I just bought the ipad 3 lcd and the abusemark controller. To use a 405nm Led in the same way the Duplicator 7 does, we need to remove the polarized film layer correct? Anything else?

 

Sorry i think i mean the backlight not the polarizing film

 

Hey Evilc66!
Very awesome blog! a lot of very useful information, sad that I didn't find it sooner as I have experienced most of the issues that you are talking about.

I will post everything I learned here as well like UV absorbance of polarizers, screen, etc. but my first priority is to get the printer working as there is some pressure...

So I have an array of 15 (5x3) UV leds 3Watt (400nm) all soldered to a metal plate that I then cool with a 12V fan.
The display was very cheap and had a pixel size of 98um and contrast ratio of 300:1.

Now my problem is that with the led array under the LCD and a black screen (so no slices, screen on but showing black background) that the resin polymerizes in the VAT (the entire bottom)... When I project I white circle I do get more polymerization in the circle (thicker) but also where it is black...
Any ideas on what the reason is? Maybe the contrast ratio of the screen?
Or the heat from the LED array (gets pretty hot)?

thanks for the help!

 

Why not turn off the LED's between layers?

 

That is indeed an option and I think I would be able to do it via the schutter function in CW. I found this (Shutter Installation and Configuration.pdf) and will try to implement this for a switch relay unless someone else has a simpler solution.

However I don't think it will solve the problem of the light getting through the LCD when black. Does anyone know if the contrast ratio has anything to do with the light getting through the display (when black)?

 

The contrast ratio is how many colors are in between white and black (shades of grey) if your off pixels are fully black you cant get any darker than that

 

Are you using nanoDLP?

 

Thanks for the reply! Much appreciated.
No, i am not using nanodlp as I am running the printer on arduino mega and ramps.

Thanks

 

What are you using to display the images?

 

As someone who used CW some, I think it's worth grabbing a RPi or Asus Tinker Board S and do NanoDLP. I know for the Wanhao D7 it automatically turns off between layers and lets you configure all the things like filter for uneven light and such.

 

Atomic has a CF PETG that is amazing. Not as abrasive as most stuff with CF in it.https://i.imgur.com/rcwsrMI.jpg

 

Nice, I hadn't used their PLA CF yet, but I LOVE the petg CF. Keep us updated! I'm about to do my upgrades to the D7. Part of me wants to try a laser based printer at this point but undecided.

 

Not sure how long it'll be up but woot has old fire HD for 24$. Edit: Gone

 

I was almost ready with final parts but the ipad LCD i got off amazon isnt working. Im not sure wether to blame the lcd or the abusemark controller but im leaning towards the lcd. It will be about 2 weeks before i can buy a replacement LCD

 

I have found a 13.3 inch 4k monochrome LCD

 

13.3 inch 3840*2160
high resolution : 3840x2160 13.3 inch 4K monochrome LCD display for 3d printer lcd

4k monochrome LCD

It's good product for 3D printer.

 

Do you have a link?

 

So what is the status of this build it has been a little while since you said you ordered the last part for this build? did you get it to working yet? Any links on where to download files from?

 

Hi,

I’m not sure where Evil stands or if Abby ever shipped anything but I can confirm that she says it’s actually an LCD specifically geare towards the 3D printing market. She even sent a customers photo of one of the ameralans test prints which looked decent over all.

I’ve yet to get a sense of cost but I will say that this shows some promise.

 

Hello,

this is my first post here, started doing my sla printer and ordered a iPad 3 LCD, have read all the posts but didn't get to know if anyone was able to get good results with the LCD and with what grade LEDs. Didn't order the LEDs yet, and thinking on ordering the daylight resins thince every thing indicates the LCD is not the best to let the uv light go through! Will post my printer project when it's more advanced. Hope to get some good feedback from here.
Thanks!

 

"I'm not alone so don't forget it" said that 10cc song.

-----

Guys I’ve just stepped upon this forum, after being 6 months developing a letterpress project based on SLA 3D printing, so you can only imagine how many issues I had (still have) and testing I’ve done XD.
I live in Argentina (for any Spanish native around) but I will write in English, and I leave very clear that I’m don’t have an engineering background, but a visual design one, so I lack of proper knowhow I compensate it with stubborn research, good use logic thinking and a strong “rowing against the current” sense.

I introduce myself with a LC10 from Photocentric, so since that day I'm married with daylight resins (no UV). I open to share my so far experience and of course have a little help thinking with you guys. Next I'm gonna cover a few interesting points I've read through out these pages and some other that you might find helpful.

• Curing times with daylight resin: yes, they are way longer and because of this “long exposure” they bring a “fuzzy” effect if you want to print small lines.

• Resolution: original LC10 comes with a poor 10.1” LCD panel (1024x600 - 116ppi - 218um/px) so as I was thinking of using 3D printing to build the plates used in letterpress printing, I had to increase those um/px in order to be aple to reach a printing quality. After maaaaaaaany comes and goes with chinese supplier I ensure you that in 4K the only thing smaller than...13” is the Sharp 5.5”, that allowed me (at least technically) to go to 3840×2160 - 800ppi - 31um/px.

• Backlight 1: after several tests with the new LCD panel, I came to the conclusion I presented before “long exposure brings ‘fuzzy’ issues”; this is not remarkable if you are printing with low um/px ratio, because you never get to print in really tiny precision (in my case 9pt Serif type letters), but when you do, those 30s bring trouble, as the eyes (holes) of the letters get filled with accidentally cured resin. You can think of the “noise” issue as a DSRL camera, same principles. So, I had no idea what to next. I started to look to the Precision 1.5 model of Photocentric and asking how the heck could these f****** machines could print in a time lapses of 9-12s (depending on the resin). My first conclusion (as I was trying to get info from their agents by e-mail) was after seeing they offer 2 types of Daylight resin: a “regular” and a “precision” one. So, in this camera logic I thought this Precision Daylight resin had to be more “sensible” in some way, with a greater “ISO”, but! after struggling with very unwilling to talk agents, one, from technical support refuted this logic, and told me that for this machine they boost the back-light of the LCD panel (surely for this same issue), as nearly all market LCD panels don’t have a brightness superior the 400-600cd (candelas, same as 1nit). Afterwards I removed the original back-light and replace it with a regular low-cost 50w 4500lm LED panel.

• Backlight 2 (aka The Jedi Returns): so, now with the new back-light I resume tests with the “regular” resin and then I realized why they developed a Precision resin (even if they appeared to have the same characteristics in terms of hardness, viscosity, etc). It happened that the resin actually solidifies but doesn’t come together in rather random spots. Meaning that the parts of the printing that actually cured could translate that 4K resolution (meaning really tiny defined lines, in 12s exposure periods ) but most of the printing had delamination problems, but not from solidified layers instead, unsolidified ones that never seemed to attach. Result: irregular printing, pseudo solidified, and with holes (empty spaces). After some time I received the Precision resin, and all these delamination/pseudo curing problems vanished, so they also had this issue when testing the Precision 1.5 with a high power modified back-light and the regular resin; it’s seems is just chemically prepared for “high speed” curing. But!, (there’s always a but here), it’s seems like my light source is not enough after trying with several exposure configurations (from 9s to 30s, any higher than that brings old “fuzzy” issue). This new resin is way less sensitive (lower ISO, less noise), but requires a ton of daylight, as it prints regular, no delamination, but it doesn’t get to “cure enough” those tiny lines, and I mentioned it doesn’t seems to be a time thing (we can take as reference the Precision 1.5 exposure times being 9-12s, in theory, of course). Today, as I write this post, I’m an hour away from going to a LED’s shop and buy: one 100w high-power LED module (12000lm) or two 50 high-power LED modules (6000lm x 2 = 12000lm). I’m planning to place it a bit closer as they have a 120° angle; maybe from the original 7cm to maybe 5cm.

• Refrigeration with customized backlight: this is something to take in account. Those LCD modules (even more if you have the power source within the box) really heat the enclosed air in the machine chassis, so I placed two regular coolers: one taking air in, and other expelling it. That worked, and I assume that this 2nd back-light in spite of having more power will produce the pretty much the same heat.

• Photocentric as a whole: They come from the chemistry field, and....yes, they have a greaaaaat product here. Their daylight resins open an amazing spectrum of possibilities, so that circumstantial lab mice just like can test their real productivity in real life situations. On the other hand....they have reaaaaaaally poor customer service area. Very poor. I had issues in every single purchase I made, from broken printing plate (made of glass), missing parts, their super expesive VAT film (that of course I don’t get in Argentina, TIP: and I replace it with plain cellophane paper, that after several test with other films works great), leaking bottles in nearly every resin purchase, and on top of this a really lack of willing to help you. Why this last piece? Well, in passive way, there’s a really lack of info presented about their own products, and that info is very much needed if ALL the printing profiles (having not modified a thing from the machine) are wrong. Their YouTube instructions or ever their troubleshooting platform is again, veryyyyy poor and unrealistic. Seems like this guys don’t use their own products. Then in an active manner, when get in contact with them for any of the issues I introduce before; they just...don’t give you proper answers to your questions, they delay on things, they don’t connect you with the correct people, etc. By being stubborn and “polite” I got to get the fact of the back-light being modified for the Precision printers. Having said so, they’re cheaper than Form Labs (the Daylight resin competitor) and they have some fucking-A good resins.

Well, I don't wanna bore you any longer

I see the chunck of text I wrote and I'm a bit shocked myself. So, any tip, tought, question, whatever crosses your mind, might be helpful to me and anyone else that wants or is actually trying to work out SLA printing with Daylight resins. This is just an exctract of I've passed these months and there are a ton more of details and things of this rather frustrating journey.

Keep up the good work and good luck!​

 

Thanks for the great informations.
Would like to hear/read more of your experiences.
Tom

 

Hello. I have been researching to build a UV resin printer for a while, and looking to start purchasing the parts for my build. I have experience with CNC and electronics, so I just need to select the LCD display. I am a little confused with the long threads. Can anyone give advice? Is the ipad 3/4 retna display a good reliable first choice - or is that a more for experienced users? If the Sharp 5.5" is display that has been proven to work, I probably select that one. I usually buy cheap starting out, since I do not want my mistakes made for replacing expensive delicate hardware for the first time.

 

Hey @Tosch , I’m currently doing my “last” try upon the printer.
I started receiving some aid from a guy that is an expert on lighting and specially with LEDs. We found out (by researching a bit more, doing some tests and....connecting the dots) that this particular “Precision” resin has the ideal curing spot with the blue light (400-495nm), so we passed from that insane idea of putting a 100w led to a more reliable one of placing a 15 1w blue (460nm in this case) LEDs, and the result has been positive in someways. The exposure time has decreased (to some point near 16s) but not enough to translate the potential definition provided by the Sharp 4K 5.5”. I still don’t get to print those “tiny lines” I’ve talked about.
Right now, (in these days) I´m gonna try what seems to be the last thing I can do. I’m gonna change those 15 in 1w LEDs to a 50w in 10 5w LEDs (same type of light). I believe I’ll be able to achieve that exposing range of 9-12s, but I really don’t know what to expect on....the definition issue. I just hope it can provide me that....threshold in which I can start using the printer for making the letterpress plates.


@DrStein99 I use the Sharp 5.5” and...it’s a very fine piece and the client attention provided in "that Chinese online market” (I can’t name it because the...site reads it as spam, unbelievable) is remarkable. If you want I can give you the contact. A tip: if you acquire it, be SUPER careful after you removed the backlight. SUPER. I mean it.