OUR JOURNEY TO THE DELTA TURBO

While we were projecting and building the BigDelta printer, we bumped in a huge problem that we never met before: the control board (Arduino Mega) didn’t afford the amount of data that are necessary to move the motor’s axes.

It seems impossible that a processor which controls 16 logical states, with a calculation speed of 16 millions cycles per second, for a total of 256 millions operations, can’t control the mechanical part.

Paying more attention, however, a Delta printer executes 200 square roots per millimeter for each axe (and we have three axes, plus the extruder). We noticed that Delta configuration needs a huge amount of data to work, and it was for this reason that our BigDelta, several meters tall, was printing jerky and the display update was late.

We were blocked in this situation and we needed to push hour research out of open source world, to sail in a see where nobody did.

In fact in open source you can’t find more powerful boards: who developed one doesn’t share it. Many people make full use of shared knowledge but very few of them share innovation.

WASP incudes Dennis Patella between his coworkers. Dennis is a real innovator, he disassembled Marlin program and ricomposed it for our purpose. The mission seemed to be impossible, just like the ones we like more: a RISC processor with 32 bit and 82 millions operations per second, for a total amount of 2624 millions operations per second can do what ten old processors do.

The work is hard: this processors need a three volt source to avoid overheating and energy wastefullness. So motor’s drivers need to be resized just like the mosfet of peripheral’s control and the marks of analogical-digital “comparatori”.

When play becomes hard a Wasper neves steps back, on the contrary, in these situations he shows the best part of him. Therefore Dennis, Roberto and Massimo redesigned the board and assembled it on a Delta 20 40.

As it happened for Resurrection System, we tried to solve some Big Delta’s issues and we found new solutions to emprove our small size solid printers. DeltaWASP 20 40, strong and resistant as it is, was fitting the new board’s calculation power, leaving everybody astonished.

What was happening was a real fight between electronics and mechanical: speed was increasing and acceleration was growing of 150%, 200%, 300%, 400%, 500%… from the 3000 mm/s² we were used to, to 5000, 10,000, 20,000  mm/s².

DeltaWASP 20 40 manages several millions data per seconds, executing them completely. It seemed like it was going to fly.

The green rubber bands which distinguish our suspended extruder (Creative Commons protected) and the whole Delta’s features make this kind of results possible. Movement speed up to 1000 mm/s and acceleration up to 20,000 mm/s².

The enthusiasm was at the top when we understood we were in front of one of the fastest printer in the world. pheraps the fastest.

PRESS RELEASE 
DELTAWASP BECOME TURBO
At the 3D Print Hub in Milano, WASP will present the DeltaWASP 20 40 Turbo version. The printer was already one of the fastest in the market and now is the first that reaches 1000 mm/s.
The group, that is working on the development on the BigDelta (a tall robot 3D printer, designed in order to build houses with ecological and 0km building materials) faced the necessity of having a more powerful electronic board and processor in order to move the arms of the printer at high speed and with a better fluidity of movements. From this need, start the new project of WASP: the modification of the firmware that command the printer (Marlin), a re-designed pcb board with a 32 bit RISC processor able to do 82 million operation per second.
“In the open source world we didn’t find more powerful boards: all firmware are for Arduino Mega. This has forced us to take a great work of ‘discovery and development’ that we share in open source. We know the valuable knowledge that we have been donated by the community until now” says Massimo Moretti, WASP founder.
The Waspers have tried this powerful board on one DeltaWASP 20 40. The result was incredible: with 250-300 mm/s of travel speed, with the implementation Turbo the speed can grow up to 1000 mm/s. Thanks to the characteristic of the DeltaWASP 20 40, the precision remain the same.
The discoveries in WASP are almost monthly, the group in fact re-invest into research a big amount of the gains from the sale of 3D printers. An Italian company that contributes to the sharing of the knowledge and to the diffusion of instruments, with the intent to allow , through the 3D printing , to initiate a real production.
Meanwhile, the invitation is for Milan, 5, 6, 7 March, to see one of the fastest FFF printer in the world, pheraps the fastest.
Info: www.wasproject.it