I have been printing a lot lately. Mostly parts and molds needed for my Master’s Thesis, as well as gifts and such.
Ever since I got my second 3D printer, I have been using a RaspberryPi running OctoPrint (which is just WONDERFUL!). For those that are not familiar with it, Octoprint is essentially a gcode sender, with a web interface that runs on RaspberryPi. This way you don’t have to mess with memory cards and copying files back and forth, etc.
It also allows you to manually control your printer, monitor print parameters, have webcam feed and much much more.
Octoprint was nice but there were a few things I wanted to improve:
- Have some sort of enclosure for the RaspberryPi, rather than have it lay on the desk
- I wanted to add a second camera to monitor the second printer
- Power Supply Enclosure: The Tevo Tarantula power supply was bare and I wanted to make an enclosure for it.
- Thermal Protection: The community reports that the control boards on both of these printers can fail and catch fire due to the large currents demanded by the heated beds. To resolve this problem people usually add a beefy MOSFET switch specifically for the heated bed.
- Additional Safety: Even with the MOSFET switches leaving printers on overnight is not a good idea. Now that I had a way to remotely upload gcode and start prints I needed a way to remotely turn the printers on and off.
- Spool Holders – need some
To tackle these problems I did the following:
- I designed a lasercut enclosure for the Tevo Tarantula Power supply and added a MOSFET switch in there as well
- I added a large fan and MOSFET switch to the power supply enclosure of the Monoprice Maker Select
- I designed a lasercut enclosure for the RaspberryPi, as well as 4 power outlets and relays. Each printer (up 4) is now plugged into those outlets rather than the wall. With the help of a little python script I am now able to remotely turn each relay on and off (and in turn the printer connected to it).
- Designed lasercut spool holders with a small parts tray at the bottom.
The setup is superb and has made my life much, much easier.
