*NEW* nanoDLP built-in Support Generator, Feedback wanted

[mUVe 3D Admin]

All,

nanoDLP has a very early beta for built-in support generation and plating. We really recommend updating to the latest beta asap if you're interested.

Instructions for its use are attached to this post. They too are an early release.

All feedback and corrections highly welcomed as always!

Dean Piper

mUVe 3D Support

www.muve3d.net

[Jetguy]

Just a question is anyone using an i2C 2x16 LCD with nanoDLP just as an informational display?
Just trying to see exactly what i2C module they used or other notes.

[mUVe 3D Admin]

We have done it here in-house, but it's only minimally beneficial.

It will display the IP address of the printer, and also layer information while printing. But that is all that we know of at this time.

Here is a link that looks identical to the unit we've used: https://www.amazon.com/Frentaly®-Backlight-Arduino-MEGA2560-letters/dp/B0182N00LU/

mUVe 3D Support

[Jetguy]

Thanks and greatly appreciate the answer, it solves some of the mystery.

Basically it will only work with a certain i2C port expander. While there are a ton of i2C backpacks and displays, they tend to use a different IC.

So what it won't work with today without getting into source code and making some deeper mods are:

Pretty much any Adafruit i2C backpack or display board will not work. They all tend to use the MCP23017 or the MCP23008

And while there are libraries and python and they absolutely work with the Raspberry PI, the nanoDLP code will not be able to display on them.

So basically, the only ones that do work- and they really need to make this more explicit and broken out in some details- is port expanders using the PCF8574T

Now those are pretty common and found all over Ebay and Amazon and really any other discount site, but wanted to make it clear current versions of nanoDLP does not support other LCD backpacks or expanders.

[mUVe 3D Admin]

It's very likely that support for other LCDs can be added. We just need to talk with the nanoDLP folks. My guess is they picked the most prolific and lowest cost unit they could since it's only doing basic info.

It might even be possible to request an addition for a LCD readout configurator where a variable is used to define what is displayed on the screen.

mUVe 3D Support

[Jetguy]

So a KEY note not covered anywhere I have seen.
When you find your particular LCD i2C address using
sudo i2cdetect -y 1

Say your LCD is on address 38, well you have to convert that value from hexidecimal to decimal http://www.binaryhexconverter.com/hex-to-decimal-converter

This is said nowhere in the documentation.
The only clues were that the default was 27 in nanodlp for the i2C LCD address. My particular LCD was showing up as 3f when probed.
NANODLP will not accept 3f in the i2C window. So luckily my friend suggested that because of that, we then knew that nanodlp was using straight decimal values.

So, I set my jumpers on my LCD backpack to all low, that then sets it to hex address 38 and in nano DLP that would be 56.

[Jetguy]

My friend James Armstrong made this killer external python tool that you can call from within nanodlp to write additional info to the LCD. Note this one uses the hex address so remember to edit this file for your setup.
Copy to /usr/local/bin

Here is some example code we put into the first line of the printer profile "gcode after each layer"
[[Exec lcdmsg.py --msg="Lifting to {[[LayerPosition]]+[[ZLiftDistance]]}" --line=2]]

What this does is at each layer lift, it displays the height it's moving too in absolute coordinate.

Hope this is useful.

Also, in hardware setup, we did this in the "print stop gcode"
M107
[[Exec lcdmsg.py --msg=Drip Pause.." --line=2]]
G04 F30000
G90
[[Exec lcdmsg.py --msg="Moving to Z Max.." --line=2]]
G1 Z193 F300
M84

This is because we wanted the resin to drip off so it dwells for a time and to display that to the user so they know what is happening. Then it moves to max Z.

[Jetguy]

Oops, forgot the python

[Matthew Caron]

There is also a post-print resin tilt you can use. Let it drip off the top of the plate too...

[Jetguy]

Sorry, didn't mean to drive this thread so far off topic and greatly thank everyone here for the information provided.

Tilt only works on a printer that can tilt.

Yes, in this forum, the mUVe 3D printers have a Z axis uses 2 motors and can tilt. That example code was from a different machine with a single axis Z so no, it cannot tilt.

Nothing wrong with what you are saying, just there was a caveat to applying that to other brands of machines.

[Matthew Caron]

Oh. Sorry.