195 karma · joined June 24, 2021
Yes, this is completely stiff, no flexible parts. I've experimented with a few gears and different distances between them. I've found that this herringbone gear works very well. I don't experience any visible backlash, but the gearing ratio also helps to suppress that.
I've printed everything from Hobbyking Premium PLA. Just as you've described, the rotation gets smoother after some wear. But even after 30-40 hours of use they still don't seem to become loose at all.
Securing everything on the bearing, there's no visible wobbling. I really recommend using a bearing if possible, it makes things so much easier. (:
Good luck with your project! (;
One interesting feature of the current setup is the ability to "zoom in" on details. With the microstepping mode of the stepper motors, one can take 2/4/8 times as dense measurements of an area if necessary. The limiting factor here is time. A single scan takes around 40 minutes with the current resolution (1800*300).
I've started with EasyEDA and stuck with it as it worked okay so unfortunately I can't help with a comparison. I've tried the autorouter and it worked (=didn't fail) for earlier prototypes when the board wasn't so packed, but it couldn't do it (was hanging indefinitely) for the current layout so I did it manually. It wasn't that painful... (:
Good luck with your project! (;
Working with a friend, we wanted to explore the use of 3D scanners on construction sites but quickly got stuck as no cheap hardware was available to fool around with. How hard can it be to build one I thought? I've already programmed Arduinos to blink LEDs before, this isn't that different... Then a few months into the project I've realized that I've spent way too much time on this to let it go to waste and started turning this into a community project.
At this point I've reached the first milestone of having a working 3D scanner with (hopefully) enough documentation to help others get started with building their own. I'm sharing this with you now to spread the word, get feedback and to invite you to contribute if you feel like it! (:
Kind Regards, Daniel