Just returned my Ormerod

I really wanted an Ormerod, was so excited when I ordered it !

Unfortunately the reality of assembling it is quite beyond on me. I'd say that the assembly process has not been tested with mere mortals such as myself. Documentation is cursory, pieces don't fit, the finger gymnastics are extraordinary.

I cannot recommend this product. If you are considering it, stay away unless you have the patience of the Dalai Lama and the dexterity of a cardshark octopus.

Very Sad.

J

Sorry to hear that. There are plenty of people who have managed it and are printing. Yes there are challenges and no doubt improvements to come but it is possible. If you expect to get it out the box and go printing which is probably more RS fair then yes it can be a problem but following instructions line by line does work, they're better than a lot of instructions I have seen before and the support on this forum from Reprap and other users has been a great resource as backup.

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Regards

Chris H

Hi justindav1s

Sorry to hear that. I hadn't seen you on the forum with any queries, with some help you may have got further.
I have mine up and running and things improving every day with this active and friendly forum.

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Ormerod #007 (shaken but not stirred!)

I felt my issues were too basic to raise here. Perspex x-braces broke (and yes I did take care), trying to align nuts with bolts at the bottom of deep dark holes, trying to join the two ends x-axis drive belt, the list goes frustratingly on. I'm fairly sure that the angles between the x,y, and z axis would have been somewhere between 85-95 degress by the time I was finished. Good enough ? No.

My issues were all very mechanical.

Actually the electronics would have been a breeze if I'd got that far, I've been tinkering with Arduino for 2 years now. I'm a programmer by trade, and hoped to contribute to the firmware.

oh well, you live and you learn !

J

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2014 05:08PM by justindav1s.

Hi Justin, sorry to near you've given up. It sounds to me that you had one of the early kits like me. Some of the instructions were rather sparse at first, but they have improved over time. I broke the nut trap on the x-rib during assembly, and RRP sent me a new x-rib and x-plate to an improved design. I'm also a software & electronics engineer by trade, and I found the mechanical assembly a little challenging. Aligning the Y and Z axes wasn't difficult, it just required loosening some of the screws, getting the angle right with the square provided and tightening them. Now I have a printer that works and I am on my second roll of filament. Yes it does require patience, but there is a lot of help available on this forum and from RRP.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Yes, sorry to hear that, J. Construction was certainly challenging, but in my case it provided me with not only an enjoyable Christmas holiday of tinkering, but also a productive one. Far better than arguing with the family! My first reel of PLA filament and half of the second was used up by the new year and is now transformed into a set of speaker shelves on my picture rail, a replacement insert for a toilet roll holder that had been broken for years, an e-cig holder, a wireless doorbell holder and several other bits and bobs that I had been meaning to get around to making/repairing/replacing for ages, plus a couple of projects for my company that the printer was actually bought for. I've now been looking at other, 3D printer designs - and now I can print the plastic parts for them and have a better idea what it's all about, I will probably have a go at making one from scratch for (full-time) personal use.

Added to which was a bit of much-needed mental stimulation that has got me thinking about all sorts of diverse things after browsing through the "thingyverse". Printing out a quadcopter frame was probably a mistake though - can't waste it now I've got it, and it's going to cost me quite a bit once you add in the price of the motors, battery, flight controller, radio control set, FPV camera, GPS auto-pilot ... Oh, and a carbon fibre frame, because the one I printed is clearly not big enough for what I now want. The problem is whether to build another 3D printer before or after the quadcopter. Or would it be possible to make a flying 3D printer?

To all who are thinking of returning their Ormerod .... Wait ! The design is continually changing. Better firmware, solving fan backwash, levelling bed, power supply issues better understood. You will be hardpressed to find another printer at this price and that has so much expansion possibilities. Sure, RS advertised here that the kit requires minimal skills and that it takes 2 hours to assemble. That truth was stretched a bit. 2 weeks ago I also thought of returning mine but now it is working great. For those who have not printed anything be assured that my 3D printer is now printing at the same quality as the parts supplied (and some of the guys have even printer at 0.06mm layers).

And if you feel that you don't have the skills to complete the build then ask someone to help you.

The new firmware and enhancements make this printer a gem ..
Like many of you I decided to return the printer to the RS.
Now I'm glad.... I did not!
I wish that everyone could eventually print and express their creativity with this tool.
Each of us is "special" in some thing ...
Please do not give up!
Bring a little patience and keep up to date on the forum.
Even to me it seemed impossible at first, but now I'm jumping for joy!
Thanks dc42, thanks Markus, thanks Ian, thanks to all of you!

Dario

I also had to return my almost completely built unit as it was missing one bag of parts namely the extruder drive set. This was very frustrating as our local RS Components (South Africa) was not able to provide the only parts that were missing - I had to order an entire kit and return the one I had. My kit was number 71 of the 500 initial kits available so if their is an extra extruder drive set laying around it was meant to go into my kit.

RS Components was very good about collecting the kit and crediting my account but that did not compensate me for the build time. I have just received the replacement kit so I can get going again. I notice that the power supply has been increased from 500W to 600W, the parts are now green and there is no RS logo on the laser cut perspex. During the build I will check to see whether there are any other differences.

For those who broke the laser printed parts during assembly I found that filing down some of the edges for a better fit prevented breakage. I did break one edge off one of the parts but used acetone to glue it back together which seemed to work nicely.
I'm looking forward to getting this kit assembled.

It would be useful if individual replacement parts be made available for order through RS Components - this would assist those of us who had missing parts or managed to break parts during assembly. A kit of all non-printed parts from RS Components would also allow us to easily replicate our printers. The first thing I plan to print is a full set of replacement parts in case anything breaks or wears over time.

They made you return what you'd already built? That's crazy! Still , it'll be interesting if your second build is now 2hrs long

Good luck and stick with it, it's worth it

Ray

Hi SuperDerek

Unfortunately, the message has not got to all RS subsidiaries that customers (or RS employees) should contact RepRapPro for warranty or spare parts. A simple email to RepRapPro would have resolved this, without sending the kit back. Slowly the message is peculating across the world... We are not a big enough company to supply all the RS countries with spare parts individually.

We do plan to produce a hardware kit - that is a kit without the printed parts - but at the moment all our time and stock goes to making kits for RS!

Ian
RepRapPro tech support

sorry, I should have said "RS" not "They" - RRP are working like mad sending bits to get people up and running, as is obvious from many posts on this forum

SuperDerek

My kit also came from RS South Africa and was missing the hot end bag. I contacted Ian and he has sent the parts out to me. I have not got them yet but I would prefer not to send my machine back. Lots of time has gone into the build and testing various things including my own hot end I made which I will use on another project. There are issues but there are also a lot of people here working on ways to resolve them one way or another including RRP which is good. Glad to hear RS South Africa is playing ball though.

Dieter

Ormerod #257

Dieter

I had someone email me yesterday from South Africa, that their parts had just arrived, sent on the 2/1/2014, which is 8 working days. Hopefully yours will be with you tomorrow! *crosses fingers*
I wish we could send out these parts by courier, but it's just too expensive. The last quote we had for a hot end kit was about £50!

Ian
RepRapPro tech support

Thanks Ian

I import a lot out of the east and lead time is +/- 2-3 weeks. Customs at Capemail know me and often stop the stuff and ask for paper work which is not an issue but delays things easy by a week or more, so I am not concerned at this stage but will chat to you if I get no notification by the end of the month. I have only ever had ebay stuff go missing that looked of high value but wasn't and had no tracking number but parts and electronics parts have never been an issue.

Dieter

Ormerod #257

Hi Ian

Parts arrived yesterday and today I have printed pretty much non stop on the supplied PLA. Time frame as I expected. No issues so far. All original, PSU and software. ABS will be a problem as my bed struggles to get over 57'C with the glass on. With it off, it gets 110'C quick. I made a few fixes along the way, bed mounted on 3 points which is much better and easy to level, some ptfe tube around the screws that go into the aluminium block so that they can't transfer heat back to the PLA mount and mostly I don't use the IR other than as an end stop. I manually set the bed height each time using G92 Z0 which works well. I also had an issue with the head lying to one side or drooping due to the runner bearing being a bit far out on the opposite side of the head but just added a washer under the PLA mount to shim it out - perfect. Super glued the belt start point to the wood under the bed and there is now no play when tight. So I would call #257 a "success" in that it prints without issues even via USB so far. No long 10 hour prints yet... I will hack the problems as they occur.

Does the G92 Z0 get stored in flash or is it only memory stored, in other words when power off it is lost, that would be a pity as it is an easy thing to store in flash? This means I would zero the head once and should not need to bother again if the machine is not moved around?

The IR thing is little gimmicky other than just good as an end stop and the issues all covered already in the forum.


Dieter

Ormerod #257

Glad your machine is working well. The G92 Z0 does not get stored in flash, so if you are not using the IR sensor then you need to repeat it every time you power up or reset the machine. I am now using the IR sensor to do the Z-homing and bed compensation, and it is working well. To get this far, I replaced the mdf bed support with aluminium (otherwise the bed levelling was unstable), changed to 3-point adjustable bed-levelling screws so that I could get the bed fairly level to start with, and changed the component values in the IR sensor (and eventually substituted a modulated IR sensor) to reduce the sensitivity to ambient light. I heat the bed before doing the z-homing and auto bed levelling.

I'm surprised you have a problem getting the bed to 57C - I think you may have a connection problem. I was able to get it to 120C using the supplied Alpine power supply.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

dc42,

No 57'C is no problem, it is getting it to 110'C that it doesn't seem to be able to do. I get it to 110'C with no glass on the bed but as soon as I add the glass, the loss in thermal ability is very noticeable. Obviously I did the voltage check way back when as discussed in the forums and I have quite a drop at the bed which I think is the problem and the PSU bogs down. As soon as I get going with ABS, I will look into a fix. My printer is otherwise busy getting drunk on PLA at the moment

Dieter

Ormerod #257

There is no way the board can store the positions of any axis during a power down. Besides the fact that all the axis could easily be moved while power is off so it would be risky to rely on, when power is removed and re-applied to the steppers they often move a step or two even if you don't touch anything. From observation, I think that all positions are reset to zero at power-up - so if you switch off with Z in home position and the motor does not move, it will be correct.

Besides which, the board does not know when power is about to be removed, and after it is switched off it is too late to store anything! So the duet would have to store all changes continuously just in case it's about to be switched off - and erasing and re-flashing takes too long to do that between every move, besides wearing out the flash.

Dave
(#106)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2014 08:15PM by dmould.

Quote
dmould
Besides which, the board does not know when power is about to be removed, and after it is switched off it is too late to store anything! So the duet would have to store all changes continuously just in case it's about to be switched off - and erasing and re-flashing takes too long to do that between every move, besides wearing out the flash.

Actually, it would be quite easy to tell when the board is being powered off, by monitoring the +12V input to the switching regulator. When this voltage drops to about 10V, power will be lost in a few milliseconds. The firmware could use those milliseconds to write the current positions to flash.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2014 03:21AM by dc42.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
dc42

Quote
dmould
Besides which, the board does not know when power is about to be removed, and after it is switched off it is too late to store anything! So the duet would have to store all changes continuously just in case it's about to be switched off - and erasing and re-flashing takes too long to do that between every move, besides wearing out the flash.

Actually, it would be quite easy to tell when the board is being powered off, by monitoring the +12V input to the switching regulator. When this voltage drops to about 10V, power will be lost in a few milliseconds. The firmware could use those milliseconds to write the current positions to flash.

That's if there is circuitry present to monitor the 12V rail, and the decay is slow enough to reliably complete a write to flash. Also remember that the Duet can be powered from the USB or separate 5V supply instead of the 12V, and those could be removed before the 12V.

Dave
(#106)

Quote
dmould
That's if there is circuitry present to monitor the 12V rail, and the decay is slow enough to reliably complete a write to flash. Also remember that the Duet can be powered from the USB or separate 5V supply instead of the 12V, and those could be removed before the 12V.

Yes, it would be necessary to add a voltage divider across C3 and feed the output to a spare analog input, or one of the analog comparator inputs. I have already added 470uF in parallel with C3 to improve brownout tolerance, and that should provide power for long enough to write the flash. I have no interest in removing JP9 and powering the Duet from a separate 5V supply. If the Duet is receiving power from USB only, then the stepper motors are not running, and saving the position is not of interest.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
dc42
If the Duet is receiving power from USB only, then the stepper motors are not running, and saving the position is not of interest.

That depends what order you switched off the machine - 12V first, or unplug USB first ...

Dave

Ahem. Thread hijack? Not that I am keen for this thread to disappear, or anything... (actually, you're right, I am!)

Ian
RepRapPro tech support

Quote
dmould

Quote
dc42
If the Duet is receiving power from USB only, then the stepper motors are not running, and saving the position is not of interest.

That depends what order you switched off the machine - 12V first, or unplug USB first ...

Dave

It doesn't matter, either way the position will be written to flash when the 12V supply is removed.

If you want to discuss this further, perhaps you could start another thread?

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Quote
droftarts
Ahem. Thread hijack? Not that I am keen for this thread to disappear, or anything... (actually, you're right, I am!)

Ian
RepRapPro tech support

OK, let's change the subject - Ian, is droftarts near nodnol, or am I thinking of nova-no-droftarts?



Dave

Justin, are you in the UK? If so where abouts, maybe one of us could help you with the assembly.
I travel a fair bit (Live in Dover, my partner lives in Middlesbrough, and I work in SW Wales) so if your not to far from one of my three routes I'll help you if you haven't already sent it back....

Sometimes things can look like mountains. You can't move a whole one in one go, just take it bit at a time....

As for the perspex ends, I must admit I wasn't looking forward to that bit, so put the rods in by gently twisting, and taping them home
with the rubber grip of the pliers. It's unfortunate that they suggest a hammer and block of wood in the instructions....

Kim

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2014 04:59PM by KimBrown.

I've been told many times I'm a master baker (at least I think that's what they said...), so I guess I'm a Dr of tarts!

Ian
RepRapPro tech support

LoL @ Ian.... Your a poet, and didn't know it....

I do think the hammer should be left in the tool box.

Hi All

I am in South Africa, more than willing to help anyone strugling with the build...

Madmob

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[Madmob Consulting:] Promoting 3D printing down South