Customiser: YATNAG - Yet Another "This is Not A Thing"

thingiverse

This tool is not a tool, it was created to visualize the results of calculations for nozzle positioning in delta printers. As a side effect, the elementary geometry calculations were turned into functions within this source code. I uploaded it as a customizable "thing" to Thingiverse because I could easily add sliders for positioning and play with it that way. Unfortunately, what I was mostly interested in cannot be seen when customizing: how minimal elevation steps affect nozzle positioning precision. It's clear that precision is better in the center of the printing plate and gets worse towards both sides. This model puts the effects into tangible numbers, an oxymoron indeed. After some thought, it occurred to me that output could be written directly into the "thing" using OpenSCAD's "text" function - which would show the results I wanted to see. This was added in a recent version of the model. The "delta" operation is confined to two dimensions only, making calculations simple and leaving room for thinking about a minimal mixed cartesian/delta printer with Y axis positioning through plate movement. For what this model is meant for, it doesn't matter whether it's operating in 2D or 3D space. Just change X and Y to your desired nozzle position, and see the hinges move to their respective elevations. Overview and Background I'm not sure about "grades," so I picked "2nd grade." Elementary geometry is all that's needed. Pythagoras should have been mentioned, but power and square roots are assumed familiar.