botmill glider - need help

Hello, I am new to this forum and could use some help. I looked for threads without any luck for help.

I have a botmill glider, and have never been able to get it to work. I am trying to run 3mm ABS so I can make some camera parts for my hobby. I am using solidworks to create my STL files, and Redsnapper to run the machine.

I am able to connect to the printer using Redsnapper. First off, I am trying to get the hotend to reach 205C + but it just wont do it. I have insulated it with layers of the high temp tape, and it maxes out at 195C (no matter how high I set the target temp). I noticed the reisister fits nice a snug in the hot end, but its only glued in with some black silicone.

It tried to run some ABS through the machine at the lower temp, and it jammed everything up, and I had to take it all apart to get it working again. Currently, I have it apart, and am just trying to get the temp up, so I can clear out the remaining ABS jamb.....so I can mess it all up again.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

This machine is newer, and has never been used. It was gifted to me by a friend. I have not bottered asking BotMill for help, as they would not help my freind that owned the machine previously.

Are you sure that the thermister is reading correctly? You might want to check it with a probe thermometer or better yet a thermocouple before you go any further.

Devon

Thanks, I did check with a thermocouple and its accurate. After I posted this yestarday - the machine suddenly raised to a higher temp - with no changes made. I am going to try it again today to see if it resolved on its own. Could it have been a loose wire?

Loose wires don't fix themselves, so be sure and give it a good looking over. It's very likely that in taking it all apart, and putting it back together, you tightened up the faulty wire, if that is what it was.

Things like ambient temperature and any sources of wind affect temps quite a lot, could be it was a warmer day? You could check what the voltage is across the mosfet that switches power - if it's more than a few tens of mV, you could replace it with a lower voltage drop one to increase power?

Upgrade to the Marlin firmware and use pronterface instead of repsnapper. I am not sure what thermistor they are shipping with since my hotend never even made a print...I upgraded to the Makergear hotend right away.

If you have the gen6 board be sure to do the capacitor mod that is listed in the gen6 wiki.

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