Time Lapse

Hi there.

I see there are some nice quality time lapse examples out there, obviously a simple frame every 5 seconds is going to produce a pretty jumpy video.

Does the form 2 give out any signal on the USB port to trigger frame capture?

Thanks again.

Use the wiper movement with a photodetector to trigger a frame.

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Similar to what @fantasy2 suggests, @BenKrasnow did something very similar to that with a microswitch activated by the motion of the tank, as explained in the first few minutes of this great video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z8uPHL52Q0

That approach is particularly nice to watch because of how it captures the laser fluorescence of exposing each whole layer, illuminating the cross section, in a long exposure, like a physical representation the layer slicer in PreForm, upside down.

The USB port is there on the printer for printing without wi-fi or ethernet, i.e., data going in, but an output signal on the USB port, synched to some print process event for timelapse photography, would be an interesting feature request. I’m not sure whether Formlabs has heard that one much before.

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It would be particularly great for also updating the dashboard with an actual photo periodically of the last known state of the print to keep an eye out for failures when the printer is out of sight. (Then again, since we can’t pause/kill jobs remotely… so we could just look on in horror if something has gone truly pear shaped! Eeek.)

The MOST interesting part of that video is the McMaster Carr reference where you can obtain models of fittings in a .STEP format that can be converted by a 3D Modeling program like Rhino 6 to a .STL file to print.