Earlier models were too weak, too bad layer to layer bonding etc. so we had to make it significantly more sturdy for a steady print.
The downside of this making sturdier is that now printing a complete blade at prototype quality already takes 12hrs. For production we need to move to smaller nozzle size, smaller layer height, higher infill etc. which leads us to believe that we are looking now far over 24hr printing time *per blade* on production.
That means we need significantly more printers operating 24/7 when production time arrives.
Next up is finding how well the motherboards sit into the blade, how the attachments go etc. and then printing final production quality blade for final early prototype before moving into the the 4U chassis final design: Actual physical mockups instead of just renderings.
There is still many many iterations to go, for example we realized we need to add 5V supply as well on the magnetic connectors, which also means we need to be switching ground instead of +12V for the main power supply, which necessitates some electrical redesign work. This is because the picoPSU pins are typically rather low amperage, and we don't want to risk running the disk +5V lines through it, each 3.5" disk requires 0.75A, dual disks, hence 1.5A, and those tiny pins we are not sure are they rated for more than 1A.
Luni, Martie 10, 2014
