HP DesignJet 500 Restoration

We have had laying around the office a rather old (2003) 24″ HP DesignJet 500 with a shredded belt. I took it home and brought it back to life. I did not use the ‘real’ belt that is available from LPS (though it looks perfectly correct) I just used this cheap Amazon belt. If it goes wrong later on, and if I actually use this thing here at home, I’ll replace it with the LPS one.

After an unsuccessful attempt at rehabilitating the printheads that have been in the machine for years. These printheads work perfect.

Anet AM8 – Hallon Auto-bed-leveling – Octoprint – Marlin 1.1.8

This project took way longer than it really should have.   It starts with the Hallon ABL upgrade.   I have been putting off upgrading the infamous Anet H-plate far too long, and finally committed to that upgrade. 

  • H- Plate Upgrade – I ordered this one.  The plate itself is well made, and fits the standard hardware.  I tapped the holes for the y-axis belt holder to m4.  This seems to be working, though if my belt gets loose with some printing I will drill them out, and remount the bed with M5 screws and M5 lock nuts. 
  • Solid mount heatbed – Printed this spacer in ABS plastic.  Printed all close together with a joined brim.  ABS tends to shrink in a not perfect manner, so I then used calipers and a file to bring them all down to within .03mm of each other.  
  • Leveling of the X-carriage – I used a set of 3x2x1 blocks I had laying around to level the left and right sides of the x-carriage to the bed, which i think is more accurate than leveling to the top of the frame.  
  • Octoprint with ABL expertLink to plugin repository It is easiest to find in the plugin manager.  I set it to bilinear correction.  
  • AM8 modifications:  ABL trigger mod (found this in the comments, haven’t tried it, made my own thing in freecad, though this looks much better than mine, so I am linking it)
  • Frame extension: I made a simple spacer, though I saw a full height one somewhere, and will link it when I find it again.  
Printing a class project for Claire

To find roughly your offset, use this procedure:

  • G28 – home position (which should show Z-10, safe nozzle position)
  • G1 Z0 – this puts it at 0 to the bed, this should be right where paper grabs
  • Once you have your offset determined, M851 Z-16.06
    • The -16.06 above is specific to my setup, and yours will be different
  • M500 to save eeprom

Initial Auto bed level controls added to machine settings in cura

G28 ;Home
G29 ; ABL hallon

Printing with Octoprint, I use the ABL expert plugin.  I found the Z correction I found via the procedure to need some tweaking.  Always Preheat at least the bed before ABL, not going to have a useful result any other way. Running .1 lower Z compared to paper to get good 1st layer.  Expect to have some trial and error here, printing some first layer tests.  I think it is a part of letting octoprint do the level correction.  

The tool chest is dead; long live the tool chest

The quest for floor space has reached a new fervor.  Of late, the shop is moving away from a situation tool-chests and drawers, and into a situation of pegboard.  The system we are standardizing on is the Wall-Control system.   The great thing about the Wall-Control world is how insanely good 3d-printed hangers perform.  

3lb engineers hammer hanging on 3d printed hooks

3lb sledge, yeah, all day long.

Part of this project, well, all of this project is the goal of creating floor space.  The restoration of my grey and red Craftsman tool-chest is what has been the ultimate goal here.   The idea is to remove it from the garage, so that a milling machine can exist in it’s ‘stead.  Cleaning and restoration of the toolbox is necessary so it can live in the finished portion of the basement.  

This toolbox was my grandfather Fred, he was a cool dude, and had a lot of shop tools.  It has been a great pleasure to restore this box, and part of that, knowing it was his.  

Cleaned up, not repainted.

I’ve cleaned up the top drawers, and will work on the bottom drawer set tomorrow.  The bottom set is a bit more difficult, as the goal is to also replace the casters with more basement friendly ones, and it still has 2 drawers full of bits, taps, and allen keys.  Not really clear how that will pan out at this point. Progress is being made, and the next checkbox to click is the lower deck railing.  

toolbox project is over.  I didn’t repaint it, just cleaned it up, and it’s perfectly reasonable to live to live in my basement.   This box isn’t perfect, it has a lot of patina, and it’s a a solid look, and capability that will become neccesary in a few months…..

Continuous evolution, Continuous improvement.  

To Everyone:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Went on a fabulous, extravagant ski trip, took a film camera.

In this business it takes time to be really good – and by that time, you’re obsolete.  -Cher

This story begins with a roommate I had at Mizzou who used to show anyone he kind of liked his slides.   He would project them up on a Kodak projector, and they were mostly amphibians and lizards that he had photographed in his hiking travels.  He was talented, and would go on to pursue a lifelong passion of shooting nature and landscapes in exotic places.  I think, roughly then, is where this story begins.  I was fascinated by the process of this, at first, it seemed to be just a problem of equipment, but, like most passions, this is a thing that cannot be bought.

The story of me shooting film, begins some years later, when I had time and energy to devote to it.  I started with an old Pentax ME and a few lenses, and switched quickly to a well beat up Nikon F3.  7 years later, and many rolls later,  I picked up a  Nikon D40. This was a few months before Claire was born, and I’ve been digital ever since.  That was 2013.  I recently stumbled across a cache of shot and unshot film, and figured I would take a full manual film camera on a ski trip.  So, here we are.

Let me explain this picutre, my favorite.    I shot this on the far Earstern side of the mountain, on a run called St. John’s, at the top, looking out over Jackson.  The pictures on either side of that shot were both boring crap.  

The few rolls, the few moments dedicated to pure indulgence of a nonsensical viewpoint was a rewarding challenge.  An effort to get, something better than I expected, to get something through a process that you only have one (1) shot at the moment.

Film still works, it’s till workabable, and it can still be yours.  

Monday morning update!

Sunday got a solid couple hours of good flights in.  Of the 4 working quads we deployed, Corvair survived, Nova drowned, and Pinto got wishboned.

Taranis backup files for the fleet have been added to the fleet page.

As of Sunday night, Nova and Pinto are back operational.  Vega is getting a new camera, and hopefully Omni will be ready for maiden in a day or two.

 

Status check

  • Pinto Fully Operational
    • switched to 5030 props, much smoother especially at WOT
  • Vega – Fully Operational
    • has bad video interference at all throttle positions.  Need to add an LC filter
    • 5045 props gives it response with 3S pack flies almost as well as Pinto
    • battery life is tolerable
  • Corvair passed power up check, time to strap it down and maiden