With Charles Pax’s recent proof-of-concept of a motorized conveyor belt print platform, we’re going to need some software/firmware changes to make full use of these improvements:
- Queuing print tasks
- Removal/auto-wiping of the test extrusion
- Moving the print platform to the front/back/side of the MakerBot for ejecting the finished print
- Ejecting the printed part
- Returning the platform to 0,0,0 / center
From the video posted on Charles’ site, it looks like he’s managed #3 and #4 already. The extrusion path around the print that we see in Nophead’s prints probably would work at #2. I also seem to recall some (such as Zaggo?) have mounted a toothbrush head on the build platform for auto-wiping of the extruder head.
Returning the platform to 0,0,0 is an interesting proposition. This would seem to work best once the opto-endstops are installed. I’ve got my set of six fully assembled opto-endstops sitting in a box next to my MakerBot because I haven’t really needed them and they tend to get in the way of printing. Although the opto-endstops have been removed from the standard MakerBot kits, I think we may now start to see them returning.