Filament control: I had an idea to use an optical (mouse?) sensor to supervise the feeding and retraction, eventually shape quality . Saw a project that even could scan pictures, so this should also be possible, right?
Other advantage, it could happen contactless: no friction or other wear.
Is this a great/good/bad idea for further investigation?
That sounds good. You could stop the print if the filament is jammed and adjust the rate for filament diameter changes.
I saw a video recently on how to hack a mouse. The sensor in the mouse is actually a camera! The hardware in the mouse can decipher the picture and send relevant information in a digital format I believe it was something like that anyway!
I have one of thise sensors here on a special designed breakout board.
It works very well as long as you respect the lens’ focal distance.
This could also make a automatic fillament exstrusion calibration tool. So the firmware can be automaticly adjusted to correct steps per mm.
My concern is the resolution. I was looking into such a device for the universal filament identification project (head there, progress has been slow). The idea is the same however. In the my case I would like .01 diameter management.
The resolution is about 18x18 pixels. As long as it can see the movement of the surface below the sensor it should work.
That is interesting, I wanted to measure diameter using a laser line. I don’t think 18x18 will cut it also I would have to have the sensor angled to make it work. With a proper resolution would be able to do both.
For filament measurement to control extrusion you need multiple angles, could be oval,squarish, triangularish etc.
First concern was filament tracking:
YES, this will be further investigated.
Prefer to configure it as add-on excisting alarm trigger: example a relais cut nozzle temp signal => raise alarm = stop printing
Usb-host is great but rather would like to keep it hardware simple and cheap, direct interact with the sensor chip (if possible)
Anyone info on the inside of this http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/usb_finger_optical_3d_computer_mouse.jpg or alike?
Have a look at this. Contains all info you need as far as i could see.
http://www.martijnthe.nl/2009/07/interfacing-an-optical-mouse-sensor-to-your-arduino/
Just received: USB 1200DPI Wired Optical Finger Mouse this is powered by a A2639 SoC
Tested AND working on PS2 = great advantage for easy interface (I hope)