Service interval for printers

Hi all

To add to the wish list of Reprap firmare a "service interval"

Now the printers are starting to use better presision slide breaings like the MGN series, these require re lubricating after they have done a certain distance, so it would be good if you could say add a at x axis distance/time = XXX and y axis distancetime =XXX when these figures are reached (so stored in memory) you would get a mesasege that it was time to service.


Comments please..

Most Repraps don't have a real time clock and cannot tell what the correct local time and date are.

Which wasn't what you proposesed I admit.

Most maintenance is cleaning and then relubricating, Dirt builds up quicker than oil dries out,

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2021 10:58PM by DragonFire.

Hi i was looking for a way that the firmware could keep a total of all the axis, and the distane they have traveled and set a service interval .

All microcontrolers have timers, and if they don't have a EEPROM they can emulate it in the program memory or on the SD card. So they can count the time they have been printing : no need for a real time clock.
Marlin has such a feature. No messages but an optional menu with cumulated printing time.
Accumulating travels is doable. But wear does not depend on distances only... Speeds and accelerations are more important.

Those OEM recommended service intervals are for a bearing under maximum load and speed. We don't come close to that with slow and light axis of a desktop 3D printers. If your building that much heat to break down grease, you have other issues.

Grease will break down and separate over time so it's not a bad idea to re-lube every year or so. Maybe more often if your printer is in a dirty shop environment and doesn't get cleaning frequently. Regular clean should be your biggest PM objective, before and after every job.

I agree , but im builing some printers with heated chambers so want to introduce a service routine so they dont degrade to quickly.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2021 09:46PM by moth4017.