Love the printer but as Noob a number of challenges

Love the printer and blender 3d software, but lots of challenges:

1) Dead micro-sim (Wait until my son finds out his phone micro-sim is missing!). I didn't even know what a FAT32 format was but luckily I had bought a Raspberry pi at the same time and the website had a link for it :
[www.sdcard.org]
2) Communication issues with Duet due to absence of firmware, with no firmware loaded the arduino communication is simply dead!! No error message or anything!
3) No understanding that the glass plate had to be free from finger grease, building the printer around the food and drink excess of Xmas wasn't probably the best thing in hindsight. (Window glass cleaner helped here!)
4) IR sensor great idea but doesn't yet work for me. Remove IR from standard config and manual setting is good. Need to be able to adjust height of sensor if you do use it (see 6) and shield from ambient light!
5) Cooling from fan caused adhesion problems with first prints due to a lack of uniform heat on the bed. Turning the bed overly hot to 65'c until I printed the fan louvre printed helped!
6) My component with the extruder happily tore my first prints off due to the height of the nozzle versus the plastic on the IR sensor. the interface desperately needs a kill button!!

So from my first week build my suggestions for a complete beginner would be:

1) Command prompts loading of firmware instructions are not accurate and I just missed out the "true" statement and did one command at a time until it worked. I did not envy those who did not remember the days of "ms-dos" before windows!
2) Micro-sim doesn't work!
3) A guided first print from drawing in "designspark" or "Blender", maybe on you tube would be great. e.g. build a fan louvre and print it and include a checklist such as clean glass, heat the bed and extruder for 5 mins before you print. If the mouldings are too stringy reduce heat e.t.c (see 4 below)
4) Printer build instructions were generally great and detailed but just stopped when it came to the "printing dos and don'ts". I think the instructions need to go on for a little more to first print
5) Mod pack prints would also be great to improve printer once open source components improved
6) I love the printer and would be happy for local people to come and see it for themselves to decide if it is for them before buying or help them with their set up (if possible!), so a contact list of individuals willing to help by area would be great

Early days but still glad I spent the money!

Good stuff! - mind you, my kids would kill me if I wiped their happy slaps (or whatever they call their high jinks these days) off their phone micro SDs - hope you backed up the contents first!

Ray

I received the kit thinking of finishing the play by the end of the year ..
But the surprise is that the game lasts longer ..... fantastic!
It's coming very new ... been updated
Dario

I don't think mine likes the mini sd card either, as a green model I thought it would work. I took a break at that point, so I'm going to try and get it going now.

Ormerod 141: Thanks for your feedback! It is really useful. Couple of points:
- Your Duet was supplied with no firmware? That's odd - the firmware is flashed and the board tested at the manufacturers. It's possible that they managed to press the 'erase' button at the end of testing. Also, as an owner of one of the first 220 Ormerod kits, please see this notice: [forums.reprap.org]
- We are working hard to improve the documentation at the moment, based in part on customer feedback. I'll be improving clarity, adding extra detail, a trouble shooting section, and other reference material over the coming days.
- Micro SD cards are a continual problem. Getting good quality, named brand ones in bulk is the issue. We're on it now. I thought I had linked to the same official SD card formatter in the instructions, but perhaps it was in the forum. I'll add that to the instructions.
- Clean the bed with acetone or Isopropyl alcohol - window cleaner often has 'non-stick' components, and may make it even worse! Until the troubleshooting guide is updated, see: [www.reprappro.com]
- Can you let me know more about "Command prompts loading of firmware instructions are not accurate"?

Ian
RepRapPro tech support

Thanks for response Ian. I am using 64 bit windows and i think the bossac commands just needs to omit the 'true' statement so:

I would add to type 'cd/' then 'cd/temp/folder' to instructions. Then the line should just read 'bossac --port=com4 -u -e -v -b Reprapfirmware.bin -R'. The unlock 'u' command seems to work ok without it.

I'll try and locate some acetone, unfortunately just looked at Wifes nail polish remover and they seem to exclude these days!!

Ormerod141

Don't use nail polish remover. The manufacturers many times includes "nice oils, aromatic flavourants and other nutrients" to reduce the life stripping effect of the skin and nails. Unfortunately, as the acetone evaporates the oils remain. Then when you try and print the problem actually becomes worse. Generally industrial acetone (bought at e.g. hardware shop) costs way less than nail polish remover and then you might end up with a litre or so ... without added oils.