set repetitions counter

[fladdie]

Hi,
first I wanted to thank you for your great work.

Would it be possible to enter a value for the number of repetitions of a print job?
Surely also an advertisement would be great where you can see how many parts still have to be printed and maybe the possibility to change the number during printing.

Queue:
Name | Total | Remaining
Part A | 10x | 0x
Part B | 22x | 15x
Part C | 50x | 50x

[michaelnew]

You should be able to change the number of prints. Either just type a number into the box or use the little up/down arrows that appear when you mouse over.

I agree there needs to be some indication of progress and how many parts are remaining. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this.

Going to leave this open as a to-do item.

[fladdie]

Hi,
today I could finally install my conveyor belt and test your plugin. Great job!
Is it possible to run a python script or something similar instead of Gcode?

[michaelnew]

I think the best way to do that would be to use something like this. Just put a gcode hook in the bed clearing script and you should be able to fire off whatevever script you need.

[fladdie]

Yoo-hoo it works. Thank you very much!
Now I still have to make some improvements to my band and then nothing more stands in the way of production!

[fladdie]

I have a little final problem:
The bed clearing script is executed a few seconds too early before printing is actually finished. I think this is gonna have something to do with the buffer.
Is it possible to define a delay in the bed clearing script?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UU4wXpghGSEiJt2w7

[michaelnew]

Try putting M400 at the start of the script. The script is just prepended to the "after print job completes" script, so I'm (mostly) positive that the gcode isn't actually out of order. You could also try something like G4 P2000, which is a "wait for 2000 milliseconds" command, but I don't think you'd need to.

I'm also really interested in your printer. I've seen a couple photos of that conveyor-belt style but haven't seen many details. Is that your own design? And what are you using for the belt material?

[fladdie]

M400 didn't work. But with the delay, it works now. It's not the nicest way, but it's perfectly okay for now.

Yes, the design is my own.
It differs in a few points from a normal conveyor system.

1. It's not endless:
   One side is driven by a stepper motor. The counter roller is spring-loaded. This guarantees a permanent belt tension. So there is only one side of the tape and no underside. Thus it is possible to provide several different printing bed surfaces on the belt at different places or each print an untouched bed surface.

2. The band material is from 0.05mm metal foil laminated with Bluetape, Kapton or something similar. I would like to do some more tests with a laser engraving of the metal foil to improve the adhesion.

3. The actual printing bed is magnetic so that the belt does not stand out when ABS is printed due to warping.

4. I only use the conveyor belt to eject the part but not as a printing axis.

[michaelnew]

I'm still pretty sure that the gcode isn't actually arriving out of order, but if you want to check the terminal output in OctoPrint you should be able to tell for sure.

The printer is super interesting. I'm trying to achieve the same goal of "non-stop production" (obviously, since I'm working on this plugin), but I'm trying to cool down the bed with a thermoelectric cooler so the parts pop off. I've thought about the conveyor belt system but I worry about the belt lifting when parts warp. The magnetic bed is a really cool idea.

I'd love to hear about how it works out as you're testing and working through issues.

[fladdie]

I will look at the GCode problem again later.

There are currently still some improvements to make:

1. due to the holding force of the magnetic foil and the resulting friction I need a higher motor output torque as well as the spring must be stronger to move the metal foil. For the time being, this is the simplest design for me. It is possible to lift the metal foil with a small servo motor in the middle at a later time to minimize friction.
2. at the moment I used a 0,05mm foil. of course this tends to stand out by warping. I will experiment with different thicknesses. The holding force of the magnetic foil is also higher when the metal foil is thicker.....

There is still a lot of room for improvement but I am quite satisfied with the first prototype.