RUG/Australia/Sydney

I have just started getting into Reprap and in the process of collecting part to build a Prusa Mendal. I am keen to meet up with other Reprap users in the Sydney Area.

I have updated the wiki info on Reprap User Groups (RUG) and added a blankish for Sydney before I found this section of the forum..

How many other people currently have or are building Reprap?

Please feel to contact me on mick_molloy (at) hotmail (dot) com or even update the page [www.reprap.org]

Cheers

Mick

Hi,

My name is Patrick. I've just purchased a whole bunch of parts for a Prusa Mendel. Whole lot of stuff from ebay, and various websites. For that matter, I don't expect to be building anything for about a month atleast.

Sydney RUG sounds interesting. I think there is another hackerspace group who already have something setup. I don't know the group name however.

Anyways, pm if anything comes up.

Hey Guys,

I've got a Prusa about half way built. Happy to meet up with anyone else to share ideas etc.

I'm in inner west near Ashfield.

I've heard about the hackerspace as well, just have not had the time to get there.

I too have heard about the hacker space bot I have not been able to find it..

I have all the threaded rod washers nuts and bolt from Southern Fasteners (In Sydney).

I have the printed parts from Greg Frost in SA

I have ordered the smooth rod, bearings, belts, grub screw, hobbed bolt and PLA from ozreprap.com (In Sydney)

To get still is electronics and Steppers


Mick

Hey guys,

I have a working prusa Mendel, but I still need to iron out the print quality. I completed the build a few weeks ago, thanks to Azzue and Greg Frost for their parts and guidance.

I'm looking in making the Mendelmax or the wallace next.

I live in the west side of Sydney.

Cheers
Richard

Hi Guys,

I have a Prusa that is printing its first batch of offspring. I'm in western Sydney and run a webstore, Oz Reprap Supplies, which stocks vitamins and plastic.

The hackerspace in Sydney is robodino.org, they recently moved to Gladesville.

I'm keeping an eye out for a hackerspace in the western suburbs. I'd certainly get involved if there is sufficient interest to start a local hackerspace.


Tony Hancock

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2012 11:07PM by tony749.

Hi guys,

I'm awaiting delivery of my Printrbot kit and in the meantime trying to get my head around the whole 3D printing caper.

Tony, I stumbled upon your webstore and your prices look pretty competitive - I'll be picking up some ABS and/or PLA once I have something built to use it.

I'm on the lower north shore...


Cheers,
Gavin.

I thought I would update my situation.

I have a my Prusa Mendel currently half built. The frame is up, motors are in, but I've encountered a bunch of problems along the way.

I bought a set of plastic parts from ebay, and they used Greg's Hinged extruder design, however I've discovered the size of my NEMA 17 motors are to large and are in the way of the belts. Some of the plastic parts has bolt diameters too small making build frustrating and requiring more time sanding or hammering things into place.

I need to source a small motor, as well as print plates. Finally, the Y axis parts I got don't exactly fit tightly with the smooth rods. Is this similiar to anyone else?

Cheers,

Pat.

Who did you get the printed parts from.

Did you get a metric or Imperial set of parts.

Hi Pat,
Which of your motors are 'too large'? If it's the extruder motor, then you probably just need to change the X-carriage, so you can mount the motor offset to the belt.

As you can see from the picture below, when using Greg's extruder, you usually need to mount the motor 180 degrees different from the Wade's extruder. Then, having a base which has mounts at another 30 degrees will give you more x-axis travel.

---

___________________________________________________________________________
systematictechnology.net

@Magician I bought the parts on ebay. So far the fit metric. [www.ebay.com.au] heres the listing. However, I think they're missing bushings.


@Shibboleth Sweet. Thanks alot for the advice. I like your feed line. Whats it from?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2012 06:20AM by pat8037.

Hi Guys
I have just discovered this site and am keen to build a 3D printer.
I have a few questions some of you may be able to answer.
The electronics suggests using an SD card and Arduino to run the machine (the G Code is loaded into the SD card).
However, having looked at the Gen 7 circuit it seems to use a serial input which means driving it with a PC - is this true?
I intend to make my own electronics including the stepper drivers on one board in surface mount and would prefer using the SD card idea.
Anyone have a link to that info?
I have recently built a CNC mill for cutting plastic (runs Mach3 under windows XP) and I would like to make a version using the electronics from this project so I can dump the PC.
Looking forward to catching up with some Australian builders.
Regards
Denis
Lower Mangrove NSW (80km north of Sydney)

Gen7 isn't the only electronics board in town, and you're right that Gen7 doesn't have SD Card support.

Only one the boards seem to have SD Card functionality in them by default - it's always an add-on.

Possible options:
Printrboard - Everything on the one board. Includes a MicroSD slot. This appears to be a derivation of the Teensylu, but with MicroSD added, and the stepper drivers being on board, rather than seperate (as per the Teensylu). I would not be surprised to see that a later version of the Teensylu ends up with MicroSD, but it's not there currently, so don't expect it to change in the short term.
RAMPS - Everything is modular. Sits on top of an Arduino Mega (or clone). Will need an SD Card/MicroSD board (extra).

PrintrBoard seems the one most in line with what you want, however:

If you plan to run a CNC, unless it's very small (uses NEMA17 or NEMA14 motors) and doesn't push too hard (lots of force on the motors while cutting), you will need bigger stepper drivers than the ones used on most boards (even with heatsinks). If the board has modular stepper drivers, you could make adapter boards that then feed the signals to bigger stepper drivers (such as say the Gecko G450's). Driving these is the same as driving a pololu, and they handle a LOT bigger motor (NEMA23 or even NEMA34 depending on the stepper driver). Since the CNC is running already, you MAY even be able to drive your existing stepper drivers using such a setup.

In regards to the stepper drivers being onboard/socketed - if you're new to this sort of thing, it's quite possible to fry a stepper driver or two (eg: hot-plugging a stepper). If they're socketed, it's easy and fast to replace, whereas if they're soldered in (such as the Printrboard) then it's not so easy (but still doable, as long as your SMT skills are reasonable). That said, sockets do introduce a possible issue re: another possible point of failure. It's all about what you feel comfortable doing I guess.

Note: I have seen a lot of people try and do this with the 3 or 4 axis TB6560 based boards out there, and they just don't seem to have any luck. From what I understand, much of this is due to the fact that the TB6560 (and similar chips) are quite finicky, specifically in relation to electrical noise, so most setups simply end up introducing too much noise, and the things don't work. I'm not saying don't try this, but more that if you do, be prepared for lots of trial and error, and the possibility it just won't work with those driver boards.

Hi Cefiar
I had a look at the Printrboard - nice job - pity there is not much detail on how to run it from the MicroSD card.
I have the AVRISP MkII, Arduino software and AVR Studio 5.1 so I could replicate the board and firmware.
I generally build the firmware in the Arduino software and then creaste a HEX file which I can then upload into the board using the AVR Studio
and AVR ISP using the ISP pins (this stops Adruino getting upset and avoids the need for a bootloader).
My CNC uses the TB6560 chips but is driving Nema23 motors fine (I use threaded bar as the leadscrews) with no trouble @ 24V.
I assume the A4982 chips will do the job too.
I wonder why the Gen7 hardware moved to the A4988 chips? (I will go through both data sheets to see what the difference is.
I have a small lathe and a good selection of nichrome wire so the extruder should be doable - same with the heated bed.

My real concern is I am not great with the programming side so need to rely on others firmware being close to a good fit.
I can re-configure pins and do other modest tweaks but after that it's going to get tricky.
Still - none of us is as smart as all of us and that is the beauty of sites like this - there is always someone who is willing to help.
If any of you get together on a regulat basis, let me know as it's always good to meet people with like interests.
Regards
Denis

A4988's add short circuit proitection, current limiting and the like.

From what I understand, you talk to all of these via USB, and 'load' the data onto the SD card via USB. After that, I think they can run stand-alone for that print job. I don't believe there is any completely unattended operation setup yet, except maybe for one of the ARM based variants, and even then, that is probably still at an early stage.

As far as the TB6560's go, it's not driving motors so much that is the problem - it's getting an Arduino to drive the TB6560 board reliabily without interference (signalling).

Just a note that the A498x series chips have a fairly low current limit, so you may find that NEMA23 motors will exceed that amount of current. Some of the really big NEMA17's are at the top end of the current draw for those chips, and the NEMA23's tend to draw a fair bit more current than the NEMA17's.

Quick update - I got my Printrbot last week and assembled it over the following couple of days (totally build time was a leisurely 3 hrs in total). Powered it up with very minimal calibration and it printed like a champ. woot! Haven't played around too much more with it due to other commitments, but I'm very impressed with it thus far.

Cheers,
Gavin.

Howdy!

I'm Paul from Terrigal (on the Central Coast).

For my very first 3D printer, I've decided to build nophead's Mendel90. Will start ordering parts this week.

G'day,
Matt from Sydney. I have almost completed my first 3D printer being a Prusa Air 2 [reprap.org] My plan is to have it all built for under $800 and running by Aug 2012.

Cheers,

Matt

Has anyone developed a kit with parts and instructions that could be built by a science class over 10 lessons with the job broken down into work streams that could be done by 2/3 participants with 5-8 groups?

i don't think anybody has but i would say it is pretty easy but would cost a far amount

Hello I'm Dennis.

Just putting myself as a Reprapper of Sydney. I'm based @ the Western Suburbs (Glenwood).
I'm a Delta fan, I'm building a Reprap Rostock and I'm nearly done, just calibrating the extruder settings.

Hope we can have a Reprapper Meetup one day.

Hi,

I'm Eddie. I live on the Northern Beaches in Sydney. I ordered a Kossel Mini kit from Think 3D Print 3D.

While I wait for it to arrive I'm wondering where is the best place to buy filament from. Price is obviously something to consider, but I've heard of cheap filament that doesn't print well or cracks afterwards. Which Australian suppliers do people recommend?

I also fly FPV quadcopters in case anyone else here does too.

Eddie

Hello Eddie,

There are definitely quality variations between manufacturers and suppliers.

I haven't had much experience with many different brands, but I have had the best success with Lybina/Plastrude.
The owner knows the importance of Polymer quality for 3D printing.

You can get Lybina PLA roll from Robodojo near Campbelltown and they might sell ABS too.