Reprap 313 - Print quality question

So I got reprap no 313 delivered to South Africa where the cost is quite significant - to put it in perspective it is about 2 months rent. It took myself and one other about 12 hours to assemble (and we are both skilled tool users) and then probably as long as that to get it to print something.

I have the circuit board with the incorrect size holes and a non-compatible SD card.

I have a few questions:
Firstly how can I check if my board requires USB power, if so how can I go about getting the newer version sent to me here in the deepest of Africa..
Secondly I printed the coat hook and was only reasonable impressed. If you look at the pictures you can see that there are these odd ridges being printed. I suspect that what is happening is that filament is oozing out of the head after the machine stops - in a print when there is a pause to change axis then a small amount of filament blobs out and causes the ridges. Is there anyway I can fix this? Perhaps my head is too hot or the extruder is taking too much material in?

In terms of fixes I would recommend a deeper box - the lid doesn't stay on which is quite annoying
There is a cable tie hole positioned on the perspex arm to help with the routing of the cables. This brings the cables quite close to the filament, I might reprint some of the parts on the z smooth bar to have cable guides - like the one on the extruder assembly. This would rout the wires a little higher and further around
Supply a better SD card or don't supply one. Mine seemed to work using the Arduino software and then failed in Pronterface
The chrome server doesn't work. I work in an office that doesn't allow switches or hubs and uses a proxy. Having to connect to the internet at the same time as the printer caused huge issues. I finally manages once with my laptop but after a single restart this no longer worked and even though I could ping the printer it wouldn't connect. I am now using only pronterface.

Otherwise I am only semi sold. I admit I was expecting a more tested unit with less teething issues from RS. I probably would have waited a bit longer if I had known. I am still going to keep plugging away at it but I have very little time and having to reprint enclosures and fan housings is going to be a bit tricky. Hopefully I can get an amazing print out soon then all the effort will be worthit and I will sing the praises of the Ormerod off the roof!

Are you refererring to the those little bits on the side or corners? What material? My Y belt is still not tensioned enough, so each time the Y axis changes direction it causes a little artifact. From what I see on yours is that it feeds a little bit too much. There is a fix in the instructions to compensate for the correct amount of filament fed through. I played with it when trying to print over USB and the parameter has a definite effect. You can try feeding 5% less filament and check it again (but there is a procedure you must follow). My other big problem is the backwash on the extruder fan. The print curls up and then the nozzle runs too close the the printed part and this has the effect that the plastic bulges out.


BTW, where do you stay in this "deepest of Africa"? You will have the people believe we have dangerous animals walking around, like elephants and lions. Now we just have Malemas, Zumas and Zilles. BTW, I am in Centurion (work in Midrand).

Victor

Hi tracyb,

Welcome to the forum!

I believe your board should be OK without USB power. If you look at this picture:



to the left of JP9 (marked 5V EN) there are two resistors and a capacitor. The resistors should be oriented horizontally as shown. If the resistors are parallel to the capacitor C5 instead, then you needs to return the board. If they are as shown, then add a jumper across JP9 to enable the internal 5V regulator.

To make the electronics box lid fit, break off the top 2 grounding tabs of the Ethernet socket, then file the broken edges smooth, taking care that the filings fall away from the electronics.

I have done some fixes to the network software that make for a more reliable connection. This and other issues that some people have are listed in my unofficial troubleshooting guide here.

Regarding print quality when using the supplied gcode files, if you have upgraded to the latest firmware (0.53) then you may need to reduce the extruder temp a little. You can edit the line in the gcode file that sets this. Try reducing the temp from 205C to about 193C.

Another user is working on a new web interface, that will hopefully remove the need to connect to the internet as well as the Duet.

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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].

By deepest Darkest Africa I really mean Cape Town.. Was more using it as a point that getting certain products here can be far more difficult and costly then in the states. Offers from Reprap like, bring it in and I'll take a look don't really work here. In fact posting various components to them would be prohibitively expensive..

I think I have made the problem a bit better by changing the print to the SD card, it helps by making a lot smoother motor movements. In fact I would call USB printing pretty much impossible about now. I am busy printing the azis calibration pieces now so we'll see how that goes. Also as mentioned in other posts the IR sensor is pretty pointless. I ended up driving my extruder head into the bed and even though I pressed pause on the print the large amount of buffering that takes place caused at least 1 minute of printing and damaging the Kapton tape.

I wonder if after all the mods are described reprap will release a mod list for all us beta testers so that we can give them a go. I was keen to try the IR LED mod but am not sure about my ability to hand solder an 0603, I can do 0805 pretty easily by hand but never tried something that small. Also what would happen if I hurt the board doing so. For the moment I am hand calibrating before every print.

After this print I will look into the temps and whether my board needs to be replaced or not.

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Ormerod 313

My prints keep failing during the job. The extruder heater turns off and never turns on again. I have been told that this could occur when my thermistor reads an incorrect value. I have secured the thermistor wiring and still have this issue. If I watch the temps it seems to happen very rarely. If the firmware is turning off the heater when a fault is registered could a firmware change fix this? Either a time delay - checking if the error holds for more then 1 second and only then turning off the heater or perhaps turn the heater back on if the thermistor correctly reads again.

Traceyb,

I think we only have Zilles here in Cape Town! Hopefully no E-Tolls soon either!

Not sure where you are in Cape Town but you should get a thermistor replacement quick and cheap from Communica in Woodstock. Got mine there and my be worth a try if you keep having issues.

Dieter

Ormerod #257

I had similar prints (as your first picture) when printing via Pronterface (US. I guess printing via USB requires a small "stop" and hence your corners.

If you upload you gcode to the SD card (via the SD button in Pronterface) - and then print via SD (again the SD button in Pronterface) - you will have a better quality....

Quote
astute
I had similar prints (as your first picture) when printing via Pronterface (UScool smiley. I guess printing via USB requires a small "stop" and hence your corners.

If you upload you gcode to the SD card (via the SD button in Pronterface) - and then print via SD (again the SD button in Pronterface) - you will have a better quality....

You can get good prints over USB now if you use the latest firmware (currently 0.57) and apply a patch to Pronterface. See this thread fro details.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2014 04:38AM 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].

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tracyb
I was keen to try the IR LED mod but am not sure about my ability to hand solder an 0603, I can do 0805 pretty easily by hand but never tried something that small. Also what would happen if I hurt the board doing so. For the moment I am hand calibrating before every print.

Soldering 0603 is not hard provided you have something to hold the board in (e.g. a Helping Hands), magnification (I use a headband magnifier), a pair of very fine tweezers, a soldering iron with a fine tip, some fine solder, and a steady hand. However, RRP is working on a modulated IR sensor. The design is already published on github, and they or I or both of us will be doing the firmware in the next day or two. So in a a little while you should be able to buy an upgraded sensor board from them.

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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].

The corners were solved using two methods: 1) a bigger extrude retract setting in slic3r and 2) using either SD print or the modified USB print settings. If I have loads more trouble I will go and buy a new thermistor however I still think short intermittent faults could be solved in firmware. Too scared to print my 16 hour job at the moment..

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Ormerod 313