Filament Storage Container
Introduction
I recently began using my 3D printer again, and have been noticing decreased print quality due to moisture absorbtion in the filament. I am doing to very large, multi-day prints, so wanted something that I could use while printing with the filament. When I began this project, I was contacted by RepKord and I am now using their RepBox2 as a base platform to build this box.
Cool, how do I make one?
First get a RepBox2, then get the below materials
- Arduino Mega or similar.
- A relay that can control your heater or 2 if your fan uses a separate power supply than the heater.
- An SPI MicroSD Card socket and a micro SD card.
- A DHT22 or AM2302 or similar Temp/Humidity sensor.
- You'll need 4, 1 for each filament spool, 5kg Load Cell Weight Sensors
- 4 HX711 boards for the Load Cells.
- 4 rotary encoders
- A 128x64 0.96 Inch OLED Module with I2C Serial connection
- 120mm 12V DC fan
- 12V 10A DC power supply
- An AC heating element and thermal shutoff from a food dehydrator. I used the cheapest one I could find, a $30 Presto (they list as $50, but I paid $30).
Next, you will need to 3D print some parts for the scales and rotary encoders. I'll be posting those files as soon as I get them ready, I'm still tinkering with the design.
Then you connect the components to the MEGA as shown in the code (All the pins are defined in the top of the ino file.)
Connect the Mega to your computer via USB and upload the .ino file to it.
Open the Serial Monitor and watch the messages. The OLED should say Booting... Please wait...
After about 10-15 seconds you should see the temp and humidity in yellow at the top, and the spool measurments below in blue.
If you see this and the serial monitor is getting a string of values every 3 seconds, you are ready to disconnect from the serial monitor and connect to your OctoPrint server.
Install the OctoPrint Plugin and restart. It should connect automatically and add a new tab to the GUI.
Notes
RepKord will eventually be selling these, once we finalize the design, so if you aren't in a hurry, there will be a kit later.