Hector 9000

We have our own cups now ;-)

We fixed a wrong positioned hole in the .stl-file for the valve body.

Some of you mentioned that there is a bug in one of our CAD files. It seems that at least one hole for mounting the servo into the valve body is not positioned correctly. I will fix it within the next week. We have to apologize for the inconvenience. 

Today we will share some photos which are showing the current state of Hector 9000.

Meanwhile we made a video and took some pictures which we want to share with you. We will publish the content within the next week. Today I will start with the video and some pictures of our flightcase.

We got some feedback from people which are building their own Hector 9000.

Thank you very much for the feedback!

Some of you pointed out that it is very much work to assemble the valves, because it is neccessary to customize the diameter of the original servo horns. So we tried to create a cam which you could directly mount to the servo shaft.

Because it is nearly impossible to print the splines of the servo shaft with an ordinary FDM printer, we think it could be possible to press a cam directly onto the shaft and secure it with a M3 bolt. We propose to use PETG or ABS for the print.

Unfortunately our printer is down for maintenance so we could not test the design. If you decide to try the new cam, it would be nice to get some feedback. You will find the .stl file for the cam in the download area as a single file (not included in the stl archive).   

In the past we mentioned that about 20% of our printed bottleplugs were not completely tight for gas and liquids. Because we could not fix the problem (in short time) with slight modifications in the design files or adjusting the printing parameters, we decided to create a new plug.

It works very well but, it is not completely 3D printed, you will need some brass tube in addition.

To build it, you need two pices of brass tubing with an outer diameter of 6mm (15mm and 67mm long), the 3D printed body and the soft seal which was also used in the other plug design. We strongly recommend to use a pipe cutter to cut the brass tubes. Press the brass tubes into the 3D printed part by using a soft hammer, shop press, vise or something similar.

You will find the new .stl in the misc folder.
      

We mentioned that some of the .stl-files were broken. We must apologize for this. The fixed files are online now.

If you still have any problems with the files please contact us.

The lenght of the hoses inside the bottles depends on the size of the bottles and, because we use soft rubber plugs, it also depends on the inner diameter of the bottleneck. So if you want to cut the hose to the right lenght for a bottle, you have to measure the lenght from the opening of the bottle to the bottom of the bottle and subtract the lenght of the plug that goes into the bottle.

This can be tricky if you have bottles with special bottoms or bottles from non opaque materials like blinded glass or aluminium.

Because we like special purpose tools and designing things, we created a Schlauchlängenlehrendingsbums (sorry, no english translation available. Perhaps it is something like hoselenghtgaugethingamajig?): 

The cork on the end of the brass rod is just to protect eyes.

To determine the right lenght of the hose push the plug firmly into the bottle, lower the rod until it reaches the bottom of the bottle and fasten the bolt. After removing the Schlauchlängenlehrendingsbums you can use it to to cut the hose.

We will add the .stl-files for the tool in the near future.