Airtight Filament delivery system MK2 (more Airtight, higher Tech)

thingiverse

A redo of my Filament box with monitoring and auto pause if filament jams or breaks - that's the idea, anyway! Getting the top off with the filament coming through it was like wrestling an octopus. So MK2 comes out the side through 4x2 Teflon tubing, passes through the counters and up to the printer. The monitor has four states: 1: Just sitting doing nothing, all LEDs on 2: Waiting for regular movement, Blue LED - about 15 seconds of movement either way 3: Monitoring, Green LED - as long as it doesn't stop for 15 seconds, either feed 4: Paused, Red LED and pause connection held low. Also beeps. Still a work in progress, the electronics will be stripboarded and boxed. Still need to connect it to the printer Pause connection - I think it can be powered from there too. Some research needed. Using the old box. The box lid needs some material removal so the clip clears the monitors to get the lid off. Probably going to fit the push-fit connectors on the top outlet of the monitor. Been working on the ESP8266 MicroPython code - I was running into lack of RAM problems, but after a good deal of Googling, I can now roll my own firmware with the code built in, saving a shed load of RAM. I'll post a .bin file when it's in a finished state. Just a case of flashing it to a suitable ESP8266 board at that point. Also changed the three LEDs to a single NeoPixel. Added box parts for circuit boards - also Fritzing circuit files and MicroPython ESP8266 firmware files for flashing, Python files baked into firmware. Swapped back to Arduino code on the ESP8266 as the MicroPython code was unreliable. Print Settings: Printer: Flashforge Pro Rafts: No Supports: Yes Resolution: .2 Infill: 50 Notes: I had supports but probably not necessary. Post-Printing First trials, not connected to printer pause yet - just in case. Test of final hardware with active pause. Materials Needed: Other bits needed. Still using the Lock & Lock 12L box from Amazon. 4x2 Teflon tubing It uses one 10x5x4 bearing to grip the filament. Two 8x4x3 bearings for the wheel to spin on. The main filament grip is a Lego tyre 6014/6015. Also two or three 4x6x0.3 washers - I got HPI racing ones. One 25mm M4 hex head bolt One M4 locknut Two-way Channel Speed Sensor Module Counting Modules Motor Groove Coupler. The microcontroller is a Wemos D1 Mini running MicroPython. A switch, a single element NeoPixel and a piezo beeper. Stripboard, four-channel Bi-Directional Logic Level Converter 3.3V 5V An audio connector off an old CD Rom drive is handy to connect to the 3D printer. Software Arduino files I have added two Arduino files for uploading onto an ESP8266 - I am using a WeMos D1 mini but any of the development boards should work. One file has just a local web page to display the job status. The other has the same Web page but on port 81, and will also update a ThingSpeak channel with six fields. Machine Status: 0: stopped 1: waiting 2: running 3: paused Filament 1 status: 0: Stopped 1: Moving Filament 2 status Machine Text Left Filament text Right Filament text You could have it send you a text or a tweet on pause. I have added a switch to reset everything if the job completes normally.