3D Printer

I have been interested in 3D printing from the first year of my bachelor's studies and from time to time I was dreaming of having my own 3D printer. However, these urges usually disappeared when I saw the price tag of the printers. That is why, on spring 2018, I started looking for cheaper alternatives than plug-n-play printers. 

I found then an inexpensive kit that I started to assemble. During the assembly process I got familiar with 3D printer components and working principles. I also found some mechanical weak spots that I fixed during the way or later on. In addition, I got very familiar with all the possible problems that I could encounter during actual printing. This 3D printer was based on Marlin firmware that is a open source code for 3D printer so I needed to study that carefully as well during the configuration of the printer. There I got some help from the code that was sent with the printer but I had to modify it quite much because I made changes in the mechanics and features. This caused that the original source code was not applicable for my setup and it had to be reconfigured. 

This project was very good learning experience for me since I could practice my mechanical design skills for making the mechanical parts as good as possible and learn the basics of additive manufacturing. The 3D printer quite nicely represents many things that are a part mechatronics and for me it was nice to assemble such a whole that included mechanics, electronics and coding.