How's the project going? The integrated rod/stepper holders really do look great.
Further to my last post I've finally got mine going (with the same kind of curtains as you have).
It's nodemcu based (as this is what I have in the parts box) driving a nema 17 using pulleys and spectra line (mono fishing line has too much stretch and spectra was sort of popular when delta printers were the rage). Commands are given via MQTT. Electronics and firmware are all working and currently I'm working out the design of the wall mount and pulleys to make it as unobtrusive as possible.
Great to hear your Project is going well, Mine stalled due to problems with my 3D printer and a rethink of the design in general, along with work commitments, blah, blah, blah....
You asked about noise, well ive seriously reduced that by moving away from A4988 stepper drivers to TMC 2209. These drivers also allow for switchless breaking and so i hope to loose the hall sensors and magnets.
Cool - looks like I probably should get some trinamics in as well. ATM I will need to use an emergency end stop in case the setup loses its position settings as I'd rather not be wearing out the eeprom by saving this all the time.
I started with a design from thingiverse which clamps over the end of the pole and replaces the wooden balls, so is easily reversible. Unfortunately the design isn't stealthy but I'll deal with that if the drive system actually works ok. I'll post some pics once it's installed and working.
I shied away from step counting for curtain location, the main reason being that i wanted to power down the steppers after use, so that if you wanted to tweak the curtains manually you can.
Also what would happen in a power failure? you would have to re position the curtains every time on restart especially if you had been using them manually during the power outage.
The magnets and hall sensors worked flawlessly when i was using a belt drive but mounting the magnets on a fishing line proved to be problematic and so the 2209's will hopefully work but ive yet to implement them. I have fitted them to my printer and the wife is well impressed that we can no longer hear it thundering away in the lounge!
What pully design are you using? ive knocked something up in fusion with a spiral cut into the drive body so that i can put a couple of turns on it so that it wont slip.
My ultimate aim will be to make it battery powered but im not certain how to do it, at the moment its well above my experience level and i think its likely that it will need to be zigbee to achieve it.
Now if i can only get my printer working with ABS!!
Still working on that - I could write every new position to the nodemcu eeprom but this would probably reduce the lifespan of the device to no more than a couple of years. Another idea would be to just mount a microswitch to the rod holders and let the end curtain rings trigger it at the end of travel. Or simply just have the curtain only open/close fully - in our case we don't really need to have it partly open anyway.
ATM the drive pulley is a pretty simple affair. The 2 line ends are physically attached to a large diameter but narrow drive pulley through holes in the sides so moving the line becomes a push/pull affair which does not rely on friction (if that makes sense). Both drive and idler pulleys are identical so the line should remain in the same plane.
It "should" work (hopefully) .
Delamination issue? If so the only solution is to have a fully enclosed print volume to allow gradual cooldown of the layers. I only print ABS if it needs to be stronger or heat resistant and avoid large and tall prints with sharp edges otherwise I'll be repairing gaps with superglue.
Nothing as simple as that, the MB had a design fault and it was either replace components or fit a new one. The fault stopped the bed from keeping a steady temperature and it fluctuated by 20 deg.
Also the board struggled to obtain the heat required to get the first layer to stick. i fitted a new board and drivers and tried to install a BL touch at the same time, turned out to be too big a cherry to bite off in one go.
Ive gone back to just the new board now and am trying to get it configured as i type, im still having problems trying to get the bed up to temp and so ive put the printer in an enclosure, that seems to have done the trick but now im struggling to get the head to home, so ive gone to a clean install of marlin and am just about to upload it... fingers crossed.
Here's a pic of the progress so far . You can see one of the holes through which the one end of the line will be attached. The other end will thread through a hole on the hidden side. The original design is from here OSSCR - Smart Home Curtain Rod by meffken - Thingiverse but it's been heavily modified for my larger curtain rod as well as the different drive system.
Thats not a bad idea and as you say it illuminates the friction problem. How will you tension the line? dont you need a divider in the pully to stop the incoming/outgoing lines from riding over each other?
Just looked at the thingyverse link, if i suggested mounting that on the end of our rails, the wife would laugh me all the way to the divorce courts...
Both pulley holders are clamped to the ends of the rod so pulling one side outwards and then clamping it should do it.
I was going to try it this way as a test. If the line rides badly, yes I will def need to add a divider.
I didn't say it was pretty
But our lounge isn't used much so maybe mine won't notice
But you're right. If it does work I'll need to look at how to run the line with a smaller pulley system and offsetting the stepper so it's hidden behind the edge of the curtain.. The pulley diameter is currently the size of the curtain rings just to make it simpler.
Also thinking about power loss, the easiest thing to do might be to have an autohoming function to close the curtain using a single endstop switch.
work (hopefully) .
