Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?  

Re: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

Here is the design I used. I took the opportunity to redesign the cable holder as I use textile sleeving rather than spiral wrap.

Cable Holder

Camera Mount

The Parts

Camera Fitted

Camera View

Video of Printing

I still have to design a cable holder to hold the camera cable out the way of the print. It will be mounted on one of the z-axis tops. I am also thinking of adding a clamp plate to the main cable holder to spread the loads from the cable ties to reduce the risk of the ties cutting the cables.

Regards,
Martin

Re: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

Here is the design I used. I took the opportunity to redesign the cable holder as I use textile sleeving rather than spiral wrap.

That is awesome. Would be an amazing troubleshooting tool as well since the nozzle is so hard to see.

What model of scope is that?

Any chance you'll be selling or sharing these when they're done?

Re: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

Awesome! I recently posted the same idea ( https://www.reddit.com/r/prusa3d/comments/8jln37/easy_closeup_nozzle_mounted_camera_for_mk3/ ) although I had not yet designed the holder. Please let us know the status of your project!

Thanks!

Re: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

I have now finished my camera holder. There has been no changes to the camera holder and the modified Prusa cable holder. The only new part is the Camera Cable Holder. The clamp plate I am thinking of, like the main cable holder is not part of the Camera Mount Project although I have included the main cable holder as part of the project issue.

If you still use the spiral wrap on the extruder cable you may need to modify the camera mount to allow for the fact the unwrapped cables from the heater block do not take as much room or insert a bit of padding over the cables.

Camera Cable Holder Design Drawing

The Fitted Cable Holder (Test Version)

Issue Sheet

Project Files Here

The project files contain:-

The camera I used is WiFi Wireless Endoscope,EletecPro Inspection Camera 2.0 Megapixel 720P HD.

Any other similar camera will do. However if you regularly print ABS in an enclosure try to find one that works at a higher temperature than the 60°C that this one is rated at. It is however fine for PLA and PETG as the draft from the part cooling fan will stop it over heating. The camera mount is specifically tailored to this camera including ridges that align with the recessed printed rings on the camera.

Regards,
Martin

Re: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

This looks great !

How much distance is between the zipties and the heatbed at first layer ? Looks not so much 😯

BTW. I use a similar camera on my "old" MK2. https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/-f14/prusa-blackpc-edition-t4723.html

Thomas

Re: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

The zip ties are only a couple of mm clear of the bed/model. Pretty much the same clearance as the PINDA and print fan nozzle. That clearance is what limited the tilt on the camera and why the heater block fills half it's field of view. I have not yet produced a model of the extruder with the heatsink assembly fitted to get an accurate measurement. At some point I will do so and possibly revise the angle the camera is mounted if there is room.

@Knickohr
I like your use of a redesigned part fan nozzle to mount and supply cooling to the camera. Better than relying on cooling from the default Prusa nozzle like I am.

Regards,
Martin

Re: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

I have now converted the main elements of the hot end into AutoCAD DWG format and as a result I now have a definite clearance from the zip ties to the print/bed. The clearance is 2.2mm assuming the ties are tight and are at 45° to the horizontal.

Drawing With Section Showing Clearance Added

Regards,
Martin

RE: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but just wanted to say that borescopes are now very cheap! ($20!) and small. The diameter on the one that i ordered is about 5.5mm / .2 inches. I was able to use the modified cable guide/support from martin and didn't even need the lower "plate". I have more than 1-2mm of clearance... almost 6! 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LCJY94K/

thanks for the part and idea!

RE: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

@martin-w15

Hey, this is a really neat design, and your drawings look great. I have a borescope I don't use much, and it's wifi - free print monitoring from across the house! You're one hell of a designer. Thanks, man!

RE: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

I printed this desing, looked promising, but It is crash into the heatbed cable cover during homing..
Anyone else has encontered this issue?

Thanks!

RE:

@martin-wolfe
Thanks for that nice design.

I extracted short 15s part and tweeted linking to this thread:
https://twitter.com/HermannSW/status/1494311605181587461

I created animated .gif (without the audio of twitter .mp4), nice!

Last weekend got my Prusa MINI+, and that does not have the cable you used to connect.
I made a keep it stupid simple design with only one part and oposted in Prusa MINI+ forum:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods-octoprint-enclosures-nozzles/simple-nozzle-camera-borescope-holder-for-prusa-mini/#post-582007

Photos, auto bed leveling video and details in the posting, this is my 10mm×8mm×7mm designe in freecad:

RE: Has anyone mounted a borescope to the extruder carriage?

@martin-wolfe
Just realized that your borescope camera is quite distant to nozzle.
I created 1:48min video of very small part 3Dprint, find details here:
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods-octoprint-enclosures-nozzles/simple-nozzle-camera-borescope-holder-for-prusa-mini/#post-582439

As can been, although my borescope resolution is 640×480 only, because of closeness to nozzle more details can be seen: