UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION
FACULTY FOR HIGH QUALITY TRAINING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHATRONICS

GRADUATION THESIS

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF
A MULTICOLOR 3D PRINTER
ADVISOR:

VU QUANG HUY, PhD.
PHAM BACH DUONG, M.Eng.

STUDENT’S NAME: PHAM XUAN CHIEN (13146023)
NGHIEM LUONG HAI (13146057)
HA XUAN THANG

(13146197)

ACADEMIC BATCH: 2013 - 2017
MAJOR: MECHATRONICS

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2017

1

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM
Independence - Freedom - Happiness
***

Ho Chi Minh City, May 31th 2017

MISSION OF THESIS
Student’s name: Pham Xuan Chien

Student’s ID: 13146023

Nghiem Luong Hai

13146057

Ha Xuan Thang

13146197

Major: Mechatronics

Class: 13146CLC

Advisor: Vu Quang Huy, Ph.D

Phone number:

Delivery date: 20/2/2017

Submission date: 23/7/2017

1. Title of thesis: Design and implementation of a multicolor 3D printer
2. The original data, documents:
-Documents about assembly and calibration of 3D printer.
-Datasheets of electronic components.
-Articles of multicolor methods.
-The Firmware and slicer software from open source

3. Main content:
-Research on rapid prototyping.
-Design a model of 3D printer and implement it.
-Experiment 3D printed products through for analyzing and evaluating product quality.

4. Product:
-A 3D printer has size of 200x200x100 mm, solid mechanics and stable operation.
-3D printed products have diverse colors, high precision and good surface quality.
Program Chair

Advisor

i

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM
Independence - Freedom - Happiness
***

ADVISOR’S COMMENT
Student’s name: Pham Xuan Chien

Student’s ID: 13146023

Nghiem Luong Hai

13146057

Ha Xuan Thang

13146197

Major: Mechatronics
Title of thesis: Design and implementation of a multicolor 3D printer
Advisor’s name: Pham Bach Duong, M.Eng.
COMMENTS
1. The content of thesis and workload allocated:
..........................................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................................................................
2. Advantages:
...................................................................................................................................................
...

...
st, choose Config  Printer Settings to configure for 3D printer

-In tab Connection, ‘Port’ to connect 3D printer and ‘Baud Rate’ to transfer
data.

-In tab Extruder:

54

+ Adjust ‘Number of Extruder’ to set the number of colors that you want.
+ Set a checkmark in the box Printer has a Mixing Extruder
+ To enter a color representation in Repetier-Host of the mixed filament, for each of
extrudes below enter a name, then click the color rectangle, click Define Custom
Colors and enter the following Red, Green and Blue values:
-In tab s:
+Click the down menu s and 1 (natively Start
Code in order to use this color scheme every time you slice)
+In order to setup colors on virtual extruders, we write in the text field below use
command M163 and M164
+ M163 - Set Mix Factor
M163 [Pfactor] [Sindex] with

[Pfactor] is Mix factor
[Sindex] is Component index

+ M164 - Save Mix
M164 Sindex with Sindex is Tool index (0 if none)
+Examples: Save a 60/40 mix as tool index 5:
M163 S0 P0.6
M163 S1 P0.4
M164 S5

-Slic3rs Printer Settings:

55

+Go to General - Advanced - place a check mark next to Use firmware retraction
+Go to Extruders (1, 2, etc) - Retraction - set Lift Z: 0 as this behaviour is already set
via firmware retraction.
+Open a connection to your printer via Repetier-Host and press Alt+E to edit ‘Marlin
Firmware EEPROM Settings’ and enter your desired values, the default values are as
follows:
 Retraction length [mm]: 5
 Retraction length extruder switch [mm]: 5
 Retraction speed [mm/s]: 50
 Retraction z-lift [mm]: 0.3
 Extra extrusion on undo retract [mm]: 0
 Extra extrusion on undo switch retract [mm]: 1
 Retraction undo speed [mm/s]: 20
+Click OK to save settings to EEPROM and close the window
-In tab ‘Object Placement’, add object and combine them to a group, color for
each part.
-In tab ‘Slicer’, slicer software to slice object

-After connection to the printer is established, in the right pane of the main window
the tab Manual Control and press the encircled number 1. This will send the
specific color scheme to the firmware.
-In tab ‘Print Preview’, click ‘Print’.
56

Appendix 2
MarlinFirmware
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3qDWH77NbUbkd6cTEtUGUxVWs?usp
=sharing
Appendix 3
Drawing of Diamond Hotend

Appendix 4
Random mixing color for printing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3qDWH77NbUMnVUcTg1a29Ubms/view?usp=s
haring

57