The last time we wrote about German startup Venture-Bit, the company was in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign for its Shred-Buddy 3D Recycler, a cool desktop shredder and pelletizer that turns your excess and leftover plastic into pellets that can be used in pellet 3D printers. Now, they’re back at it again with another product on Kickstarter, and it’s so popular, it reached over 100% of the financial goal in less than a week! The Wembi is being touted by Venture-Bit as the world’s first closed loop upgrade kit for 3D printers. It is compatible with lots of existing 3D printers, including the da Vinci line from XYZPrinting and the Creator Pro from FlashForge.
The Kickstarter campaign promises that with the Wembi, you can print “faster, silently and more consistently, in higher resolution than has ever been possible.” Thanks to the nearly plug and play ability of the Wembi firmware and hardware, the Upgrade Kit makes it much easier to replace parts. Venture-Bit was tired of dealing with inadequate open loop and low precision 3D printing through the standard stepper motor technology currently available, so the company decided to make a new controller that offers much more accuracy.
Wembi is an energy booster that increases the strength and stability of your 3D printer; it’s almost like a vitamin kit for your machine, says Venture-Beat. Traditional stepper motors aren’t nearly as accurate when the printing speed goes up, but by emulating a stepper motor with a brushed motor, Wembi allows your 3D printer to create highly precise prints, even when it’s running at a higher speed. The Wembi helps your 3D printer keep moving, with less mass on the x-y axis and less stress on the linear bearings of your printer. Its advanced PID compensation system detects any issues while your printer is still moving, and readjusts itself to fix the problem. Its active position tracking system lets all of your 3D printed creations end up in the perfect condition, so you can kiss step losses good-bye.
Wembi is designed for continuous operation, and uses automatic position correctors and feedback. It can resist external shock and any build-up errors that cause internal tracking to get out of order, thanks to its advanced position feedback control system. Also, instead of being annoyed when your machine’s stepper drive gets overheated, you can just replace any problematic drivers with Wembi’s Stepper Driver carrier adapter! Wembi also helps your printer generate much less noise, so you can 3D print to your heart’s content without feeling like you want earplugs.
According to the Kickstarter page, there are just three simple steps involved to connect the Wembi to your 3D printer, because the stepper driver carrier extenders fit easily into the existing slots.
- Screw in motor units and replace the standard stepper motor driver with the extender.
- Plug the stepper motor driver extender and motor unit cable into the Wembi Control Unit.
- Adjust the PID settings and set “Motorsteps” to your mechanical setup.
There are still several rewards left, even though the successful Kickstarter campaign ends pretty soon. For a $65 pledge, you can get the limited edition early bird single axis upgrade special, which includes a Wembi motor driver, motor unit, motor driver carrier adapter, access to the PID software, and a few other items as well. For an additional $100, you can get the standard edition, which comes with double the amount of everything that comes in the single axis upgrade. Watch the Kickstarter video to learn more:
Discuss in the Wembi forum at 3DPB.com.
