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===Printer Setup and Use===
===Printer Setup and Use===
*load up the franklin terminal on either the raspberry Pi or on a laptop connected to the Pi.(overview picture of the printer)
*load up the franklin terminal on either the raspberry Pi or on a laptop connected to the Pi.(overview picture of the printer)
[[Image:IMAG0652.jpg|thumb|right]]
 
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|Image:IMAG0652.jpg|Fig 1: Overview of the Printer
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*Printer in standby position(home position) with no syringe. (picture of homed printer)
*Printer in standby position(home position) with no syringe. (picture of homed printer)

Revision as of 17:22, 13 June 2016

Template:Statusboxtop Template:Status-design Template:Boxbottom

Purpose

How to Operate

The following directions provide a step by step process for the use of a syringe pump attachment. The focus will be set up of the software, loading the pump, loading the syringe with the ink, zeroing the syringe tip, printing, and moving to idle.

Software Setup

Franklin is installed on a Raspberry Pi and connected to the Prusa. The files for Franklin can be found here:. How to install Franklin can be found here:

Printer Setup and Use

  • load up the franklin terminal on either the raspberry Pi or on a laptop connected to the Pi.(overview picture of the printer)
  • Printer in standby position(home position) with no syringe. (picture of homed printer)
  • Ensure that the bed is level in the areas to print by adjusting the screws at the four corners of the bed (Picture of level on print bed) Also ensure that the syringe pump platform is level in the -x to x directions (Picture of level on the x direction rods) If the rods are not parallel with the bed uneven printing will ensue, see guide below for correcting issue
  • Load the syringe into the syringe pump via the syringe pump holders(white printed parts holding the syringe) (Picture of syringe loaded at home position
  • Add the syringe top holder to secure the syringe in the pump(blue printed part on top of syringe) (Picture as step 4 but with the stopper added)
  • Adjust the positioning of the syringe to load ink. (I like to use 25x by 25y by 25z) Add the ink container to the bed underneath the syringe tip. (picture of syringe ready to be lowered)
  • Lower the syringe tip to to ink to be used and in franklin set a negative number to the extruder(retracting filament for normal printers) to load the syringe. (Picture and screenshot of this process)
  • Raise the syringe to remove the ink container vial and stopper it, and load a test slide for zeroing the syringe tip. (Picture of raised syringe tip and glass slide on the bed.
  • Lower the syringe with the position z(franklin value) as far ass possible(until it reads 0) without crashing into the bed. Then transfer those values from the position z to the target z(franklin value). Adjust the target z until the syringe is just above the test glass slide(0.4mm is a good value). It may be necessary to physically lower the syringe to accommodate the numerical adjustments made in Franklin. (franklin screenshot and printer lowered picture)
  • Ensure that over the surface to be printed that the syringe is of similar height when moved around the print area. This is done by observing if there is a change in the gap distance between the syringe tip and the glass slide surface as the syringe is moved across the printing area.(Pictures of the syringe at -25x and 25x showing gap)
  • The syringe is sufficiently zeroed, now warm the heated bed in accordance with the testing parameters. (screenshot of franklin heated bed)
  • Assuming the gcode is already added onto franklin and all adjustments to it have been made(in this case an angle of 45 degrees is added to correct for internal geometries) the printer is ready for printing. Press the print selected button. (screenshot of the ready to print status) (Video of printing)

Troubleshooting

uneven rods (picture of lopsided level bubble) Typically this implies that a coupling has come loose (picture of coupling) Tighten and relevel the x direction rods to fix the issue.

Designs

To be added after paper submission
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