Objective

In this project, I designed a camera stand, 3D printed the camera stand and camera housing, sourced materials, and edited the camera’s code for this Arduino-based project. The purpose of the camera was to capture a live video feed for my long 3D prints that I could view from any location to be able to remotely cancel a print if I saw that it was warping midway. A couple of the requirements were that the camera stand and housing needed to be fully printable on my 120mm x 120mm x 120mm print bed and the camera housing needed to be adjustable to various viewing angles in case I moved the printer. I evaluated the performance of the project based on whether the camera accomplished the objective of taking an accessible live video stream that would allow me to remotely stop the print.

Process and Technical Details

I started this project to prevent the need to check on my print builds for the occasional print that warped and to avoid the cost of the wasted filament. I researched options to remotely view the 3D printer and found that the most economical choice was to build an Arduino project listed on Random Nerd Tutorials. I also found a camera housing on Thingiverse but found that the stand was too large for my printer’s build area. I decided to customize a camera stand that would fit the build area, use a minimal amount of filament, and have a couple of advantageous features. One of the features was a hex nut capture socket so that only a micro-screwdriver was needed to tighten the camera to the angle that was needed. The second feature was a pinhole to hold the micro-screwdriver when it wasn’t in use. One of the challenges that came up was making sure the print was stable with the weight of the camera, so I increased the base of the stand on the second iteration. I then edited the code of the project.

Results

The camera met all of the objectives and was able to take a live video of projects that is accessible from anywhere. I also uploaded the remix of the camera stand to Thingiverse for others to use. If I were to make another iteration of this project, I would include a battery pack for a power bank on the camera stand so that the camera could be relocated as a single unit.

(Santos & Santos, n.d.) https://randomnerdtutorials.com/upload-code-esp32-cam-mb-usb/

(Cybernetic, 2021) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4846885

(Midkiff, 2021) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4912397