Folger Tech Kossel Delta 2020 Full 3D Printer Kit w/Auto-Level

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cman8
When I put in M503 command, how do I know if m666 took effect? Is it in the z home offset line?

As I have not much experience with M503, google of the reprap wiki brought up [reprap.org]

sounds like it should report back what the current settings are, are you using pronterface? I ask because I began using repetier until i got fed up with how the command interface worked, once I switched to pronterface I never looked back. I really like how I can setup buttons for each command rather than typing them in every time.

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troshto
So I just ordered one of these and I'm pretty excited. My plan is to replace the ardiuno and ramps with a smoothieboard, I'm just not sure when. Should I assemble it and get it working with the ardiuno first, or don't bother with it and hold off on assembling until I receive the smoothieboard?

I would build it as shipped. The ramps+marlin combo is more widely used so initial troubleshooting will be easier to get help with if you have problems. Once you get it calibrated, and all the kinks out, then get your 32 bit board (smoothie/duet/azteeg etc.). You wont loose much time doing re-assembly because the electronics are very accessible under the print bed. You will also have the peace of mind that everything was working before you took it apart, which is helpful especially when tinkering with new control systems.

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cman8
When I put in M503 command, how do I know if m666 took effect? Is it in the z home offset line?

It's the line with M666 containing the value you put in . . .

- Tim

so im super lost. i try the m666 gcode and my endstops still dont offset. what the hell am i doing wrong here

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cman8
so im super lost. i try the m666 gcode and my endstops still dont offset. what the hell am i doing wrong here

Here is a good video on how to go about it: [www.youtube.com]

Hope it helps.

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cman8
so im super lost. i try the m666 gcode and my endstops still dont offset. what the hell am i doing wrong here

Honestly, I have never used any of these gcode settings and have only followed the guide below. I have turned off eprom as well on my printer and do not use this feature. You need to reset your printer after programming your eprom, otherwise it will not reload the settings. In addition to this, if you clear your eprom ALL of your hard work is now lost as the values are inside of the memory of the controller. Running the calibration should take you between 3-5 hours depending on how out of whack the printer is. Once set, the printer settings should never change, change the values inside of your firmware and upload that. Sure it takes a little longer, but you can be sure your settings will not be wiped accidentally.

This -> [delta-calibration.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com]
This -> [github.com]

Thats the video I was looking at and where im lost is when I send M666 comands and G28 it doesnt seem to save whatever I input. Also he gets values for Z and I dont which Is maybe why im also confused.

thevisad I dont think Im too far off but the little bit I am off is driving me nuts. Im getting ok Prints but the bed acts like its not level. You can see how Ive been scratching the platter. Thats what ive been trying to fix to no avail.


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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2015 05:29PM by cman8.

And Its almost seems like its only the first layer. Everything else seems to run perfectly fine

Put a piece of paper on the bed and run it down until it barely touches the paper. Now jog the printer in x, -x, y snd - y about 100mm in each direction. Watch and measure the distance between the bed and hotend. If its pressing down on the bed harder or coming up higher then you need to adjust the rod length. It will act like your in a bowl. If this is stable and "flat" but one corner is highwr or lower then you need to adjust the endstops. You adjust these by manually raising or lowering the physical endstop. You may need to adjust your entire rail. One way to verify is to use a yard stick in mm, place one end on the table and measure the distance of your rails and endstops.

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thevisad

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cman8
so im super lost. i try the m666 gcode and my endstops still dont offset. what the hell am i doing wrong here

Honestly, I have never used any of these gcode settings and have only followed the guide below. I have turned off eprom as well on my printer and do not use this feature. You need to reset your printer after programming your eprom, otherwise it will not reload the settings. In addition to this, if you clear your eprom ALL of your hard work is now lost as the values are inside of the memory of the controller. Running the calibration should take you between 3-5 hours depending on how out of whack the printer is. Once set, the printer settings should never change, change the values inside of your firmware and upload that. Sure it takes a little longer, but you can be sure your settings will not be wiped accidentally.

This -> [delta-calibration.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com]
This -> [github.com]

At least as of Marlin 1.0.3-dev, you absolutely do *NOT* need to reset for these settings to take - they apply whether the prom is enabled or not, the prom just gives the ability to save them. Until you enter M500, these do *NOT* go to prom, and will be lost if the controller reboots.

What you do need to do is rehome.

Note also that homing offsets can only be negative, IIRC, otherwise it would attempt to drive the carriage through the endstops. This is because the values in M666 represent an offset of the carriage from the endstop when homing, and since it can only be lower than the endstop (less travel than prior) the offset is negative. Positive offsets are simply ignored. Thus, the need to start with the lowest tower, call it zero, and offset the others to match.

And I disagree with never changing . . . I find I need to retune my home position every time I switch from PLA to ABS due to thermal expansion, and the prom is very useful for this. I do agree, though, that while doing initial setup, the EEPROM can fight you, and did my build/setup without it, and enabled it later.

- Tim

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thevisad
Put a piece of paper on the bed and run it down until it barely touches the paper. Now jog the printer in x, -x, y snd - y about 100mm in each direction. Watch and measure the distance between the bed and hotend. If its pressing down on the bed harder or coming up higher then you need to adjust the rod length. It will act like your in a bowl. If this is stable and "flat" but one corner is highwr or lower then you need to adjust the endstops. You adjust these by manually raising or lowering the physical endstop. You may need to adjust your entire rail. One way to verify is to use a yard stick in mm, place one end on the table and measure the distance of your rails and endstops.

Ok so it seems like my problem is what you mention first which would mean it's my rod lengths. Would I have to make the rods uneven then because I measured them all at 203 bolt to bolt center

I've been trying to get my printer dialed in as well and I'm still oversized in the horizontal plane. I downloaded the most recent version of thevisad's fork of the marlin firmware that has the delta tower correction code added in. I'm using this [www.thingiverse.com] calibration object but I'm seeing no change in the object when I adjust the DELTA_TOWER correction values. Do I need to make change somewhere else to get that code to work? Thanks!

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tadawson

And I disagree with never changing . . . I find I need to retune my home position every time I switch from PLA to ABS due to thermal expansion, and the prom is very useful for this. I do agree, though, that while doing initial setup, the EEPROM can fight you, and did my build/setup without it, and enabled it later.

- Tim

I have found this to be an issue with all of the plastics and the acrylic, bending and warping. An autohome procedure and a mechanically flat bed resolves 99% of this issue.

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cman8

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thevisad
Put a piece of paper on the bed and run it down until it barely touches the paper. Now jog the printer in x, -x, y snd - y about 100mm in each direction. Watch and measure the distance between the bed and hotend. If its pressing down on the bed harder or coming up higher then you need to adjust the rod length. It will act like your in a bowl. If this is stable and "flat" but one corner is highwr or lower then you need to adjust the endstops. You adjust these by manually raising or lowering the physical endstop. You may need to adjust your entire rail. One way to verify is to use a yard stick in mm, place one end on the table and measure the distance of your rails and endstops.

Ok so it seems like my problem is what you mention first which would mean it's my rod lengths. Would I have to make the rods uneven then because I measured them all at 203 bolt to bolt center

Check out the section on radius correction (secion 3) in the amazon site above. I know it seems counter intuitive to adjust the settings of the rods; especially if they are correct. The settings that are in the firmware in the repo are pretty much my settings from my printer as I use the repo firmware in my live builds until I update it. I cut my rods to exactly 230, but in order to get everything flat with the rest of the settings I had to use 231.5. I believe in making things mechanically accurate and then adjusting them in software to correct minor imperfections.

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matthew900
I've been trying to get my printer dialed in as well and I'm still oversized in the horizontal plane. I downloaded the most recent version of thevisad's fork of the marlin firmware that has the delta tower correction code added in. I'm using this [www.thingiverse.com] calibration object but I'm seeing no change in the object when I adjust the DELTA_TOWER correction values. Do I need to make change somewhere else to get that code to work? Thanks!

All of the other settings are already in place if you are using this version, so adjustments simply need to be made to the following. That version of the asterisk is pretty big and will take a bit longer to print, this one should only take 5-10 minutes total. [www.thingiverse.com] If you are using the 230 mm rods, then grab the 150 version. What you are wanting to make sure is that each of the bars on the asterisk are the same size in length.

// Tower position correction
#define DELTA_TOWER1_CORRECTION 0.0 // front left tower
#define DELTA_TOWER2_CORRECTION 0.0 // front right tower
#define DELTA_TOWER3_CORRECTION 0.0 // back middle tower

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2015 10:40PM by thevisad.

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thevisad

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cman8

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thevisad
Put a piece of paper on the bed and run it down until it barely touches the paper. Now jog the printer in x, -x, y snd - y about 100mm in each direction. Watch and measure the distance between the bed and hotend. If its pressing down on the bed harder or coming up higher then you need to adjust the rod length. It will act like your in a bowl. If this is stable and "flat" but one corner is highwr or lower then you need to adjust the endstops. You adjust these by manually raising or lowering the physical endstop. You may need to adjust your entire rail. One way to verify is to use a yard stick in mm, place one end on the table and measure the distance of your rails and endstops.

Ok so it seems like my problem is what you mention first which would mean it's my rod lengths. Would I have to make the rods uneven then because I measured them all at 203 bolt to bolt center

Check out the section on radius correction (secion 3) in the amazon site above. I know it seems counter intuitive to adjust the settings of the rods; especially if they are correct. The settings that are in the firmware in the repo are pretty much my settings from my printer as I use the repo firmware in my live builds until I update it. I cut my rods to exactly 230, but in order to get everything flat with the rest of the settings I had to use 231.5. I believe in making things mechanically accurate and then adjusting them in software to correct minor imperfections.

Awesome. Thanks for all the help. I checked that section and it doesnt say anything about the rod lengths. IS it just changed in the DELTA_SMOOTH_ROD_OFFSET? or do I physically have to shorten or lengthen them? I think im understanding a bit more but still a little confusing. Thanks again.

This is all software at this point, do not make any changes to the physical length of your rods. These settings are all contained in the 3. Radius Correction, that page outlines everything you need to understand about this process and is pretty thorough in it's description of what needs to be done. I highly suggest starting at step one and proceeding with each step, once you have understood what he is trying to get you to do.

To lower the effector at the centre of the build platform, increase DELTA_SMOOTH_ROD_OFFSET.

Ok Perfect. That makes more sense. Thanks. Im gonna give it a go with the Smooth rod offset

Hi
It's my first comment in this forum and also I'm new in the 3D printer world, ohh.. and before starting I'm noob in the programming world ... I came here hopping to get help from you. I have a Kossel 2020 3D printer that I bought it on January and till now I didn't print anything with it, because my friend and I got a lot of problems with it and each time when we fix something , another one shows up . All the problems that we get is from the program. Our printer use Mega 2560 motherboard. We have some problems, the first one we don't know how to program the servo ,we tried by following the guide, but we see that it's not clear, i asked someone about it and he told me to leave this part because i dont need it ... The second problem, since we didn't know the problem of the servo, we skipped it ,so it was the last setup as the PDF guide shows us, so I prepared everything and I decided to print something ,I putted the design in the slicer software to convert it to G codes, after doing that, I added the G codes (of the design) on Pronterface software to print it. And since we have PLA , I heated the bed at 60C and the temperature of the nozzel at 185C , when they got at these temperatures, I clicked print to start printing , but nothing happened. The temperature of the nozzle stopped at 185C (but still working) and the temperature of the bed continue increasing more and more , from 60 to 74C , but I didn't understand why it's not printing. Even the mini machine that takes the filament didn't start, so what is the problem??? And the program that we are using is the Arduino, and the firmware is the one that Folgertech or the guide told us to use. Btw the G28 works, the ends returns to home, fan works, heating of the bed works and even the heater of the nozzle works, the computer recognized the temperature clearly ,but still does't work, I disconnected and shut it down and restart but it does nothing. ,but didn't work, so what is the problem???

Also another problem is the Z, how can I bring the nozzel close to the bed, what i mean is touching the paper on the bed... i know we should do something with the axe Z but i dunno what is it... Everytime when I lower the nozzle by using the code G1 Z0 F4000, the nozzle stops at 1cm above the bed so I dunno what to do to bring the nozzle closer to the bed, when i click the button of Z10 in hte software , i does notjing , so for the printer the minimum high is 1 cm above the bed, and it can't go down more than that... so what is the problem and the solution

Also, I saw a video from someone who calibrate the kossel manually but honestly I didn't understand so is there another trick more easier to calibrate it?? and if not plz tell me how to calibrate it exactly...step by step... ohh btw for this section I followed the guide of Folgertech but it seems it's missing a lot of thing, it seems that didn't mentioned all steps...

Thank you so much for the help

The Folgertech calibration guide covers all the setup issues you mention - run through it again.

As to temps and printing, you set that in the slicer, not on the printer. I sounds like you set a bed temp higher than the printer could get to, so it sat there waiting and trying to hit it (hence the bed temp rising).

- Tim

Finally got it! Think I'm the bed is pretty level now. Now to fix why my hot end seeps ever so slightly. Hey to all of you, what do you use or do to clean your. Pieces when they are done? Dremel? Xacto knife? Thevisad thanks for the guide once I deciphered enough my print head is moving level like a charm. Thanks to all again, this is so cool to see it go

Finally got it! Think I'm the bed is pretty level now. Now to fix why my hot end seeps ever so slightly. Hey to all of you, what do you use or do to clean your. Pieces when they are done? Dremel? Xacto knife? Thevisad thanks for the guide once I deciphered enough my print head is moving level like a charm. Thanks to all again, this is so cool to see it go

Anyone use the auto level? I tried it once but the servo was so floppy that I ended cutting it off.

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cman8
Anyone use the auto level? I tried it once but the servo was so floppy that I ended cutting it off.

I use it for every single print to make sure that any heat warpingI have on my bed is accounted for. It takes less then an minute or so in order to process the auto level.

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cman8
Finally got it! Think I'm the bed is pretty level now. Now to fix why my hot end seeps ever so slightly. Hey to all of you, what do you use or do to clean your. Pieces when they are done? Dremel? Xacto knife? Thevisad thanks for the guide once I deciphered enough my print head is moving level like a charm. Thanks to all again, this is so cool to see it go

I rarely need to do any cleanup due to all the tweaks, but typically I use my xacto/swiss army knife to do the cleanup. There are settings for wiping/retraction in your slicer application ( https://brazenartifice.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/retraction-solution-with-marlin-pronterface-and-slic3r/ )

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2015 11:45AM by thevisad.

When you assemble your hotend, it helps to do it the way E3D (which the Folger is a clone of) specifies. Screw the nozzle in all the way, and then back out 1/2 to 3/4 turn. Screw in the heat break until it is firmly against the nozzle (but don't tighten yet). Add the heat sink, which should go on until it bottoms, all leaving a gap between the heater block and heat sink. Now, bring the whole thing up to 245C or so, and only then tighten the nozzle until snug against the heat break (they define snug as one fingers pressure on the end of the wrench - no merit ingoing gorilla on it). The primary seal in the hot end is the nozzle against the end of the heat break, *NOT* the threads, and if this is snug, the tolerance of the threads really doesn't matter much . . . And be sure that you don't get the heat break in upside down . . . mine had no cut-down section, so I had to determine that the top was the end with the taper. Having done this, I never had even the slightest ooze with the Folger hot end, and only one jam (but that was due to an extruder failure). What you *WILL* find on this printer is that while the extruder works OK, it eats the grooved bearing rather quickly, so either get some spares, or consider printing/buying a new extruder.

Or, did I misread and write all this, and you are actually talking about ooze? :-) :-)

Oh, and to date, I find that I can do what cleaning I need to do with an X-Acto knife, but that can't be the only way.

- Tim

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2015 11:58AM by tadawson.

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tadawson
When you assemble your hotend, it helps to do it the way E3D (which the Folger is a clone of) specifies. Screw the nozzle in all the way, and then back out 1/2 to 3/4 turn. Screw in the heat break until it is firmly against the nozzle (but don't tighten yet). Add the heat sink, which should go on until it bottoms, all leaving a gap between the heater block and heat sink. Now, bring the whole thing up to 245C or so, and only then tighten the nozzle until snug against the heat break (they define snug as one fingers pressure on the end of the wrench - no merit ingoing gorilla on it). The primary seal in the hot end is the nozzle against the end of the heat break, *NOT* the threads, and if this is snug, the tolerance of the threads really doesn't matter much . . . And be sure that you don't get the heat break in upside down . . . mine had no cut-down section, so I had to determine that the top was the end with the taper. Having done this, I never had even the slightest ooze with the Folger hot end, and only one jam (but that was due to an extruder failure). What you *WILL* find on this printer is that while the extruder works OK, it eats the grooved bearing rather quickly, so either get some spares, or consider printing/buying a new extruder.

Or, did I misread and write all this, and you are actually talking about ooze? :-) :-)

Oh, and to date, I find that I can do what cleaning I need to do with an X-Acto knife, but that can't be the only way.

- Tim

Exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to probably get a new hot end since this one is probably full of plastic now and follow your exact advice. It's not much but enough that once in a while it leaves it behind looking ugly on one of my prints. I guess the exacto knife is the best solution seems like.

Thanks Tim.

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cman8

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tadawson
When you assemble your hotend, it helps to do it the way E3D (which the Folger is a clone of) specifies. Screw the nozzle in all the way, and then back out 1/2 to 3/4 turn. Screw in the heat break until it is firmly against the nozzle (but don't tighten yet). Add the heat sink, which should go on until it bottoms, all leaving a gap between the heater block and heat sink. Now, bring the whole thing up to 245C or so, and only then tighten the nozzle until snug against the heat break (they define snug as one fingers pressure on the end of the wrench - no merit ingoing gorilla on it). The primary seal in the hot end is the nozzle against the end of the heat break, *NOT* the threads, and if this is snug, the tolerance of the threads really doesn't matter much . . . And be sure that you don't get the heat break in upside down . . . mine had no cut-down section, so I had to determine that the top was the end with the taper. Having done this, I never had even the slightest ooze with the Folger hot end, and only one jam (but that was due to an extruder failure). What you *WILL* find on this printer is that while the extruder works OK, it eats the grooved bearing rather quickly, so either get some spares, or consider printing/buying a new extruder.

Or, did I misread and write all this, and you are actually talking about ooze? :-) :-)

Oh, and to date, I find that I can do what cleaning I need to do with an X-Acto knife, but that can't be the only way.

- Tim

Exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to probably get a new hot end since this one is probably full of plastic now and follow your exact advice. It's not much but enough that once in a while it leaves it behind looking ugly on one of my prints. I guess the exacto knife is the best solution seems like.

Thanks Tim.

You can heat them up and the plastic pretty much just falls away with a bristle brush or soak it in an agent and it will dissolve away. At most you might need to replace your throat, but if you do get a new one, you might consider getting a real E3D and not one of the knock offs. http://e3d-online.com/E3D-v6/Full-Kit

Or, if you want to try to save money, the threads are the same, and you could likely use a real E3D nozzle with the other Folger parts. As thevisad said, getting the crud out of the hot end really isn't that bad . . .

- Tim

Ok. So I bought a new nozzle and change it and it still seeps out from the nozzle and from the heater block. What Settings do you guys use for extrusion and extrusion speed on pronterface? Mine ar set at 30mm at 300mm/min speed. Is that way to off?