• Max Build Volume: 64 × 40 × 134mm

• Check if your 3D object complies with the Design guidelines
• Get the workspace ready
  • Get nitrile gloves
  • Get safety goggles
  • Get paper towels
  • Put a Silicon mat in front of the printer
  • Get the alcohol spray bottle
  • Get pots with alcohol (IPA)
  • Get resin and used resin bottle
• Load model in Print Studio and position accordingly.
  • Uncheck the support-icon in the object browser when you want to print without auto-supports.
    
  • Select the actual resin you're going to use. This affects the print settings.
• Calculate cost
• Roll the resin bottle between your hands to stir the resin without making too much bubbles.
• Fill tray with resin. Respect the MIN MAX indications. Never fill the resin tray above the maximum fill line on the tray. Overfilling the tray will cause resin to spill over the edge of the tray into the body of the printer, which can damage the printer.
• Start the printer
• Do the calibration

Before running each print on Ember, first be sure to confirm that the following preparations have been made:

• The resin tray is properly anchored in place - All three of its locking tabs must be engaged on the tray's platform.
• The resin tray is filled with the proper amount of resin - Between the “Max” and “Min” marks on the resin tray.
• The resin tray's window is clear of any cured resin stuck to its surface. Feel the window with a gloved finger. It should feel smooth on its entire surface.
• The resin in the tray is clear of floating cured debris - Use a fine mesh paint strainer to filter out any cured debris.
• The build head is properly secured in place - The kinematic coupling needs to be properly engaged.
• The build plate is clear of cured parts - Feel the plate with your gloved finger. It should feel completely smooth.
• The build head is properly calibrated - If in doubt, re-calibrate.

When all of the above are true, you're ready to roll! Hit the “Start” button on Ember's control panel to start the print.

NOTE: Neglecting any of these preparations before running a print can cause damage to your printer.

• Resin should only be in the tray for the duration of the printing time. When the print is complete, the resin should be poured out of the tray. This will help to extend the life of your resin tray, and will reduce the change of damage to your printer as a result of resin leaking from a damaged tray into Ember's interior.
• Never store trays full of resin in Ember's build chamber when Ember is not in use.
• Before removing the resin tray, remember to always remove the build head, to prevent resin from dripping from the build head onto the window of the projector.
• Warning: When handling resin wear, nitrile gloves, protective clothing (e.g., an apron or lab coat), and eye protection.

1. Put on safety glasses and nitrile gloves
2. Gently shake resin before use
3. Slowly pour into resin tray
4. Fill up to Max line of 100ml
5. Make sure that the resin is filled above the Min line of 50ml

Filling the resin tray above the maximum line may cause damage to your printer due to resin overflowing from the tray into Ember's interior.

When your print is complete, remove the build head, remove the resin tray from Ember, drain the resin into a resin storage bottle and store it away from exposure to light. If there are particulates in the resin (e.g., resin shards from a failed print), be sure to use a fine mesh paint strainer to remove them before storing your resin for reuse.

Correct calibration of the build head is key to a successful print on Ember.

The objective of build head calibration is to align the build head parallel and flush with the PDMS surface.

This is important for several reasons:

• To ensure that the first layer sticks onto the build head
• To prevent jamming when the resin tray rotates
• To ensure an even thickness of the first layer

The process of calibrating the build head will only take a few minutes. Before starting check that:

1. Ember is powered on
2. The build head is clear of any previous print
3. The build head is securely locked to the build arm
4. There is no cured resin stuck to the PDMS
5. There is resin in the resin tray
6. The resin tray is properly attached to the rotating plate (and that the three tabs at at the base of the resin tray are securely locked in place).

1. Open the amber access door, loosen the calibration bolt with the calibration hex key. The build head should be free to rotate in all directions and move up and down.
2. Gently push the build head up to the top of its travel.
3. While holding the build head in position with one hand, tighten the calibration bolt to secure the build head.
4. Close the amber access door and click “Next” on the UI panel, the build head will move to the calibration position.
5. Once the build head is at the calibration position, open the amber access door.
6. Loosen the calibration bolt so that the build head is free to rotate in all directions and move down.
7. Let the build head fall under its own weight into the resin tray so that it is flush with the PDMS surface.
8. Rotate the build head so that it is square with the PDMS and allow it to settle in place.
9. Tighten the calibration bolt and return the calibration hex key to its pocket.
10. Close the amber access door and hit “Done” on the UI panel.

You can tell if you have successfully calibrated by the build head if all the following apply:

• As the resin tray rotates, the build head pushes all but a very thin film of resin off the PDMS. The PDMS should look almost dry.
• The resin tray rotates without any jamming or skipping of steps

Calibration is only necessary after

• a failed print
• a changed resin tray
• a changed build head

• Remove the build head by rotating the locking lever counter-clockwise
• Place the long edge of the build head onto the cutting mat
• With one hand, clasp the build head by the protruding section, making sure that your hand and fingers are behind the build plate
• In your other hand, take the scraper and gently remove the part from the build head

NOTE: If your model contains nested cavities, use a can of compressed air (such as this) to blow away the residual resin from within these spaces before rinsing your part in IPA. This will enable the IPA to clean the internal surfaces.

• Place the printed parts into a container of isopropyl alcohol
• Gently shake the container and allow it to soak for 5 minutes
• Remove the part and leave to dry

NOTE: Models with complex geometries (e.g., nested cavities) may require rinsing in a second bath of IPA for an additional 5 minutes, in order to clean away all of the liquid resin. Therefore, we recommend doing this second IPA rinse, soaking for a total of 10 minutes.

Use a UV lamp to post-cure the part for at least 5 minutes. This will help to create an optimal surface finish by removing any tackiness and assuring the there is no residual liquid resin on the model.

NOTE: Models with nested cavities require a longer post-cure time. If your model has internal holes, you may need to expose it to a UV lamp for up to 30 minutes in order to cure any residual liquid resin on the model.

On large parts with simple geometries, you can gently peel support structure away (assuming that the size of the contacts between your model and the supports allow for this).

For more delicate parts, or for parts with more complex geometries or larger support contact tips, you may want to use a small pair of angled flush-cutters to remove the supports

After removing the printed part you should clean the build head so that it is ready to be used again.

• Using the scraper, remove any supports or other cured resin that is on the build plate.
• With a paper towel dipped in isopropyl alcohol, wipe anyway any excess resin
• Return the build head to Ember

Inspect the resin tray to determine if the PDMS or resin needs cleaning. If so, follow these tutorials:

• Resin Tray Care
• PDMS Cleaning
• Remove cured parts from the resin tray

Don't leave resin in the vat for more than 2 days.

• Pour resin from the resin vat into the 'used-resin' bottle.
• Clean the resin vat.
  • Do not touch the window with anything other than the yellow rubber spatula.
  • Use the yellow rubber spatula to remove most of the resin.
  • Use a paper towel soaked into alcohol to clean up the remaining resin.

It is possible to store the resin vat in the printer for medium periods of time. For longer periods, put the vat in a air sealed bag and store in a light tight cupboard.

It's important to clean up any resin spills and drips as soon as they happen. If spilled resin isn't immediately cleaned up, it will cure and stain any surface it touches when exposed to UV light. To prevent this from happening, immediately wipe up any stray resin with a paper towel.

If resin ever drips or spills inside the printer, immediately use a paper towel moistened with isopropyl alcohol to wipe it up before it cures.

Using a spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) assists in the cleanup process. IPA is helpful in the process of cleaning your resin tray, build plate, resin filter, freshly-printed models, and anything else that has come in contact with resin.

NOTE: Remember to always wear nitrile gloves, safety glasses, and protective clothing whenever handling liquid resin and using IPA.

The resin tray is made up of the following components:

• Resin tray: Made of amber polycarbonate, which blocks blue light and prevents the resin from curing due to exposure from ambient light.
• PDMS window: Enables each printed slice to peel away from the tray and remain adhered to the layer above it and the build head during the printing process. PDMS stands for polydimethylsiloxane. It is a member of the silicone family.
• Glass window: The PDMS window is adhered to this piece of glass, which provides rigidity to the PDMS window assembly. It is located on the bottom of the tray.
• Gasket: This adhesive creates a watertight seal between the glass window and the resin tray.

  The gasket can be damaged by prolonged contact with IPA, causing the resin tray to leak. Therefore, do not allow IPA to soak in the tray for extended periods of time (for more than 5 minutes).

• Locking tabs: There is one locking tab on the front lip of the resin tray, plus two located on the bottom of the tray. It's essential that the resin tray is locked in place with these tabs on the rotating plate, to ensure that the tray remains fixed in place during the printing process.

Note: Resin trays have a limited lifespan. This is because the functionality of the PDMS window declines over time. After a certain number of prints, you'll need to dispose of your resin tray and replace it with a new one. You'll know that your resin tray needs to be replaced when parts of your model stick to the PDMS, rather than peeling properly and successfully building your model.

You will need to clean your tray if you want to use a different resin in a single tray, or if you have had a print fail. Whenever handling resin, always wear protective gloves and clothing, as well as safety glasses.

If a print fails, you will need to clean the cured debris from the resin tray. Failed prints usually produce two unwanted results:

1. The failed part cures onto the surface of the PDMS, and/or
2. Cured parts detach and float freely in the resin. If this happens, the resin must be cleaned before starting your next print.

There are two ways to clean the resin in your tray: using a comb (the faster way, which only works to remove large cured parts), or pouring the resin through a filter (the more thorough way, which also removes fine particles).

1. Remove the build head. (Always remove the build head before removing the resin tray. Otherwise resin could drip onto the optical path of the projector, which could damage your printer (if not immediately cleaned up).
2. Remove the resin tray

Pour all of the resin in the tray into a storage container using a filter.

TIP: You shouldn't pour used resin back into a fresh resin bottle. We recommend you keep an old resin bottle on hand to store used resin. You should also filter the resin before pouring into a storage container to remove any cured particles.

Using a gloved finger, gently rub the surface of the PDMS to remove any cured resin stuck to the PDMS.

Now that the PDMS is clean and excess resin removed, flip the tray over and using an Isopropyl alcohol swab gently clean the underside of the glass, removing all smudges and smears.

The photopolymer resin that Ember uses should be treated with the same care to you would use to handle a strong cleaning product, such as bleach. The following guidelines will help to assure their safe use, storage, cleanup, and disposal.

Warning: Whenever handling resin, always wear protective gloves, protective clothing, and eye & face protection. Avoid contact with your skin and eyes. If any resin does get on your skin, immediately use soap and water to wash it off.

Store in a place that's out of reach of children and pets, and which is not exposed to direct sunlight. Always keep the lids of the resin bottles tightly closed when not in use.

If you've had a print fail, then you'll probably have cured resin in your resin tray. You will find this cured resin adhered to the resin window (PDMS), and also floating freely through the liquid resin. If left in the resin tray, this cured resin will likely cause your next print to fail. Therefore, it's necessary to remove the cured resin from your tray after every failed print.

Removing cured resin from the PDMS is easy: Simply use a gloved finger to dislodge it from the PDMS, and then remove it from the tray.

Note: Never use a metal tool to clean the surface of the PDMS, as this will scratch and damage it. Also, do not wipe the PDMS with a paper towel, as this will also scratch and damage its surface. Only use a gloved finger to dislodge and remove cured resin from the PDMS. When you remove cured resin from the PDMS, have a paper towel handy to receive the debris and catch any resin drips as you take it to the trash.

Once you've cleaned the PDMS, you'll also need to filter the resin. There are two ways to do this:

• Using a fine-toothed comb to clean the resin
  • This is the faster, but less thorough resin cleaning technique. It works well for quickly removing larger pieces of cured resin, without requiring the removal of the resin tray from the base plate.
  • To avoid exposing your resin in the process, be sure to filter your resin in an area that's not exposed to any direct sunlight or any kind of bright light.
• pouring the resin through a paint filter.
  • For a more thorough resin cleaning, pour the resin through a paint filter to remove the cured debris. For ease of filtering, set up a jig to hold the filter above the resin bottle.
  • Don't pour used resin back into a fresh resin bottle. We recommend you keep an old resin bottle on hand to store used resin. Make sure to filter the resin before pouring into a storage container, to remove any cured particles.
  • To completely clean a resin tray, empty the tray of resin and then spray isopropyl alcohol (IPA) into the tray and then wipe clean with with a paper towel. [Do not wipe the PDMS with a paper towel, as this will scratch and damage it.] Also, use an isopropyl alcohol swab to gently clean the underside of the glass, removing all smudges and smears.

If you're using multiple resins, never mix them in the same tray or storage container. The best practice is to use a separate resin tray for each resin. If you must use a single tray for multiple resins, first thoroughly drain the tray, wipe out the excess resin, spray it with IPA, and wipe it again with a paper towel.

Liquid resin must be disposed of either by curing it in the sunlight or according to local regulations. It should never be poured down a drain, flushed, or put in the municipal trash in liquid form.

To cure liquid resin, seal it in a plastic bag and leave it in the sunlight until it hardens. You can then safely dispose of it in the trash.

Alternatively, you may dispose of liquid resin by sealing it in a plastic container and disposing of it according to local regulations.

• stop the printer
• filter the resin from the vat through a single use funnel
• with the yellow rubber spatula, gently rub the window of the vat, to make sure nothing sticks to the window.
• pour the filtered resin back in the tray
• rethink the 3D model and or the print setup and try again.

When the object is set up in Print Studio, go to the Layout tab, select the Scale tool and select the object. The dimensions appear on the bounding box.

Note one of the dimensions and open the file in Blender. (In this case the Z-axis)

Change the units to Metric, and set Length to millimeters. Scale the model until the size matches the chosen dimension in Print Studio. (The dimension is Y in this case since the object was reoriented in Print Studio)

In the 3D-Print add-on, click the button Volume under Statistics. The volume is reported in cm3. Multiply with 1000 to get mm3.

• Make sure the supports do their work during printing (not only at a completed print).
• Orient faces that need to be clean away from the build platform.
• Keep wall thickness in mind. It might show up fine in the slicer, but it can ruin the print. As you can see in the example: what should've been a continuous cylinder are now 4 separate walls. The wall thickness on the thinnest parts in the red circles is 0.19mm.
  
• Avoid large surfaces coming into contact with the build plate. This creates suction and peeling of the newest layer. Tilt the model on 2 axes and support the islands in the slicer.

Source

• Keep resin contamination to a strict minimum. Only the following parts can be touched with resin-contaminated gloves.
  • build head
  • spatula
  • tweezers
  • funnel
• Keep all other parts and surfaces clean!
• Use a silicone mat to catch resin drips
• Wear goggles to protect your eyes from accidental splashes of resin
• Wear nitrile gloves - (throw away after use, or clean them thoroughly with alcohol)

- Resin 3D printing troubleshooting guide

After a long time without use, the printer gave the message 'Error loading file' on the LCD screen when trying to start a new print. In the logs we found errors saying that it couldn't copy a file from the 'staging' directory to the print data directory because a file or folder could't be found. We tried out a few different things but the probable fix for it is to clear out the data from the previous print. The brain of the Ember is a Beaglebone Black, the 3D print engine is calles Smith.

• Turn on the printer and connect it to a mac with a usb cable
• Connect to it over ssh:

  ssh root@192.168.7.2

• Empty the staging folder:
  

  cd /var/smith/staging/print/ # Go to the print staging/print folder
  # If there are files present, delete them:
  rm * # The -* deletes all files in the current folder

• Empty the print data folder:
  

  cd /var/smith/print_data/print/ # Go to the print data/print folder
  # If there is a folder present in the Print folder, delete it:
  rm -r name_of_the_folder/ # The -r deletes the folder and it's contents.

Useful command line codes for this job:

• du -d1 -h -x . | sort -h

  du stands for disk usage. -h use human readable sizes. '.' Analize the current directory. Then | pipes the data to sort to put the larger files or folders on the bottom.

• tail name_off_file

  Show the last section of a file

• Log files are here: /var/log/

• df -h

  Command for 'disk free': show how much space is taken by certain folders and how much of the partitions is left.

If this doesn't work, have a look at this article. We were suggested to install the GNU command line tools. Not sure if they're useful or not.

Resin tray moves back and forth rapidly on the separation slide motion. We lowered the separation slide velocity and played with some other settings but no luck. We increased the motor current for both motors but no luck with that also. Still trying to sold this issue.