So I have seen a number of delta style 3d printers that have attached the extruder motor to the print head. Even more who use bowden style extruders. Both have some pretty heavy downsides. I was wondering how much interest people would have for a new design that fixes all the current issues with these and bowden style extruders? I have been working on the solution for some time now. I am curious if there is enough interest. I would like to start a kickstarter to raise funding for a production run. I would need some significant support to make this happen. If over 100 people show an interest (by commenting or voting) in this solution, I will finish my prototype and present my solution. I am very close to presentable results. The mechanical functions work, still working on the electronics. If anyone who has experience with getting custom made dc stepper motors to work is interested in assisting me, I would very much like to hear from you. I look forward to hearing from lots of people. Please understand that I have not provide a detailed description of how my extruder will work due to its revolutionary design.
Is it like flex3drive?
@Dennis_Cao no. The whole motor and extruder assembly is on the print head.
That entire post was a gradient support to heck no the more I read. First off, why are you kickstarting it? Why? And I immediately down anyone or anything that calls something a revolutionary design when all the want is to make money from it. Plus, ‘custom made dc stepper motors’? Seriously?
@Justin_Nesselrotte Kickstarter campaign is to allow me to make the extruder available. Mass production costs money. The design is revolutionary, because it solves problems with current designs and no other design is remotely similar in function or construction. Custom dc stepper motor was needed as conventional designs would not work.
@Alex_Hayden then open source it to make it available. If it’s a good design, then people will pick it up and use it.
@Justin_Nesselrotte do you have the means to produce a stepper motor? I doubt that you do. So I fail to see how open sourcing such a product would make it available. Someone must produce the product.
@Alex_Hayden if you open sourced it, then people might find a stepper motor you didn’t know about, or might find a design that doesn’t require a custom motor. Plus, even if you show the design, if I have no way of getting the motor, then I can’t use it anyway, but I can see how it would work. Since you don’t have the custom motor, you don’t even know it works well.
Saying “DC stepper motor” twice suggests you don’t know what those terms mean, and that kind of a flub casts doubt on the project. I too get jaded by claims of revolutionary design, so it’s hard to take without any cause to believe it.
I could be wrong, but I doubt you’re going to get an affordable custom motor design on a 100pc. run.
@Jeff_DeMaagd by claiming DC I was only suggesting that it would still work with current hardware, by the normal means of pulsing DC current to achieve an AC step function.
I am looking for people who are interested in the new design not an order quantity. I hope to achieve way more then 100 orders.
I understand your reasons to doubt the projects claim with no proof.
@Alex_Hayden that’s… that’s really really not how stepper motors work…
@Justin_Nesselrotte actually it’s the only way it works. To supply a stepper motor with straight dc power would not result in any movement. To achieve movement you must alternate your direction of power and/or phase of poles depending on where you are at in the step sequence. It is by using DC power that you are able to more precisely control each step.
I’ve driven stepper motors, I know how they work. It’s by alternating coil fields to move a magnetic piece where you want it. And DC power doesn’t mean you can control each step better. I’m going to be honest. I think this is a scam.
Are we talking about a micro stepper motor that is small and light enough to sit in a direct drive extruder? With rare earth Neodymium magnets it might be possible to get quite small and still get a fair bit of torque that would be increased through gears. If yes, I’m interested.
@Mark_MARKSE_Emery in a word, yes. It is a bi-polar micro stepper motor.
You know, @Alex_Hayden , the experience many members of this community have made with people claiming a “revolutionary design” for which they need a “kickstarter to raise funding” without giving out details is that either, a) said person has zero knowledge about what they’re doing and is trying to make an impossible design work, or b) is trying to scam folks into sending them cash for a design that is basically the same we’ve been using for years.
So unless you can share (open source) your concepts and designs, expect to get your content removed from this community.
How could i answer your question without more information about it. Show us something and you may get better response.
pics or it didn’t happen
I think the comments here are lacking any benefit of the doubt, perhaps coming across a bit harsh to the OP. Probably because of how many failed kickstarters and scams that we’ve all seen before.
@Alex_Hayden I don’t think it’ll hurt to present your idea anyway. I wouldn’t worry about keeping everything secret. You’ll be better off working in the open and getting the support of the community behind you. If you really do have a good design for a decent extruder people will be begging you to sell them one anyway (e.g “shut up and take my money”) .
The 100 votes thing isn’t helping you. Either your design is demonstrably better and you wish to try and sell them (so do it!) or its not worth your time to finish but you think it could be useful (so share it!). It’s not a good way to judge interest because asking “would you like a better extruder” without price, pros, cons, compatibility, etc… of course people will say yes.
@Liam_Jackson “Benefit of the doubt” is hard exactly due to the reasons you describe.
I fully agree with everything else that has been said - “I have an awesome idea I will only share if enough people are interested in a kickstarter” smells very fishy. Either share it and let the community help improve on it (going the open source route), or evaluate it on your own. If it’s truly as revolutionary as you claim, people will pester you about turning it into a product anyways.