color cnc painter

[publitime]

hallo everybody

Is there someone who can tell me how to make a color cnc painter.
How does the system like the bladejet works?
Who can give me more info about how to make.

jurgen

[Ferenczyg]

If you wanna do artistic paint to wall with a spray paint visit http://www.hektor.ch/ and download hektor.pdf for simple and interesting

hope it helps

Fer

[publitime]

hallo

that's not were i'm looking for.
the system like the bladejet looks more intresting.
Who nows how this system works?

thanks

[vacpress]

publitime- i have the exact same question, and this is what I know so far.

1-there are companies that make CNC gantry type machines with an inkjet head. these are for sign printing, packaging, etc.

2-there are even companies that put inkjet heads on the end of a robot arm to print on 3d surfaces

3-there are generic print drivers and inkjet driver board setups to do all this.

4-I have no idea where to start looking for more info

5-I havent seena ny prices listed, so im assuming its probably in the 2000-5000 range to start with a preengineered system

the idea of hacking an inkjet head to print would be amazing. i would love it. LOVE. I would pay hundreds of dollars even to see such a thing done. I have considered trying it myself and even have 2 or 3 inkjets sitting around waiting for me to own an oscope, logic analyzer, and FINALLY a working PIC programmer to start such a thing. I bet there is information out there about all this, I just have been busy with other projects first.

I will donate a working inkjet to anyone "qualified" who is willing to try this. by qualified I mean you should at least know how to program a PIC chip and realize that controlling an inkjet head will require some decent electronics skills and lots of time and research. I will donate lots of other parts to such a project - i have literally dozens of dead and or working surplus printers available to me. my parets own a repair company that sees hundreds of printers a month...


the thought of putting a inkjet head on a gantry really appeals to me, and i know its possible... another interest I have is to make my own additive rapid prototyping machine using an inkjet head and either 2-part epoxy type glue, plaster and water, or some other ink-jet deliverable system...

please come back and let us know what you find!

[publitime]

hallo

I think a printsystem like the bladejet does not use printerheads like the one in desktop printer etc.
the reason for that is that i works with paint and not with ink.
It must be something like airbrusches who spray the paint.
But how do they control the airbruches?
How you can make G-code ore something like that from a foto to control the airbruches?
Look at the system with the wire and look at the result.
It looks great.
The system with the wire looks lot easyer then a engineerd cristal printerhead.
It just works with a wire and a airflow to blow the paint from the wire to the wall.


jurgen

[vacpress]

you could fairly easy create a 4 color spray-type inkhead.. to do it you have to do a few things.

1-break down the image into CMYK files. Process these files to create graduated xyz coordinate files that send the required pulses to move the gantry, and release the proper amounts of ink or paint or whatever through nozzles. inkjets have it easier cuz they dont need to regulat flow i dont think, they jsut use different lengths of time since it happens so fast? i could picture 4 dual-action airbrushes with 2 high speed hobby servos as actuators on each airbrush. dual action airbrushes allow for both pressure and flow controls. exactly what is needed. these servos are closed loop positionable, so they can be programmed with a PIC or other microcontroller to recieve a color demand and use a lookup table or several to produce the right amount of pressure, flow and color mixture... ideas on this?

[publitime]

I have no ideas at this moment about how to begin.
The mechinical part is easy but the electrical and software part will be difficould i think.
I have build a cnc mill to mill plastic letters and he works great.
But this looks something else.
Rebuild a dual action airbrush must be easy.
The X Y and Z axis are no problem i think if the system works with 3 axis ore is that wrong.
Are there more axis thene that.
To get the 4 colors ( cmyk ) out of a picture is easy with photoshop.
But for the rest i think we have to write a program to run the steppermotors.
Maybe it will be better to use a constant airflow and just regulate the paintflow?

jurgen

[vacpress]

well i think its easiest to break it down into several chunks. the most fun for me would be the printhead color mixer program. i would put it in a PICmicro or Basic Stamp2. It would not be that precise at first, but fairly easy to start. i would likely make it a 1-wire network or serial device that recieves a command like:

;make green - gantry moving 180inches/minute
cyan on 2.5us/motion speed : spray pressure 45%
yellow on 2.5us/motion speed : spray pressre 45%

so the transmission from the host to the software on the printhead would look like :

c;2.5;45:y;2.5;45ff

but just an 8bit word or something... i dunno that much about it - i use PICbasic, it would be easy with quickbasic. to calibrate colors would also be fairly fun

[vacpress]

this device so far is fairly cheap to make:

aluminum extrusion for frame: $100.00 if you just use 1x1x.125 square alum tube
stepper motors:cheap from used printers
control-tronics:cheap,as the tourque to control is low -$15 per axis - 2 axis. $30
8 hobby servos: $80 for the cheap $10 ones - $200 for very nice ones
servo driver board: 20-45
misc:$100-300

the great thing is, a single long linear rail is needed for the gantry- it has a very light and predictable load. the other side can be a floating bearing or something. this device can also probably pay for itsself within 5-10 sign jobs @$50-100 per job.

the hard part is the software that vectorizes the input and controls the whole thing.... tha'd be some printer driver.....

[publitime]

I have no ideas at this moment about how to begin.
The mechinical part is easy but the electrical and software part will be difficould i think.
I have build a cnc mill to mill plastic letters and he works great.
But this looks something else.
Rebuild a dual action airbrush must be easy.
The X Y and Z axis are no problem i think if the system works with 3 axis ore is that wrong.
Are there more axis thene that.
To get the 4 colors ( cmyk ) out of a picture is easy with photoshop.
But for the rest i think we have to write a program to run the steppermotors.
Maybe it will be better to use a constant airflow and just regulate the paintflow?

jurgen

[publitime]

my first idea was to use the electronics from a desktop inkjet printer but there are some problems i think.
firts the steppermotors in a desktop printer are not strong.
So you have to made a system to use the signals for the steppermotors to control other and bigger stepperdrivers.
Second how can you use the signals that controlling a piezo printerhead on a airbrush system?
thene there is a problem with the printerdrivers.
Most drivers are limited to a small printing size.
So the original printerdriver will not work for big prints.
Maybe there are controllers on the marked for a system like the bladejet who are ready to use .
Do you have a idea how many axis the bladejet is using?

[ynneb]

I am guessing that the major obstical using a printhead would be ensuring a level and flat canvas.
I think that is why you need to use the wire blowing method that they talk about on that site.
A printhead requires contact to the material been printed.