Voltera Community

Camera alignment

Mark 2017-10-23 20:52:41 UTC #1

After struggling to get the probe to line up with my pads I thought I needed a better solution than using the zoom on my iPad and stretching my arm out to try to hit the right arrow keys on my keyboard (my Voltera and pc are a few meters apart). So I bought a cheap AliExpress WiFi camera and attached it to the printing head. I did initially mount it on the probe but I also wanted to see the quality of paste dispensing so the head was a better choice.

It works reasonably well. Could do with focussing it better and it would be good if it were more vertical as the parallax means you need to offset the probe slightly when ‘over the pad’ but overall it’s much much better than doing it by eye or iPad. Hopefully we will see something like this as an add on in the future!

View from the camera…

Mark 2017-10-23 20:54:17 UTC #2

cborn 2017-10-23 22:44:27 UTC #3

That look like a really great solution!

I find fumbling for the arrow keys with one one outstretched arm whilst holding a holding a USB-microscope with light in the other and trying to focus on where the probe tip is located to be one of the least satisfactory parts of the Voltera experience.

I do have a Pi-Zero-W and Pi-Cam waiting for me to find time to try something similar, this should give me a push!
Which camera did you use? Any downsides you have found, or tips on setting it up?

Mark 2017-10-23 23:37:14 UTC #4

Hey there,
You know, as I wrote the above I thought that there must be a better solution to the parallax issue. And then I discovered I left the phone I use for the WiFi camera at home so was forced into a new mod!
I had a mini (AliExpress) USB endoscope kicking around and thought I’d give it a go.
I made a ‘groove’ in the front edge of the probe and hot melt glued the endocpscope on. It’s superb! Better than the other camera as it is more vertical.
Bonus that it now plugs into my pc directly so i can see the line up on the same screen as voltera. Great that it’s USB powered as I now can’t forget to charge it before a print.
The only downside is that I can’t see the paste being dispensed to check the flow without pointing the probe in the general direction. I can live with that.

The endoscopes are about $10 from AliExpress any style will do.