3dstuffmaker.com - opinions?

I recently purchased an Evolution Kit. It was very easy to assemble and I was up and running in less than a day. I have been very pleased with the output. The prats have been accurate and very fast with the .7 mm extruder. I purchased the .4mm extruder as well but have yet to install it. The slicer software they provided with the tool was extremely old. I upgraded that right away. They are unable to provide any help on how to operate the tool, but there is a ton of stuff available on YouTube. This is not a toy, but the design is very simple and appears produce a very good product.

That said I am a Software Engineer who works designing semiconductor manufacturing equipment by day. I understand how important proper setup is to the clean operation of any tool. Take your time during the setup and get the table extremely level. The base layer is the most important.

Overall this is a good tool, and I have been very happy with it. The documentation is weak, but usable. The support communication is impossible! I have yet to be able to get the Skype support to answer their phone! Support email is very slow also, and I don't think they really understand the questions.

Regards
Tony

glad its running with very little problems,

Looks like they are addressing issues with their new printers,

If you feel like it, i would be interested in seeing your printer, if you could take some pics of your printer and prints.


I just changed to the latest verson of slic3r and pronterface, pretty happy with the results.

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jeffegg2
Received the adapter tube. The 3mm x 2mm works for the 3mm to 1.75 conversion, but the hot end part is still 3mm. I have ordered some 3mm x 2mm brass tube to place into the hot end and see if that works out better. Some of the adapter photos show using the ptfe all the way to the tip. I can't see how the pla will melt using that method. I cut the ptfe where it enters the metal area, but now I get some jams...

I'll let you know how the brass adapter works out.

Have the combination of 3mmOD,2mmID pla tubing and 3mmOD/2mmID Brass tubing and it is working out well for me. I am having a few printer issues, but working on them. I get gaps between my fill and perimiter, and strings all over the inbetween parts.... once I solve these i'll be happy.

Jeff.

if you upload pics of your print, we can help better diagnose

- strings i got a lot when i first got my printer, this was due to the hot end and extruder not pushing enough plastic out...
check this out manually, Try and isolate your issue

Strings and gaps

Is that part warped ?
To me I got rid of most of that by doing this

- retraction needs to be on and fine tuned to your setup
- to hot, if the temp is to hot this can cause lots of ooze
-reduce extrusion mutiplier maybe .90 keep going lower untill you have it set right.

Do you have a fan blowing at ur prints ? If not try it out..

Quote
nechaus
Is that part warped ?
To me I got rid of most of that by doing this

- retraction needs to be on and fine tuned to your setup
- to hot, if the temp is to hot this can cause lots of ooze
-reduce extrusion mutiplier maybe .90 keep going lower untill you have it set right.

Do you have a fan blowing at ur prints ? If not try it out..

I just set up a fan directed at my Buda heatsink, it seems to help so far, I need to dink with it further....

nechaus - are you still around? I'd like to pick your brain on your conversion to a budaschnozzle.

yeah I am still around. Still using that same Budaschnozzle ...
The machine has been running strong.....


What's going on anyway?

I've decided to ditch the stock hot end on this machine and follow your path by upgrading to a budaschnozzle.

I see that you used the stock electronics. Did you ever have to make any changes with the USB adapter? (Was it you that had the original firmware from 3DSM?)

Do you run the fan hard wired to 12v?

How about the carriage? I see you listed a few, but which one did you print? I've printed 2 so far. One doesn't fit the rails but matches where the belt attaches. The other fits the rails but the belt holes are way off. I think I could modify the 2nd one to fit the belt but was curious if you had an STL available that just fits.

Did you ever use the budaschnozzle with the stock extruder? I'd rather not move that weight to the carriage. (Plus I've put so much work into making it better I don't want to start over)

What is your average temperature setting? (It seems I need to put mine to 220+ to get flow on PLA others print at 190)

Finally, do you have any recent prints to show off? What speeds, etc? When I look at some of the previous prints you posted it gives me hope that this machine is salvageable.

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s10blazed
I've decided to ditch the stock hot end on this machine and follow your path by upgrading to a budaschnozzle.

I see that you used the stock electronics. Did you ever have to make any changes with the USB adapter? (Was it you that had the original firmware from 3DSM?)

Do you run the fan hard wired to 12v?

How about the carriage? I see you listed a few, but which one did you print? I've printed 2 so far. One doesn't fit the rails but matches where the belt attaches. The other fits the rails but the belt holes are way off. I think I could modify the 2nd one to fit the belt but was curious if you had an STL available that just fits.

Did you ever use the budaschnozzle with the stock extruder? I'd rather not move that weight to the carriage. (Plus I've put so much work into making it better I don't want to start over)

What is your average temperature setting? (It seems I need to put mine to 220+ to get flow on PLA others print at 190)

Finally, do you have any recent prints to show off? What speeds, etc? When I look at some of the previous prints you posted it gives me hope that this machine is salvageable.

You can use any hotend you want, Id actually suggest the e3d... But I just went with the buda...
The hardest parts is fitting a new carriage... or fitting the new hotend to the old carriage.. This is with the BUDA

The e3d hotend will fit right into the existing x carriage...
yes I use a 12 volt cartridge heater.... Came with the hotend and it works well.. I have a bunch of thermistors from 3dsm.. But found the one that I got with the buda is far better...

Yeah pla I normally print using 190c.. never really higher on that on all types of pla....
The only time I go higher is when I use faster speeds...

My normal speed is 40mms ... fast is 100-150 for my machine....



I attached some recent photos... The quality can be better, but this is as good as I need..


honestly don't waste your time with their stock hotends... its well worth buying a good quality one...

Well I certainly like the idea of a drop-in hot end. I'll have to read up on the E3D. It sounds great if I was aiming to print fancy filament. As it is, my goal is to print PLA correctly. I'm under the impression PLA is the E3Ds only weakness. Plus I don't have a heated bed to switch to ABS.

No matter what I choose, this junk hot end is going in the garbage.

yeah thats what I thought....

This is why i went with the buda because most of my printing is with PLA.. abs is smelly stuff...
trust me.. once you upgrade the hotend... its more about printing and using your printer to make cool stuff... its not about trying to get a print started..


e3d might still be the way to go because you can upgrade the to a heated bed as well.. you can use them heated silicon pads.. or do something diy depending on your skill

Well I bought an E3D hot end after much reading and measuring. From looking at the CAD drawings of the hot end and taking the best measurements from my carriage that I could, I knew it would not be a direct fit. My measurements showed it would work but it would need some trimming and finesse. I'm not sure where I measured poorly, but after I got the hot end in I realized it would need a good bit more trimming and coaxing than I had anticipated. I did eventually get everything mounted and am actually quite proud of how nice this retro fit turned out.






I wasn't able to complete the final step of heating the nozzle up and tightening it because my printer has a limit of 275. I've got an AVR on the way and was given the Evolution config file by tech support. When it comes in I'll raise the max temp, change the thermistor entry, and eventually recalibrate the PID values.

I did heat it to 270 to make sure I had everything wired correctly before the next assembly stage. It heated to 250 so fast! I was afraid I did something wrong, but it just has much more power than the stock setup. I'm anxious to get everything back in working order. I've got a list of neat things I need to print.

Can any of you guys with a 3DStuffMaker post a screen shot of your temp line from Pronterface/Repetier? Both at room temp and heated to your preferred temp, please. I want to compare lines.

I've been having trouble for so long with my temps being stable and recently come to think I have a bad electronics board. I was still getting spiky lines with the E3D thermistor. As a test I hooked a 100k resistor directly to the thermistor pins on the gen6 board and was getting crazy values all over the place (10 degree swings).

Here are some examples from the e3d thermistor at idle and at 205. The 100k resistor looks exactly like the idle picture.

Is anyone able to send me a screen grab of their temp line at idle? Especially any Evolutions or other gen6 based 3DStuffMaker product. I'm seeing perfectly horizontal lines on other brands. 3DSM support is telling me this tolerance is normal. All my research and evidence so far says differently.

Of course, getting 1 single sentence reply per day isn't helping this get resolved, either.

Mine behaves like that...
I was told by 3dsm that its normal...


I know in real life it does not work like this and the temp wont be actually changing that fast...
The most I could find on it was.. it was something to do with the gen 6 boards.... I cant remember now ...

For the first time in about a year.. I blew my thermistor or wiring got chaffed and shorted somewhere..
id happily take a screen shot but its pointless until i get around to fixing it again


On another note.. b4 it died. .. i was printing on carbon fibre.. i just stuck it to the print bed.. worked really well... not much warp with abs

Well on another forum I've had almost a dozen people tell me that is not normal. Will it work? Yeah, kinda. But its not right. I can't do PID tuning on a different hot end with readings this far off. I can't do fine calibration with the temp fluctuating as much as it does. Its just frustrating.

This thing has been a constant headache and money pit. If I buy a replacement board and a heated bed, I'll have spent almost enough to just have bought a good machine in the first place.

yeah i hear your frustration!!,
yeah its not normal.. But i think it maybe normal for 3d stuffmaker.

I remember reading something about this particular gen 6 board having this type of problem.. noise coming from something im not sure..

I found having a second temp prob connected externally to get the right temp..




You can either tinker with your current gear, im sure it will work.. mine did
or.. complain..
or get new gear and reprogram it yourself.

Thanks for the input. Hearing that yours behaves similarly awful makes me feel better. I know I'm not crazy despite how 3DStuffMaker's tech support tries to make it seem.

Do you mean their specific gen6 board? (Like a specific production run for 3DSM?) Or gen6 in general?

I consider myself a strong tinkerer. I really enjoyed it until recently. This mess of a 3D printer has really soiled that enjoyment for me.

I've tinkered, I've complained, I've reprogrammed... now all thats left is to get some new gear.

hahah yeah man...

I complained to them for atleast 12 months.. i pretty much gave them hell...
I mentioned the temp to them as well.. all sorts of stuff that i found wrong with their copied design..



this is what i was talking about

[reprap.org]
Potential Hardware Fixes

There have been a couple of instances of dirty 5v power causing instability with the ftdi and atmega chips. If this affects you, a 1n 0805 cap soldered across R12 might help. See [www.mendel-parts.com] for details. --Pelrun 17:53, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

I wasn't having this problem, but did solder a 1nF ceramic cap across R12, and it reduced the amount of audible noise the stepper drivers made, and limited ranges of stepper actuation the noise would occur at. Meaning if I hit 0.1mm on my X and Y in pronterface, each operating point would make noise, whereas now, only some do. This mod also improved my thermistor readings, which previously would vary 20-30C, but are now pretty much dead stable. --Thav 00:46, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

at the end of the day.. you could print yourself a kit once its going and just build another printer.. new electronics new parts..

two printers is better than one if your trying to make a big thing..

I had two running the other day making quadcopter parts...

Wow, thank you for posting that. I can't believe I skimmed over it so many times. I thought I read that wiki article top to bottom. I know I read that expansion pin section directly below it a few times.

Now I have something else to try. That is more than the tech support have offered.

I put the printer away for about 6-7 months just a total waste of energy, time and cash.
After much frustration it now has an e3dv6 hotend on modified 3dstuffmaker x carriage, axteeg x5 & mechanical switches.
Printed large gear for extruder, original was out of round by +3mm or so. Had to have large amount of backlash/spacing.

Gen6 sorted by soldering 100ohm resistors into all 3 optical endstop harnessess between +, signal and ground, and soldering usb connector.

About to get rid of the sae threaded rod and the XL belts.
So have essentially replaced the printer.

I also have large fluctuations with the e3d thermistor temps but I am confident that it is due to the thermistor and not some underlying problem with electronics.
Heater cartidge is able to heat the hotend much faster, and to higher temp faster than the thermistor can respond.
Might be better of changing to a 15-20w heater cartridge. I have had temperature readings of 395'c and higher with the e3d supplied thermistor checked with my arduino & k thermocouple.

Hi Guys,
After a long time away from the printer due to the birth of my daughter i decided to give the printer some attention again and i have a new problem with my 3d stuffmaker. I changed the extruder and now i need to calibrate the marlin software to adjust the steps per mm of filament. I have the gear to burn a bootloader and thats no problem but i need a compatible marlin file to run the machine. The standard firmware cant be edited for some reason.
Does anyone have a copy of merlin that i can upload to the gen 6 board? Can anyone reccomend a copy that will work? I tried a version that i found on a gen6 link and the machine wont respond to it at all.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks guys
Mike

Update!!!
After a knightmare session of Marlin updating i have produced a Marlin version that almost runs my 3D Stuffmaker and the gen 6 board. The only problem now is that the X axis does not respond at all.

I have swapped the motor cables and the motors all work fine.
I have checked all of the endstops and they all work fine, the M199 enstop status line reported all 3 endstops were functioning at L when open or H when closed.

I know it is possible that one of the drivers has blown but that is very unlikely. I also would like to exhaust all other options before trashing the board.

Is there any function anywhere that could disable the X axis in Marlin for the gen6 board?

Damn 3d Stuffmaker and their locked down software. If only they gave the Arduino code when they shipped their printers.

Regards
Mike

Which printer do you have? I have the official config.h file for the Evolution. I also have the "updated" stock evolution.hex as well as the backup of the original that came with mine. I've got it setup in Arduino so I can make changes quite easily and push the firmware via programmer.

Hi S10blazed,
I have a different model but they may use a similar setup on their motors and optos. Anything is worth a try at this point so if you could please either pm the Arduino config file or post it for download for me that would be great. I also have the bootloader installed so uploading the file should be no problem.
Really, i am pulling out my hair here. My GF is telling me she misses me because i spent so much time on this so i have to try every possibility asap.
Thanks
Mike

I know what you mean... I 've spent more time trying to fix my printer than actually using it. I'm not familiar with the other printers they sell but I suspect the chassis is the main difference. I'll PM you the info.

Thanks S10blazed,
You are awesome. Thanks for the PM.
I will flash the unit and report back once i have the full set of arduino files. Sorry i was mistaken when i only asked for the config.h file, i assumed it would be part of a batch of files along with the other arduino setup files. A newbie mistake.
Regards
Mike

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2014 04:23PM by mikefiatx19.