Printing issue - Please help

I finally have tried my first print and was not very happy with the output. I followed many of the suggestion in the forums on how to setup Skeinforge and pronterface with my RAMPS1.4 Prusa.

The issue seems to be that every time I create GCODE it always lays it out crossing 0,0 and part of the object is in the negative X and Y area. What I don't understand is where is X-19 or Y-10? I though that the home position is x=0, y=0, and z=0. I end up with prints where half of them are just piled up on the y=0 axis line (as the printer won't go below y=0.


I feel like I am missing something here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Turn on multiply and set center to 100 x 100 for a Prusa. This will move the model from being centered at 0 x 0 to centered at 100 x 100. Be sure to set rows and columns to 1 by 1.

Unless you are using Teacup Firmware. With teacup you can set the home as 0 x 0

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
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In firmware you can also tell it you have min limits and not to go below them, but I agree with the multiple solution in skeinforge.

Thanks for the which responses that certainly did the trick.

Surprising that there isn't a good quick start profile that will work for most users.
The initial experience of gettin
g up and running is quite a task

Have you tried SFACT? It's just Skeinforge with some reasonable defaults, and explanations of lots of the parameters. It works well with pronterface.

gunadai Wrote:
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> Have you tried SFACT? It's just Skeinforge with
> some reasonable defaults, and explanations of lots
> of the parameters. It works well with pronterface.

I've tried SFact and all I found was bugs.

The temperature plug-in no longer works properly. (because the maintainer and users don't use it, they also don't care to fix it)
The Retract plug-in no longer works with Relative extrusion (teacup default) (because the maintainer and users don't use it, they also don't care to fix it)

And this was just what I found after trying it for one night.

I am sure there are many more, the problem is it is being used and maintained by people who are new to printing and they don't know anything is wrong. The real Skeinforge may be confusing at first but makes a lot of sense after using it for a month.

Please no comments on how you don't need the temperature plug-in or that I should use absolute extrusion. The fact is they are options in SFact and they don't work!

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FFF Settings Calculator	Gcode post processors	Geometric Object Deposition Tool Blog
Tantillus.org	Mini Printable Lathe	How NOT to install a Pololu driver

Quote
Sublime
The temperature plug-in no longer works properly. (because the maintainer and users don't use it, they also don't care to fix it)
The Retract plug-in no longer works with Relative extrusion (teacup default) (because the maintainer and users don't use it, they also don't care to fix it)

And this was just what I found after trying it for one night.

I am sure there are many more, the problem is it is being used and maintained by people who are new to printing and they don't know anything is wrong. The real Skeinforge may be confusing at first but makes a lot of sense after using it for a month.

Please no comments on how you don't need the temperature plug-in or that I should use absolute extrusion. The fact is they are options in SFact and they don't work!

I have nothing bad to say about your setup. That's too bad about the temperature plugin, I haven't had to use that yet but I was thinking about playing around with it.

I had a hard time getting Skeinforge tweaked right when I first started, and when I switched to Sprinter and SFACT (on RAMPS 1.3) it made a world of difference for me. I got great prints almost immediately.

Now that you say all that, though, maybe I'll just use my SFACT settings and try to convert them back into Skeinforge

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2011 04:40PM by gunadai.

I had a lot of problems with basic skeinforge with my Gen6. I switched to SFACT, Marlin firmware and Pronterface (I was using Skeinforge, 5D firmware and Repsnapper) and my print quality improved greatly.

I have not tested this on a RAMPS board...yet.

I had the same problem starting out and I did not use the multiply command to solve it. (I didn't know the command would do it what I started)

I modified the startup file and added these two lines of gcode once the printer is in the home position (0,0,0)

G92 X-75 Y-95 Z0 (Reset Home Points)
G90 (Use absolute Coordinates)

The first Line sets the current position to (-75,-90,0) without moving as the new zero for the build. So basically, the printer now thinks wehre it is at (0,0,0) is really reading as (-75,-95,0). Using absolute coordinates (G90) the printer works with negative values in the gcode. The center can be adjusted by changing the x and y values to fit your machine.

Just another way to fix the problem. I can't say which is better but it hasn't caused me any problems.

You have to issue those Gcode commands after sending the carriage to the origin (min endstop limits). I think that's a G28 for all firmware except teacup.

Multiply is good since it will automatically center your part or parts where you specify regardless of where it was located in the stl file. I find this convenient since I don't have to keep track on where I position my own design and it's safer when downloading stuff to print from thingiverse.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2011 09:17AM by brnrd.