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Trikarus is part of the permanent exhibition

By Mario Voigt, 5 March, 2022

We are proud to announce that Trikarus is part of the regular museum area now. The special exhibition MaschinenBoom ended in december 2021 but the Hangprinter moved to a new place 30 meters far away. In the time slot from 28.02. to 04.03. i did a mass of work to revive Trikarus again because changing the place means a strict recalibration. I needed to unmount the print bed and we changed a lot of mechanical properties slighty by grabbing the frame. While checking out the machine again some bad occurences revealed additionally. Two of our MisfitTech Smart Steppers were killed partially (defect USB controller power source) and the main power supply for the USB hub was killed too. I had some unpleasant electric odor while repowering the system. Seems that some short electrical inconsistency in the power net crashed some eletronics silenty. I recognized those errors part by part because the smart steppers worked regular in a non-Duet-controlled way, but the USB interface for scripting and measurement monitoring was dead.

Trikarus at it's new location

What was done?

In total i dealt with a lot of different steps (combined with a general maintenance) to give Trikarus a quick rebirth:

  • general inspection of the whole system
  • updating the documentation (still in progress)
  • Cleaning
    • cleaned the ceiling module plate a bit and removed dust
    • blown out the switching power supply. A lot of dark dust came out
    • oiling all mechanical bearings to be smooth again
    • cleaned the extruder fan (added oil inside the mechanics)
    • cleaned the hotend radial blower fan which did not move properly (added oil inside the mechanics)
    • cleaned the nozzle with cloth
    • cleaned the hotend inside and removed small chips from the system
    • cleaned the extruder gear
  • Software and updates
    • create a dump of the raspberry Pi SD Card as recent backup
    • updates of packages and kernel of Raspbian
    • update Repetier Server to recent version 1.3.0
    • update Grafana to release 8.4.3 (+changing some web server settings)
    • update PrusaSlicer to recent 2.4.1-rc1
  • Replacements/repairings
    • install the new power source. Now the 230V input comes from the ceiling with a fancy high quality socket strip of type Primo Alu 331.000 by Bachmann (EAN 4016514010882)
    • changing the lines with new firelines at A, B and C drive (the old one's were worn out). I put 28 windings per coil instead 45 because we don't need more!
    • fixed the damaged A spool again (which i crashed while changing the lines)
    • replaced the OLED displays at smart steppers because they went really dark. Seems the lifespan of those modules is about  ~1 year of continuous activity which might be around 9.000 - 10.000 hours (i installed them in july 2020 and they went mad ~ mid of 2021)
    • replaced an unreliable behaving relay with an equal one because the LED stripes and LED spot could not be activated properly
    • replaced the Traco Power TMA 2405S with a simple KFZ 24V to 5V adapter
    • replaced two defect Smart Steppers with two spare replacements of an older revision (03/21/2017). Those revisions have a little bit worse noise reduction on wiring due to some capacitor changes
  • Adjustments
    • reinstalled the bed platform (with fresh tape on the top)
    • readjusted the position of the Z leveing sensor
    • remeasured all coordinates and adjustes the M669 command line in firmware config.g
  • ... a lot of more things ...

I also noted that the Medion tablet screen has got more display bugs now. I think its really old and might die this or next year

Some photos

Dirty extruder
Broken spool
Trikarus has power again
The power supply from USV still
seems to be fine
The dead USB hub power source
The new KFZ 24V adapter as quick fix to resupply
the USB hub with power again
Installed two of rev. 2017
Regular chaos - bunch of required stuff to maintain
this project
Fresh OLED displays for having quick overview of what
Destroyed smart steppers
(overheated/overblown USB controller)
While measuring the new anchor locations
The first print at it's new place

Thanks to ...

Thanks to Tino and Benjamin who joined me to move Trikarus to it's new location and also thanks to Ronny who supplied me with a new 24V to 5V adapter to re-power the smart steppers.

Recent shows! See Trikarus in action again

Trikarus is printing again and i am showing how it works once per month this year again. Check out our event calendar.

Hint: At 08.04. a new special exhibition takes places, called "Tabakrausch an der Elbe". See at the homepage of Industriemuseum Chemnitz for more information

By the way every first friday in the month there is free entrance to the museum!

A great loss for us all

After nearly two years of observing the emergency halt button by our little Skydiver, somebody has hijacked him. I would be happy to see him back again at his home. Please help out!

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