Value of Bits and Firmware Upgrades

@mcdanlj There seems to be a linear magnetic encoder with a linear magnetic strip you can lay down next to a rail. I’ve seen one mention, you may try Allegro.

I also saw a German reference to a delta robot that was calibrated using lasers. No idea how they do it other than perhaps a rotating beam and a target.

OpenCV and a camera?

The list goes on, which is why I am trying to do baby steps. Most of my throw-aways are from my print head hitting a bubble in the previous layer.

If I can at least alarm and pause on that I am much further towards reliable printing. Auto correcting is a good second option cause many of my prints are purely functional, so a misplaced vector or two is not catastrophic.

From there - there is so much uncontrolled metal and plastic in a Reprap its frightening - Unless of course you consider send-and-pray protocols as GOOD. :slight_smile:

I have iGaging DROs with a known protocol for absolute positioning that I’m not using right now. I had thought about putting them on the 3D printer for absolute positioning, but really they are too stiff. It’s fine on the mill that I took them from in order to do a CNC conversion, but would be too much friction on a 3D printer. But I think that’s an application of linear magentic encoder and maybe it’s possible to buy the core parts.

I would expect lasers to be for a collimator and expensive. OpenCV would be too low resolution. I think that your 10-turn potentiometer is an interesting idea for a closed-loop system. At the same time, anything that costs more than the ODrive insane-resolution encoders at $39 each seems unnecessary.