November 8, 2024
Description
After using this for a while, it works fine, but I think the shield with baffles is not as useful as I guessed. Even the ‘flat’ plastics are kind of shiny, so really need either paint or felt flocking, so it's probably easiest to make the regular dew shield and flock it.
Maybe if you're really adventurous, you can try flocking the baffled shield… Good luck.
--------
I looked at a couple of other light/dew shields and didn't like some of their design choices, so I designed some to fix what I thought were their shortcomings.
These shields are sized for the typically suggested length of 1.5x objective size for a dew/light shield (75mm), have a shorter collar so they do not touch the objective lens, the baffles do not intrude into the light path, and the collar was made as thin as I thought practical to give the least aperture loss (2.5mm aperture loss, 47.5mm total aperture).
When printing the shield with baffles, you have to choose which orientation is up. The .3mf project has the open end down, which makes the supports end up facing out. I got pretty clean breakaway, but it's possible you may not, and this could possibly cause reflections. If you print with the collar down, any leftover supports are on the back side of the baffles which may be better, but it will take longer to print and use more material for support.
The shields with no baffles should probably be printed collar down, minimizing support material, but it's your choice.
Presuming you're going to paint it, print orientation probably doesn't matter.
The narrow version is the same collar, but the shield tube ID was decreased to be the same as the unit with baffles. OD decreased too, as why waste material.
The size test model is just the collar so you can check the fit before committing to the whole print.
The .3mf project has the settings I used with a MK4, and I had good results; supports pulled away easily, though there's a lot to remove, and starting at top printed side was best.
For those not able to use the .3mf :
Nozzle - 0.4
Layer Height - 0.2 Structural
Perimeters - 3
Generate Supports - Yes
Support Style - Organic
Top Interface Layers - 0 (off) - I got best results with 0 layers, but YMMV
XY Separation - 500% - Probably overkill %, but keeps support away from baffles, making removal cleaner
Don't Support Bridges - Checked - Best results were not supporting bridges; they're only 1mm or so
If you use aligned seams, it makes a nice little nub that helps with a good snug fit.
As always, your material may shrink more or less that what I used, so XY size may need to be changed, or sand down the outside collar slightly for best fit.
I used a matte PLA, but still needed to paint at least the edges of the baffles with a good flat black to minimize reflections. Lightly sanding the baffle edges also removes any sharp point artifacts from print tolerance and support materials.
The autofocus on the Seestar works great, but some like Bahtinov masks, so I've included one.
The mask was designed with : https://skeye.rocks/tools/mask/
Slit pitch (1.95) was generated using 50mm diameter and 250 focal length, as that's what the Seestar is.
The actual mask diameter is based on the larger dew shield size. If you use the narrow version, you'll have to make your own Bahtinov mask.
I got a nice fit with no post processing, so if you don't change the XY % of the shield, you should end up the same for the mask.
Mask parameters I used :
Mask Type - Bahtinov
Output - 3D (STL)
Mask Diameter - 59 - Should be 57 if you use the narrow version
Rim Width - 1
Aperture - Default
Focal Length - 250
Slit Pitch - Custom, 1.95
Partition Scale - 1
Central Obstruction - No
Height - 2
Flange - Yes
Flange Width - 3mm - 2mm is probably fine
Flange Height - 10mm - Could make it shorter, probably 5mm
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial