat, so it is actually bending a little. But you were talking about preloading the disk in your post.
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This is quite interesting and I would like to find what is giving rise to the differences that we getting. The setup arrangement that I use and the sort of outputs I get are shown in the original article of the RepRap forum thread http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,635075,page=1
I have not documented my studies of bending but the setup was a 27mm piezoelectric disk epoxied to a 70mm by 30mm piece of 1.6mm FR4. One end was secured and a point load applied at the other end. Once I saw how much output I was getting I tried tapping with an admittedly uncalibrated finger on both the new "flexing mode" setup and the old compression mode setup. The difference was 2.7V from the compression rig and 7.4V from the flexing rig.
I use "no-name" piezo disks as I have found that the sample to sample spread is less than the Murata devices - which also have the opposite polarity of output. The Murata disks are less temperature sensitive.Mike
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Made a few slight mods to the design, added a small lip above the lower sections to avoid the bowden coupler being squeezed (and disconnecting) when assembling the unit. This should also decrease the contact area onto the piezo for a stronger signal. Made a slight cutout in the upper section to allow the piezo to bend slightly more. On thingiverse.
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the piezo method is well beyond my capability I think to be fair I may try to get rid of the tilt completely instead lol. I wouldn't know where to start or what to wire to where so unless doug makes it for me and tells me I'm screwed lol
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I like the one company that's using an accelerometer to detect the impact, Congrats on your work however, hope it all works out well.
Jeff
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Rommie, its not very tricky really, you need a board which Moriquendi can make for you for a donation to his charity, and a sensor the total cost is about £10. Print the (3) parts and assemble it, then adjust the board to get a trigger when pressing up on the hotend, but not when just moving around (I actually don't mind if it triggers a bit when moving as I set slow speeds for bed probing and normal speeds for printing and I am not using the probe when printing so it doesn't matter), instructions are provided. Then setup your z probe (I can provide details for this for duetwifi, I will plug it into a ramps board too and work out the config required).
After that you're away. Super accurate, nozzle based probing! I am still improving the design to find the optimum between sensitivity (which is very high with piezo's - so plenty of headroom here) and nozzle firmness. The latest revision is very sensitive and works but my nozzle is too wobbly for my liking.
Jeff thanks for the thumbs up, I've seen the SeeMeCNC accelerometer z probe but then also read comments suggesting it would be difficult/impossible to make it work - thats beyond me I am not an electronics native.
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My sensor board arrived this morning (Only ordered it on Sunday)
Doug
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ok so need a sensor board then, Moriquendi have you got any boards left buddy?
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Sean
You need to PM him he is not normally on here he did have 5 on Sunday?
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I've got two left, PM me if you're interested.
Moriquendi
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I've got two left, PM me if you're interested.
Moriquendi
Just to let you know mine arrived safe and sound yesterday
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So latest version mk 2 draft 5,on thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2034152 so far very firm nozzle if done up tight when assembling, plenty of sensitivity for probing. Hitting 0.011 deviation when probing so very pleased.
Plus Lykle has made an effector version for Haydn's setup which will be Nimble extruder compatible too.
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Yes and I can add a base plate you can use if you are not going to use a Nimble.
Simple little modification.It integrates DjDemonD's system with the new effector by Haydn.
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Yes and I can add a base plate you can use if you are not going to use a Nimble.
Simple little modification.It integrates DjDemonD's system with the new effector by Haydn.
Lykle
Have you published it anywhere yet?
How's the Nimble coming along?
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I've got two left, PM me if you're interested.
Moriquendi
Just to let you know mine arrived safe and sound yesterday
Have sent a message buddy
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The design will be on Thingiverse. I was kinda waiting for DjDemonD to print it first to see if it would work, before publishing it, but I will do it as a work in progress. So be aware it is untested as yet.
edit: Here is the thing: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2047422
The Nimble, is ready to go, we are chomping at the bits to go. Wait is for the legal stuff. We now have a registered company so it is a matter of days rather than weeks before we can open the web shop. Need to get the bank account and register it with Paypal, that sort of stuff.
It is amazingly difficult to find a bank that will accept 2 business partners that live on separate continents. They all insisted Brian to come into the office and sign in person. A 27 hour one way trip. Not going to happen. But we have it sorted now. (sorry, going off topic here) Rant over, I will post the designs now on Thingiverse.
