Some 3D printed accessories for the Godox TT350 flash

[kaleun96]

I've been looking for a good source to print these. 3D Hub is now "Hub"and wanted $90 to print just one of the smaller ones - they require a $50 surcharge for some reason. Found another site and they ask what Process to use - DLS, DMLS, etc, and what material EPU, SIL, etc. What would you recommend?


"Thanks! If you have a 3D printer, you're more than welcome to print them for free, you can find the files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4916557"

Wow that is expensive, I wonder if they changed their business model or something. You could try some of the ones suggested here:
https://all3dp.com/1/best-online-3d-pri ... -services/

Otherwise best bet might be to ask any friends/acquaintances who have a printer to help you out. I can't imagine anyone with a printer not doing this for $20 - that's a new roll of filament and these parts would only use a fraction of that each (all <100g parts I think).

These seem to be pretty good starter machines: https://creality3d.shop/collections/end ... gKKxPD_BwE
A friend has one which he is happy with. I built my delta printer from scratch a few years ago for 3 times that price

Can definitely recommend my Creality CR-6 SE - only thing I'd change is maybe getting a bigger printer and one with WiFi so I don't have to mess about with SD cards. One thing my printer has but this one above does not is automatic bed levelling. I've never tried manually levelling the bed but I can say the automatic function is well worth the extra cost - never had a problem with bed levelling at all as it's so easy to calibrate.

One thing on the Creality store, IIRC there's two online sites that appear as the official Creality store but only one is and everyone seems to get confused which one it is. Either way, the actual Creality store apparently doesn't have the best customer service, although if you find some discounts online they can definitely be the cheapest. I instead opted to pay a bit more and go with Amazon and bought through the "SainSmart" distributor - you get exactly the same as if you bought direct from Creality.

[Scarodactyl]

I like my ender 5 plus. It has easily paid for itself for me.

[dhmiller]

Thanks very much for the replies. Craftcloud crashes repeatedly?? Just hoping to find a place to get some flash diffusers printed. Let me know if anyone wants the job (for a fee, of course).

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d0yew97omnff ... b0t4a?dl=0


System error occured
System Error
Error: Worker not initialized! (https://craftcloud3d.com/689.bfc2b06e8587e705aee1.js:1)

An unexpected error occured. Our technicians have been automatically warned and are working to fix the problem.

Please press OK to reload the app.

[dhmiller]

"Thanks very much for the replies. Craftcloud crashes repeatedly??"

New browser, working fine now. Very good prices, so all set. Thanks for the tip!

[kaleun96]

I haven't put that on Thingiverse yet, mainly because the metal adapter I use to screw it to the lens was from some random lens I had and it's unlikely anyone else can find the same adapter.

I would tackle that one by ending the plastic part to a ring, which has outer diameter that matches the inner diameter of some common filter thread size. Preferably large enough that you can use standard step-up adapters for most lenses. Then it would be simple to just glue the appropriate step-up ring in place. Using the outer diameter of the metal adapter would not be universal as the outer diameter varies between adapters.

I have been playing around with this design lately and decided to try your idea but with printed threads. I printed a 62mm 0.75mm external thread to fit a 67mm x 62mm step-down adapter and it actually works surprisingly well. The filter threads on smoothly and consistently and I would trust it to hold quite a bit of weight. It would be easy to mangle the threads given they're plastic but I think it's a viable solution nonetheless.

I've now printed three prototypes:
1. The original with a 40mm inner diameter "cone" in the centre that extends the entire height of the adapter and an 85mm outer diameter (excl. wall thickness) with the inner surface sloped 45 degrees to help direct light out of the adapter.
2. A similarly sized one with a 42.5mm inner diameter "cone" in the centre that extends only half the height of the adapter an 85mm outer diameter with no sloped inner surfaces. This was to test with the sloped surfaces were necessary and also if I could get by without the cone in the centre extending the whole height (to prevent internal reflections) while improving the amount of light coming out the side of the adapter opposite the flash. These modifications were all successful.
3. A smaller adapter with a 33mm inner diameter "cylinder" in the centre extending only 5mm high and a 65mm outer diameter with no sloped inner surface. I made this smaller one because I noticed the "axial light" effect was not working on coins less than <22mm in diameter, likely due to the inner cone being too large in diameter. I also changed the mounting system, no screw-on special adapter, instead 62mm 0.75mm external threads.

The third iteration works well but was a bit more difficult to print given the threads on the bottom. The threads would raise the adapter of the print bed, leaving the dovetail adapter bit hanging, and a 3D printer cannot assemble something in mid-air without supports. I probably should've used supports but instead decided to extend the dovetail adapter to the same "depth" as the threads, so everything could be printed off the print bed without any supports. Next iteration I might make the threads part of an adapter that attaches via screws, or make the dovetail adapter print with supports.

One benefit of making the external threads part of a separate adapter that screws on is that I could rotate the threaded adapter to make sure when it threads to the camera lens, the dovetail adapter is pointing in the direction I want it to. To clarify: say the threads are part of an adapter that attaches via 3 screw holes, I could print 6 holes in the base allowing me to rotate the adapter 6 times to give me 6 different positions that the dovetail adapter can end up with the whole thing is assembled to the camera lens.

[JKT]

That thread looks way better than what I would have thought possible. It can likely take quite a number of operation cycles. I doubt the result would be this good with the SLS parts I usually order.

[kaleun96]

That thread looks way better than what I would have thought possible. It can likely take quite a number of operation cycles. I doubt the result would be this good with the SLS parts I usually order.

Not sure how it would compare to SLS myself as I haven't seen any parts made via SLS but sounds like it could be more expensive than regular FDM printing too. My printer is just an off-the-shelf one as well, a Creality CR-6 SE.

I made some adjustments on a fourth iteration. I made the flash accessory accept two flashes, since I have two TT350s I wanted to see if the extra light I'd get from two flashes would be worth it over just one. The thread is also now printed separately and attached via three M3 bolts but with 6 hole positions so that it can be rotated in 60 degree increments if needed to ensure desired orientation when attached to the lens. There's a few benefits to this method:
1. The base of the main flash accessory is now entirely flat and can be printed without supports or without extending the base to match the "depth" of the threads
2. If the threads get mangled, it's easy and fast to print new ones
3. If a different thread diameter is needed you can print new ones and switch them out
4. You can rotate the threaded part to get the best alignment of the flash head ends of the accessory with the lens. For my setup, I need the flash heads at the 90 degree and 270 degree position relative to the coin to ensure the best lighting. I also don't have room to have the flash heads positioned at 0 degrees and 180 degrees as they will get in the way of the lens support for my setup.

[kaleun96]

Been awhile since I've updated this topic with any 3D printed creations. Thought I'd add this quick one I did yesterday for fun. I noticed my Samsung S21 Ultra camera worked decently well when paired with the Raynox DCR-250 (and M-150) in the 3x telephoto mode. So I printed a quick adapter plate and while not perfect, it did demonstrate that there's something to this idea.

Here's a picture of a Philips head screw driver using the 3x telephoto mode without the Raynox

And the same subject but with the Raynox adapter

Some quick pictures of how the adapter looks. Very basic but it works, all you need from a v1 prototype. Not sure yet if I'll spend more time improving it, will see how often I use it first. My phone just slots into the groves and ends up with the telephoto lens centered over the Raynox lens.

[colohank]

It's not clear to me what you're trying to accomplish.

If your only intent is to visualize and design objects and program your new 3D printer to fabricate them, then you're doing a great job. The comments of other posters acknowledge that.

If, on the other hand, you're trying to produce functional flash accessories which promote the uniform lighting of subjects, then you're not doing so well. First of all, a speedlight mounted on a camera's hot shoe is less than ideal for macrophotography, no matter the shape of the conduit employed to transmit light toward the subject. Further, regardless of where a speedlight is mounted, no number or arrangement of solid baffles between the light source and subject, whether radial, annular, or in the form of a grid, is ever going to yield produce uniform subject illumination. All they can do is obstruct and absorb precious light. Further, at non-relativistic scales, light travels only in straight lines, and trying to bend (reflect) it around curves and corners is counterproductive. Why? Because light diminishes in proportion to the square of distance between source and subject. Thus, any device that obliges light to travel unequal distances before reaching the subject will result in noticeably uneven illumination. Absorption along the way compounds the problem.

Perhaps it would be more useful to design and fabricate gadgets which would enable you to mount speedlight(s) where they can illuminate the subject without any obstruction other than translucent diffusers.

[kaleun96]

It's not clear to me what you're trying to accomplish.

If your only intent is to visualize and design objects and program your new 3D printer to fabricate them, then you're doing a great job. The comments of other posters acknowledge that.

If, on the other hand, you're trying to produce functional flash accessories which promote the uniform lighting of subjects, then you're not doing so well. First of all, a speedlight mounted on a camera's hot shoe is less than ideal for macrophotography, no matter the shape of the conduit employed to transmit light toward the subject. Further, regardless of where a speedlight is mounted, no number or arrangement of solid baffles between the light source and subject, whether radial, annular, or in the form of a grid, is ever going to yield produce uniform subject illumination. All they can do is obstruct and absorb precious light. Further, at non-relativistic scales, light travels only in straight lines, and trying to bend (reflect) it around curves and corners is counterproductive. Why? Because light diminishes in proportion to the square of distance between source and subject. Thus, any device that obliges light to travel unequal distances before reaching the subject will result in noticeably uneven illumination. Absorption along the way compounds the problem.

Perhaps it would be more useful to design and fabricate gadgets which would enable you to mount speedlight(s) where they can illuminate the subject without any obstruction other than translucent diffusers.

Thanks for the comments, though in the intervening 1.5 years since my first designs I've learnt much of these lessons along the way!

I've built various flash accessories before getting a 3D printer but the printer certainly makes it easier to put some designs or concepts to the limit and see what works and what doesn't. The inverse square law is of course well-known but I find it easier to have a physical reference to get a better sense of what is possible. The printer has made that iteration cycle much faster so some designs I scrapped pretty quickly after printing them. Unfortunately I've been lazy and not posted my current flash designs here, or on Thingiverse, I really should at some point but I still tweak them every now and then.

For the hot-shoe mounted flash accessories, I still think there's a use case for this and I have used them a fair bit in the field. I've experimented with off-camera mounted flashes (e.g. using one of these) but I still find the balance a bit difficult to get used to, even when combining it with a magic arm to centre the flash over the lens. The flash adapters in the first post of this thread still work reasonably well but I haven't done enough field photography lately to bother updating their designs. I've changed gear and have been focussing more on pseudo-axial / ring light style flash adapters.