New Ball Cup arms available for Rostock MAX machines!

[johnoly99]

Hey guys. In the midst of all else, we've been working on these arms/platforms for a while now, and they're finally ready to ship. We're packing up 50 sets to ship next week to anyone that wants them. There's a special coupon code too for half price! The code is longarm50 There are a lot of great improvements over our existing arms. They're a ball cup mechanism, molded in engineering plastics for no wear at the speeds/forces the machines move at. They are spring tensioned for a consistent pressure on all joints. They assemble in seconds and are removed as easily for whatever you need to remove them for, like adding diff. toolheads etc...

***YES GENE, WE SHIPPED YOU SOME ALREADY***

^ just in case

To use these arms, you'll need the new injection molded carriages. They have the features needed to mount the ball mounts. They're also longer, at 290.8mm center/center for reaching out to the edge of the bed but this does lose a little z height, i think JJ said a little over an inch, but the longer arms provide better angles for math to happen when moving the head

Lets talk here about them guys, give us your thoughts/feedback!

http://seemecnc.com/collections/parts-a ... ta-arm-kit

[Holy1]

Cool upgrade. Coupon code?


edit: Sorry just re read it. longarm50

[geneb]

Good grief. The box hit my porch this morning and you've already let the cat out of the bag? Can't you guys give me a LITTLE head start? (and yes, I know JJ emailed me yesterday, but as head-starts go, that's pretty bloody small! )

g.

[Jimustanguitar]

_
Any chance of posting higher res photos? I want to see what they look like up close.

[xr750]

I just ordered a set. Now where can I find install documentation?

[Jimustanguitar]

I just ordered a set. Now where can I find install documentation?

That was Gene's gripe. They've been unleashed on the public, and he didn't receive his first set to evaluate and document the process until earlier today.

[geneb]

I can just about guarantee that you'll have docs before you have arms. If you don't, email me and I'll call you on the phone and walk you through it.

I need to get White MAX torn down to the carriages and build it back up from there.

Chapter 9A will have to be tweaked with a notice about the new arm mount. The axle adapter and u-joint axles get replaced with the double-ended ball arm that replaces those parts. (Part count down, good!)

Chapter 11 will get a notice and new information regarding the new laser cut hot end mounting plate.

Chapter 12 will be duplicated as 12A and that will cover the new ball & socket arms and effector platform.
Not only are the arms new, but the effector platform is as well.

They shipped all the parts pre-assembled and the first thing I noticed is that there is ZERO slop. The motion is smooth as glass. You guys that get this upgrade will love it. The magic happens due to the "springs" that link the arm ends together. It keeps the arm sockets snug against the ends of the ball arms.

I've got a 5k tomorrow and other plans, but I WILL have something for you guys no later than Sunday evening.

g.

[bot]

The arms definitely sound like a good improvement!

[KAS]

I'm glad they changed to longer arms.

[Holy1]

No need for trick laser arms now

[PartDaddy]

_
A couple close up pictures.

SeeMeCNC Ball Cup Arms1.jpg

SeeMeCNC Ball Cup Arms2.jpg

Having some feed issues, however you can watch the far machine zipping around. It's into a 3 day test on current arms. No printing, just cycling ball joints. https://video.nest.com/live/seemeshop2

[PartDaddy]

Now those pictures are geared toward a v3. And the hot end is prototyping stuff. Take a look at that hot end fan shroud JJ designed and printed. Pretty sweet looking eh.

For a v2 installation, the new platform is installed upside down (black platform on top of white acetal ball part). And allows for the current printed fan shroud to fit.

The platform allows backward compatibility while providing a circuit board mount. So our new hot ends (later this year) mount right at the level of the platform rather than from the top groove mount.

The new arms with new carriages allow the RMAX v1, v2, v3 to have better up to the 11" build diameter. Primarily because the new ball cup arms are longer.

[Jimustanguitar]

Gasp! He said V3!!!

(It's actually pretty cool, guys. You'll like it when you see it.)

[3D-Print]

Those are cool. Love the "springs!"

[crocky]

_
A couple close up pictures.

A picky of the top of a set of arms where they are mounted to the newer carriage would be handy too

I've ordered some and the later carriages, lookes pretty good...

[BenTheRighteous]

can these be used with trick trucks? I'm guessing no?

[PartDaddy]

You would have to print an adapter for the while ball part to screw to the tricktrucks. I'm sure Brian will have a solution next week too. I will try to get these part files up by Monday so you all can hack and mod. They will be found on our github here: https://github.com/seemecnc/Machine_Elements

[briankb]

Will these work on the Orion with the new molded carriages?
The arms are a bit longer so that would be a concern.

Will there be an Orion version (shorter 200mm) available soon?

[PartDaddy]

We'll be machining a mold for Orion ball cup arms next week. We probably won't change the arm length on the Orion. However, plastic injection molded ball cup arms do present a challenge in holding theoretical center to center distance. We measure the center to center distance after molding to provide an actual measurement for the firmware value. The new carriages already make the Orion's print area 7 inchs diameter instead of 6 inches diameter. And all other parts in the Orion ball cup arm kit will be the same as those in the RMAX ball cup arm kits.

[PartDaddy]

And the upper attachment at the carriage.

SeeMeCNC Ball Cup Arms3.jpg

[EL Cuajinais]

I'm just seeing this now and... wait...circuit board mount!? On the effector? I can't believe nobody's asked about that?
So much news!
So will these arms improve the ability of the printer to print near the edges of the print bed? That's kind of what I got from the OP, and that is my biggest gripe with the RMAX V2.

And a new hot end in the works? That sounds great. Looks like my decision to hold off on upgrades was a good one. I much prefer OEM stuff because it is usually better tested and documented. That printer in the linked stream looks like an unchained wild thing. Now all we need is a geared extruder and this printer will be an absolute beast. I can't help but wonder:

Assuming the frame of the printer remains unchanged for the RMAX V3, will SeeMeCNC sell an upgrade kit with the new carriages, arms, hotend, circuit board, extruder(conjecture) at a cheaper price than buying all components separately? I'd love to turn my V2 into a V3 in one fell swoop (disassemble and reassemble only once). That is, if it makes sense cost-wise.

Also, I have to think the new hotend will go to higher temperatures right? At least 265C?

[crocky]

And the upper attachment at the carriage.

Thanks, now I know what is coming

[geneb]

FYI, the manual update is done, but unpublished until they know a date in which new kits will start shipping with the new arm sets.

I'm nearly done with a Dozuki (yeah, I can't say it with a straight face either...) that shows how to install the new carriage upgrade and as soon as that's done, I'll do one that covers the new arms.

g.

[bvandiepenbos]

Nice work!
Design looks great.

Looking forward to testing them out.

[PartDaddy]

The transition to the new ball cup arms is today. All RMAX v2 kits are leaving the factory with the new arms. (Sorry about the short lead time Gene. It had to do with production and inventory levels.) Is the RMAX v2 kit getting phased out? No. We really haven't discussed a termination date. RMAX v2 will be around well into 2016.

The RMAX v3 is different enough to be an additional product. JJ & Andy took this project and ran with it. When I showed up to work one day (couple months back), the v3 prototype was sitting in the lobby (no s!*%). I did not know they made a working prototype. And I was impressed with their hard work. It incorporated ideas from all of us. Perhaps most importantly, JJ told me the design was also influenced by you guys on the forum too.

JJ is currently cleaning up files for the new ball cup arms and will upload them to our github soon.