As I continue to be frustrated with calibrating my Maslow to cut things within 1-2 mm of accuracy or be consistent documented here: Help getting correct measurements on cuts
I was wondering if I could invent some intelligent positioning for it for cheap enough…
if I have a raised edge on at least 1 vertical side and 1 horizontal side I could read the positon if the sled with Lidar to each and get an XY coordinate. this should allow some live adjustment and maybe better calibration? Idea is still being formed but I’ve had good success with small ESP32 projects lately
ideas welcome. Not just on calibrating my machine but making things more accurate and easier to calibrate in the future
Interesting idea. Do you think you could use it realtime? Or were you thinking just for positional checks? I can even see it in a use scenario where GC can use it to double check sled position when/if it somehow loses sled position (which happened to me for the first time recently. Not really looking forward to reestablishing the position)
How about registration marks? Vinyl printers position the vinyl for cutting based on marks printed by the printer. Wouldnt be reinventing the wheel. Maybe a hand drawn crosshair or similar would be recognizable.
the ESP32 I’ve been working with has wifi and bluetooth built in, so I see no reason it cant do it realtime… whether it communicates with ground control or with the electronics controller Im not sure. As a goal I’d like to go more towards it being independent from a computer like 3d printers have become.
I have a cricut, good machine and very accurate. I think this could work well for calibration, but not so great for cuts, unless there is room for mid cut calibration, maybe at high speed. I’ll think about it. It would probably be a cheaper solution and accurate when on top of the queue. Could be printed from a typical printer at least for calibration
Are you familiar with Shaper Origin? This is all reminding me of it. You place stickers for reference points and you follow a line on its screen (it is a handheld CNC machine) and as long as you are within the margin of error the machine allows the router to adjust within the mechanism to make it perfect. Obviously an expensive fix and you could just use the shaper origin independently, but I’m just wondering if this is the same technology you are talking about.
If you are unfamiliar with Shaper Origin you might want to check it out! https://www.shapertools.com
yes, I saw it a few times at maker fairs, pretty cool. everythings pretty far from that point right now. I’ll try something out to this effect. I do like the idea of calibrating to a printed paper or sticker better than laser positioning, just seems like a simpler step