LCD & Dual Extruder pics unleashed!!

[bolsoncerrado]

The most affordable commercial quality desktop 3D Printer in the world with 50 micron resolution.

LCD Screen

The LCD Screen prototype is completed and we have added photos below for everyone to see. The current housing is stainless steel but the production model will be aluminum with anodized finish.

LCD Screen and Multi Position Bracket

Dual Extruder


The Dual Extruder modifications have been completed and we now have the pre production version of this printing very well. We have attached some photos below for you to get the first look at the dual extruder. We will in the next week post video's of the dual extruder printing.


The dual extruder has a solid one piece construction making it the most unique dual extruder in the market as all others are single extruders joined together. We believe this will make the extruder much more stable.

Dual Extruder

Rapide Lite 200

Rapide Lite 200 serial number RL200-1000 rolled off the production line last Friday. For anyone who would like to assist us get the campaign back in the black and more Rapide Lite 200's in the market there is still $100USD per printer you refer a contributor for.


We hope to have an monthly build rate of 1000 for Rapide Lite 200/200XL, 500 for Rapide Lite 350 and 100 for Rapide Lite 500 by June so we need to get as many printers into the market and raise awareness of our brand as we can.


The Rapide Lite Team

[Joao]

1- Dual extruders
- I am a bit worried about the reduced X axis space. I imagine that the 185 with 1 extruder will be down to probably less than 170.
- Also the weight of only 1 extruder seems too much for the Y support bars. My extruder is already a bit inclined, what would be with double the weight...

2- LCD
- It looks like that the button attached to the LCD only does a scrollable action? If it doesn't allow to control some minimal actions, do you think its worth the cost?

[milstream]

I had asked Ethan about #1 and he replied 147mm
I asked for further explanation wondering if that was the actual X travel limit or print size and it went unanswered...
If it was X travel the print size will be further reduced by the distance between nozzles.

[BobenhamHotspur]

@ Joao - I think you are absolutely correct about the reduced x-axis. We currently only have around 185mm of actual printable space in the x-axis. By my estimations the new dual extruder heads are approx 35mm apart at their centres. If my quick calculations are correct (please double check me) this means we could lose around 70mm on the x-axis and if the bodywork of the extruder extends further out from the centre of the nozzle than the current set up we will lose even more!
Rapide Lite need to move the nozzles as close together as possible (just moving the wiring to the outside would help) as this will reduce the loss and also try to keep the overall size down as well.

@Bolsoncerrado - Do you have Ethans email address as I would like to get this point across ASAP.

[sm0orb]

At first glance it looks like the most protuding part will clear the frame, ie go to the front of it. Whith the cables in the middle it may be possible to run them almost up to the side of the frame wich means less lost width. Not sure how much closer they can get, there is heat issues to consider as well.

Maybe we have to change back to our single extruders when going for wide objects.

[BobenhamHotspur]

I think its even worse than I first feared!

I just done some more calculations and I estimate we will only have around 94mm of x-axis .

Will someone else please check my calcs, I have attached a picture showing my workings.

DualExt.jpg

[SAO]

I am worried also because we will loose a lot of printing surface.
Even if we can change back to our single extruder, we will have to unplug dual extruder cables, plug the single extruder cable, fix it and remake the bedlevelling ....

For the moment I am a little disappointed.

I have the same result than yours BobenhamHotspur : 94 mm

[BobenhamHotspur]

I wonder if RL have even thought of this impact on the print size or just considered the design aspects of joining two extruders.

Even now when I look again at the photo, imagine trying to change the heater element or check the heater wiring, because they are both on the inside this would be difficult.

[grobbins]

This was really the only reason I did not buy the dual extruder upgrade when it came out on the campaign. Never did the math like you guys lol but just was not willing to give up what seemed like a large portion of my print envelope

[Joao]

Maybe we can find a way to have a quick release of the head mount, so we can swap the single with the dual quickly, instead of using the 6 hex screws.
It doesn't seem very difficult to engineer something.