Devblog 12

The final devblog before shipping!
I finished making the github page for the project, and made a video showcasing it. I am really excited to finally ship this project, after almost 3 months and 100 hours of working on it! (The round 100 hours is completly by accident)

Changes since last devblog:

• Made a readme
• Made instructions for assembling Comet dryer
• Added a BOM.csv
• Recorded and edited a short video showcasing the project
• Added gerber files to the github repository

Devblog 11

I fixed all the bugs I found in my previous devblog
Bit of a shorter devblog this time, I have mostly just fixed all the issues I found in my previous devblog. I also added all the CAD and PCB files to the github page, and organized everything into folders

Changes since last devblog:

• Fixed flyback diodes not connected to the correct tracks on the PCB
• Fixed the temperature and heat data loading too high up in the main menu
• Made the fan turn off on pausing
• Made the main body of the fan speed selection button not unhighlight when selecting fan speed
• The PCB, CAD and uf2 files are now on GitHub
• All the new files are now organized into folders (and I changed how the files previously present are organised)

Next changes:

I still need to make the readme and a bom.csv file. That will most likely be my next devblog before shipping

Devblog 10

I finally finished assembling the dryer!
The assembly could have gone a bit smoother, but I had run into some issues (that are now fixed) while putting everything together :

• When designing the PCB, I somehow forgot to fill the zone connecting the heater to the trace delivering power. I had to manually fix it on the PCB, and update the files to contain the changes
• The screws holding the PCB were almost impossible to put into place and screw down. I made holes in the bottom of the enclosure to make allow easier acces with a screwdriver
• I run out of solder just before finishing, and needed to wait for a few days to get more. Also turns out soldering is so much easier when the solder you use is not ~40 years old…
• Just as I was writing this devblog, I noticed that the heater was turning itself on as soon as I plugged the power in… Debuging this took incrediably long, as I thought I had a short somewhere, since my 12v psu was now only delivering 5.3v. Turns out my 5A PSU cannot even output 4A constantly because it overheats itself. I fixed the heater turning on by itself by adding one line of code. All of this took like 3 hours of debuging that I did not record as I thought that the issue would be simple to fix

Next changes:

After assembling everything, I found a few bugs I need to fix. After that, I will finally move on to making the github page

Also sorry that this devblog got really long, thanks for reading it!

Devblog 9

I made the modeled and printed all the parts!
Designing the filament stand took longer than I originally thought it would, and I ended up having to completly remake it, as there turned out to be a bit of issues with my original design. Mainly that:

• It was too large, and would not fit in my container
• I decided (for now) not to rotate the spools while drying
• It likely break under the load of 2 spools, because of a weak spot

Why not rotate the spools?

Among other than taking up a lot of space, the motors would either be too pricy, large or had way too high RPM, which would be inefficient to slow down. It was hard to find ones that would be readily available, and even then they would arrive too late for me to finish in time

Next changes:

I will now move onto assembling everything together!
Since my last devblog, I also found out, that there is another issue with my PCB. Somehow, I did not fill the zone connecting the trace to the heater pads. While I was able to fix my board manually, I will have to fix this before shipping

Devblog 8

I finally finished the software!
The largest change is the new annealing menu.
I also just spent over an hour trying to fix a bug that turned out to just be caused by the function being run before one parameter was set.

Changes since last devblog:

• Added the annealing menu
• Fixed a ton of bugs I run into while making it
• Cleaned up the code from debug features

Next changes:

I need to make an enclosure now, after that it will be just mounting the components together, and prepairing it for SHIPPING

Devblog 7

I soldered all the components on the PCB!
And of course after finishing it, I learned that i should have added gate resistors. I then went to unsolder the mosfets and add the resistors, which somehow took me 3 HOURS.
Also added support for a fan and motor to rotate the filament so it dries evenly

Changes since last devblog:

• Soldered the PCB
• Added support for a fan and motor
• Made a github repository for the project
• Fixed a bug where scrolling in the settings menu wouldn’t always work

Next changes

I will add the annealing menu, and after that the software part of the project should be done. Next i will move on to designing the enclosure

Devblog 6

I finished the PCB and the Color theme selection menu!

I had to make the PCB fit in a 100x100mm square to avoid extra charges, and rewrite the Color theme selection menu. I changed the whole menu because the previous one was really buggy and didn’t really look good.

I also finally using git correctly, as I did not really understand how to use it before, and have just been stating changes without making any commits.

Changes since last devblog:

• Finished the PCB
• Rewrote the color selection menu
• Started using git correctly

Next changes

I will add the annealing menu and some QOL features, while I wait for the PCB to arrive next week

I made a gif to show the color themes, but for some reason it breaks when i upload it ):

Devblog 5

Almost finished the PCB!
I decided to make the components attach from both sides, so that there is only one pcb needed, otherwise the display and rotary encoder would have to be on a seperate board

Changes since last devblog:

• Made a design for the PCB
• Did some work on the theme selection menu

Why is this not the final version?

The design I made turned out to be 10mm to wide, causing the price of the pcb to increase by almost 5x somehow… So I will have to change the design to be more vertical. I wish I knew about this before wiring everything and fixing 137 DRC errors and warnings

Theme selection menu

The theme selection menu is bugged currently, will probably have to change how I had it planned, because the theme previews are a bit too small currently

Devblog 4

I added 13 different color themes to the display! (It is not fully finished yet, I still need to add a selection menu). Now you can customize the colors to something else if you prefer it from the default colors! Also made the filament drying menu. And fixed quite a bit of bugs that i found while making the changes

Changes since last devblog:

• Added a safety feature, preventing you from starting if the temperature sensor initialization fails
• Added a menu that displays the current statistics while drying filament
• Added 13 color themes
• Updated the UI code to be a lot more variable controlled, instead of hard coded

Bugs fixed:

• Fixed some of the buttons flickering when selecting or unselecting
• Fixed the remaining drying time :
  • Made it go down instead of changing randomally
  • Fixed an issue where it would pass by in slow motion instead of pausing

And probably some other bugs i forgot about…

Future changes / things i plan to add:

• Add a menu for selecting the color theme
• Add an option to anneal 3d print (this will probably only slightly help with PLA, since the temperature required for other materials is way higher)
• Make a PCB (?)!
  The features of this project are probably mostly in place now, so this seems like a good next step. I may also keep the 3D printable PCB (see Devblog 2) as an alternative in case you cannot get a PCB manufactured

(I selected a different theme for each picture)

Devblog 3

I did not know that time past 10 hours between devblogs doesn’t count…. well there goes the last 2 days when i probably did the most work on this project ):

I am still working on the UI, since I tried to make it actually good. I have finished a large part of it already, so only the last 2 (currently planed) pages are left. I will probably try to polish it up a lot more than I originally thought I would (as I just realised that stardance ends in september, not in august, so I don’t need to rush it as much), hopefully that will help recover some of the time I lost.

What has changed since the last devblog:

• I have finished the main menu
• Finished the screen where you select from filament presets or put put your own custom drying settings
• Made 15 different presets for things possible to dry
• Begun working on the screen visible while drying
• Fixed a lot of bugs I encountered while adding new things to the code

For now, I will keep working on expanding and polishing the UI further

Devblog 2

I have done quite a bit since last devblog, mostly trying to design and make a plastic PCB (Just a board to hold the components, without traces)

Why not actually make a PCB?

The reasoning mostly comes down to it taking too much time. Having never made a PCB before, I would need to learn the software. Not only that, even if I had the PCB already designed, it would have been extremally expensive to order shipping quick enough, for me to be able to do the rest of this project before Stardance ends. (And this scenario assumes I would get the PCB right first try)

What else have i been working on?

• I was able to make a circuit for controlling the 12v components with a 3.3v signal from the MCU
• Started working on the enclosure for the electronics and wiring
• Made a prototype of how I want the menu to look
• Made the text not flash when being overriden
• Added a temperature and humidity sensor

What next?

That is pretty much most of what I’ve done. The next part I plan to do is making the menu run on the controller. Probably also slight upgrades to the PCB and some work on the enclosure

Devblog 1

I was able got the display and rotary encoder to work!
This took quite a long time because the encoder was causing issues. I tried to read it’s position with interruptions, but i couldn’t get that to work.
Debugging this and trying to get the button on the encoder not to register multiple times when pressed probably slowed me down the most.

The next thing I want to figure out is how to control the rest of the components (which will be 12v) with the 3.3v microcontroller